Thoughts

Well, if the week started on Saturday, then our week has been very full. First, my Pennsic boss had asked me to write an updated webpage for the Troll Booth but didn't give me a deadline. I got it done and sent off to her ten days later, on Weds. night. She still has stuff she plans on adding to it, which content I don't know. Lo and behold, Friday night the New! Improved! Pennsic Website! was activated and advertised - without the updated troll page because it hadn't been sent on by her to the web minister. So there is no way for attendees to contact me as yet.

In the wee hours of Saturday morning I treated myself to a full-blown panic attack about the SCA event we were planning on attending later that day. It has been years since I've experienced one of those and it took me a while of crying and shaking before I realised what was going on. As you'd expect, I opted to skip the event. I prepped all the food for my husband, so he'd be ready once he woke up but as it happened, he overslept and ended up choosing not to attend either. So we contacted our group of Sunday night card players and announced that we'd all be having a "side board" for dinner. It turned out rather oddly and I don't think we'll try it again. The other players were obviously (perhaps because they are single and usually depend on me or others to provide them) unused to thinking about what is served at event sideboards so the dining selections on Sunday were, ah, varied. One guy brought four different kinds of M&Ms. Another brough two trays of store-baked muffins; chocolate and cinnamon. We provided three kinds of cheese, and ham, wild boar summer sausage, and venison sausage, along with rolls, pickles, and olives. We ate until we were full but I think all of us ended up fixing ourselves a "real dinner" later in the night.

On Sunday morning my husband's computer died. Not with the BSoD, but it looks as though he had been allowing automatic updates and it attempted to download and install Windows 11. His operating system cannot handle W-11 so it got stuck while beginning the startup and stalled, too early in the process for him to be able to activate "safe mode". It just tries to start and then cycles for a bit before shutting itself back down to attempt starting all over again. My man was very frustrated and worried about it. He hates when there is a computer problem he can't identify or repair. My guess is we'll be buying him a new computer a bit earlier than we had planned on, which suggestion put him in an even more foul mood. So we left the house with him feeling angry and went to use our truck to make a run out to buy a twin sized bed from a seller on Facebook Marketplace, for me to use at Pennsic. When we started the truck it made a godawful noise as if it was channeling its inner clown jalopy. Arni knew immediately what had happened and climbed down to check under the rear of the truck. Yep, our catalytic converter had been stolen, the exhaust pipe sawn through. The police and our insurance company have been contacted and both have given us the reports we need. Thankfully we'll only have to pay a little over our deductible for the repairs. It seems that since the new converter is an improvement on the old one, we have to pay an additional 10% to reflect the upgrade but that only works out to $60, which isn't too bad. Nonetheless my spouse is not going to be happy to learn that. And our truck is so old that Ford no longer makes converters to fit it but happily the insurance inspector was able to source a replacement for us to order and have delivered to the repair shop. She'll be including the contact information in her report.

And then while we were playing cards a thunderstorm hit, generated a tornado, and wiped out about 50-100 houses just a few miles from us in town. The northeast corner of Virginia Beach is currently off limits while rescue efforts are underway. This town is built on land reclaimed from a swamp and tidal delta so that area is riddled with one lane roads crisscrossing with canals leading to the ocean or Chesapeake Bay. Many of the roads are without outlets so if one end is destroyed there is no getting to the rest of the street. And on top of that, it is where most of our marinas and boat storage facilities are. Private boats make such impressive missiles during a tornado. Some of which will have had people living in them. The city was hosting a weekend music festival so that area was jammed with visitors in addition to the residents. So for now we have no idea what the damage level may be. But so far there has been no reported deaths.

So how was your weekend?

The last two nights I slept, when I slept, sitting upright in my chair in the living room. Sinuses. Sinuses are evil. On Saturday morning, on top of the face pain and migraine-level headache, my ear canal was so badly clogged that I was weeping from the pain. I could not stand to touch anywhere near the ear or back jaw at all. I would swear that I had a knife stuck into my ear. It came on suddenly, too. My blessed spouse figured out what to do and brought me a hot moist washcloth to hold against my ear, cheek, and nose. That did help. I guess something is actually wrong but I have no idea how any doctor would be convinced that it is important enough to try to find out what it is. I'm accustomed to being blown off when it comes to sinus problems. So for now I'm relying on a regime of Motrin, antihistamines, and decongestants (normally I'd be taking a half dose but full doses for now) along with so much fluid intake that my name should be changed to "Mississippi". I hope that a few days of pill and liquid pushing will encourage whatever is clogged to clear itself out.

Bah! Spring is a pain!

