Monday, July 13, 2020

Still Here

This is my friend, Rita, who's having a hard time now after the anesthetic for her husband's hip replacement surgery caused horrible issues. He was on a ventilator for ten days, has had septic shock, etc. She is in Savannah by herself, trying to work out the details of what he will need to come out of the Rehab place. I am glad I have been through some of these issues and can be useful to her. And as you might imagine COVID has made it so much harder. She can't visit him for one thing. Rita has a Ph.D in educational technology and is still having trouble navigating what Medicare and various other agencies require of her. What do other people do to get through the many pages of forms? What do people without a good pension do? Because Medicare doesn't provide everything needed. If Medicare had allowed him to stay in the hospital longer, some of this may have been avoided.

On to other things. Watched SUNDAY, BLOODY SUNDAY and GOOD WILL HUNTING on Hoopla this week. SUNDAY was a very strange movie with Glenda Jackson and Peter Finch. Is it just me or did Robin Williama always approach dramatic roles with a sing-songy voice (GOOD WILL). PALM SPRINGS on Hulu is a very cute takeoff on GROUNDHOG DAY. I haven't been so relaxed in weeks.

What a gift Hoopla is. If your library has it, you can get lots of free audiobooks, movies and regular books. Even better than Kanopy.

Watching OLDENHEIM 12 on Acorn. About missing people again. Also watching LONDON KILLS, a more ordinary show on Amazon. Also PERRY MASON and I'LL BE GONE IN THE DARK and I MAY DESTROY  YOU.

Books: reading the Nicci French, WAITING FOR WEDNESDAY. One thing I really like about her writing is that she always takes the time to give every character some memorable dialog or traits. Her world really feels lived in. I know it is both a husband and wife writing and perhaps that's a strength.

Had to buy a new fridge. Did it over the phone. Just asked what can you deliver the quickest (4 days) that fits my spot. I have no edible food left except canned soup with two days to go.
Really weird that I have had to do some much of this sort of stuff in the last year. Seems like I am always having windows washed or furnace checked or new pavers installed or new mailbox hung. Is this the adult life I seemed to have escaped or am I making it harder than it should be.

Phil would have let a lot of this go, but I am afraid not to keep things working. I just don't know what can wait and what can't.

How about you? What have you been up to?

16 comments:

Steve Oerkfitz said...

Watching Perry Mason and I'll Be Gone in the Dark also. Watched a Russian anti war film from 1985 called Come and See. Just released on blu ray. One of the best movies I've seen in years. Also was disappointed in The Old Guard on Netflix. It was entertaining but not very good.
Read Scott Phillip's That Left Turn at Albuquerque. A very good Elmore Leonard style novel. About halfway through Dead Girl Blues by Lawrence Block. A very dark novel that reminds me of Jim Thompson's Pop 120 and The Killer Inside Me.
Had my second eye injection. Dr was very pleased with the improvement.
While driving on the Southfield Expressway Saturday I heard what I thought sounded like a gunshot. The car on my left and a bit forward started to drift into my lane then drifted back to the left bouncing several times off the divider before coming to a stop. I could see the driver slumped over. I called 911. I couldn't stop as everyone was going at least 65 mph. And I had 2 lanes of traffic to my right. And their is no shoulder anyways. It was on the news. It was a woman driver who survived and said she knew the shooter. The bullet came through her passenger side window which means the shot came from one of the lanes to my right. It had to pass right across the front of my car. There has been a lot of freeway shootings in Detroit in recent weeks.
She told police

Steve Oerkfitz said...

Forgive some awkward grammar. I wrote this in the middle of the night.

Jerry House said...

A very quiet week. Went beaching most mornings and saw dolphins each time; there's something special in watching them. As we get into July more people are there earlier and the heat can be...well, hot. Jellyfish were in abundance yesterday, stinging both girls and the kids so little time was spent in the water.

We have a brand spanking new kitchen faucet. Hopefully this will solve a pesky intermittent leak under the sink which has befuddled our landlord for the last month. I'm glad we're back to renting; when we owned property I had to do most of the repairs myself or pay to have them done. Now I just call the landlord. Much easier.

More and more Covid in Florida. Our governor is a fool and a Trump toadie and the current conditions here reflect that. It appears the federal government is just giving up on trying to stop the disease and is taking a ho-hum approach to the rising death count. Trump has a lot to answer for. And did he really consider selling Puerto Rico? Sheez!

And don't get me started on Betsy Devos.

