I Am A Happy Nana

 Hello,

 It is late here but I wanted to stop in and say hello before I call it a night. Actually night has already came and gone. It is after midnight here. 

 The photo above greeted me as a surprise to my dresser. Celeste wanted me to have her Minnie Mouse sitting on my dresser tonight. She wanted to share and this particular Minnie is one of her favorites so I was touched that she wanted to share her with me even tho when she was ready for bedtime she asked for her back. Of course I handed it to her as I helped tuck her in.

 I have been to see my new cardiologist and I will be busy because now I will be going to Cardiac Rehab 5 days a week. I don't know the full details yet but it is to help me get my energy level and heart rate back up to where it needs to be,

 My EKG showed that I have damage to the heart from my heart attack and I have to have a test to see exactly how severe the damage is and where. I am not sure if they did this test before they released me from the hospital or not. My new cardiologist is really awesome. She is rated as one of the top of her field in Reno so I was really Blessed by getting in to see her. I also have to go and have a Echocardiogram next week so my calendar is filling up again.

 Today I met my new Nephrologist. He is really awesome and he is on top of his game as well. I have to have a sonogram of my kidney so I will be waiting to get a call from them to set up that appointment. Sheesh I am remembering why it was so hard moving. Getting established as a new patient means that I have a lot of people to meet and greet as well as to go over all of my medical issues. 

 Still some really good news has come from doing all of this so I am not complaining other than I and tired from having all of these appointments so close together but at the same time I am happy to get them done and over with. My new Nephrologist spent over an hour with me today going over all of my medical issues and I was happy that he was talking with me and not at me. Actually all of them have been pretty awesome and not rushed me in and out or treated me like a number.

 I had so much I wanted to say but I am seeing double and it is ten minutes after 1:00am so I need to go and lay down. I have to be up and out the door in 6 hours so I better say goodnight.

 Take care, stay safe and keep wearing your mask even if you are vaccinated. It is just another layer of safety! Sweet Dreams to all.... BB

A Belated Mother's Day

 Hello,

Happy Belated Mother's Day. I hope that each of you have had a wonderful day filled with a lot of love. 

 I meant to come and blog last night but yesterday was a busy day. Funny how everyone says that now that I have moved to Nevada where it is less stressful that I would have more time, I seem to have less.

 Courtney and I had a early start to Mother's Day beginning on Saturday night. We got all dressed up in our "Dresses" and went out to dinner for drinks and Mexican food. 

 She ordered a strawberry daiquiri which looked good but was so strong and so I had her send it back and then the next one was not as expected but she didn't want to create a fuss and it was a mad house. I had 2 large frozen lime Margaritas and when she got the bill she said well no wonder that they didn't taste like a daiquiri, they were strawberry margaritas with whipped cream... Kinda Yuck Kinda Not! but that was the only complaint that we could come up with. 

 Then on the way home Courtney's sister in law who had Celeste who spent Friday night and all day Saturday out with them with friends called to say that they were heading home and would drop Celeste off so we were up listening to her tell us all about her sleep over with her cousins and their friends and by the time that I got to bed it was late.

 I slept in until about 10:30 Sunday and we decided to go and get our hair cut. Karyn had sent us money for Mother's Day so we decided to treat ourselves to a hair cut and style.  My hair was past my shoulders and I hadn't had it professionally cut since way before the lock down pandemic started so I was ready. 

 I might live in Northern Nevada now but it has actually been hot here and we have had to turn the air conditioning on more than a few times so I was ready. I got a short A-Line Bob with some layers in the back. 

I am happy with it. Once we got home, after a trip over to the Dollar tree for some things we had been needing to pick up, I laid down and then Courtney's brother and family came over so we had to celebrate Mother's Day all over with cards and gifts and kids who gave me hugs and kisses and one of the sweetest things is the middle youngest who runs to me and climbs up into my lap and Nanna this and Nanna that and I play with him. Lily is  a year younger than Celeste, she is 5 and she cuddled next to me and said Happy Mother's Day I love you Nanna.

 It is one of the best feelings in the whole entire world. I received so many wonderful cards and teddy bears and coffee cups and tootsie roll pops and picture frames.

 Jonathan called me first thing yesterday morning, Karyn called mid morning and Nathan called right as I was getting my hair cut and Matt texted me. Of course I didn't hear from Laurie and I haven't in months. I have this horrible dread that something is wrong with them. But I know that there is nothing that I can do about it.