Friday I had an eye exam and ordered new glasses and will be getting them in a few weeks. My prescription is "oh-you-are-so-so-blind", so the glasses have to be made in a lab somewhere in Denver. Trifocals, astigmatism, and the beginning of cataracts make lens grinding a challenge. The cataracts are a new development but do not require surgery yet and he says they may not ever. When I was a kid I was told that I read too much and "you will overstrain your eyes and damage them, and you'll go blind when you get older!" But I'd also been raised believing my medical condition would kill me before age 40 so I was pretty flippant about anything having to do with old age. Why worry about what you'll never see, right? I read by moonlight, under blankets with a flashlight, read constantly every day and night for hours and hours on end, especially when trying to get to the end of a story. I refused to wear my glasses (got teased too much for being a girl with glasses), read books with teeny tiny print, and I remember reading for so long that my eyes couldn't focus anymore and would cross so I'd shut one eye so I could see the letters on the page with no blurring. I also stared directly into the sun more than once or twice. These are all mistakes I guarded our children from now that I am a living example of what not to do.

So the new glasses are comfortable, half-frames, and designed by Armani. Ohhhhh.... that is about as close to haute ton as I shall ever be. The tops have almost exactly the same curve as my eyebrows. I do like that.

The doc checked out the diabetic risks on my eyes - no problems there at all. Those are more frightening to me than the stuff mentioned above. Glaucoma, retinal myopathy, macular degeneration, blindness due to elevated pressure in the eye - those are all risks for a diabetic. Scary, huh?

I'm working on downsizing our possessions some more. The kitchen is going through changes. We bought new flatware and will be donating away all of the mis-matched spoons, forks, and knives we currently are using. Our new set serves 12 people which should last us for the rest of our lives. And we will be losing our huge collection of plastic lidded containers this week and replacing them with a new matched set of nesting ones. Part of the "plastic problem" comes from sandwich making, odd as that sounds. The better tasting sliced meats come in resealable plastic containers, which we save since they are not recyclable. So we try to use them up until they don't seal any longer. They come in two handy sizes, too. But my man LOVES sandwiches. Loves them. I think he averages two meals a day from them. That means that we go through a lot of meat packages over the course of a year. Even holiday giveaways can't really dent our container collection. I'm going to have to take a good look at what is in the deli section to find a more affordable but earth-friendly supply. It is too bad that buying sliced meats directly from the deli is more expensive than we can manage. We have a ton of Tupperware containers. I started buying them in 1977 so you can imagine what I've stockpiled. But I don't really cook like I once did, and don't store the amount of ingredients that I once relied on. I've held on to the containers because they are Tupperware and Tupperware is expensive. I need to let that attitude go and clean the excess out of our shelves.

After flatware, storage containers, and pots & pans to follow will come - - - mugs and cups. I'm not looking forward to that. That is going to hurt and require patience and resolve. How do we collect so many of them? I think we have three cupboard shelves of "regular" mugs, then another of just Arni's travel mugs, and then yet another shelf of SCA-use cups too!

The Kingdom of Atlantia had its University event this past weekend. The first set of classes were in-person at a small school on Saturday while the second set were virtual on Sunday. The format works if you happen to live near the site but will likely mean missing out on some Sunday morning classes because of travel if you don't. I admit attending classes in person is much nicer. It is currently made difficult because of our mask requirements when our instructor's mouth is obscured or their quiet voice is muffled by their mask, especially hard for people who are not aware that they lip-read to make up for diminished hearing. As my poor husband found out in his classes on Western Mongolian clothing and Mongolian customs within a Ger (Yurt). His instructor was new to teaching and speaks with a soothing and quiet voice.

We got to the university session later than normal since we just were too tired at 5:00am to hit the road. We went back to bed and both of us woke up refreshed at 9:30, so we drove for three hours to reach it. It was worth the drive. I spent the afternoon "helping out at the University Store" aka reconnecting with two friends and, as ya do, we solved all the SCA problems ever while we talked and laughed. And there was hugging - I don't often but it was so nice to see friends in person.

The next day I took a lackluster class on the history of the College of Arms in the SCA which fulfilled our requirements for annual classes and then a fabulous one on the use and significance of cotton in Abbasid Persia. Many would think that was a dry class, maybe signing up for it expecting examples of fabric decoration styles or treatments but instead it was all about who could grow and market cotton, relative costs of the fabric and its grower's social standing, its importance over other fabrics as the Muslim faith began to supersede the previous religions, and the effect of the global cooling later in the period as well as the reestablishment of preferences for silk among certain groups of people within the population that then spread out into the stricter upper class. Fascinating.

