Raincharm’s Weblog

I’ve always known that parades were hurry up and wait.

So are procedures in the hospital.

The Seahawks Super Bowl victory parade was today. Expecting 1,000,000 people the news was all about don’t drive, take transit to get downtown, you won’t be able to park if you try. We didn’t try either, conflicting plans.

We drove to the hospital during the parade, but had trouble finding parking in the lots closest to the hospital building.

12:30 Once we got in, things moved along. Two IVs, shaved, blood draws, and a check on the current pacemaker.

Now we need to see the anesthesiologist and doctor before they do the procedure. This is a pacemaker upgrade. Adding a third wire to the two already in place.

And we wait. It’s been about an hour delay, and Carl is understandably getting antsy. He was nervous before and hasn’t had food or drink all day.

The last bit of information is there is a possibility the vein with the 2 wires may have scarring or other issues that mean it won’t readily take a 3rd wire. Probably not, but … that would lead to Plan B, whatever that is, and is it today or some other day. Carl is now worried (and hungry).

Finally off for the procedure at 4:30

And back to the room at 6:30. All went well and we should be out by 8 PM.

So somebody literally screwed with Carl’s heart.  They use a screw to attach the wire to the heart. This is the hardest part for me to visualize.

8 hours at the hospital, restrictions for 24 hours, 3 days, and 30 days. Pretty easy price to get some more good years. ♥️

I gave blood today, again. I’ve been giving since I was in college, and continued with some notable gaps during the early child years.

When I first gave I think I was interested in finding out my blood type. To make the weight requirement I would put silver dollars in my pockets. That’s not necessary anymore.

Now I try to be consistent and I really have the time. Throughout my giving history the iron test has been the reason I could get turned away. In the early days they would put a blood drop into a solution (copper?) and see if it sank = passing. Then there was a machine that took a minute to give the pass/fail result. Now a drop of blood on a slide into a meter gives the result in seconds. 12.5 is the magic number. Below that and you’re out the door, above and you can head to the chair.

Today’s iron result was 12.6 – Yeah! The last 3 tries did not make the cutoff.

The other metric I have run afoul of is pulse rate. 50 is the minimum. The last 2 tries were too low. Today’s pulse was 56, so time to go.

And it went well. A no-pain poke, not too long to give, and nice phlebotomists. I do tire easily now, good reason to sit down and watch some Olympics.

In the continuing Super Bowl aftermath Carl was walking to a Post Office and bank in the U-District and ran into a small crowd.

The first Raising Cane’s in Seattle is scheduled to open later this month. And there’s a crowd. (SW corner, old Pier 1 or more recent American Apparel for those trying to place it.)

And it’s because Sam Darnold, Seahawks QB, is visiting to film some sort of promo in the kitchen. So a chance to be in the vicinity of a champion. And it looks like he drove himself.

I did sleep in today, but because I woke up in the middle of the night. The neighborhood fireworks ended before I went to bed.

The parade is scheduled for Wednesday, but so is a pacemaker procedure for Carl, so we won’t be attending. An article about the parade referenced the 2013 version. It noted, “Over one-quarter of Seattle Public Schools students were absent that day, as were nearly 20% of the teachers.” I hope all of the medical folks show up to work.

Super Bowl XL (60)

Seahawks 29 – Patriots 13

The good guys won, handily, although I was nervous until almost the end.

This cuts short the description of a few hours of ups and downs, hooting, hollering, and occasionally groaning.

There was champagne in the house and fireworks in the neighborhood.

We had friends for the watch party. Dinner  managed to be ready right at halftime. Stuffed peppers, roasted vegetables (spinach, broccolini, garbanzo beans, tomatoes, and others), and garlic bread.

The next question is whether we’ll go to the Seahawks victory parade. We went in 2013. It was cold, lots of standing around, and a whole lot of memorable fun.

Bonus: Two items in the garage giveaway are gone! The telescope (entry level) and typewriter have walked out the door.

Today’s cooking was for tomorrow’s big game. We’re hosting a few friends, and while that doesn’t always mean we provide the main course, this time we have stuffed peppers on the menu. And some garlic bread. We know a veggie tray will be joining and I assume some other food may show up as well. Should we get a bottle of bubbly? Or would that be a jinx.

We are, of course, all rooting for the Seahawks!

The rain today made it easier to focus on basement. Continued the tool focus, until Carl got involved again, and it flipped to toys. While I have categories in mind, the easier to see goal is going through the piles that had grown on top of the big shelving unit.