 I have back to back doctor appointments this coming week starting at 8:50 in the morning. I have to be downstairs at 7:50 for my medical transportation to pick me up and I also have another at 4:00pm but Courtney has an appointment earlier so she is going to take me to that one and it is good that she can go because she likes to hear what my PCP has to say. I also have an upcoming appointment with a bone doctor to find out what is going on with my hand on the 19th. Right now at this moment you wouldn't think anything is wrong with it but who knows when it will start hurting badly again.

 I have to go. I have 2 calls I have to make... Take care... Hugs to all. BB

Monday Night

Hello Everyone,

 I chose this photo that says Joy is in the simple moments and it is certainly very true. It is the small moments, the little moments and all the moments in between. 

 Miss Edna knows this but I really haven't had much time to do anything if it takes more than 5 minutes. 

 So I will start by telling you that my hand hurting was a really strange ordeal and I talked to one of my doctors that told me that she thought that it was a tendon that wraps around other tendons in diabetics. Later that same afternoon my primary care doctor and I had a telemedicine appt and she also agreed. The next day my hand was worse and I really wasn't feeling good at all. I broke out in a cold clammy sweat and I told my kids that I thought that I needed to go to the hospital. That was Thursday and my hand was hurting and moving up my arm and across my chest. I had a heart attack. The next day was Friday and they cardiac surgeon found one of my arteries on the back side of my heart was 90% blocked. He cleaned it out really good (cholesterol build up) and put in a stent. I was able to go home Saturday afternoon and the next day I flew on out to Reno. 

 My kids and family really didn't want me coming to Reno this soon afterwards but the truth is I couldn't afford the air fare and I would have lost the money I had paid so I decided to come on ahead and make the trip. It was alright. I slept from Austin to Oakland California and I had a 4 hour layover but the time went rather fast. Before I knew it I was landing in Reno and my granddaughter and her mama met me at the baggage terminal. I was happy that Courtney met me because I cannot lift anything heavier than 5 pounds. 

 It was cold and windy here. Actually the turbulence was very scary and this morning we were greeted with hail, sleet and snow but it calmed down except for the wind.

 Matthew and I were in the air at the same time. He was going to Austin to see me and I was on my way to Reno. Karyn told me Saturday night that Matthew was coming in to Austin to be with me but I had already made the decision to go ahead and catch my plane to Reno. Jonathan called me this morning and said that everyone was off work except for Karyn. She had a dental appointment this morning and then was working until 8pm. 

 This just about catches me up for now. I am ready to go and lay down but I wanted to let you know how I was doing. Now I plan on going back and reading all of the blog posts that I have missed. Please excuse any errors I have made. It is late and if I made any mistakes please over look them. Until next time please be safe. Virtual Hugs xoxoxxo BB
 

A Very Huge Thank You!!!!

 Hello, 

 This is a short post to say hello and to Thank each of you for your kind words. I have been really overwhelmed with trying to decide what to pack, what to store and trying to just do what I can when I can do it,

 The photo that I chose to put up today was my Valentine from my sweet neighbor Emily.  Miss Maple is the blonde retriever. She is a service animal but she had time to pose for a Valentine Day photo along with her pal Miss Penny.

 Miss Penny is an older adult who is also just so sweet. She is great company for Miss Maple and Emily as well. I love them as much as I love Ollie and Foxy and all of my furbaby friends from all of my friends. From all of you and friends I have yet to meet.

 Miss Edna,

 Thank you so much for all of your prayers and I will call you tomorrow if I can. I am not feeling my best right now. Fibromyalgia is having a field day with me at the moment.

 Steve YES that was crazy right with Matthew running into his dad. I spoke to him this morning and he is doing a little better.  He did have meningitis but he is home now. He can go back to work tomorrow if he is feeling up to it. Yesterday he said that he is feeling a little better but his energy and appetite was still really low and he is not sleeping well. 

Paddy Girl that snow was CRAZY!!! Do you know what was even crazier? Even tho many Texans were out of power, the ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council Of Texas) which controls like 4 states were charging $9,000 us dollars a Kilowatt hour! Some people were charged after one day, before anyone had their power restored receiving bills for $25,000 and up. We read yesterday that the powers that be are not going to reimburse their customers. Not one penny.  My daughter said that this fight will probably go to the Supreme Court and I agree. Our electric company is only giving us a $10 dollar deduction but it was bitter cold and no electricity for days was hard. We wore so many layers and every blanket we owned was used but thankfully we do not have a huge huge bill that we can't pay. 