We're making plans to attend an archery competition in a couple of weeks. It's during the Atlantian coronation of our new king and queen - people I don't know at all. That is so strange to me. It turns out that there was miscommunication between the archery marshal in charge and the folks who were helping him get everything organised, so now I am committed to sewing three pilgrim's bags to use as prizes. I'm a little irked that he didn't tell us that he had not lined up someone to make the things and here it is just a little under two weeks from the event, but I've got the fabric now and tomorrow I'll start sewing them together. It shouldn't take too long. Somehow I am going to have to impress on him that asking a craftsman to make something good enough to be prizes is not a task to put off until two weeks before the prizes need to be awarded. But luckily a Laurel in the local group had just taught a class on making the bags and this morning she dropped off one complete one (golden wool lined with scarlet), two different full-sized patterns, and a lovely purple wool someone had donated for the class which had not been used. I dragged the marshal with me to the fabric store this afternoon and he purchased the rest of the necessary materials. And we found, in the remnants bin, one yard of blue suede. It is very, very "heraldic blue" and has a nice soft hand feel. There was printed canvas duck available with a traditional Turkish fabric pattern stamped on it in blue and white which will be perfect for the lining. I expect that one will be the main prize. And he bought some silly holloween/thanksgiving printed fabric to be used to make a joke prize for one of the better-known archers. They do love to razz each other. The incoming Royals are adopting a "pilgrimage" motif for their reign and have arranged to have various badges be given out to attendees at select Kingdom-hosted events. There are six and they fit together to form a map with a river (or trail, whatever) between points of interest. It is a fun idea and I think people will enjoy gathering their "pilgrimage" badges. This FB post has pictures of the badges: https://www.facebook.com/duchessadelhait/posts/pfbid023PViKbLwArWS7mJJgNCEqBbNzZ9cYNHhEk2GwmVeb21dCenpAW3jgKLUNo55ZPN4l


Not related to any of this, do you remember me complaining* about my new PCP whose mantra seemed to be "well, you're just fat and that is the source of your woes"? It seems she is no longer employed by the medical group - and it's a BIG group, covering most of the commonwealth of Virginia. One day she was there as normal and the next day a nurse called to ask who I would like to replace her with as, she explained, "the doctor has moved on to, ah, other employment opportunities." So that is that.

*Actually, I complained in a different venue. But really - I was vacillating between sticking it out to teaching her new views and kicking her to the curb and finding a different primary physician.

My sewing is going very slowly. I manage about one tunic a day since I am so out of practise and I get sore quickly. I need to sit somehow other than leaning forward on a kitchen chair every once in a while. So I'm sewing in fits and starts. But it is getting done and I am not discouraged. This time last year, or even in the past three or four years, I would have been. Guess that means that my mind-altering-drug is helping. Currently I am taking 12.5mg of Amitriptyline, which requires me to cut the sucker in half with one of those finicky pill slicers. After a chat with my prescriber, I'll switch to cutting a 10mg pill in half instead and take it with a whole pill so I can step up to 15mg daily... we're trying to find an effective dose that doesn't trigger the excessive tremors or heart arrythmias that the 25mg dose did. The current dose does reduce the nightlyv muscle cramps that were making sleeping so difficult but it isn't quite enough to fully banish them. We'll see if the minute change makes any difference. It is obvious that with better and deeper sleep my mood is vastly improved. It is nice to not feel like I am under a cloud all the time.

Typing this is my break from sewing. Yesterday's finished tunic got dyed in our washing machine overnight. Urg. This is the first time I've ended up with dye splashed all over the inside of the lid. And it is very red. I used Rit dye (don't tsk, I'm not a dyer!) and bought two colors; pink and scarlet. Originally, I was just going to use the pink since this was supposed to be an undertunic and a light pink would be unexceptionable, but the linen is really too heavy to be an under tunic so I grabbed a bottle of scarlet to mix in with the pink. It came out a slightly dusky rose color. I like it. Maybe after Pennsic I'll add some trim to it. I might have trim on the mind right now. I just added trim to the hem and cuffs of today's undertunic for myself. The tunic is specifically to be worn under a Middle Eastern (more Persian than Ottoman) coat so the hem might be visible if the coat flairs when I walk. The sleeve ends will be visible and are likely incorrect for period, but I got carried away after doing the hem. I have one more undertunic to sew and then, thank the Gods, I'll be done with the off-white batch of tunics and can get started on my spouse's new surcotes. There are two of those. The length of my available trim will decide if they are going to be slit up the sided or only up the front/back... I have learned to add trim to the henm edges of all of his surcotes in order to cross it over the top of each slit or he will, sure enough, rip them. Standard reinforcement doesn't hold up but a nice strong machine-made trim stitched over the top of each slit has kept them whole. After his surcotes are done I have 13th century one cut out for myself. It is an indulgence and my reward for finishing all my Pennsic sewing projects.

