Raincharm’s Weblog

Over 17,000 steps before 2 pm! Of course that means there may be scant productive work for the rest of the day.

First up, errands. Grocery shopping, which begats steps, and food. I still accompany Carl due to his weight restrictions. I also added a few things for a new recipe I want to try.

Next up, a walk to a restaurant we had a gift card for and had not tried before. About 3 miles from the house and a bus ride home was anticipated.

After some uphill the walk to the restaurant was mostly flat or downhill.

Lunch at Local Tide was excellent. It’s a small space in Fremont. We had tried to eat there once before on a sunny weekend.  It was quite crowded with a line and we ended up at a Thai place across the street. Tuesday noon is less hectic, hooray for retirement.

The weather was cool and sunny, great for walking and we both felt refreshed, so we set off towards home, roughly parallelling bus routes. This was the uphill climb. Fremont is at water level so anywhere not along the water is up. In the end we walked all the way home.

A relatively quiet day today. The only pictures I took today were of Carl’s incision site, and where bruising has spread. I do that to track that it’s not spreading too much. An alternative is to circle the bruised area with a marker. I prefer pictures.

I did pay a few bills and got more done on taxes. And watched some Olympics. We did have a chance to chat with our son in Richmond, VA. Due to the many snow an ice days off a few weeks ago, the public schools were in session today, even though it was a holiday.

In other exciting news we were successful in a drawing to get and pay for tickets to a World Cup game at the price set by FIFA!  We know the game, Belgium vs. Egypt, but not exactly where our seats will be. They are in Zone 3, the light blue in the upper level. Quite a range of possibilities. I assume we will be in the back row on a corner.

It was the level in a price range we were willing to pay for the experience of going to a World Cup game. The tickets were not cheap, but not out of reach. Looking at Seat Geek, tickets in the same zone are being offered for about 3.75 times the face value, up from 3 times when I looked last week. To be clear, the prices shown on the graphic are not what we paid. If they get high enough it may test my resolve to go to the game.

We took another long walk today. Yesterday’s walk did me in. Today’s not quite as much. Are target was an office supply store in Ballard. About 3-1/2 miles to get there. Then a half mile to the bus towards home, and some more walking on the home leg.

The weather was reasonable so no complaints.

I should be paying bills and doing taxes, but I have so far just been watching the Olympics. And maybe pick up a few words in other languages.

Carl provided a lovely breakfast sentiment this morning.  Say it with food.

Of course I had not stopped at a bakery on my way home from a meeting to get him a treat 🙄. I tried to make it up later with a stop at Starbucks on our long walk. 🥰

We did run into a hummingbird on the walk. So pretty, and it hel “still” long enough for me to get a picture.

For dinner we had potato soup and salmon cakes.

Finished off the evening by removing the dressing over Carl’s latest scar. It’s not pretty. I dont remember the scar from the first pacemaker being as ugly. But maybe it’s because this second is in the same location, or I was not seeing the first as much because he was still in the hospital for 10 days after that surgery, and I wasn’t involved in the wound care.

Whatever, I love him, scars and all. Happy Valentines Day.

Happy Birthday Jane

The three sisters, not the mountain range.

Which one is the tallest?

For getting only 2,000 – 3,000 steps yesterday we were both tired. I slept in a bit this morning, but Carl was up early. He was listening to KEXP radio and heard a song that struck a chord with him.

Harbour by Beverly Glenn-Copeland

The refrain lyrics include

You’re my harbour, my rainbow
My promise of tomorrow
And my heartaches when your tears flow
But then spring breaks and that’s all I know

After the stress of yesterday Carl was feeling perhaps a little sentimental. My last name loosely translates to Rainbow and the idea of a safe harbour resonated. Enough so that he looked up the song so I could hear it myself. It’s not Valentines Day, but I’ll take it.

Recovery is going well. We took a walk to the post office and then went grocery shopping. I’m pretty sure me “helping” with grocery shopping over the next month is going to drive Carl crazy. My help today included the blueberries spilling into the bag. In my defense he said there’s usually a piece of tape holding the plastic tub top in place.

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.