And now November

So it's November, and as always I'm puzzled by how short the month is. I mean, it's 30 days, but the kids get a whole week off toward the end of it, so that seems to shorten it. So we've had five days already, and now we get two full weeks of school -- except that this coming week is only four days due to Veterans Day -- then a week of Thanksgiving break, and then one more almost full week of school (December begins on a Friday). And that's the month.

I'm trying to plan my reading and it feels like I don't have enough time. I think I'm only going to read about four books this month, maybe five (last month I read 14). OK, well, no, because I've already finished three. But only four or five more. It's OK. I've already read 100 books this year. I remember when it was a huge big deal for me to read 100 books in a year. Times have changed.

We had a nice Halloween. Neither boy wanted to go trick-or-treating, which made me kind of sad, but in the end I agreed with their decision. Most of the kids who came to the door were clearly in elementary school, with a few middle schoolers sprinkled in. My friend Sally lives in a Halloween neighborhood, where people come from far and wide to trick-or-treat, and she got 400 visitors, including plenty of older kids. She actually got more than 400, but she only had 400 treats, so once she ran out she closed her door and turned out the light.

I think we had about 40. Forty is a nicer number than 400! As it was, I felt as though the knocks on the door were almost constant. I was trying to make dinner and I had to keep leaving my half-chopped onion or my saute pan to go hand out Tootsie Pops to darling little dinosaurs and fairies. 

I tried to get the kids to answer the door but they wouldn't. However, after we ate dinner, I asked them if they'd like to watch "Ghosts," the British TV series I'd gotten on DVD at the library. Surprisingly they agreed, and we ended up watching three out of six episodes. It was an excellent choice for Halloween -- not very scary, but very funny. We watched the rest of the episodes two nights later and then they wanted more, so I requested the DVD of Season Two, which will be coming to us from the Denver Public Library. (And yes, I know, if we had Netflix or whatever streaming service we could watch everything all the time whenever we want. I don't care. I think waiting is fun too.)

And now November. November is a very patriotic month, which is why I always try to read a Presidential biography at this time. This month I'm going to read The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin, about Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. (I've already read a bio of TR's early life, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris.) In two days we have Election Day, at the end of the week is Veterans Day, and then of course Thanksgiving. 

I've already voted and gotten the email that they've received my ballot; Rocket Boy had to mail his from St. Louis, so I don't know if it'll arrive in time. Unusually for me, I wasn't sure how to vote on several issues. People I usually agree with wrote opinion pieces in the paper that conflicted with opinion pieces by other people I usually agree with! It ended up being kind of a coin toss. I also messed up -- this is a School Board election year and I thought we were only supposed to vote for someone running in our district. But it turned out that we vote for candidates in all the districts (then why have districts?). I didn't do enough homework on that, and ended up voting (and telling Rocket Boy to vote) for someone who I think might be an anti-vaxxer! I hope she doesn't win. Watch, she'll win by two votes and it'll be my fault.

Speaking of vaccinations, I seem to be an anti-vaxxer this fall -- still haven't gotten any. But this Friday the twins and I have appointments at King Soopers to get our flu shots. Better late than never. I still have to do something about Covid, though, and I guess RSV? You're supposed to get that if you're over 60. Sigh. I don't want to get them all at the same time, so I'll have to make more appointments. The thing is, the best time to take the kids is Saturday, so they have time to recover before school on Monday (we're doing it this Friday, because they have the day off). But we drive on Saturday, and they probably won't want to drive if they've just gotten shots. Sigh again.

We didn't drive last Saturday because of the snow, but we drove yesterday. Teen A and I drove to two Safeways and a shoe store, while Teen B and I just drove to the Starbucks in Lafayette. They have their Christmas drinks already, so I got a Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai Tea Latte, very tasty. I realized today, though, that I missed my chance -- the Lafayette store still had pumpkin spice drinks but our Boulder store is already out of them. I loved the Iced Pumpkin Cream Chai Tea Latte that they had this year. Should have gotten that yesterday. I didn't get anything today when I found out they didn't have pumpkin cream, just came home and had tea with milk.

I shouldn't have a lot of Starbucks drinks anyway, not recommended for diabetics. But 'tis the season to feel conflicted about that. Yesterday at one of the Safeways we went to, Teen A and I walked down an aisle that was entirely Christmas candy and treats (one side of the aisle, anyway). I walked down it thinking, I would like to buy that, and that, and that... We didn't buy any of it. It's early November, for crying out loud. They had obviously just set it up, because it looked untouched. And delicious. 

I'm feeling conflicted in general about food these days (food, and other things that go in your mouth, such as candy and Starbucks drinks). I've seen the dietician twice, and she's very helpful, but then I come home and don't want to follow her advice. It's not that I want to stuff my face with candy -- the only time I really have a problem with that these days is when I'm helping the kids with their homework, for some reason. "Can you think of a good topic sentence here?" Munch, munch, swallow. 

No, I just don't want to eat something with protein and fiber. I have those things in the fridge: hummus and cottage cheese and fruit. But my -- stomach? brain? other organ? -- cries out for another cup of milky tea. Or a muffin. A few days ago I had a terrible bout of stomach upset, some vomiting and terrible, horrible, diarrhea. My sister the nurse said it was probably food poisoning and I think she must be right because once it was over it was over (and I was 4 pounds lighter). I suspect the dish in question was an odd thing I made on Tuesday (and had leftovers of for lunch on Thursday) which had Brussels sprouts and sauerkraut and pasta and bacon. Perhaps not actually poisonous, just things my gut didn't want. But my reaction was so extreme that it made me worry about my body. I don't want to try to feed a body that can react so violently. My rib cage is so sore from the vomiting that it hurts to cough or laugh, and my gut, while functioning semi-normally now, just hurts.

Guess I should get that Covid shot. I really need to not get sick if I can help it.

Seriously, I don't know what to cook anymore. If it's good for IBS it's bad for diabetes and vice versa. What's good for IBS? Simple carbs, like potatoes and rice. What's good for diabetes? Protein and fiber. Thus, I drink tea.

At my book group this week we started talking about what you do when you get older, moving into retirement communities and assisted living, arranging for care, paying for it, all that sort of thing. We're all in our 60s, so nobody's ready to take any special steps, but obviously it's coming. It comes for us all. I wonder, will we still be meeting in 10 years, when we're in our 70s? Maybe by then we'll switch to daytime meetings at least. I don't know. 

So, the week ahead! It's warm today, should be warm for a couple more days, and then we'll have a brief return of cold and rain/snow. On Tuesday, I'm planning to drag the twins to an open house at the Boulder Technical Education Center (TEC), where they offer classes in things like auto repair, construction, welding, etc. I'd really like Teen A to explore this, and maybe Teen B too. Right now they're fighting me, "Why do I have to go?" etc., but we'll see. Thursday, Teen B and I are going to the musical at the other high school, and of course Friday is a day off and we're getting our flu shots. So, a full week (smile).