Cloudy days

Well, we're having a nice cool day for a change. Only supposed to get to 75 today, and we're expecting rain. We'll see if that happens. We've had a lot of almost-rain, where the sky gets dark and the thunder rolls -- and then nothing. Teen A is sure that it's my fault, because whenever I say it's going to rain, it doesn't. I've told him I'm not in charge of the weather, not even in reverse. He's not convinced.

I'm not in charge of Joe Biden, either, though I wish I were. Why won't that man step down?!

....

And he did! Oh my goodness, I wrote that sentence about an hour ago, went off to do something else, and what do you know? Now it's going to be exciting -- will it be Kamala Harris or somebody else? How are the Democrats going to do this?

***

OK, I'm going to start this post again. I'm excited about this turn of events, but I'm not in charge of what happens next, and I don't think I want to try to be in charge, either. I'm just going to watch and wait. And read a lot of newspaper articles. (And maybe give Kamala Harris some money.)

***

Something nice happened to me this week: we started getting the paper delivered again. I think it was Monday that I got a call from the newspaper and a cheerful man offered me the digital version for something like $5/month, very cheap. I was tempted, but I said, you know, I really prefer a physical paper. Oh, he said eagerly, I can offer you delivery of the Sunday paper for (some low price, I forget what it was). Well, I said, what I'd really like is to get the paper every day. Oh, he said, even more excited, I can offer you daily delivery for only $7/week, $30/month, and that price is guaranteed for a year!

It was sort of like I was dreaming, but it was such a nice dream that I said sure, OK, let's do it. And he said great, are you still at the same address, etc., and then he hung up. No asking for any billing information, nothing like that. So I didn't think it was real. Just a nice dream. Except that the next morning I looked out, and there was the paper. And I've been receiving it ever since. And no bill has come. I've checked my credit card to see if maybe they still had my information on file and they're going to go back to charging $136/month, but so far nothing, no charges.

All I can think is that maybe the Realtors started to get mad. They're clearly the ones supporting the paper -- they buy all the ads and have their own special section on Fridays and Sundays -- and they probably are only willing to do that if the paper can guarantee a certain amount of readership. If they pull out, the paper dies. Whatever happened, I'm pleased.

***

Other than that -- and the political fireworks -- not much has been happening. This is the last week of Teen B's Aerobic Walking class -- Wednesday is the last day we can walk -- and we've only walked 1.29 miles so far (we have to do 6 miles this week). The weather's supposed to be better the next three days, so maybe we'll do 2 miles each day. I'm going to be greatly relieved when this is over! But I'll try to keep walking on my own.

I lost a little bit of weight this week...

        Weight the day I took my first shot: 254.6

        Weight last Sunday: 248.6

        Weight this morning: 247.8

It's going down, very slowly. It's been 37 days since my first shot and I'm down 6.8 pounds. That's roughly a pound and a quarter a week, on average. If I were on Weight Watchers, I would be happy, because 1.25 pounds a week is a nice, normal, healthy rate of weight loss. 

On Mounjaro, on the other hand, this is considered really slow. But healthy. I need to remember that. If I can keep going like this, by Christmas I could weigh 220 pounds. 

Which is still a lot. But a lot less. Is it worth the side effects? I'm not sure. To recap, the side effects I've experienced include: nausea, stomach pain/discomfort, diarrhea, heartburn (primarily when I lie down to go to sleep, forcing me to take Pepcid AC almost every night), insomnia, fatigue, lack of motivation, crabbiness (which may just be from the other symptoms), and the newest one: breakthrough bleeding! Yes, I've been in menopause for something like 15 years, and this week I had some bleeding. Not fun. Of course, you're supposed to tell your doctor about it because it could be something else, like ovarian cancer, but according to Reddit, it's probably just Mounjaro. Stupid Mounjaro.

And of course, I'm still on the lowest dose. Two more shots of this dose and then on August 9th I'll probably have to go up to 5 mg, which is where a lot of people say they started to feel the side effects. Sigh. Is it worth it? Maybe.

Last night we ate out at the Taj restaurant, their yummy Indian buffet, and oh boy, did I pay for that later. I had one plate of food, not full, and then a little bowl of rice pudding for dessert. I just drank water, no soda or mango lassi or whatever. And I felt fine. But later that night my stomach started to feel a little funny. I turned off my light at about 11:45, slept a little, and then woke up with horrible nausea. I fought it for a long time -- I really hate throwing up and I especially hate throwing up an expensive restaurant dinner -- and finally, finally, finally, at I have no idea what time, I fell asleep again. No vomiting. But it was touch and go. 

I figured out this week that I should try to get things done on Thursday and Friday, because I have the least amount of Mounjaro in my system by then and thus the greatest amount of energy. And it was true -- I got a few extra things done, such as cleaning off the kitchen counter. I'm still doing very badly with cleaning, though. It's just as if I'd never heard of the FlyLady. And the book group is coming in a week and a day (the 29th). How ever will I get the house clean in time? I am going to try to work on it this week, a little bit each day.

• Sunday (today): relax -- and maybe pull a few weeds.
  
• Monday: 15 minutes on the living room
• Tuesday: 15 minutes on the kitchen
• Wednesday: 15 minutes on the bathroom
• Thursday: 15 more minutes on the living room, vacuum
• Friday: 15 more minutes on the kitchen, maybe even mop!
• Saturday: relax
• Sunday: relax, maybe pull a few more weeds.
  
• Monday: deal with any disasters still present, pull more weeds.
  

Fortunately, of the two remaining members of the book group, one is taking Zepbound (Mounjaro by a different name) and the other is a Weight Watcher who is always careful about what she eats. So no need for a ton of food. The book we read was Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea, and it is quite obvious what I should serve: coffee and doughnuts (the characters in the book are with the Red Cross during World War II and all they do is serve coffee and doughnuts to the troops). Of course, nobody our age would drink coffee at night, even decaf, so I thought I might get some coffee ice cream to go with the doughnuts. I can drive to LaMar's on Monday to get a dozen doughnuts and the twins will eat whatever the book group doesn't.

The characters in the book also smoke constantly, and I did think about going to Rocket Fizz on Pearl Street and getting some candy cigarettes. But I don't know. I don't think I'll have the energy, and to be honest, even candy cigarettes kind of gross me out. I'll see how I feel next weekend.

I don't think I have much else to say this week. We changed Rocket Boy's plane reservation so he'll be coming several days earlier than we'd planned -- on Saturday, August 17th. This is because Back to School Night is Monday, August 19th, and I'd really like him to go to that with me, meet the kids' teachers, hear about what their school year will be like. He hasn't been to Back to School Night since the kids were in elementary school. He missed the one in 6th grade, there wasn't one in 7th due to the pandemic, I can't remember whether there was one in 8th, and he missed them in 9th and 10th grades. Since he really and truly is planning to retire in October and move back to Boulder, he needs to be more involved with school this year, and I figure Back to School Night is a place to start.

Then he can hang out and fix things for a few days, and then I leave on Friday, August 23rd for my baseball weekend with my sister in Seattle. I'm quite sure I won't be taking a shot of Mounjaro that day -- it's OK to delay it a few days. He'll take care of kids and cats, and I'll come home on Monday and he'll leave Tuesday the 27th. And the next time we see him after that may be when he comes home for good -- imagine that.