My sewing deadline is Wednesday morning. (I've been waking up at five in the evening and staying awake until the following day.) I have to start filling containers and staging them for our packing-up next weekend. We are both so out of shape that packing is going to take us a longer time than ever before, most of the weekend, probably, even with the help of a couple of friends. But we're aware, so have been pre-packing many things over the last few weeks. And I have an "ad" up on Facebook's "minions and maids" group asking for paid help on the last weekend as we pack out. Mostly it would be help loading the truck - I'll have everything in their containers before then, but we anticipate that our campmates will do what they normally do and block our pavilion in with their vehicles before Friday night, so we will end up parking across the road and carrying everything back and forth. I'm bringing a little fold-down dolly to help with that but it is an office one. I just saw that Harbor Freight and Lowe's have bigger folding ones that carry 330 pounds. Now that would be useful! I am not strong enough to carry much weight but I can pull a danged cart. And I know that my hubby would appreciate not having to cart as much back and forth either. I mean, he's got shoulders to die for but he is 70 years old now and we will have been camping for three weeks by then.

We tried to go camping this weekend. We planned for it, packed for it, got sidetracked one day thanks to a tornado watch, and finally arrived at 8am on Saturday, complete with a rented scooter for me to use... set up was a mess. The area mapped out for camping had turned into a horrible bog. It was a farming field that they used for growing corn. The site is a "farm venue" - they have goats and ducks, horses, a farmer's market out front. The owner is a guy about our age who visited around on his golf cart, greeting people and introducing us all to the white duck that had somehow adopted him. The duck's name is "Peter". They have huge shelters on site which they rent out for weddings and festivals, and they plant corn for the October Halloween season and run a haunted house there. It is a nice site and I hope the barony that rented it continues to do so but the gully-washer of rain on Friday so soaked the ground that the unharvested stalks and ears of corn were completely buried in the mud. You could see ears of Indian Corn buried in the ground we walked on. That worked out for those of us camping there - the ground was now relatively flat rather than hillocked. Our camping group was unable to reach our original spot thanks to so much sucking muck so we were placed in a new spot on higher ground. (The land agent took pity on me and my electric cart, I think. It couldn't possible be because I introduced him to Lego addiction.)

There was a couple set up next to where our camping "spot" (a very flexibly-shaped spot depending on who else was arriving to try to set up too) was and they came over to help us get situated, bless them. In the course of the day as we struggled to get everything arranged after positional changes, renegotiations, and confusion, one thing became painfully clear. We are not campers any longer. It took forever-long to get things set up. I was incapable of helping for more than ten minutes without becoming winded. My condition alarmed those around me even though they kindly did not remark on it. My hubby was working as if the air was comprised of molasses, he was just so tired and sore after the labor of loading the truck at home that he could barely move.

In the end, we got everyone set up except for ourselves. We decided to switch to day-tripping the event. Our pavilion went up to be a common gathering area and group kitchen. We visited, ate dinner, enjoyed conversation, and then Arni and I drove home. The trip is a little under two hours long - not bad, really. We were up again early on Sunday and hit Wegman's to purchase more beer for our in-camp buddies. Arni never got around to shooting any archery. He was too sore and tired to try. But he helped out at the field as a marshal and gopher and enjoyed visiting with friends. I did much the same in our camp spot after ascertaining that the cart was not powerful enough to drive through the muddy areas. On Sunday afternoon our campmates informed us that we were not to be returning on Monday morning to work on pack-out. They had already planned to help us load the chairs and tables and other equipment into our truck on Sunday night and would bring our lantern, pavilion, and any leftover beer to us after they packed up the camp themselves. We were amused that they'd done all that planning behind our backs. And I really appreciated it. Instead of getting up at 5am this morning I slept in until 10:30. Arni actually slept until noon. He really was exhausted. This afternoon we unloaded what was in the truck, washed the scooter I barely used (poor scooter - soggy farmland was not what it wanted to be on!) and we took it back, then greeted Arni's protégée who had returned from the event with our stuff. It wasn't until he was gone again that we opened our third cooler (TWO were full of beverages!) and learned that the camp had left one bottle of each beer type for Arni to enjoy at home. And they iced it down again in case he wanted them today.

Our helpful camp neighbors are new to the area, having come here from the kingdom of An Tir. It was lovely to learn that we had mutual friends - heralds, as a matter of fact. It was double-lovely to meet people who came from "home". We talked of Pacific Northwest things for a bit.