Just learned that Kelly Preston has died after a two-year battle with breast cancer. so young. Cancer is evil.

Don't feel that this week has been a complete downer for me. We are all happy and healthy and Kitty stills radiates beauty and makes me smile when I look at her. Life can be good even if our government isn't.

Here's hoping that life will be very good for you over the coming week, Patti!

Jeff Meyerson said...

Good points about your friend and what she is going through. There was a big article in the NY Daily News this morning about the 131 transit workers who have died from Covid and how their families are getting no help from what is the city's biggest pension fund in getting the benefits they are owed, as well as dealing with everything involved. People can't pay their rent or mortgage or hospital bills because the system is just not working.

We are hanging in there. I am improving, though I still am not sleeping enough. But I've gone from getting up every fifteen to thirty minutes, to every couple of hours, so that is better, and I do fall back asleep pretty quickly. Jackie pulled something behind her left knee again (she's done this a few times), and had a couple of really bad days. It does seem to be improving lately. As a woman told me when we moved to this building over 30 years ago (and were among the younger residents, the opposite of now): don't get old.

We're mostly staying at home, going shopping for groceries two or three times a week, and picking up takeout food more than in the past. Restaurants are open for outdoor dining but we are not ready to go that way (and it may be a long time before we are). If things stay as they are, there is a good chance we will cancel our winter trip to Florida, which has not only passed New York's 11,000 record of April 15 with 15,000 yesterday, but has an imbecile for a Governor who believes his job is not taking care of the health of his citizens, but rather sucking up to Trump. Open restaurants and malls and Disney World and beaches, no masks required, it is just sickening.

Well, that was cheery, right. I am not enjoying Perry Mason at all, to be honest. It isn't Mason in any way. The acting is mostly good but as Jackie pointed out last night, it is not flowing or building to anything, every episode is about the same. I don't get the point of the evangelist. No indication that Mason will ever be a lawyer. Whatever.

I think you were right about not watching Lenox Hill on Netflix. Brain cancer is not what you need to watch. We started series 4 of Shetland on Britbox. Also watching series 8 of Lewis. Most of the others are the same, though we've been watching more movies. Since there are no concerts, and we've enjoyed the few we've watched on PBS or YouTube, Jackie ordered DVDs of a few concerts by favorite groups of ours to watch.

The Brooklyn Public Library is opening a dozen branches today! And one of them is Bay Ridge (as I predicted, as it is big and open). It will be only for grab and go pickup, so I guess I'll see if any of the books I've had on hold for months come in. I've been reading mostly short stories (THE BIG BOOK OF REEL MURDERS, ed. O. Penzler, and THE DARKLING HALLS OF IVY, ed. L. Block), as well as SCANDINAVIAN NOIR, a gift from a friend. I agree with her about Sjowall & Wahloo having started it all. and I still intend to reread the Martin Beck series. Jackie is reading one book from the same friend, one on the Kindle, and one on the Cloud that I downloaded from the Palm Beach County Library.

No, I don't see things returning to anything like normal this year. I think the whole "reopen sports" thing will crash and burn, schools cannot open normally (no matter what Trump - Mr. Full Churches by Easter Sunday! - or his sycophant Betsy DeVos wants), no shows, no movies, and no concerts. If we're lucky things might improve sometime next year, but I am not holding my breath.



pattinase (abbott) said...

I can see we are all moving into a harder time. Which makes me worry about what will happen when we can't get out this much.
Steve, I heard about that gunshot. Must have been really scary. Remember when someone was tossing rocks at cars from bridges on the freeway? A lot more people have moved into the mentally ill category, I think.
Do jellyfish come more in warmer weather? Seems like I read that.

Michael Padgett said...

I've been watching lots of movies, mostly old favorites I haven't seen in years. Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" may be the best antiwar movie I've ever seen. "Jaws" is just as much fun as it was 45 years ago. And "The Sixth Sense" is a completely different experience if you know the secret, and just as impressive.One newish movie, "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" is better than I'd expected but not as good as I'd hoped.Fans of the novel should enjoy it. And from the sublime to the ridiculous, I'm working my way through the "Paranormal Activity" movies.

Not watching much on television except the same two Sunday night HBO series everyone else seems to be watching. I was expecting "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" to be good, and it is. And I'm really surprised by how good "Perry Mason" has turned out to be.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Having the very frustrating problem of having my roku stuck on amazon. Can't watch any of the movie channels.

George said...

