Weekly Ephemera #174

These 'weekly' posts are starting to be more like 'weakly' posts.

• While it's still cool here, I started preparing things for summer.  Our AC has been inspected and is ready to go.  I also tackled a leaky toilet.
• On the television front I finished "The Repair Shop".  I checked to see if there were more seasons and discovered that the host of the show is fighting rape charges so ... not sure there will be any more.
  
  After finishing "The Repair Shop" I watched a bunch of crappy Sci-Fi/mystery anthology series from the 1950s through the 1990s.  Frankly, the earlier stuff is better produced than the newer stuff.  I fall back to anthologies when I don't want to have to think too hard while watching television.
• I walked on and off since my last Weekly Ephemera post.  I walked seven times totalling 50.3 miles (81.0 km).
• May is starting to look like a busy month for the Wife and I.  
• We have a Hot Shops open house next Saturday.  It's been a few years since we've gone to one.
• Before mid-month I have to schedule my semi-annual blood draw.  It will be interesting to see if my A1C has gone down.
• We will be attending the confirmation of three of the Wife's cousins in Minneapolis.
• During Memorial Day weekend we will probably go to Brownville, NE for their semi-annual flea market.  Brownville is a nice little, Missouri river town with lots of history.  It's been a while since we've gone to one of these too.

Weekly Ephemera #165

• I walked three times this week.  The first one was ... interesting.  This is what happened:
  

  I was walking in a middle-class area in Omaha called Benson.  I noticed three boys, sixteen to eighteen years of age (not sure) at a corner.  One of them flagged me down.  Now, I often get asked for the time or someone asks for cigarettes or a light, so this wasn't unusual.  What he asked was unusual.
  
  Boy: Can I ask how old are you?
  Me: Why do you want to know?
  Boy: Are you forty-five plus?
  Me: Why do you want to know?
  Boy: I hear when old people think too hard the blood drains from their d!cks and they go floppy.
  
  Ok, The kid is being an asshole for his buddies.  I give one of my standard answers to assholes:  God Bless, Jesus loves you, or 
  
  Me: I'm happy for you.
  Boy keeps on talking about flippity-floppity d!cks, not getting it up, and stuff.
  
  He's sort of blocking my way though I could easily have gotten around him but instead I said:
  
  Me: So, do you sit around thinking about my d!ck all day?
  
  He kinda moved out of my way and I walked away hearing him ranting at me. I didn't really hear what he said but He did say M*therf*cker and fa**ot.  They didn't follow me.
  
  I'm not sure if I handled that the right way.  My last statement did confuse him a bit.  I think he saw me as an easy mark and me throwing it back at him kind of stopped him in his tracks.  I'm sure his 'friends' were having a chuckle, too.
  
  All I can say is, I'm happy it ended well.  Omaha has had its share of shootings and stabbings.  It could have ended much differently.

  For the week, I walked three times for a total of 21.7 miles (34.9 km).  The second two walks were uneventful.
• On Tuesday our garage door spring broke.  Fortunately we had it fixed by the end of the day.
• I put up the big balls in the oak tree on Tuesday.  On Wednesday, we had a big wind come through.  I was finding big balls over a block away from our house.  I didn't find all of them either, though I did find one that wasn't ours, so I think I broke even.

Weekly Ephemera #160

• On Tuesday the Wife power washed the deck.  This is usually my job but she insisted on doing it.  She did a better job than I've done in the past, which may explain why she wanted to do it.
• We finally, after over five years, buried Iago's ashes in the garden next to Homer.
• I washed my car for the first time in forever.  It still looks dirty.  I think I just washed off the first two layers of dirt and left two or three on the car.
• I walked three times this week totalling 22.6 miles (36.4 km).  I am happy with this distance and my blood pressure, which has been high since we returned from our travels, is back down to my 'normal' range.

Weekly Ephemera #158

We've been traveling for the last three weeks.  We got home on Thursday night and both of us are a bit out of sync with the world around us.  I'm guessing it will take a few days for our sleep/wake cycles to return to normal.

