Monday, April 15, 2019

THINGS THAT ARE MAKING ME HAPPY


I don't have much this week. I have barely been out of the house. Phil is sleeping most of the time now although he is in no pain. I hired a new hospice, which seems much better.
I am watching HORACE AND PETE on Hulu, which troubles me a bit because of Louis C..K but boy, there is some great acting: Laurie Metcalf and Alan Alda, in particular. Love BETTER THINGS with Pamela Adlon.
Lots of rain here. There better be May flowers.
Reading TRUST EXERCISE by Susan Choi.
Sticking with THE OA but not sure why.
What about you?

15 comments:

Jeff Meyerson said...

Went to the doctor and he said I am good to go. My shoulder will never be 100% (without surgery, which would mean a replacement and months of rehab), but it is functioning much better, and without pain. As long as there is no pain he would not recommend surgery. I am down to once a week for physical therapy for a few more weeks, but basically I will have to keep up the exercises at home.

Jackie was driving me (and herself) crazy over Florida, but finally found the apartment she wanted through FlipKey (?) and rented it for January 7-March 26 for next winter. It is in an area we know and like, five minutes north of where we've stayed the last nine years (other than this one). We'll see how it goes.

Still not getting a lot of reading done, though I am reading every day. The internet is a killer of time. Still, I am buying books and getting others from the library.

WANTED on Netflix is almost like one of those old-fashioned cliffhangers, as each episode finds Lola and Chelsea in bad shape (in prison, about to be shot, etc.) at the end, only to escape as the next episode starts. We're watching the same other shows mentioned last time, plus THE GILMORE GIRLS on Netflix.

Spring finally is here for good, it seems, but so is the rain, periodically.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I think we watched the first season of WANTED and forgot about it. THat is the problem with so much content.

George said...

Western NY is wet, soggy, and cold. Last week we drove through snow to visit friends in Rochester.

Glad to hear Jeff Meyerson's shoulder is improving. I continue to recover from my nose surgery.

Diane hired a landscaping company to spread mulch and level off our lawn (Winter left plenty of low spots). I have been urging Diane to take this course instead of spreading 80 bags of mulch herself (and I had to carry those 80 bags out to her!). Diane still insists on mowing our lawn herself. She says she needs "the steps" for her FITBIT.

I managed to read all the stacks of Library books I had piled up this Spring. Right now, I have ZERO Library books in my house. But the piles from AMAZON need attention next.

Jeff Meyerson said...

George, my problem remains that when I read about a book that sounds interesting on a blog or a website, I need to get it, despite having a huge backlog of books sitting here. (I bought two books on ABE this past week, including one this morning before 8:00.) If the library has it, I will put it on hold (if there is an ebook version, I will take that, as the delay in getting it will give me time to read the other books). If not I will check Amazon and ABE.

I'm not as bad as George (or check John O'Neill's latest on Black Gate), but bad enough. A friend sent me a new Lawrence Block anthology coming out, so the first thing I did was buy a previous anthology he did that I had missed!

Hopeless.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I don't buy many books unless they are at a used book sale. Last week I bought two books by Willy Vlautin, Killers of the Flower Moon, Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald, and My Education by Choi.
But what I do do is put any book I am remotely interested on reserve at the library. There are always books waiting for me. Harder to get to the library now with no driver and so much rain for walking.

Rick Robinson said...

Rainy weather, but some sun breaks. Am reading this and that, but finishing little. My A1C was up and I have appt. in an hour. Not looking forward to that. I'm now on a zero carb diet and boy, is that hard.

Gerard Saylor said...

I was realizing the other day that I just don't care for Ricky Gervais.

Boy #1's pre-ACT exam results come back and they were quite good. All the sophomores take the pre-ACT as a benchmark/school testing requirement.

I've been reading Mark Frost's novel THE SECRET HISTORY OF TWIN PEAKS from 2016 and enjoying it quite a bit. I really liked Nina Revoyr's recent novel A STUDENT OF HISTORY.

I helped out a Boy Scout Eagle ceremony yesterday afternoon. It's odd how public speaking will sometimes bother me and sometimes not. For whatever reason I had a slight adrenaline surge yesterday because of the event and I was jittery with shaky legs. The Scout's family owns a bakery and the cookies after the ceremony were fantastic.

Jerry House said...

