Ready to Go

Hello, Leroy and I spent some time repacking as we learned the weather will be warmer than we first thought. Hopefully it will all work out. If we will be cold, I keep saying, “It will be temporary cold.” This morning we did the last load of clothes, I watered plants, we did a half hour of Tai Chi, and we fussed a little about including the right things. We are not taking a check in bag. That means traveling light. Good for some things not so much for others. What if we should have brought some important thing? Leroy is doing his usual Monday morning stamp volunteering at the museum. I will be leaving for work shortly. We hope to sleep well tonight because this is a long trip coming up. The last flight from New York to Athens will be nine hours and forty minutes. Leroy hopes to sleep while I hope to survive in decent shape. We have tested negative for Covid and we both feel fine so hopefully that status will hold. I will not write while we are gone. We are taking Leroy’s tablet and I find that hard to write on the touch screen. I will give you any exciting details later. Paula

More Technology Learning

Hello, For some reason Leroy decided today to make sure that we got mile credit from the airline. It became a slog through dense unknowns. Some caused by technology and some caused by us. It has been a while since we have flown with this airline and we could not find my password. Leroy also had trouble signing in. He decided to call, but was asked about emailing as the wait for a call was 10 minutes or more. The email turned out to be a lengthy wait as well. Even after he asked his question the answer took some time. There were some issues when he tried to apply his information. I had to leave the room to avoid listening to his exasperated breathing. I finally got mine done on my own. It was amazing, first I was told my number on the card was the wrong number for me to sign in. I tracked things down on their website only to have them give me the number I had already entered. Eventually it was accepted, but I no longer remember what I did. I decided to have it remember me on this device for eternity. So what, if someone else gets that information, I will have died a death of technology exhaustion. I am sorry that the one book I need to read for a book club is not available as an eBook at the library. I am still noticing my larger bandaged finger which makes more difficult to touch the proper keys. I am sending a picture. You can see it is not a big deal, but does interfere with certain movements.

Leroy is packed, but I have not managed yet. Clothes are on the bed, but not in yet. Will they fit? Paula

Technology love, hate

Hello, Today, we signed in for our comfortable log-on to the cruise. We had to have a picture and were given much information as to how it should look. We took a picture on Leroy’s phone, but we were filling the form out on the computer so it was necessary to transfer it. For some reason on Leroy’s phone, we could not get it to go at all. Even with two people trying. Then we switched to my phone. Finally, we had passable pictures of both of us. I decided I must brush my hair and put on a little makeup. It helped some, but did not give my youth back. I have often saved picture to Facebook, in a way only I could see. That method was not available in my lengthy search. The next step was to send it to my email. That worked very well, but I could not easily figure out how to save it to the desktop which would allow me to save it to the check in site. The rest of the process was quite easy even for us. How much time and energy should all this take? We could have just waited to check in when we were on site. At some point I thought of calling on a grandchild to help with the process, but stubbornly kept at it. That does give a sense of accomplishment. Two days ago, I was getting some plants ready to settle in for the winter. A rather thick stemmed plant needed to be cut off. I got a serrated kitchen knife and started sawing. Oops, slipped, gashing my index finger on my left hand. Bleeding was profuse and pain followed. I was going to a meeting in about 30 minutes. It was a struggle to sit with my hand in the air bound with some cloth so blood would not be many places. I was a little shocked. Some deep breathing and relaxing were also necessary. It struck me: how vulnerable we are when alone and an accident happens. I am grateful for a nice supply of bandages. I can say with authority that fingers get bumped many times. It is much better today and so I can write to you. Grateful for healing. Paula

Packing Light

Hello, I just watched a video of a person packing a carry on for a month’s stay. Can I do that? It is questionable since we might have some cold weather and some warm weather. I am hoping for cold weather when we leave so I can just wear the warmest, bulkiest clothes. Once we are on the ship there will be no need to try to put them in a suitcase. I will pack only one pair of extra shoes. They are certainly a room hog. We will probably have one small check in bag for the two of us. It is nice to wrestle with just a little luggage. This morning Leroy and I delivered more newsletters. It is warm and pleasant to be out. On the way home, I made a detour and got my flu shot. Hopefully I will have a healthy year. Tonight, we will help with cleanup for the meals served at our church for the population who struggles with food insecurity. That is about a two-hour commitment. Leroy is taking a nap now so he should be ready to go. We get a good feeling from helping out. I am sorry that people need this to get through their weeks, but helping out a little is good. We got our absentee ballots. I am pleased they came very promptly. On there it tells us that we can deliver them to the county office. We will do that so we know for sure they made it on time. I also now learned that we could have just gone in and voted early which seems like it would have been much simpler. Paula

Fall is Here

Hello, I had a doctor appointment this morning. It is in a building close to the church. I knew I could pull some plants that surely froze overnight. I put on my warmest coat, but not before I realize that I live in luxury because I have some choices of coats for different events or temperatures. I passed the community garden on the way. Even the Red Russia Kale looked quite stressed. I have always expected it to survive and thrive until December. It must have been colder than I knew about. Our thermometer had 24 degrees. I believe the kale can handle 19 degrees, but no lower. I was there early for the appointment, but my doctor was ready for me so I was done in record time. That meant I had a lot of time before my spiritually class at church. In the meantime, I pulled up the pullable plants. Some other day we will clip some of the others. I certainly did not want to water today. It was much warmer on the way home. When walking in one place I noticed many walnut leaves on the cars that were parked close. At home I saw that our yard was blanketed with walnut leaves. Never have I seen that before. All in the house agree it is a strange sight. We hope the tree is going to be ok.