Because of this, not much happened at home this week.  I did bring in the patio furniture and spread winterizer on the lawn in preparation for winter, but both things nearly wiped me out for the whole day.

Hopefully there will be more to write about next weekend.

P.S.  I will write about our travels over the next few weeks.  The trip was great and we saw some cool stuff.

Weekly Ephemera #156

• This week's highlights were visits from family and friends.  On Tuesday the MoH and BM dropped by on the way to their vacation.  We spent the evening digesting the superb steak dinner the Wife prepared while engaging in spirited conversation.  It is fair to say that none of the world's problems were solved.  Our guests treated us to breakfast the next day before they traveled on.
  
  Today, the Wife's best friend since high school is visiting.  Craziness will ensue.
• The HVAC guy came by this week and checked out our furnace.  Except for a dirty temperature sensor, everything is in good order.  We are now ready for the winter, though the weather for the next ten days or so is more summer-like than fall-like.
• This week I will be turning off our sprinkler system.  They will be blowing out the system in a week or so while we are traveling.  Potted plants and patio furniture will be brought in and the deck will be power washed.  Everything will be ready for winter when we leave.
• I did not walk this week and I will not walk next week.  I'm taking a break from walking until we return from our travels.
• I haven't really watched anything good on television.  But, I did watch some "Alfred Hitchcock Presents".  It's some easy background noise and it's fun seeing some of the old actors when they were young and new.  The writing is a bit hit and miss but my favorite part is Hitchcock introducing commercial and station identification breaks.  It is obvious he is not fond of the breaks interrupting his storytelling.  (For those who do not know, Station identification breaks allowed stations to let you know what station you were watching.  You don't see them much today because of the invention of the station's logo bug in the corner of the screen.)
• We are both getting ready for our trip.  We will be leaving on Thursday.  I hope the tropical storms off the coast of Georgia are gone by then, since our flight to Athens is through Atlanta.

Weekly Ephemera #143

A fairly slow week  for us.

• We had a roofer back on our roof repairing/replacing a couple of turbine vents that were making squeaky noises when it was really windy – which it has been lately.
• I walked three times this week for a total of 25.5 miles (41.0 km).  On one of my walks downtown, I bought a magnet at a store specializing in Omaha/Nebraska memorabilia.

  

  Warren Buffet, the Oracle of Omaha, in magnet form.

• I finished watching "Andor" and decided to rewatch "Rogue One" since it's pretty much Andor season 3.  Really liked Andor and Rogue One is one of my favorite Star Wars movies.
• One of the Wife's friends spent the weekend.  We ate a huge brunch, while laughing, at Louie M's before she headed back home.
• Our next trip, the completion of the Wife's Camino is approaching rapidly.  More on that later this week.

Weekly Ephemera #142

• The Homer's Travels' week was all about the Pope.   Cardinal Prevost was on the Wife's shortlist but, like everyone else in the world, thought he was a long shot.  When he became Pope, the Wife was over the moon.  Not being religious myself, even I was moved by how happy everyone seems to be.  I wish him well.
• I planted a few plants in my corner of the backyard.  Several of the ones I've planted over the past couple of years have come back up again but I have a few holes where some didn't make it.  I'm still maybe four or five plants away from filling the space under the fir tree.  We saw a couple rabbits in the backyard so keeping my fingers crossed they will leave them alone.
• I walked three times this week totaling 26.2 miles (42.1 km).  It's starting to warm up, suggesting a hot summer is coming.  This coming week will see temps approaching 90℉ (32℃), so I will be sweating a lot, I think.
• I went to see the latest Marvel movie, "Thunderbolts".  I enjoyed it.  This movie and the last Captain America movie earlier this year have been lower-key and remind me of the earlier Marvel movies.  Sometimes you have to get back to the basics.

Weekly Ephemera #140

I hope everyone had a happy Easter.  We spent the day at the Wife's niece's place with family.

• I put up the new magnet display.  I will talk more about it later this week in another post.
• It's been a dry winter and early spring, so we turned on the sprinklers earlier than in the past.  I also spread weed and feed a month earlier than I normally do.
• On Wednesday our roofers came in and repaired the hail damage from last summer.  A screen guy came by to take three of our window screens to repair the tears.  New gutters were put in on Friday.  The only thing we are waiting on is the window wrap repairs which will probably happen sometime in the next two weeks.
  
