HAPPY NEW WEEK!
Everyone have a good week!
Census night last eve. OH came home weary from nanny duty & I wanted to watch TV, so we didn’t attempt the online version. Just as well. After the fourth hacking, the site was shut down about 7.30 pm. Apparently still not up. We have until mid-Sept to complete census. Last few weeks many people were demanding paper version but hotline was always busy. It may be even busier now!!!
Evening all: Busy but good day with daughter who will start getting back to "normal" tomorrow on doc's recommendation. So, looks like an at-home day for me. Have got to almost 200 pages with Lord or the Rings and quite hooked on it. Don't know why but it's as if I don't know the story already. I like the writing and the humor but am amazed at the number of exclamation points!!!! Have not read any of the Harry Potter books (!!!).
Lindybird: Not a Game of Thrones viewer either, though it's had some pretty good reviews. Saw the images of the helicopter on the BBC website; didn't realize they'd all escaped injury - brilliant!
Lindybird/Heather: If people drop by unannounced, they get to accept the place as it is. Hyacinth Bucket wouldn't last two minutes. Kind of sad that Heather's friend is so concerned with appearances that she wanted a ride in a "nice" car.
dibnlib: Was it you who told me about the new Peter Robinson book? I got it from the library and - horror of horrors - it's not an Inspector Banks story but features a lady protagonist and is set in - California?!! Boo hiss. I was so looking forward to an escape to cool and windy Yorkshire
Brenda: Oddly enough, all this rushing about has somehow energized me! Good the weather held for the village fair.
Rosy: Expect to hear more from UK sister this weekend.
AQ: Your census website experience sounds like the launch of Obamacare a couple of years ago (a calamity!).
Re Diane's bro, I got an e-mail from her a day or so ago saying tests were still ongoing and his condition is still bad. (Hope I haven't misrepresented the situation.)
Take care everyone.
I’ve been out to pick leafy greens (red beet) for evening meal. One lone iris and a few spring stars are sorry they appeared as today’s icy wind must have come directly from Antarctica. OH decided not to go out for lunch when rain was forecast. It was fine & sunny until 2.30 pm – about the time he would have been walking back from bus. I had another good report from Physio. However she doubts I shall be fit enough for a bus trip 5½ weeks time. My plans to practise steps on Monday was foiled when there was a funeral at the nearby church – it has 5 steps and is the only place nearby I can think of to climb.
Lindybird said: I enjoyed all of the Harry Potter books, and have friends who even pre ordered the latest one, so as to be amongst the 1st to read it!
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.
Good Morning, All. Dull & cloudy here this morning, with rain forecast, so we're planning to sit in a cosy coffee shop inside a local garden centre. Will look for a nice birthday card for sis-in-law there, and see if we can resist their home made cake!
CLARE - A friend of mine is a speed reader and can read a book in a very double-quick time. Then she re-reads it, savouring the words more. I prefer to read at normal pace and enjoy it as intended! I think the Harry Potters were such a huge success because the writer didn't shy away from occasionally letting bad things happen to the characters. It was hard to second guess what might happen, which always adds a frisson!
AQ - Sounds really wintry there. Well done on keeping on schedule with your knee recovery!
ANNETTE - Good that all the drama and rushing around has not been too tiring. Hope you get a good report from your Sis.
ps - ANNETTE - I'm no Hyacinth B, but the "front door" in this caravan is right next to the kitchen, so if the sink is full of debris you can't help but notice! We're reasonably tidy elsewhere as we can't leave our books & newspapers on the table or Bonnie eats them!
ANNETTE I wonder what book you got. The latest Peter Robinson is "When the music is over" and it is an Alan Banks book. It is only just out here so perhaps it isn't out in the USA yet and of course as before it may be under a different title. Expecting a friend in a few mins then out for lunch with OH, so must go.
Hi, all. Thank you so much for your kind concern about my brother. Since you've asked about him, I'll give a brief update. His last test/scan confirmed that he has Diabetic Gastroparesis. The vagus nerve in his stomach is severely damaged by diabetes, and it can't make the stomach muscles move food through the GI tract -- so he can't eat. The likely treatment is to surgically implant a device into the abdomen that delivers mild electrical charges to the stomach nerve and muscles. It's like a pacemaker and is called GES (gastric electrical stimulation) therapy. He's still in acute renal failure, although his lab numbers are improving. He's very skinny.
This treatment option will depend on whether his insurance company will pay for it. In the USA, your insurance company decides whether you live or die. Even though he has insurance, the high medical bills he has already incurred will bankrupt him, because insurance here only pays a percentage of medical costs.
Again, thank you all so much.
DIANE - Thanks for the explanation, and for finding the time to post, when you're so busy and no doubt, having an anxious time.
Hope that your brother can have the procedure, even though it's expensive. Here we get most things paid for through the National Health Service, but since costs have spiralled due to increased population and living longer, plus new expensive treatments being introduced, they sometimes baulk at paying for certain treatments, and relatives have to try and fund raise for treatment abroad, often in USA! Shocking situations sometimes.
Hope you are looking after yourself.
I don't usually comment on this thread DIANE but I was shocked to read of your brother's awful predicament and send him and you all my best of wishes