Happy Autumnal Equinox

Happy first day of Autumn to everyone in the northern hemisphere.  We missed being at Stonehenge during the equinox by around a week.  Not sure this is good or bad as people tend to congregate there during the equinoxes and solstices.  Instead we will be celebrating the start of the season with all the fans in Wrexham.

Happy First Day of Fall Everyone!

Travelling The Isle Of Great Britain

Our one and only international trip this year - after cancelling our Camino trip - is a twenty-four day trip to Great Britain.  It will be a trip filled with friends, history, and English literature.

This is our first major international trip that will not involve being on a tour.  (Iceland wasn't on a tour either but it was an easier trip to plan as everything was out of one city - Reikiavik)  Our travel agent arranged flights, lodging, and train passes for us.  We will arrange local day tours (guided or self-guided, walking, bike, or bus) in some of the places we will be visiting.  We opted out of renting a car as the arguments about driving on the wrong side of the road and directions would likely have ended our marriage.  Here is the itinerary the Wife has put together for us:

• We fly into London and are picked up by NH and JH, friends we met on our Amazon Cruise back in 2016 and who visited us in 2023 for the Sandhill Crane migration.  They will take us to Stonehenge and Bath.
• We take the train to Brighton.  We will be meeting another friend we met on the Camino in 2023 here.
• Next we go to Canterbury because the Wife taught literature.
• Onward to the White Cliffs of Dover.
• We train to Rochester, spend the night then taxi to Cooling.  Here we will be spending the night in Saint James' Church.  The 13th century church is no longer active but you can visit it and spend the night there - this is known as Church Camping or 'Champing', by the way.
• We taxi back to Rochester and train to Wrexham where we will see a Wrexham home game (Check out "Welcome to Wrexham").  This is our only stop in Wales.
• Train to Stratford-upon-Avon.
• Train to Oxford.
• Train to Berwick-upon-Tweed.  Here our friends NH and JH will join us on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.  We have to time this right as the island can only be driven to during low tide.
• We leave England and head into Scotland.  Our first stop is Edinburgh.
• We train to Glasgow.
• We return by train to London for a couple days before we fly home.

I'll be taking pictures and will post about the trip after we return home.

Weekly Ephemera #113

• This week it felt good to slide into the comfort of a familiar routine.  The events of this summer had shattered my routine and the world feels like it is finally returning to 'normal'.
• I walked three times this week.  This is like the first time I've done three long hikes in a week since March.  Each walk was longer than the last.  It felt really good pushing the distance up though I may have over done it as my legs are still stiff and achy as I post this.  I walked 27.9 miles (44.9 km) this week with the last walk being over eleven miles.  Since our return from the Wife's Camino in June 2023 I have only walked double digit miles four times.  This is so unlike me.  I expect not to walk this coming week as we are leaving the country (more about this later this week).
• On Friday tickets for the Wrexham soccer game we were hoping to attend went on sale.  The Wife got up at 3:45AM to try to buy tickets.  She had joined the Wrexham Fan Club to get early access to ticket sales.  She finds out that her membership only entitles her to one ticket per game so, over the next two hours, she buys a membership for me, links the two accounts (this consisted of trying to call the office in Wales and eventually required an email to the ticket office who responded incredibly fast), and purchased two tickets for the game.  During those two hours the Wife was watching the number of available tickets shrink.  It was very nerve wracking for the Wife ... I slept through the whole thing.  Thanks to the Wife - It's going to be fun!
• I got my COVID and Flu vaccinations this weekend.  I know, the COVID shot was like closing the barn door after the horse got out but I got it anyway.  Both of my arms are sore though the COVID arm is more sore than the flu arm.
• We finally caught up on all the episodes of "Alone" and "Alone: Australia".  The Wife switched to college football and I returned to "One Piece".  I'd watched up to around episode three hundred back in February.  I've reached episode four hundred.  Only seven hundred-ish episodes to go.  It's a fun show and is nice background noise.
• While surfing the socials I came across a link to a short story by Andy Weir (the author of "The Martian").  It is very interesting, thought provoking, and worth the read.  It's only a couple pages long and you can check it out here.  You can also watch a reading with animation on YouTube.

