prohibiting radio stations from playing any Christmas music before December 13th .
Sunday, Dec 18 The Frost Spirit moved on. Sun and wind took care of the white crystalline landscape. Pine trees went from white to green, fence posts to brown, and the fence wires are again dull-metallic. As close to magic as anything gets. John took the dogs for two runs today and also filled and dumped a PU load of pasture stealing brush. I traveled 15 minutes to a friend’s house in Ellensburg, then another 30 minutes from there to the Bluegrass Jam session at the Swauk-Teanaway Grange. We took her car and next month I’ll drive one of our AWD Subarus. We’ve had remarkably little ice and snow on the roads. Can that last?
Monday, Dec 19 I’m not going to town today, but will tackle the mess (these messes) on the counter, after I load the dishwasher. It is nice and sunny so John is outside.
Tuesday, Dec 20 It was a long day, but went all right; did make it to the dentist, and they fixed my pulled-off gold crown with some sort of cement which has to be redone after Jan 1, when they return to the office. Meanwhile, it has some decay that will need to be fixed and built up. Turns out that is NOT the tooth with a previous root canal, so I’m fortunate it is NOT hurting me. I’m just hopeful that it does NOT have to have a root canal. Too much money recently spent on teeth, and we go to Yakima (50 miles) for roots, as recommended by our regular dentist. EBRG docs do root canals but this fellow is an ‘endodontics” specialist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endodontics
Regarding the temporary repair of my broken tooth, it is a relief that the roughness on my tongue and inside cheek is GONE. Phew. Then the hygienist cleaned my teeth & polished them. Nice feeling. Had 5 minutes to get to acupuncture, and made it.
Had my session with the owner of the business, who is an acupuncturist and massage therapist. He figures there is a link between my open heart surgery – the “cracked sternum” and all that, leaving me with a stainless steel suture-job and scar down the middle of my chest — from heart surgery and the tenseness and muscle pains in my side and shoulder. I really liked what he did, and he went 15 minutes over; was okay with me, but surprised us both. He found my spleen was indicating to him through his pulse evaluation, combined with my clearing my throat, and phlegm heard throughout my body – that I might try eliminating dairy products; could be I have an issue with milk proteins. The key phrase seems to be “milk protein intolerance” or MPI rather than lactose intolerance:
(Warning from Nancy; when proofing additions, such as this link below, that John made, I’m turned off by the spelling in the Answers [and this is from a medical “free” dictionary]. Maybe it is a “foreiner” writing.)
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/_/discussion.aspx?topic=milk+intolerance
I am going to cut out ice cream, cheese, butter, yogurt (haven’t had any recently), cottage cheese, chocolate milk and cream, and see if it will help me, even with joint pains, I have been having. John found a nice link on line that explains this better than I have above.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/292715-muscle-joint-pain-from-milk-protein
However, my personal doctor didn’t think the tests mentioned in this link would really tell much. Thus, the plan is to cut out milk and milk products and watch for any improvement – or not.
Grabbed a roast beef sandwich in town to eat, ending up at a nursing home to sing Christmas carols, and play my violin. Tonight there was another violinist to help and a piano player.
Wednesday, Dec 21 THE SOLSTICE, complete with a party tonight, with food, song, and drink (which I cannot have). The morning started all right and I got to the fasting blood draw and to the mammogram. It was a little tougher than the last time because of my shoulder, but mostly because of my defibrillator that is in the way. The technician had to retake one of them, on the left. Then I got home and had breakfast. I was all ready to go play at the food bank and got a call that my friend could not play today because she is in court. I will still go to the Adult Activity Center for exercise and foot care and to pay my bill at the dentist from yesterday. (We pay by check and get a 5% discount)– better than nothing, I guess.
Then tonight is the solstice party and the hostess just sent me a song called Drive the Cold Winter Away, which I have to listen to and learn the melody to play along tonight. John just printed the words and I will play the tune from the web. Now I will have chili with him for lunch. We made it … long evening, good party, nice people, and good music.
We stayed quite late – for old folks. Weren’t the last to leave, but nearly. Everyone liked our offerings: apple cider, dried apples, and John’s red Rome applesauce… all quite a hit. Good meal. We took the applesauce because the hostess always provides latkes (from Yiddish, from either Russian or Ukrainian apparently), also known as grated potato pancakes.