I painted a target for the archery shoot. It was 24x36" and was more of a lesson than a project. It'll be easier to try again later. I even want to make some more of them now that I know I can make the target overs without waiting on the target backs to be formed. It came back with Arni's protégée since it didn't have so many holes in it to be unusable for practise. There was a serious hunk of cardboard backing forming the body.

The realization that camping is too exhausting for me is hitting hard. Some of the effect I may be able to mitigate by getting up off my duff and becoming more physically active but the wear and tear on joints and muscles went deep and I fear that pain is going to be a constant whenever we are living out of doors. I think I should budget for a hotel room and a two-day packing process for us for Pennsic so it doesn't overtax us more than we can handle.

Our local friends who I introduced to the joys of boil-a-bag meals are converts. They'll be getting a FoodSaver sealer this week. She's making all sorts of plans for what she can use it for beyond just prepping for events.

We're going SCA camping at the end of the month. I am feeling trepidatious about it. Over the years of covid isolation I've grown physically weak. In fact, we're renting an electric cart for the weekend so I can reach point B from point A at the campground. And yet we're going to set up a canvas pavilion and live in it for three days... it is the process of set-up and tear-down which worries me. Too much will depend on my husband's strength. And his temper, which always runs high during such process. I will be doing the cooking and cleaning, of course, for at least us and maybe two others. I think one night's meal is going to be sausages. :) I mean, we will be bringing that lovely fire pit/grill with us.

I am camp master for our little group of archers who do not wish to camp with their local groups. There won't be more than ten of us. Right now there's only six but we're holding room in case someone else would like to join us. In many ways it is something to look forward to - sitting around the fire pit (Dragonwing fire pit http://dragonwing.biz/firepit.htm ) with friends and just relaxing. During the day I expect I'll be hanging out near the archery field working on my needlework and keeping a side board filled up, and nagging friends to hydrate, eat something, and to use sunscreen. We have a modern sunshade in glorious Great Dark Horde colors (red and black) with a raised central bit that helps vent out hot air. It's small, only 11x11, but it'll do by the field.

The event site is a new one for SCA camping and I've never been there before. It is a farm but appears to be one developed for hosting venues as well as growing fruits and veggies. There is an electric outlet set aside for recharging my cart.

We have friends who will be camping with us who have never done long-term camping but who are planning on attending Pennsic. This will be their shake-down event. Part of the reason I am going is to help them think through what they will need and to sort out packing requirements.

Before the event I have to make two simple undertunics for a friend, maybe something new of my spouse and I, and my very first attempt at making an archery target. It is supposed to be two foot by three and have an Amazon's belt painted on it. I've found a couple of lovely Scythian medallions to use as decorations on the belt. Thank goodness the irfanview or paint program can take a photo and render it as a line drawing so I can have an easy starting point for the artwork. I can use a transfer grid with the best of them, I can. In a sad side note, the artifacts are two of the ones that the Russian army stole from the Ukrainian museum and will likely never be returned or maybe even seen again. Bastards.

This is going to be scatter-shot. I haven't been on Dreamwidth, or even my computer, in a few weeks and I want to write something before I go to my reading page to catch up with how everyone has been doing.

I like to eat pre-packaged salads*. There was a new variety at our local store, an apple/walnut/chicken one with an onion vinaigrette dressing. I shall be keeping an eye out for it from now on - it was delicious! This time of year ushers in the desire for salads as meals.

Someone posted a picture of a lovely embroidered pillbox-type hat to be used as part of her Ottoman era costume and I learned that it was actually a kippah and available on Amazon. So I bought one. YAY! A period-correct head covering (just needs a veil) for my Ottoman garb with no sewing involved! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZCFR1IM?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Do you remember when I posted about being told that my "SCA superpower" was "to make someone feel really bad about f*cking up without cursing or raising my voice" (https://stitchwhich.dreamwidth.org/477763.html?nc=3#comments)? I was distrait about it...

A few days ago during a gathering where we were joking about our best skills and I mentioned that to her, that I was mean, at least in her eyes. She was surprised that I took her comment that way. And yet, agreed. See, all those times I had to talk to her about the repercussions of her actions within the Society, she didn't really listen to what I was trying to teach her, or to help her gain understanding about, or my suggestions about how to rectify a situation she'd created. What she heard was that I didn't value her and was wasting no time to tell her so. She wanted my approval. She didn't give a dang about growing more knowledgeable, or proficient, or even more compassionate. She just wanted this stand-in mother to smile on her and tell her that everything she did was something I would be proud of, no matter what it was.