  We watched as bad weather and hail blew through the next day. Fortunately we only got rain and wind.  North of us saw softball sized hail stones.  Dodged a bullet there.
• Our air conditioner was inspected on Thursday as well.  Everything checked out.  The day before, the roofers had noted that the chimney for the furnace and water heater was severely corroded.  Our HVAC people will likely have to replace it.  We are waiting for an estimator to come by.
• On Thursday I had a follow up ultrasound of my kidney.  Everything looked good (yay).
• I hiked once this week.  On Monday, I didn't feel like walking, so I worked on the magnet wall. Friday was cold and windy, so I skipped my walk to finish the magnet wall.  My one walk was 8.6 miles (13.9 km).  I probably needed to rest my legs a bit but next week I need to get back at it.
• I finished "Daredevil: Born Again".  I liked it.  It was a more low key Marvel show with more intrigue and less fighting.  I also watched "A Quiet Place: Day One".  I liked the original two movies and I enjoyed this one as well.  It sketched in a few plot points left blank by the other movies.
• I started planning out the stages for the Wife's Camino.  It may take us longer to finish than I expected.  I planned out shorter stages which lets us hit more interesting places but adds to the length of the walk.  These plans, naturally, will be subject to change.  Fortunately I paid a little extra for airline tickets that can be changed.

Weekly Ephemera #139

• This week we had our sprinkler service turn on/adjust our in-ground automatic sprinkler system.  Normally I would just turn it on myself but there were a few sprinkler heads that I wasn't sure how to adjust.  Watching the technician I realized I could have done it myself.  This was the first and last time I will pay someone to adjust my sprinkler system.  They charged way too much – over double what the service was worth in my opinion.  Another expensive lesson learned.
• Spring is solidly here.  The AC has been turned on and probably will stay on until the fall.  This week we will have it inspected to make sure everything is working properly.
• We received some sheet metal that will become our new travel magnet display.  The metal will cover part of a basement wall in the She-Shed.   We will have another thirty-six square feet of display space soon.  Not sure exactly when as I have been in a major procrastination mode lately.  I'm going to try to get it done sometimes this week.  It really shouldn't take much time to put up, but my brain is still dreading it.  Heck, I still haven't photographed our magnets from our Great Britain trip last September.  I am a master procrastinator.
• I walked three times this week for a total of 26.4 miles (42.5 km).  Each time I walk I go a different route.  I think I've done most of my longer routes so this week I'll have to start repeating.
• We started watching the final season of "The Handmaid's Tale".  That show hits too close to home.  We are balancing that out by watching the latest season of "The Great American Baking Show".

Weekly Ephemera #119

• I power washed the deck and spread winterizer on the lawn this week finishing the winter prep.  It was cold and windy when I washed the deck and I did a half-ass job on it, especially on the underside of the deck.
• An insurance field adjuster came this week and did a second inspection of the hail damage we got back in July.  He caught everything the first adjuster had missed and what we had asked for from the insurance company.  This is the same damage the desk adjuster, after looking at pictures, said she didn't see.  Not sure what was going on with the desk adjuster.  There was a heated discussion between the adjuster and my roofer.  Fortunately they smoothed it all out and shook hands at the end of the inspection.  The second field adjuster handed us a check covering the missed damage which made the Wife and I very happy.  The actual repairs will probably be done next spring once it starts warming up again.
• I deleted my Xitter account this week.  Since it seems I have to have at least three social network accounts at any one time I also opened a Bluesky account (@homerstravels.bsky.social).  I now have accounts on Discord, Mastodon, and Bluesky.  Most of the people I have been following on Mastodon also have Bluesky accounts.  While I don't really need Mastodon I'm probably going to keep it since I like to have a non-corporate run, multi server social network as a backup.
  