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/latkes_or_latkas_potato_pancakes/
As with most things with a long history, explanations often get a bit complex:
http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com/away_with_words/2008/12/word-of-the-week-latke.html [read the comments]
Anyway, the fare included latkes, as well as scalloped potatoes with blue Hubbard squash and chicken, asparagus wrapped in cheese and ham, roasted garlic bread, really great beets, hot, and spicy, but not pickled, pumpkin pie, lemon tart in a large pie pan (my favorite). Regarding Blue Hubbard squash, we wonder if this is fact or fiction:
http://www.thebigapplefarm.com/bluehubbard.htm
More here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubbard_squash
We are both really tired tonight, because this morning started out much earlier for me, having to be at the hospital early.
Thursday, Dec 22 John worked this morning in the yard, brushing on the edge of the pasture. I cleaned off counters and washed dishes. We had an hour of music at Hearthstone, one of the neater places. Today they gave our group a huge basket of goodies Mandarin oranges, candies, a gift of something, and probably some other stuff I missed. One of the ladies in the group distributed some, and also was going to unwrap the included gift and portion it out for the rest of us. We play next Thursday in town. Today, we did almost all Christmas songs, and we have the lyrics typed out for them to sing along. They sang and participated really well, and we had a good turnout also of players (ten!). While we were playing, John visited the gasoline station (price has finally gone down some !) and the grocery store. He came with me to attend another Christmas Open House at a couple in their eighties who are both in my exercise class. It was especially nice because we have mutual friends who were there, and we had a nice visit. There was also enough food to eat that we won’t need dinner. We had ham and bread, little quiche like things, hot apple cider, many, many different kinds of cookies, and I did not try them all. Also, some party mix of Corn Chex, Wheat Chex, pretzels, and more cookies (ha ha). John and I carried a plate of fruitcake pieces and dried apples. Today the fruitcake went better than the dried apples, (mostly Red Romes because they were so colorful), but our hostess took a few handfuls for them to have later and a couple pieces of fruitcake as well. You just never know.
Came home to a call from my family physician’s nurse about my mammogram results yesterday. It seems I have to go back in soon for a re-take with magnification views. They assured me I was not to worry that it does not mean I have cancer, but they need to check further. I am showing micro-calcifications in the upper and lower quadrant of my right breast, and in the upper quadrant of my left. Here is what the Mayo Clinic says about this. On a mammogram, breast calcifications can appear as large white dots or dashes (macrocalcifications) or fine, white specks, similar to grains of salt (microcalcifications). Microcalcifications are almost always noncancerous. So, this will happen ASAP, and we’ll go from there.
One more comment from a different source: Microcalcifications are quite tiny bits of calcium, and may show up in clusters, or in patterns (such as circles or lines) and are associated with extra cell activity in breast tissue. Usually the extra cell growth is not cancerous, but sometimes tight clusters of microcalcifications can indicate early breast cancer. Scattered microcalcifications are usually a sign of benign breast tissue. Regardless, please say a prayer.
Friday, Dec 23 Awoke this morning to a call setting up a second mammogram with magnification. This is scheduled for a week from today at 8:45. Yuk, an early start, BUT, it must be done and before the end of the year, so I should be thankful there was an opening and that the technician who has worked in “mammography” since the 1970s is not taking off. She has been through much technology change over the years. She said she started with “balloons” (must have been for support) in order to get the X-rays. I need to look that up, or maybe just ask her!
In the news this morning: A large metallic ball fell out of the sky on a remote grassland in Namibia (in Nov), and NASA and the European space agency were contacted. The hollow ball with a circumference of 1.1 metres (43 inches) was found near a village in the north of the country some 750 kilometres (480 miles) from the capital Windhoek. With a diameter of 35 centimetres (14 inches), the ball has a rough surface and appears to consist of “two halves welded together”. They have determined it is a helium (or other gas) container made of Titanium from a Russian Space satellite. The tank is from a Salyut 7 – Kosmos 1686 spacecraft that failed in 1991. So why did this interest John? The geography secretary (Marilyn) and hubby (several years ago) were in that area on a hunting safari – Do you suppose they walked on this land where the space junk fell? So, the connections are: the USSR, space, Namibia, Marilyn, and us.
My laptop computer acquired (again) (how?) rogue anti-spyware program this morning while I was trying to download Auld Lang Syne. This download entered and is keeping me from accessing the web unless I have it scan my pc. So, this is being finished on the big computer in the back bedroom. I was able to bring my text on a jump drive.
There is a “kill process” for this crap-program but it looks complicated:
http://www.2-spyware.com/remove-xp-home-security-2012.html
We are going to send this on Friday night this week. Nothing is scheduled for Christmas Eve, and Christmas day we are going to our neighbors to celebrate. It will not be a snowy Christmas here although late in the day there may be rain, with a change to snow on Monday. Next week is shaping up to be a weather mess but not serious.
Hope your Christmas weekend is wonderful and your next week is a good one.
Nancy & John,
on the Naneum Fan