I understand now. And further, I understand why, after she fell in love and married, she ended the Peer/protégée relationship we had. It was never about the SCA for her. She wanted someone she respected to tell her that she was important and deserved to be loved. I regret that she never heard me when I gave her praise or cheered her on but I don't ache over it any more. In terms of "being a Peer", this was a sharp lesson.


*Having pre-packaged foods eliminates the requirement that I weigh and measure each ingredient I combine to make a meal. Sometimes when I am weary that is the difference between me eating or skipping a meal. Unfortunately with the sleep deprivation I am tired most of the time. Then again, I am also recently feeling better and more energetic thanks to a reduction in resting-time pain. I went out on a limb and have been sporadically taking 20mg of over-the-counter CBD before bedtime. It does reduce the rigid muscle cramping in my legs and on top of that has a side benefit of making me a little more "mellow" about being unable to sleep, so I rest better even though I am not actually sleeping, not spinning up emotionally as the hours pass while I am awake. If that makes sense. After a little more trial time I will consider asking my doctor about changing how we address the nighttime leg cramping and pain. Right now I am not taking the CBD every day - I don't know enough about the effects of long term use so am being careful to take it only occasionally. (How bad is the leg cramping? A few mornings ago I asked my husband to feel the muscle on my upper thigh. Sort of one of those "see I'm not crazy, this is weird, right?" kind of instances. He thought he was touching my hip bone. This is not a simple case of restless leg syndrome or diabetic neuropathy. It is too bad there isn't a specialist in our area who'd recognise this and know how to alleviate it. I can't be the only person who experiences this.)

Today was one of those days... It started out nicely, as I'd gone two whole days with eight(ish) hours of sleep and woke up refreshed each morning. These instances are rare and I really enjoy those days. Bossman left the car at home so I had wheels for the day (I could take his truck any other time but I hate driving that behemoth. Except to and from camping trips when it is worth its weight in gold) so I did chores after breakfast and left the house after the three-hour window of time called "the lunch hour" so I could hit up the base pharmacy for my prescriptions and then run all sorts of errands, as the mood should strike.

Well. About that. There was a line waiting to enter the pharmacy. That was new. I spent 20 minutes in that line and then got in, did the computer check-in thingy which generates an assigned letter category & waiting number on a slip of paper. It is all sorted out; "E" patients are folks who are picking up new prescriptions, which is a two-step time wasting process, "C" people are there to get called-in renewals (those get taken care of very quickly), and "D" folks are active-duty personnel who have their own category for head of the line privileges. Ther are a couple other categories but those are rare. For this visit, I was an "E" patient. I had waited in the "E" line last week to drop off a paper copy of a new prescription and was told that it would be ready in three working days (that is normal), so returned today to get it and to "activate" a second script. That one had been sent electronically to the pharmacy but like all new ones would not be filled until I personally showed up and requested activation for it. And then I'd have to wait three business days before I could go back to get it*. Yes, this is a stupid system. So windows 1-3 are the first stop for any "E" person once their ticket number is called for the first time. There our ID is checked again, our ticket number confirmed, our age double-checked, and the prescription is confirmed to exist in the pharmacy's system and has been approved by the military medical insurance. When all of that is done, we go back into the waiting area before we can be called to one of the windows 5-7. (#4 is only for "D" paper holders). So my afternoon was:
Drive to the base and show my military ID card to the guard at the gate. Stick it in my shirt pocket because why bother putting it back in my wallet?
Wait 20 minutes for a parking space to clear.
Don a mask, grab my folding stool from the back of the car, and get in the outside line headed by a guard.
Show my ID and confirm that I have not travelled out of area or had/been exposed to any Covid risks.
Enter the pharmacy and stand in line to use the check-in computer.
Use the computer to scan my ID and sort my customer category, get the dreaded "E" slip, and find a place to set up my folding stool since all chairs were full.
Wait 58 minutes before being called to window #2. Go through all the confirmation steps and get sent back to the waiting area. (I've used my ID four times by now.)
Inside the building there is a jammer for phone signals but free (and intermittent) internet. There are just too many people using it.
I wished I had brought my book. Solitaire games on my phone were getting boring.
One hour and five minutes later my number was called for the second time.
Walked to window #5, showed my ID, confirmed my name and birthdate, got told that while my toothpaste prescription was in the computer, the actual tubes could not be found, and there was a problem with the second prescription as it was for "lotion" rather than "cream", which they should have caught at window #2, and as the lotion was not in the military system the clinic would have to send a new script. But hey! The clerk actually said she'd call the clinic and explain it to them and get a replacement prescription sent in. I got the impression that I was going to get the second prescription that day - weird but fabulous! So I waited at that window.
20 minutes later I walked out with both prescriptions after showing my slip of paper and ID card again and signing two signature pads.
Total time: 183 minutes.