  I also switched from the free service IFTTT.com to the paid service dlvr.it to distribute my posts.  It is a little expensive ($99 per year) but it will post my blog posts to all three of my social media platforms and it does it in a nicer format than IFTTT could provide.
• I hiked two times this week.  We are in that rainy, windy, and cold period before the snow has arrived when walking is hard to do.  I was going to walk three times but an all day cold and windy rain kept me indoors for part of the week.  I walked a total of 25.3 miles (40.8 km) this week.  The second walk was over 15 miles (24 km) and was my longest walk since November 2022.  It nearly killed my legs.
  
  On that long walk my phone died.  The phone got stuck in some sort of loop.  By a strange coincidence I was only a couple blocks from my cell phone store and they were able to revive it. Phew!
• I spent some of the rainy days watching more episodes of "One Piece".  The Paul-Tyson fight resulted in us subscribing to Netflix a couple weeks earlier than I'd planned.  I will now start binging a few shows there this week.

Weekly Ephemera #118

I missed last weekend's Ephemera post as we had guests staying at our house.

• The Wife's aunt and cousin flew up from Florida and visited over last weekend.  We'd stayed at the cousin's place earlier this year.  They visited with friends and family in the area.  It was a very nice visit.
• The election ... well ... we all know what happened.  It sucked.  I hate all the uncertainty it will bring in the coming months/years.
• I'd given up ever getting enough money from our insurance company to fix the hail damage on our roof.  I'd been talking with them for four months with no luck.  The Wife said it was her turn.  One call later and the insurance company is sending a second adjuster out this week to reassess the damage.  My hope has been restored.
• I walked two times this week for a total of 23.6 miles (37.9 km).  Both walks were after the election results were known and it was nice to be distracted.  Unfortunately I saw my first cybertruck out in the wild which yanked me back to reality.  Damn it was ugly.
• We cleaned all the furniture and stuff off the deck.  I'll be power washing the deck to get it ready for winter.

Weekly Ephemera #116

This Weekly Ephemera post is coming out a day early as I will be busy on Sunday.

• I wrestled with our insurance company about our hail damage claim from July.  They still need to pay us for some of the damage and they are being less than responsive.  Very frustrating.
• We went out and bought a new bed for the guest room.  After some minor grilling of our British friends we discovered that the bed is terrible.  The Wife's experience sleeping on it when I had COVID was the nail in the coffin of the old bed.  This new mattress should be a bit more comfortable.  We would like to apologize to everyone who has ever slept on our guest bed and I hope you all come to visit and try out the new one sometime soon.
• I walked three times this week and I pushed for longer distances.  My legs are getting used to the eight to nine mile hikes but haven't quite gotten used to the over 10 mile (16 km) ones.  That will change with time.  My total distance this week was 29.3 miles (47.1 km) - the longest weekly distance since March.
• On the TV front I finished the second season of "Rings of Power".  I enjoyed it.  I started, and caught up on, "Agatha All Along" the latest Marvel tv show.

Weekly Ephemera #114 - Post Travel Recovery

• It's been nearly forty-eight hours since we got back from our Great Britain trip and I think I'm starting to recover.  I keep waking up around 4am but that will change with time.
• Our trip was fun.  We only had a couple deviations from our original plan I listed here.  We saw and did a lot over the twenty-four days of our trip.  It was odd to be in an English speaking country for once.  I expect to start documenting our travels later this week.  I have to look at all the pictures the Wife and I took and I need to draft the posts.
• I haven't maintained my low carb diet as I traveled so the next few days will be consisting of trying to walk off some of the carbs and detoxing my diet.  I hope to continue my walking where I left off before our trip.  Fortunately we did a lot of walking on our trip including some six to eight hour walking tours and walking around several of the cities we visited.  I didn't keep track of how far we walked but there were a few days with multi-mile hikes.
• This week will be full of catch-up.  While Fall weather really hasn't kicked in yet I need to start prepping for winter.  Our furnace needs to be inspected.  Sprinklers need to be blown out.  Sadly, I am still wrangling with the insurance company about the hail damage from July and that wrangling will restart this week.  Homeowner life goes on.

