Thoughts From My Morning

This morning before work, I went for my annual mammogram, and I Have Some Thoughts:

• On the drive in, I turned on the radio and the next song to come on was by Depeche Mode. Instantly, my mood improved! Later I got part of a Springsteen song, one by Huey Lewis (throwback time, indeed), and an old favorite, Tainted Love by Soft Cell. Music has great powers.
• I got a lot of knitting done while I waited. The current socks are almost done; yesterday, I wound the yarn for the next pair, since I need to cast them on before I leave on my trip.
• The procedure itself was uncomfortable, as always, but far from the worst I've had. Fingers crossed it all comes out clear, and I don't have to go back before next year.
• Speaking of which, I realized after I got home that they hadn't offered to schedule my appointment for next year, so I called to do that so I could get a first-thing-in-the-morning time slot. The scheduler checked and said, "It looks like they put you down for 8:30 on October 1st; does that work, or do you want to change it?" So they ... gave me an appointment but didn't tell me about it? How well do you suppose that works for them?

In conclusion: If you are a woman of a certain age, you should be getting mammograms (doubly so if you have a family history of breast cancer). They are uncomfortable and unpleasant and generally no fun at all, and they save lives.

This endeth today's sermon.

Shaking Off September

Some good, non-stressful things must have happened in September (in fact, I know they did), but they've been swamped by all the everything else, and though part of me says that the change of the month is meaningless in terms of "luck" or anything like that, I still can't wait for it to be October.

Mom and I have had a kind of dopey, recovering weekend, getting some things done and also sitting around a fair bit. As I noted yesterday, I spent a lot of time providing a cat lap, which is good for the soul but hard on the joints. I'm trying to do a little, cautious planning for my upcoming trip (since I leave a week from Friday, aaahhhhh), and have tempered my unpacking with considerations of what I'll be bringing on the next one (put away: grown-up shoes; don't put away: suitcases).

So that's where things are here. How's with you?

Today in Lap Cat

Breaking the Really Cutting-Edge News

Since we flew different airlines up to NY and back, I can now report in on the crucial question of Biscoff cookies. (Have you had these? Quite tasty, aren't they?)

Both Delta and American Airlines have packets of the cookies with their name on the packaging, though one went for landscape orientation and the other for portrait.

However, only Delta went the extra mile (paid the extra money, I would assume), and has their name stamped on the cookies themselves.

Oddly enough, the cookies are not exactly the same shape and size. Similar, sure, but not identical.

This is exactly the sort of breaking news you come here for, right? Happy Friday.

For Halloween, or Birthday, Depending

Now that my brother's birthday is past and he's opened his presents, I can show you what Mom and I got him.

He was mightily perplexed to learn that the box was coming from Pottery Barn, which isn't his usual style, but agreed that yes, these are wonderful. There are two others in the collection, so click on over to see.

Yes, She Is

More than one person commented that after our trip, Maggie must have been glad to have us back, and you're right, she was.

Saturday night:

Sunday:

And that was just in the morning; she had plenty of afternoon and evening lap time, too.

Then there was Monday morning, when we were joined by a bird on the scaffolding, which looked around carefully before bursting into song. (I got a minute of video, but it won't load, damn it. Oh, well.)

Maggie watched intently, but not moving. At least the damned ugly scaffolding is good for something!

Not at Great Length

It is with great relief that I report a complete lack of mind-numbing roofing noises today. Apparently they need some supplies to come in, which may not be here tomorrow either. Cross your fingers for us; the reprieve has been wonderful, and I would adore another day of it.

Because, wow, am I ever still exhausted and brain-dead. The whole funeral trip went fairly smoothly*, but it was just A Lot, you know? Travel and plans and driving and directions and coordination and family and standing and remembering distant cousins and wearing grown-up clothes and trying to work when I could--just a lot.
*Other than having to make a tight connection in Detroit from gate 12 to gate 61**, the worst thing to go wrong was our suitcase not making the connection coming home--how, I don't know, since we were in Philly for over two hours--but even that was really no big deal, compared to the trouble it would have caused on the way up, and they delivered it Sunday morning while I was still in bed.
**Did you know that terminal A in Detroit is a mile long? There's a tram inside the terminal!

So I'm back, things are 'fine,' and I'm hoping to regain some energy and equilibrium soon, since in two and a half weeks, I'm traveling again, ulp. Today, no matter how much I'm looking forward to the trip, that thought is overwhelming, but hopefully balance will return to me soon. Right? It will? Just say yes.

Back Safely

We survived all the travel and all the funeral-related events, and are home again and trying to make it up to the cat (who has, I think, been on my lap for about four hours combined so far today), and we're exhausted physically, exhausted mentally, but fine.

The Time Finally Came

My grandmother died this morning. She was 105 in April, and still hanging on until just recently, when she declined fairly rapidly. She was more than ready to go, and we are sad but not shocked.

We'll be going up for the funeral and all, and I'm not sure how long it will be before I'm back and able to write here, but I wanted to let you know.

I Who What Um Brain Gone

Our neighborhood is usually a fairly quiet one, though this summer has been noisier than usual, as this neighbor replaced their carports, that neighbor put pavers down where the blacktop used to be, and another is having their roof done. But nothing has been as bad as our own roof work, and after a week of 11-12 hours a day of banging, sawing, drilling, beeping, thumping, yelling, and big-engine noise, I am considerably closer to insane than even I usually get.

They are building scaffolding up the front of the building, and reached our lanai today.

Every time I go in or out, different paths are blocked off. This morning, I had to ask someone which way I could go, since it seemed like everything was blocked. (Oh, I can duck under that caution tape? Great!)

One of them told my mother earlier this week that 'just' the roofing part would take a month. We're not sure what else there will be, beyond painting/stucco work, but the roof isn't that big, and I can't imagine why it will take a month.

Certainly one week has been more than enough, noise-wise.

And before you ask why I don't go elsewhere to work, I tried that this afternoon. The library was blissfully quiet, but for some reason the computer wouldn't log in to the back-door way we're getting our email since the cyber-attack. Since I do need to have the email, I moved to Starbucks, where the email worked fine, but it was freezing cold, and a Very Cheery Guy was Loudly and Enthusiastically Working the drive-through. Hi! Thanks for choosing Starbucks! Can I get you something to eat! At which point, I gave up and returned to the land of roofers.

At least it's Friday. Weekend good. Me need weekend.

Yes, I Know That It's September

But the Bruins opened training camp today, which makes this apt:

In the Space of Two Minutes

The zips? Who had the zips? Not Maggie, this morning. Or did she?

Work and Roof and Hockey and Knitting (to name a few)

It's been an odd day. I logged in to work this morning and found email wasn't working, and learned that it was company-wide; apparently, there was some sort of cyber-attack on the email/servers this weekend. Now that's unexpected! As I didn't have a report from Friday to work on, and as email is where the work comes from, it was a longish day of keeping an eye on the chats to see if there were any developments.

Meanwhile, in pros and cons:

+ The Bruins rookies were playing a game against New Jersey's this morning at 9:30, of all odd times, and NJ happily was streaming the game, so I got to watch that. Nice! It was of course very Devils-focused, understandably, but I was just happy to see it. Hockey's coming back! Full camp starts later this week, and I'm excited for it.

- The roofers are here and starting on giving us the new roof the building has needed since Irma struck two years ago. Which is really a + except for the noise. Which is considerable.

+ Knitting! As long as I had the time, I pulled out the baby-turns-one sweater that I need to have finished before my trip next month, and got to work. It's getting there:

Working on the shawl-collar thing, and then second sleeve, and buttons, and done!