Paula I am not sending these out on time. I think I will get back to it, but move on to other things. Mundane things, but necessary.

A Day Off

Hello, Leroy did preach today. It was not so much a day of rest for him, although most of the work was done ahead of time. We are also planning to deliver some neighborhood newsletters this afternoon. I do not consider that much work because it counts as a walk which I would do anyway. It isn’t quite like being in a forest, but it does get us outside. Last night we went to a choir party. It was at a home that is set among the trees. It was so restful and beautiful in their back yard. We did have to leave a bit early because I had yogurt in the Insta Pot and it was done, requiring attention. I should have timed that better, but did not think well eleven hours ahead. The stumps have been chopped up from the derecho that happened over two years ago. I counted chopped stumps on one block section. There were more than ten. Those are the remains of our largest and stateliest trees. Depending on what you are used to we still have a lot of trees, but we can remember what is missing. There was a time when we could walk in the shade most of the mile to church, but that is not true anymore. The city and many individuals are planting/planning for the future. I am grateful for that. We delivered some newsletters. It was a job because of battling with the wind. All of them needed to be secured. Sometimes there is a door mat to put them under. Sometimes there are rocks or lawn ornaments that can be used. That wind also cooled us off quite a bit. We are home now and did battle with peanut butter that needed stirring. It was in a small jar, but it was still much work. Paula

Our Health

Hello, Leroy got a good report about his giant cell arteritis. His blood work is now normal. He will begin to gradually phase out his meds for that. This is to make sure it is fine even with a lower dose. He certainly seems quite fine. I sometimes wonder about breast cancer since there is so much of that in my family background. So far, the screenings always come up with a good result. I am sorry to learn that my bones are not holding up for the test of time. I could not tolerate the pills, but will probably explore other options since I have not done a good job of maintaining my position. I walk a lot, but I guess that is not enough bone building work. We are getting excited about our cruise which is coming up in November. We spent some time on zoom with the other two couples and that makes it seem more real and much closer. One of the bigger issues is how to prepare for whatever the weather will be. We do not want to take too much stuff, but we also want to have something for multiple types of conditions. Personally, I think weather can be quite changeable in many parts of the world even though people in Iowa feel they have the most changeable weather conditions. Traveling life is easier if we are not dealing with much luggage. Paula

Feeling Good

Hello, This morning I woke feeling normal. It was just like a cold or the flu in that it has taken about a week to turn around. Should I have taken the drug? Who knows. It did not seem to me that I was very ill, but what do I know? It is not possible to go through something in more that one way and declare this is the best. We decided to change our password manager. It is not as simple to move to the other as we had hoped. The new program has better ratings. In the end it will be satisfying, but now it is a little frustrating. I cleaned up four of my plants yesterday. I will try to get four more done today. Leroy tells me he will drive tomorrow and take the winter supply of plants to the museum. I will be happy to have that done. I am considering not bringing in so many plants this winter. We do get a bit crowded in here. Leroy is just happy that I leave enough room for him to be here too. We will take down our garden fence today. We will also pull the tomatoes. In other words, it is some fall clean up time. We want to have these chores done before we go on our cruise. Certainly, plants will need to be in the house. Speaking of the cruise, we have not had a flight change recently, perhaps it is set. I gather the airlines keep cancelling flights because they are not full. Hopefully we will have no such issues when we are traveling. Paula

Absentee Voting

Hello, Leroy and I will be out of the country on voting day. It seems like a complicated business to get an absentee ballot and get it in at the right time. I had Leroy check my request because I did not want to have a mistake and have it turned down. It seems that it would be simpler to just go to the county clerk and ask for the ballot, but no, we have to request it by mail within a certain number of days. After all that care I still made a mistake. The office called to let me know they got the request, but I had given my birthday date as 12/25/2022. Oh no! I said with a laugh, “You do not believe that is accurate?” “No, especially since it is just September now and not December,” she replied, “I just need to know your year.” I gave her that information with relief. It did not get thrown out. She did remind me that they cannot send out the ballots until after October 19. As soon as we get the ballots we can vote and put it back in the mail. It has to be postmarked with the right date. We cannot turn it in at the county office. It also has to be marked with the date it is received. Personally, I find this all very unnerving. Does this mean from now on, as long as we live in Iowa, we must plan our vacation times so that we are not out of town on voting day. Paula