Weekly Ephemera #109

A relatively quiet week with things moving in the right direction:

• Mom had Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy visits this week.  They went well.  More of the Medicaid paperwork fell into place.
• My car after being totaled, then repairable, finally settled on totaled.  I discovered that body shops will not touch a totaled car due to liability issues.  I can understand this.
  
  The Wife found me a car on Carmax that looked good.  We ordered it on Wednesday and I picked it up on Friday.  It is a 2014 Toyota Prius Four with 85K miles on the odometer.  It has more bells and whistles than my 2016 Prius - Backup camera, electric adjustable heated seats, keyless ignition.  The car is a little bit bigger than my old one - mostly longer with a bigger trunk which is nice.  The only thing I don't like are the displays.  My old car had a lot of information consolidated on one screen while the new one has the information spread across multiple screens.   I'll just have to get used to that.
  
  Tomorrow I'll register it.  The only thing left will be to wait for the insurance payout check which should come in a few days.  One of the three big things on our plate will be finished.  Yay!
  
  Also, no more sharing a car with the Wife.  That was a bit irritating for the both of us.
• Next on our plate is getting the hail damage fixed on our house.  Our contractor came by this week to take pictures so we can appeal the insurance company's damage assessment.  I expect another visit from an adjuster and a larger check.
• I walked twice this week for a total of 18.4 miles (29.6 km).  My legs are still feeling it a bit but I am happy to get out of the house and forget about the world for a few hours.  Also saw two foxes (or one fox twice ... not sure).  First time I saw a fox in our neighborhood since we moved here sixteen years ago.
• Olympics has once again dominated out television watching but that is coming to an end this weekend.  This week it's time to catch up with a few shows I've been putting off until I was in the mood.

Weekly Ephemera #108

•  Mom is back home and she seems happy.  She was released from rehab on Tuesday.  We hired a care service to come in for three hours each morning to help her get going and do chores around the house she is not capable of doing easily.
  
  Physical Therapy at home started on Thursday.  On Saturday she called me and her hip was in terrible pain.  I took he to the emergency room and, after waiting over three hours to see the doctor, it was determined that is was most likely strained muscles from the PT she had.  The hip joint looked great and there was no evidence of infection.  I think the PT guy had Mom move muscles that hadn't been moved in a long time.
• The repair of our car was delayed due to the body shop reporting more damage.  Still looks like it won't be totaled which is good.  Still, the two supplemental reports the body shop sent to our insurance adjuster delayed everything by a week so we are probably looking at the third or fourth week of August before we are back to being a two car household.  Fingers crossed.
• I actually got a walk in on Friday.  Since I hadn't walked for three weeks I kept it short at 5 miles (8 km).  I felt pretty good so I'll lengthen my walks this coming week.
• The Olympics dominated the TV again and will continue to until the closing ceremonies are over.
• Things are starting to appear normal.  We still have a ways to go until average levels of normalcy are achieved, but it does look like things are moving in a generally forward direction.

Weekly Ephemera #107

• Most of the week I spent chasing after documents needed to get Mom qualified for Medicaid.  Mom's piling system is not much better than mine.  At one point my head was buzzing so much I just laid down on the floor and stared up at the spinning fan for a while in an attempt to clear my head.  I still don't have everything but I'm getting closer.
  
  We are also spending Mom's money down on some essentials.  It's kinda sad that, to qualify for Medicaid, you have to be poor.  Our medical insurance system is a freaking disgrace.
  
  Mom had a visit with the neurosurgeon.  Everything looks great.  She no longer needs to wear the cervical collar.  The bond fire will be glorious (JK).
  
  Met with the Comfort Keepers, a home aid company, to organize someone to visit Mom to help her with tasks around the house.  We expect Mom will be returning to her home early this coming week.
  
• I called our homeowner's insurance agent to get a second adjuster out to look at our hail damage.  They want a report from our roofer before they do that.  Our roofer, not happy to be doing the insurance company's job, will be stopping by this week.
• The car insurance adjuster called and our car is officially fixable.  Yay!  I was worried it would be totaled and I would have to go car hunting.  Now it's a waiting game to see when I get my car back.
• On Friday the Deacon (formerly known as The Altar Boy) and his family stopped by on their way to a family vacation.  They were a nice distraction from all the mess we've been dealing with.
• As for what's on the boob tube, we are an all Olympics, all the time household.
• I'm hoping to go see "Deadpool & Wolverine" this week ... time willing.