 You guys have been wonderful keeping up with my sporadic posts and I have been working on days with this one post but everyday I plan to finish it and something happens to where I can't. Thank you all so very much.

 I want to get this posted and not leave it as a draft as I had it for so many days. The problem is with my left hand. My thumb and index finger from the knuckle all the down into the palm is swollen and very painful. I have no idea what happened to it. I just woke up with it throbbing a few weeks ago and it has gotten worse every day. Jonathan ordered me a Copper hands compression glove and it does help but today he is going to try to find me a thumb splint when he goes to Walgreens to pick up my Glaucoma eye drops. 

 Have a wonderful day and take care of yourself always stay safe!!! BB

I Will Never Take Hot Showers For Granted Again!!!

 

 Hello,

 Just a quick update so I wanted to post while I can. I am waiting for some calls to come in and I have 2 that I have to make today. It has been so crazy here but all of the snow has melted thankfully and we have water but very low water pressure as they are filling up our reservoir before they can turn the water up to normal.

 We are under a boil water ban and we have ran out of bottled water to drink and none of the stores have any in stock at the moment. The ones that did have water had to put a 2 case limit and one place has bottled water but not spring water and even tho we really don't like to drink the other bottled waters, at this point if we can get drinking water we will get what is available. 

 So speaking of water, I was able to take a hot shower last night. The pressure was low but OHHH it was so wonderful. I will not ever take having a hot shower for granted again. I really wish our water pressure would return to normal so that the next time I get a chance to have my shower that I can have the water pressure with it but once again I will take what ever I can get with no complaints and be Thankful.

 I am a very worried mother right now. My son Matthew is in the hospital. Last week he was told that he had strep throat and he got a shot of antibiotics but he started running a high fever while in Louisiana and so we got a call from him where he had been admitted to the hospital and they were doing a spinal tap to check for meningitis. He doesn't have his phone charger so we couldn't talk long as he needed his battery power until he can get his charger.

 This is one of those stranger than fiction stories.

 Matthew was caught in this massive snow storm and he stopped at one of the casinos in Louisiana so he could park his truck because it was getting unsafe to be on the road. He hoped that they had rooms available as he was really needing a shower as well. But if not he could just sleep in his truck. I never found out if he was able to get a room or not. I forgot to even ask the day that I talked with him.

 He went inside and decided to get something to eat and as it was a buffet he walked up to the buffet line and he recognized the man in front of him. That man turned out to be his dad! So how strange is that??? That has happened to Matthew twice now.

 The first time that it happened was a few years ago when he was working for the railroad. He was driving to his next job site and he recognized the voice of the trucker on the CB radio. He pulled up next to the truck and asked the driver if he was so and so and the man replied "Who wants to know?" and Matt said "Your son wants to know." Matthew pulled up along side of him and said stop at the next exit.

 My kids don't have a great relationship with their father for one reason or another. They have gone years without speaking to him and it works both ways. Sometimes he will send the boys a birthday card but he will not send the girls one at all and the last time he sent a card to Nathan and to Matthew but skipped Jonathan, Karyn and Laurie. But back to my story Matthew and his dad were able to spend an hour or so together that day. 

 Anyway this time I am thankful that his dad was at the same casino and that his dad was able to get him to the hospital. He is supposed to be taking Matthew his phone charger so I am hoping to receive some news soon. I have been so worried since last night. Today's phone call hasn't helped my nerves either. I didn't get to talk to him but maybe 5 minutes if that long. 

 Well I guess that this is about all of the news that I have so far so I will close for now and talk to everyone later. Please be careful and as always wear your masks and social distance and I am sending lots of virtual hugs... Oh, Paddington Hi girl! I wish that you could have sent me water too lol. It is the thought that counts and I am thinking of you too. Take care of you and that awesome family of yours. 

 Steve, this snow storm was crazy as heck. We are just thankful that we had everything that we needed to see us thru the hard days and even longer nights. Nathan was totally our Knight in shining armor. We slept in shifts but he Bless his heart slept more in the day so he could stay up thru the night. Many times letting me and Karyn sleep for longer periods of time. Funny thing is that my insomnia did not hit me lol. Any other time I would have been up all night from just having the insomnia hit me. This time I was actually able to sleep!