The tools have largely been sorted into categories; hammers, awls, drill bits, wrenches, sockets, screwdrivers, saws, plumbing stuff, grout tools, odds and ends, and all manner of small bits – nails, screws, bolt, and nuts. (These are filling the front right quarter of the workbench)

I am a bit perplexed on dealing with the small bits. What to keep? There are no major projects on the horizon, so should we move them along and get what we need when a project presents itself. I don’t want to completely empty the larder.

And sorted doesn’t mean put away. Yet.

The left half of the shelves are primarily toys. (Except for paper towels and kleenex – Costco member) Tools have been cleared off the top, except one bin of small bits waiting decisions.

Because I had cleared off some of the shelving unit I climbed on top to see what was going on behind. At least 2 apparently intact flower pots, what looks like others broken pots, a rat trap (empty), a can of Raid, and some unidentified trash. This will all be cleaned out.

I acquired the shelving unit from work. It was the reception desk at the office in the old building. The shelving side was on the employee side, with all sorts of supplies and forms. The back was what customers saw. Moving it to the house and getting it into the basement was quite the effort, but having that amount of storage available is invaluable.

Today was a slow day for moving projects forward. Small steps, like breaking down some cardboard boxes no longer needed.

The box pictured above has held different things over the years. Apples obviously, but I think it was a box we obtained from a grocery store for one of our many moves.

Most recently it held painting project supplies. Coveralls, brushes, rollers, paint roller pans, etc. The box was bigger than necessary and didn’t have a lid. Moved everything into a copy paper box.

The Granny Smith box was stout. Double layered thick cardboard. Breaking it down took strength and perseverance.

When the mail arrived it included a letter from a friend I had lost touch with over the last several years. It was so good to hear from them, and hopefully reconnect with this year.

And then Carl realized he had received a text from a ballplayer he had sent a card to. The player thanked him and said he was mailing a reply.

Small things, but they brightened our day.

Resistance in the neighborhood.

This is an I-5 overpass near our house. The sign holders turn to show the other side about every 30 seconds.

Above is the view from our front porch.

We put our flag out as well. I’m wondering if others will follow suit. Our block is a mixture of American born citizens, naturalized citizens, birthright citizens, and probably some on work visas. I don’t know everyone’s situation.

Life feels so unsettled sometimes, and yet we just keep moving forward with our daily lives. But I just have this feeling that at some point we’ll be taking more affirmative action steps. I tried to sign up for a Rapid Response virtual training, but it was full – go figure.

It was so nice outside this afternoon!

The day started normally, which means coffee. Then tax prep. This took on a life of its own, and lasted longer than I expected. (And it’s still not done.)

But because it was today, that all stopped. It’s nice out! A high of 60 degrees.

So we combined the basement clean out with a walk.

As I reported about a month ago one of the things we found in the basement was old cassette tapes. There is a used record store a few blocks from our house. We took a box of old music and books on tape cassette tapes, some DVDs, and some empty CD jewel cases over to see if they were interested. They were, especially when we said they can just take them, no remuneration requested.

They were excited about empty jewel cases. Apparently people will bring CDs they have to give/sell, but they are not in a case or covering. Also about some of the titles, what is old (new when we bought it) is new again.

And the house is a few pounds lighter.

The walk continued after the donation. It was so nice. Just comfortable.

The first warmish day in a while is rather like the first snowfall of the winter. Note: no snow in Seattle this winter. Just some frost. The first snow feeling is from growing up in Michigan, with “real” winters each year.

Of course, this will not last, which is why we had to walk today.

I did manage to take a few steps forward. Just trying to figure out what we have is the current chore.

This happened around appointments and errands.

I did find a bag with extra knobs and pulls  for the kitchen drawers and cabinets. That will be staying. And also paint colors and kitchen floor and countertop samples.

A funny 😬 aside just now. We’re watching a show. I paused it to go brush my teeth. Carl came upstairs too, said he was looking for a baseball card, and went into the attic storage place. “I’ll only be 5 minutes.” I laughed because there are at least 200,000 cards in that space, and he’s looking for one. To his credit it was certainly less than 10 minutes.

Mind you there is very little value in these cards. Each year there are only a few cards of value out of the thousands produced, and you have to be lucky or rich to get those. What we have is years of accumulation. Someday I will try to explain what all of these cards are about. But that means I would have to understand.

I feel like I didn’t really do anything today. A little of this, a little of that, cooked dinner, but no major accomplishments.

These are days when I feel I need to do something to succeed at retirement.

I didn’t have a real plan in place for how to fill my time before I retired. I was too busy working. An initial trip helped with the transition. Then the basement flood provided a forced focus. That is still what I call my current job, but nobody gets on my case if I slack off for a day or two or three.

Tomorrow morning has medical type tests, so I get to slack some more, at least until the afternoon.

For now, leaving work on my last day – Halloween as it turned out. No ghosts.