Weekly Ephemera #106

OᐧMᐧG.  Seriously?!?  What a freaking week.

• The insurance adjuster came by to evaluate the hail damage to our house.  After hearing what his report said, our roofer called the adjuster "an idiot!"  This coming week either our roofer will provide proof of additional damage, or I will ask our insurance agent for a visit from a different adjuster - this time our roofer will be on the roof with them.  I was hoping for an easy process but it doesn't seem like it's going to be that simple.  More to come.
• On Thursday we were leaving Omaha to visit family in Minnesota with a side trip to the "Dignity of Earth and Sky" statue in South Dakota.  This didn't start out well.  On the way out of the city a car on my right veered into my lane.  I responded by veering to my left to avoid a collision.  This resulted in our car being hit by a semi.  After a lot of spinning, cursing, and sheer panic the car came to a rest pointing nose in at the center median barrier,  We were not hurt (we would be sore the next day or two).  We were not hit by any other cars.  Our airbags didn't even go off - our car's nose scraped the barrier but didn't actually hit it head on.
  
  The asshole who swerved into our lane was never seen again.  The truck driver stopped and asked us if we were alright.  The back driver's side door was mangled and the wheel well scraped against the tire now.  Highway patrol stopped traffic so we could limp off the freeway into a parking lot where we called a tow truck.  The car was towed to a body shop.  We took an Uber back home, got in the Wife's car, and completed our trip as planned.
  
  When I filed my insurance claim over the phone and described the condition of the car, we were told it would very likely be considered totaled.  If this is confirmed then I'll be looking for a new car this week.
• Our visit to the "Dignity of Earth and Sky" statue was in the rain but we had enough of a break in the weather to get out of the car to get good pictures.  The statue is at a South Dakota visitor's center on a bluff overlooking the Missouri river.  The view from there, despite the rain, was amazing.  The rain precluded taking any good pictures of said view though.
  
  

  

  "Dignity of Earth and Sky"

  We followed the statue visit with a visit to the Atka Lakota Museum and Cultural Center in nearby Chamberlain.  The museum is located on the Saint Joseph's Indian School campus.  The museum covered Lakota history as well as school history.  Very interesting.  To support the museum and school we dropped some money in the gift shop.
  
  

  

  The inside of the school church.

  On the way out we visited the school Church.  The lights were off when we entered and the Wife started flicking switches on and off to see if she could get the lights on.  Turns out she was turning the confessional lights on and off.  We took some low light pictures before discovering the sign in the hall pointing out the button to light the church interior.  The 'picture' behind the altar is actually beadwork.
• In Minneapolis we had a good day visiting with family, watching a cousin's baseball game, and celebrating the seventieth birthday of the Matron of Honor and Best Man.  There were a lot of people, and dogs, at the party and despite being tired (and a bit sore from the accident) I recovered as the party went on and I enjoyed the people and conversation.
• Oh yeah ... Saturday was my Birthday too.  Whoopee.  With the house, Mom, and now the car I don't really feel like celebrating my new year.  I was hoping this weekend away would help me relax and relieve some of the stress I've been living with but I returned home with more on my shoulders.

Weekly Ephemera #105

I totally forgot about my weekly post this weekend.  I have to say that my brain has become a quagmire lately and I'm lucky if the right things bubble up at the right time for me to function.  It didn't help that the news exploded on Saturday.  Here is what happened last week:

• Last Monday a roofer stopped by to evaluate the hail damage.  Despite having hail resistant shingles, our roof had significant damage.  I filed a claim with our homeowner's insurance and an insurance adjuster will be here this week to inspect the damage.
• Thursday was our twenty-seventh wedding anniversary.  We celebrated by visiting an elder care attorney, setting up durable power of attorney for my Mom, and eating delicious burgers at Stella's Bar and Grill.  The elder care attorney is putting together options for how we can fund the services Mom needs to be happy and safe.  The follow up of this meeting is scheduled for next Monday.
  