 Miss Edna, I just tried calling you. I hope that all is going good for you. I have been worried about that storm heading your way. Call me when you can... BB

Snowed In

 

 It is super cold out. I am hoping that I am posting the right picture of my neighbors roof edge and icicles. This is day 5 of our adventure and it is really has been a adventure for millions of people. One that millions of people are not prepared for and does not want to ever repeat again.

 We have been without power since late Monday night. We got power back on after 80 hours plus a few more. Nathan stopped counting how many hours in total because it wasn't on  constantly as it would come on and go off.

 It all had to do with a power grid that is rather hard to explain. The way that I understand it is that they were going to do a roll out like 45 minutes on and 15 minutes off. They do this in the summer time as a controlled measure to avoid massive outages by shutting the power off at certain times of the day in places that have these smart thermostats. 

 When we lived in the apartments (Ridge Point and San Paloma) they did this. It was fine because it was usually cool enough that we didn't even notice it. By the time it was getting warm in the apartment it was coming right back on. It didn't interfere with our tv's or other things, It just shut off our air conditioning for 15 minutes each day so that it wouldn't cause blackouts like it did in California.

 But as they were taking us off line they were actually trying to take the big establishments off line and OOOp's... it caused Texas to fall off of the grid completely. One of the news stations said that we were minutes to seconds from a total catastrophe. One where we could have suffered months of no power.

  Then to have topped it off yesterday morning (Early) they took our water off line supposedly to protect our Nuclear and Power Plants. So long story short we have no water. The boys have been shoveling snow to melt down so that we can have water to flush the toilet with but it is melting so fast that today will be the last day of that. 

 I am sorry that this is so short but it is almost supper time.. I mean choose our can night lol. Thankfully we have soups and crackers and things to make sandwiches with. I think that I spotted a can of chili in the cupboard. If not I am sure that I can find something that I can eat. One good thing is that we do stock up when we go to the store. I had one of those Mac and Cheese cups for lunch today so I do have some options.

 Take care to all and to all a good night... BB

The Ten Of Wands

 I'm sorry that this photo is slightly blurry. I am going to see if Karyn can take a photo that is less blurry with her Iphone.

Hi,

 I really hope that everyone is staying warm and that everyone is staying well. I haven't fallen off of the planet but I have been trying to get things lined up for the move to Reno and it is taking me a lot longer than I thought that it would.

So the Wands in Taro mean a lot of different things. From new ideas, growth, creativity to being constructive in confidence, determination, and strength that we need for everything that comes with life. As we grow so do our responsibilities and the higher that we go in the Wands the harder that we need the other wands to be able to succeed.

 Take a look at the Ten Of Wands once more and what stands out for you?  It seems that I have been pulling Wands from my deck all month long and today as I looked at the other cards in my deck and then the last of the Minor Arcana I really looked at the card and I saw why I have been so all over the place. And why am I NOT surprised that I have been drawing Wands lately and I am emotionally all over the place and so damn depressed. 

 Look at her, she is carrying a very heavy burden and she is struggling to climb that damn steep hill and even her little familiar is hanging on for dear life. 

 While the Wands are a great set of Minor Arcana there are so many variables. From the wonderful to the other things that bring the not so wonderful things.  Like her familiar I feel like I am just barely hanging on. 

 I have had some sad sad sad news in recent days, I am really worried about my kidney and the news that I will receive from my doctor in the morning when he and I have a telemedicine visit. I have had a raging UTI infection. I only had a couple of the antibiotics that my doctor called in for me on Sunday  until I went in for labs on Monday and my lab guy called late yesterday and said no signs of a UTI but that I have lots of protein in my urine which is really bad. It just means that my kidney disease is worse and Karyn is afraid that I am going to have to go on dialysis. He said if my labs didn't look any better this month then I was going to need a kidney biopsy. I will know what he says in the morning. I have been nervous about it for a few weeks now. 

 The good news is that my kids Laurie, David and my grandkids surprised me the other night. I haven't gotten to spend any real time with them just yet because they are looking for a house and they tried to call me yesterday but I was in the shower and Karyn said that she forgot to tell me until last night. They are having phone problems. We are having internet problems. So I guess that evens us out a little bit but she is supposed to come tomorrow and maybe bring the kids. 

 I am really tired and so I am going to get off of here. Take care and stay safe until nextime... BB