Weekly Ephemera #112

It's September ... SEPTEMBER!  Where has this summer ... this year ... gone?  Anyway, Happy Labor Day - the traditional end of summer - to everyone in the United States.

• This week was mostly dominated by COVID.  I tested positive for the third time on Monday.  The Wife tested positive for the first time on Tuesday (she had symptoms before that but tested negative).  I tested negative on Wednesday.  The Wife is still testing negative as of today but the positive line is starting to look dim so she should be negative soon.
• After I tested negative I went out and did some errands I'd been putting off.  One of them was registering my newish car.  Everything went smoothly at the DMV though it was an expensive proposition.
• I waited until Friday before I went walking again.  I took a leisurely walk around east Omaha.  My original plan was to keep it short as I didn't know how recovering from COVID would do to my stamina.  As I meandered through residential streets I hadn't walked in a while, the great weather we were experiencing encouraged me to keep pushing a little farther.  I didn't over do it though and ended up walking 7.3 miles (11.75 km).  This coming week, the last before we go on our next international trip, I hope to walk three times.
• Our next trip is a twenty-four day trip to Great Britain.  This will be the first major international trip where we are not on a tour.  We worked with our travel agent to plan our itinerary, book our lodging, and arrange transportation.  We will be visiting friends we met on the Amazon (they visited us last year) before we travel around the island via train.  I'm not ready yet and I only have a week and a half to get my act together.
• This week I returned to watching "One Piece".  I'd paused my watching last January - February somewhere around episode three hundred.  I'm thinking about starting another series before we leave on our travels.  Not sure that will happen.

Weekly Ephemera #111

• The Wife's older brother and his wife stayed at our house after Mom's memorial Sunday.  We went to Louis M's for breakfast on Monday before they went home.
• Tuesday I went for a nice walk ... the first of many I hoped.  I walked 5.3 miles (8.6 km).  I was planning to walk on Thursday too but something was going to get in the way.
• On Wednesday, with the help of one of Mom's stepsons, I moved Mom's Guatemalan furniture to our basement.  We still aren't sure where the cabinets, tables, and benches will go.
• Wednesday afternoon Mom's urn was buried in Dad's plot at the Noble Center Cemetery.  It felt very final as the urn was lowered into the hole and dirt was tossed in.  Mom is gone.
• Wednesday night my throat was scratchy and I developed a massive sinus headache.  By Thursday afternoon I had a mild fever.  I was trying to recover on the couch in the basement when the Wife's brother confirmed he and his wife had tested positive with COVID.  Her other brother who had come by our house Sunday night with his wife also tested positive.  So did I.  This is my first confirmed COVID infection though I had a possible one back in 2022 (I was irresponsible and did not test at the time).  I think walking is done for a few days.
  
  

  

  Crap ...

  On Saturday the Wife said she wasn't feeling well.  As of this post she hasn't tested positive yet.
• When I wasn't watching the Democratic National Convention I finished "The Boys", watched the latest seasons of "Solar Opposites" and "Futurama", and started the second season of "Hit Monkey".  In other words, I've been catching up on some television while I've been in quarantine.
  

A Misnamed Weekly Ephemera #110

On Sunday Mom's visitation and funeral service were held.  I was pleasantly surprised how many people came to pay their respects.  I saw aunts and cousins I hadn't seen since the 1980s.  Mom's Pastor led a wonderful service.  The whole thing was very heartwarming.

Other highlights of last week:

• The week was filled with meetings about Mom's funeral preparation.  It was not as hectic as I expected it would be but the Wife and Mom's stepsons took a lot of pressure off me.  Not being Mom's executor kept things to a minimum.  I did a few things to help the executor.  I'd been dealing with some of Mom's accounts when we were trying to get her on Medicaid so it was easy for me to handle the closing of some of those accounts. 
• On Saturday we attended the Tim Walz for Vice President rally that was held a couple miles from where we live.  It was our first political rally and we were happy to see how positive it was.



The non-AI generated crowd in the Astro theater.  You can see us in this photo if you look closely.