  One benefit of all this is, when Mom's situation is all settled, we will know what we need to do to prepare for our future care.
• I walked three times this week for a total of 19 miles (30.6 km).  I was going to walk today (Monday) but it felt like 88℉ (31℃) at the time I normally would have started and it was just heading up from there.  The humidity is a bit stifling to say the least.  Fortunately temperatures are supposed to moderate after today.
• We caught up to the current episode of "Alone".  We are still catching up with "Alone: Australia" and discovered today that there is an "Alone: UK".   We should be totally caught up this week.
  
• At the end of this week the Wife and I are going to Minneapolis to celebrate birthdays.  I think I need the break from reality.  Next week's Ephemera post will likely be late as well.

Weekly Ephemera #102

This week has been an exhaustive one though, to be honest, I'm not sure why.  Here was the week that was:

• The dominant theme this week was my Mom's spinal surgery and the beginning of her recovery.  The surgery went without a hitch.  Mom was a tad worried about how her age would impact the procedure and, it turns out, it didn't affect anything.
  
  Mom stayed in the hospital three nights to let everything stabilize.  On Thursday she was moved to a live-in rehabilitation center.  The length of her stay will be determined by progress with her physical therapy.  Starting tomorrow she will have physical and occupational therapy daily to help her regain her independence.
  
  It's still early but Mom says the pain in her lower back seems to be almost gone (Huzzah!) but her sciatic pain in her leg remains  (too soon to determine if it has improved or is the same).  She still has issues with moving her legs smoothly while walking.  This is most likely more of a Parkinson's issue than a back issue.  Her physical therapy will work on that.
• Our sprinkler system has been fixed ... for a hefty price naturally.
• Friday I had a minor panic when I discovered all my Google docs/sheets created after 2019 had disappeared.  I was pleasantly surprised to find it easy to contact a Google support person who recovered all my files.  I promptly changed my passwords.  I have to say I am not pleasant to be around when I'm in a panic. 😈
• I haven't walked for ages it seems.  I hope to restart once again this coming week despite the 100℉ plus (38℃ plus) heat indexes early this week.
• I haven't really had a chance to nap this week which is probably why I have been feeling grumpy, overwhelmed, and exhausted most of this week.  I'll have to talk about how much I've been napping this year (excluding this last week).  Suffice it to say I have been napping a lot this year.  Makes me feel old.

Weekly Ephemera #101

"May you live in interesting times" ...

 or, in our case, June.

• In the last Weekly Ephemera post I mentioned we canceled our Camino trip and we would try to move Mom's spinal surgery.  At the time of that post I really doubted we could reschedule the surgery.  We called Monday and to my utter surprise Mom's surgery was rescheduled for ... tomorrow.  On Friday we had a long day full of pre-op examinations and tests.  The next few weeks - starting on Monday at 5:00am - will be interesting to say the least.
• We continued to deep clean the house in preparation for the Wife's cousin and aunt's visit this week ... until the cousin called to cancel due to unexpected health issues.  The cleaning wasn't a waste but it's probably safe to say we won't be deep cleaning the house again for another decade or so.
• On Wednesday morning, the day we would have flown to Spain for the Wife's Camino, I noticed the automatic sprinklers did not come on.  Turns out the controller died.  If we'd gone to Spain the grass and gardens would not have been watered during the 80℉ to 90℉ (26℃ to 32℃) temps we are experiencing and we would have returned in three weeksto a dead lawn.  The sprinkler people are coming on Monday.
• Wednesday evening we had some crazy weather with wind, rain, and hail (pea to quarter sized).  The clouds and lightning was incredible.

  

  Storm clouds with a peak of blue.

  
  

  

  Sun lit storm clouds.

  
  

  

  A little bit of lightning.

• I did not walk this week and, frankly, I'm not sure when I will restart my walking.  Depends on my Mom's schedule really.  My body is starting to miss it.
• As for my entertainment for the week, it was basically the same as last week - "Alone" and "Doctor Who".