Yes, three hours for a package of cream and some souped-up toothpaste. The process is the same for any medication. The good part is that there are no costs to me as a dependent of a retired military service person (that was in our military contracts back in the days when my spouse and I were active-duty.) No co-pay for prescriptions is a fabulous benefit when one is getting old and body parts don't work as well as they once did. But geez, did it blow my day. By the time I'd fought my way through the traffic to get off base (afternoon rush hour) and put gas in the car it was already time for an early dinner. Or in my case, for a late lunch. Which I bought via a drive through and brought home. Fish and chips for the win.

My husband worked a long day today and we got home at the same time, both of us frustrated with rude people we'd encountered in person or on the road. I think folks in the area went a little crazy because the weather was so very mild (65 degrees f) and sunny - everyone was out, it seemed, and yet in a self-focused bubble so just were not aware of who, or what, was near them. or in front of them. Or beside them. Or taking up the space they decided they needed to be in... I eschewed any further errands and came home to cower in safe solitude.

*And even more fun, the military pharmacy system only allows for 90 days' worth of any prescription, many of which will be dispensed in 30-day amounts, so you must call and activate a refill every month separately for each prescription. Every three months, your physician will have to send in a prescription for the same medications, which will then be "new", and you will have to do the E-category activate/wait three days/pick up thing all over again. The two months when we are "C" patients are golden. We're usually in and out in 15 minutes.

So how was your day?

We finally got out holiday tree and wreath up. I like the door wreath. I designed it many years ago but it still looks fresh and welcoming so I haven't been inspired to change out the decorations on it. It's simple, just red ribbons and a string of red wooden beads wrapped around the wreath with three largish gold stars hanging off of it and a few bells descending from ribbons at the bottom. I'll probably get tired of it before we change locales. Maybe.

The tree is an artificial one, six feet tall. We don't like killing a live tree just for our decorating purposes, even when they are farmed specifically for that purpose. It's currently bare of everything but multicolored lights (those came already installed on the tree). Tomorrow will be decorating day. I bought five new ornaments for it this year, four of which are from Lego company. The fifth is a delicate little bronze colored glass bird holding on to a small tree branch. I like it and hope it will be something one of our sons will want to keep when we are gone.

I'm typing this on my new computer's keyboard. I love this keyboard! It is so much smaller than the one on my laptop and it is close to the edge of the desk so my wrists aren't stretched across a wide case in order to reach the keys. And it is ridiculously thin. No wrist support is needed since it is so close to the level of the desk's top. I watched a bit of a movie online so now I have an idea of what the sound system is like. I'll have to turn the thing around to find where I can plug in my headset for when I don't want to disturb the rest of the house.

You may have read part of this (below) on Facebook. I'm mostly posting it here to have a record of it for myself.

I scared myself last night. Woke up after being asleep for a couple of hours and felt like I wanted to eat something. This isn't unusual for me. I often crave a snack in the middle of the night, especially if I can't get back to sleep. Eating seems to make me sleepy so it is a habit. But I laid there reminding myself that midnight munching is a bad, bad habit, and I shouldn't give in just because the idea seems appealing. I should roll over and try to go back to sleep. While thinking that I started to feel a little weird, kinda weak & trembly. I thought "I just ate a while ago. Beef hot dogs. Protein. What the heck?" So I decided to get up and go into the kitchen where my glucose meter is stored to use it and show myself that I didn't really need anything. In the twenty seconds or so that it took for that walk, I began to tremble in earnest, shaking so badly that I had trouble staying upright or controlling my hand motion enough to turn on the kitchen light and then use the glucometer. My blood glucose level was 43. It has been that low before. In fact, it had been that low just the night before. This time, though, I was sure I was going to shake myself out of the chair I'd collapsed onto, I was so weak and the shaking so strong. I couldn't keep myself upright and so laid my chest across the table as far as I could. Weeping, shaking, confused... it felt as if my backbone was knocking against the table's edge. I couldn't stop the tears from coursing down my face. I couldn't think. I yelled for my husband but wasn't able to form his name, just sort of loudly gurgled it. Screamed it as best I could.