(Photo 'borrowed' from an Alex Cole - @acnewsitics - Xitter post)

The line going in stretched for a long ways.  We got in the theater that has a 2,400 capacity and the outside amphitheater was used for overflow held another 5,500.  There were speeches by Congressional/senate candidates, music by a very talented twelve year old Jayde Dorsey, and speeches from Tim Walz and his wife.  It was an interesting ... and exhausting ... experience. 

 

Photos of the rally can be found in my 2024-08-17 Gov Tim Walz Rally, The Astro, La Vista, NE Google Photos album.

• Keeping in the political realm I started watching the fourth season of "The Boys". 
• This coming week I hope to return to my 'normal' routine and to start walking again.  I can't remember when I last had a 'normal' week.

Passage

My Mom was a happy person.  Exceedingly positive.  Often stubborn.  Ever independent.  Always easy to share her laughter.  On Sunday, after visiting with her stepsons, she was getting ready to eat lunch when, quickly without warning, Mom passed away.  I discovered her Sunday afternoon when I went over to her house to see why she wasn't answering her phone.

Her passing came as a great surprise.  She'd had two surgeries since June and had gotten through them with flying colors and was well on her way to mending.  The back pain that had plagued her the past few years was gone.  There was no underlying condition that we were aware of.  When her stepsons were there she was happy, laughing, and not complaining of any discomfort.

When she was in rehab recovering from her surgeries we talked about how we could keep her safe, content, and happy.  We discussing moving her to a care facility.  While she would be safe and content there, she didn't think she would be happy so we did our best to get her back in her own home with the support she needed to live an independent life.  When she passed she was safe, content, and most importantly, happy.  Love you Mom.

Patricia D. May
May 30, 1935 - August 11, 2024

Visitation and services will be held on Sunday, August 18, 2024 at Heafey, Hoffman, Dwork & Cutler on W. Center Rd, in Omaha, NE.  Her obituary can be found here.

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.

Music: Melissa Etheridge With Jewel At The Astro

On Wednesday the Wife and I went out to catch a concert at the Astro Amphitheater.  We arrived early and had dinner at the City Pub across from the venue.  It felt like a long time since our last time eating out but it really was only a couple weeks.

The Astro Amphitheater was the same venue I went to for The Offspring.  The difference was, for The Offspring there were no chairs, but for Melissa Etheridge chairs were set up - I suspect because of an older more mature crowd.  We had great seats near the center towards the front with a front on view of the stage.  It was a bit warm but not as bad as a few days earlier and it became near perfect once the sun went down.  This is a good thing since the Wife doesn't handle heat well - she came close to biting it but got better as the temperature dropped.

Jewel rocked the joint.

The first act was Jewel.  She's had a long and successful career.  I haven't followed it that closely but I do remember her first hit "Who Will Save Your Soul" back in 1995.

She went through a lot of her hits, often asking the audience to make suggestions.  There were a lot of Jewel fans including the couple behind us singing nearly every word.

She brought out her teenage son who played the drums on a couple covers including a Tom Petty song.

I wasn't sure what to expect from Jewel but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed her set.

The main show was Melissa Etheridge.  Now, something weird (not in the current political meaning of the word) was going on.  Both the Wife and I were very sure that we'd seen her perform at Lilith Fair in 1998.  We'd gone to that festival during our Southwest vacation.  Turns out Melissa Etheridge has never performed at Lilith Fair (this link to Xitter proves she hasn't).  We were both so sure that we've seen her but cannot for our lives remember when or if we actually saw her.  I found a place that listed all her concerts and it seems we've never seen her before.  Very strange.

Melissa Etheridge at our first Melissa Etheridge concert.

Her performance was awesome. She can play the guitar ... and drums ... and piano ... and harmonica ... and she can sing.  I knew a lot of the songs and we really enjoyed her show.

We were in the proper age range for this concert but I was on the wrong side of the gender ratio.  Far fewer men than women.

Photos I took with my crappy phone can be found in my 2024-08-07 Melissa Etheridge w/ Jewel, The Astro, La Vista, NE Google Photos album.

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.