GoT is back! The first episode of Season 8 brought many of the characters together for the first time, setting the scene for what may be a bloodthirsty episode 2. I have a feeling that things will not end well for anyone by season's end, but I sure am enjoying the ride. We also watched Season 2 of THE CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA (not to sure why we're following this one), as well as the first three episodes of CLOAK AND DAGGER, Season 2 (we're more invested in this one).

Kitty finished her third chemo this week. One more scheduled for this coming Thursday, then it will be just once a month for four months. Things are going well on that front. It looks like she will need a root canal or an extraction soon; we'll try to wait until she finished this weeks chemo for that.

Quiet day at the dog beach this Sunday, following a heavy storm the night before. Warm, but with a stronger breeze than usual. The waves were stronger than usual and it was declared a red flag day (which means don't go out in the surf). Erin likes to count how many dogs are on the beach; usually it's over seventy but yesterday it was only a couple of dozen. Afterwards it was off for Thai food. The local Buddhist Meditation Center serves lunch fro 10 to 3 each Sunday and we decided to give it a try. Yum. They also had a basketball net which kept Jack busy -- he managed to get three or four shots in.

Reading SCARFACE AND THE UNTOUCHABLE: AL CAPONE, ELIOT NESS, AND THE WAR FOR CHICAGO by Max Allan Collins and A. brad Schwartz. A fascinating book, well-researched and well-told.
Highly recommended. I'm trying to get my CD player to work so I can listen to Dean Koontz's RICOCHET JOE; I'm sure I'll get it working soon.

A quiet Monday today, listening to some great folk music on Youtube; The Chad Mitchell Trio, The Kingston Trio, John Denver, Peter, Paul and Mary, Leonard Cohen, The Seekers, and others. For an old fogey like me, I'm taken back to a much better time musically.

Have a more than fantastic week, Patti. Get out and kick up your heels.

*****

As I type this, news is coming on about a major fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Shit.

Kevin R. Tipple said...

The fire has been devesating.

We thought episode one of GoT final season was boring and flat. Maybe it was just us.

Scott's BP seems to be stabalizing and the Doc spent a lot of time with us--mainly me--making it clear that he does not seem to be facing at his age what was the start of my issues at that same age. My base tests came back normal and matched what I came up with last year so things look a bit better on that front. Will know more when I see my cardiologist in a month or two.

I had no idea things had moved forward to hospice, Patti. I am so sorry. A good hospice is a tremendous thing. Towards the end, ours lost pain control on Sandi and she suffered horribly. I have nightmares about her screaming and many other things that went on at the end. It is all so horrible. It sounds like things are going as well as they could be and I am very glad of that....for both of you.

Clearly, I can't be there to give you a hug, but if you ever want to talk about the nighmare, you know where I am at.

K

Todd Mason said...

Podcast alert: Roxanna Dawson directed (an?) episode (or episodes?) of THE DEUCE among others, as well as doing good work as an actor, A CHROUS LINE through STAR TREK work...

She discusses the film THE BAD SEED with the hosts of this movie podcast:
https://www.maximumfun.org/switchblade-sisters/switchblade-sisters-episode-75-bad-seed-breakthrough-director-and-star-trek

pattinase (abbott) said...

The fire is awful. Has to be the most iconic building in the world-or at least to the western world.
I did no carb last year. Amazing difference in my numbers but who can sustain that.
I liked Gervais new series but it felt false on some level.
Chemo destroys teeth. Glad she is almost done.

Margot Kinberg said...

I'm glad to hear that Phil's not in pain. That's a relief. I hope you get the chance for something enjoyable this week.

Kevin R. Tipple said...

Thankfully, Sandi never had a problem with chemo destroying teeth. She did get dry mouthed from time to time and hated the fake fluids they wanted her to use to try to replace salivia, but I donb't remember it being a major issue for her.

In late breaking good news.....we were widely predicted to be getting baseball and larger hail here all across the area late Yesterday and overnight. So much so that there was mass panic to a certain extent as universities clsoed early--including UTD at 3 yesterday--and parking garages got flooded with folks trying to proect cars. The storms, when they rolled into DFW, late last night hours after they were predicted to appear, were nothing more than heavy rain producers. Zero hail and zero twisters.

That mde me very freaking happy! :)

Todd Mason said...

Did I recommend this before, Patti? Another thing to pick and choose from...among the "full episodes" on this menu...
https://allarts.wliw.org/watch/

Kevin R. Tipple said...

BOSCH--Season Five went LIVE last night. WooHoo!