By the time he woke up and made it into the kitchen I'd lost the ability to form words even in my thoughts. He was asking me what was wrong, and I couldn't answer. I couldn't really even think but knew I needed to respond if he was going to be able to help me. I finally thought of my logbook & pounded on the new entry showing the glucose level. He saw out that my sugar level was low but wasn't sure what to do, which panicked me even more, and at last I remembered we had orange juice in the fridge. I was able to make noises that sounded enough like "orange juice" that he figured it out and poured a glass for me, so I drank that with both hands holding the glass while he steadied the bottom of it so I could get it to my mouth. I had trouble realising that I needed to tilt my head back in order to get the liquid in my mouth. It helped enough that I could articulate a bit and told him I had raisins by the bed, which he fetched (thank goodness for lunch pack boxes!). I ate an ounce of raisins, then one of cheddar cheese, and finally started to calm down and find my brain again. Finally the violent shaking subsided into trembling and then a mild tremor. After a while I felt strong enough to walk back to bed and safe enough to be able to try to sleep. I'd taken in 76g of carbohydrates, almost half of what I should have in a single day, so my mind said it had to be enough to ensure that I wouldn't have a problem with low readings again until morning. Throughout today I've binged carbs. I should not - it isn't the best way to handle this - but the drive to guarantee that I won't lose consciousness is overwhelming.

Adjusting one's levels of insulin is a balancing act and times like these will happen now that I am using injected insulin, but what was so frightening was how fast it went down. One minute I was thinking I felt a little "off" like one might expect to after taking pain drugs (I had taken hydrocodone for my toothache) and almost the next minute I had lost control of my body and my functioning mind. I had always thought a drop in glucose levels would be a somewhat gradual thing over a period of time; ten or fifteen minutes, maybe longer. Having it happen within seconds was terrifying. What if I had been driving? A friend who is a Paramedic and healthcare navigator for her remote rural community pm'd me today and explained it this way, "You describe textbook symptoms of critical hypoglycemia. Your brain was literally starving. One of the reasons your status changed so quickly is because you had to get up and go to the kitchen. Walking, thinking, breathing require you to burn up the glucose in your system for energy to do those things and you depleted what was available when you left your bed." I appreciated her explanation. Nothing about situations like that was said to me in my diabetic care classes or by the endocrinologist.

I'm taking steps on my own to try to forgo a revisiting of this. I am reducing the amount of long-term insulin I use each night, at least until my endocrinologist replies to the message I sent him. Thank goodness for our healthcare system which allows me to contact the doctors in the system via direct message. And I am going to order the (probably sickly sweet) glucose pack called "Transend", which will deliver 15g of glucose almost instantaneously. And later today when offices are open I will contact the Dexcom (a glucose meter you wear on your body) dealer who has my prescription and see if they can fill it once I give them my Medicare information. They could not when I was on the military's Tricare insurance, which is why I had to go fetch my glucometer. So hopefully that will get straightened out and I will have instant readings... had I had that, I would not have left my bed but would have reached for the raisins instead.

I just put shredded pork and a package of pork drippings (the liquid remains from our slow cooker) in the freezer. I've been promising myself for a week that I'd turn it into lumpia but one thing and then another delayed me and today, after waking up yet again with a throbbing headache, I decided I'd better safeguard my fixings by freezing them. The drippings are going to be substituted for the water I use to make the rice for the filling. It'll either work or be a disaster. Poor me, I'll have to taste the rice before it gets mixed in with the rest of the filling.

I don't know how long it takes for the internal part of an eye to change its pressure after a diabetic gets their blood sugar down to a safe level but I hope it isn't too long. I need new glasses. I'm fairly certain that eyestrain is the major contributor to my daily headaches but it is still too soon after the endocrinologist's appointment for me to get my vision checked. Uncontrolled high glucose levels increase the internal pressure in the eye and distort vision. My levels are dropping now and stabilizing so it shouldn't be too long before I can make a vision appointment. Since I'm wearing trifocals my glasses are expensive even with the great insurance we have so I'm trying to be patient and play the waiting game.

I bought a fez a few days ago. It's large for my head, which is a good thing as it will sit low to be the base for an Ottoman Turkish headcover. I'll have to remove the (sewn on!) tassel and then do some sort of decorative work on it before adding a veil or else I'll risk being mistaken for a really strange Shriner. I'm looking forward to the project. I only have two Turkish coats and one undertunic - and that tunic has got to go! It is a heavily woven cotton and doesn't breath worth a darn. I think I could sew it into a sack and it'd carry water. But it worked for the quicky purpose I needed it for and I don't regret making it. I would regret not replacing it with something better. I am torn between using some of my already-purchased cotton (or maybe there's some linen) muslin or leveling up to buy a really thin almost-transparent linen, which would be more correct-to-period. It'd be nice to reduce my fabric stash a bit more but since I'll be wearing this next Pennsic in the summer heat, linen appeals. And at some point I'm going to make one or two more outfits. I like wearing Turkish garb.