Western New York baked in the 90s for eight straight days...a new record. We hit 98 on day and I was just hoping our A/C wouldn't die under the strain. We're in the 80s now but the weather-guessers are predicting another Heat Wave starting this coming weekend.

Diane and I are watching most of the U.S. descend into Hell with coronavirus spreading like a wildfire. Hospitals overwhelmed, people refusing to wear masks, no social distancing. And Trump attacking Dr. Fauci. Just terrible!

I booked a couple doctor appointments for August. Diane and I were both scheduled for colonoscopies this Summer, but we're going to stay away from Hospitals during the pandemic. I'm fighting with Medicare over my CPAP supplies. They demanded I take an At-Home Sleep Apnea test to "prove" I have Sleep Apnea (a condition I've had since 1995). Reluctantly, I did the At-Home test and turned in the equipment. Then I was told I needed to provide "doctor's notes" justifying the At-Home test. No one told me to go to the doctor so there are no notes. I can't buy my CPAP supplies until I satisfy Medicare's bureaucrats! Very frustrating!

pattinase (abbott) said...

Things that we already difficult to do have become impossible, George.

Jeff Meyerson said...

That is unbelievable, George. No, you're lying, you just say you have sleep apnea? Why? For the prestige it brings? WTF? Your weather was even worse than ours! We hit 96 last Monday, but otherwise were in the 80s (even one 70s!) all week. I bet you're glad there's no such thing as global warming.

Rick Robinson said...

Weather here has been nice, mid to high 70s, and will slide into the low to mid 80s this week, with 84 the high Wednesday.

I'm still reading the Pern books, 2 to go, and only watch PBS Newshour on TV. No movies seen. We're making a change here, but I'll save that for a post, probably pretty soon.

TracyK said...

I am very sorry that your friend is having so many problems with her husband's health problems, and sad to hear that medicare is not working well. And it is good that you can advise her. To me, the scariest thing about COVID is that it prevents family from visiting sick loved ones.

We are still staying home, Glen's job is getting more stressful due to all the support for doing things online, but otherwise, things are fine. Grocery shopping once a week, Costco once a month, limiting other outings for now. Doing as much gardening as I can physically handle, and we are getting more butterflies and hummingbirds in the back "yard."

I just finished Dragonflight, part of the Pern series that Rick is reading and got me interested in. Now I am reading #3 in the Peter Robinson Inspector Banks series. Just started it.

Mostly we are re-watching TV series we have enjoyed before. NCIS, Person of Interest, Mission Impossible. We have started watching Poirot episodes via Brit Box on Amazon Prime and I am liking them more than I expected. They are very humorous.

Todd Mason said...

No end to trouble...till the one Kelly Preston had pressed upon her. We were at the same Honolulu high school for academic year 1979-80, I had just transferred in as a sophomore, she was a senior, Kelly Smith. I was barely aware of her, except as one of the many pretty young women on campus...we had no classes nor extra-cirricular activities together...I don't think she was in any of the campus dramatics...but, then, as a senior, she got her first gig on a late episode of the original HAWAII FIVE-O.

Sorry things are going badly for most of us here, even if sometimes only in relatively transient ways. I've had a plateful of that recently, slowly being rectified. Or not. We'll see.

Good friends, lovers, and what's left of the family and I are, like you, looking into what comes next.

I'm unimpressed with PERRY MASON 2.0, amused that Sundance Channel is making a big deal of rerunning the '60s series (best theme), can definitely recommend the first season of HIGHTOWN from start to finish. Hope we all get to see Season 2.

Decent jazz concert for you all on Facebook, if you're willing to put up with Zuck's Kingdom:
https://www.facebook.com/PhiladelphiaVirtualMusicPhestival/videos/277386617022374/?comment_id=277422733685429&notif_id=1594512046852127&notif_t=video_reply&hc_location=ufi

Margot Kinberg said...

I'm so sorry to hear about what your friend is going through, Patti. That's horrible, and she's lucky to have you in her life. Hoping for the best for her. Thanks for sharing about Hoopla - it sounds like a great program.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Very hard that she can't visit him because she knows he would eat better and try harder were she with him. I don't get out much either. Not driving makes it worse.
Will look for the jazz concert.
Hoopla is great! Listening to all sorts of audiobooks on it for free and several movies.

Kevin R. Tipple said...

Late to this, but still here as well. Been a rough week plus here as well and I won't bore everyone with the rehash of that here. Glad you can help your friend. the paperwork is overwhelming as is trying to keep the home together.