October doings

Woo-hoo! It's October for sure. The trees are turning, the temperature is dropping, and the sky is as blue as blue can be. Actually, we had some gray skies this week, and even some rain, but today the blue is dazzling. I don't want to go out and take more pictures, though, because it's windy! So you can just imagine a vibrant blue instead of the cloudy skies in some of my pics (taken a few days ago, on various walks).

The week started out busy, with lots of appointments (for Rocket Boy -- I think he had five? six?), but quieted down toward the end. On the plus side, he can now drive, even with the busted rotator cuff, so he took himself to most of the appointments. On the minus side, his physical therapist thinks the rotator cuff is a mess, totally ripped, not fixable with PT. RB's regular doctor had told us last week that he himself had recovered from TWO rotator cuff tears with physical therapy, giving us hope that it might be possible. But the physical therapist crushed that hope. Oh well. So now we just go through the motions of going to therapy, because Blue Cross requires it before they'll even let you have an MRI.

He went ahead and accepted the job offer he received the week before, but told them about his situation. His new manager suggested he have the surgery right away, so he can recover from it while he waits for his clearances, but of course that's not possible. So we'll just see how it goes. He's thinking of lots of things -- like, how will he get his lymphedema stockings on, with only one functioning arm? (He's struggling already, now.) My answer: I'll have to help. But also, he's arranging to get weekly lymphatic massages again, at least until he has to go to work at Buckley fulltime. He's also getting a special brace made for his arthritic ankle. Honestly, so much of his body is falling apart -- if it were me, I'd just give up. But that's not how he rolls. 

We still have to figure out where to get a recliner, because Rocket Boy will have to sleep in one for several weeks after the surgery. The partner of someone in the book group had this surgery, or something like it, a few months ago, and they got a recliner fairly cheaply, so I will ask her about it when we meet this week. Of course, we have no place to put it. Details.

We are in the middle of a four-day weekend. Indigenous Peoples Day tomorrow, followed by an extra day off (together they make up the new "fall break"). We probably should have planned some fun activities, but I think we're feeling a little drained by Rocket Boy's injury and job offer and everything we have to do regarding those two things. 

Tomorrow, Teen B is going in for a day of neuro-psych testing, assuming I can get him out of bed (it starts at 8:30 in the morning and we've gotten up VERY late the last two days). Rocket Boy suggested offering him money to go to it, and I think I probably will do that. I'll start with a small offer, maybe $10, and work my way up to as much as I have to. I don't have high hopes for the testing. I just feel as though it's something we should do. If the psychologist doesn't come up with anything we'll say, fine, OK, guess he's "normal," and move on. We have a history of receiving that sort of diagnosis, from previous testing: "low normal," "just barely in the normal range," "expressive language disorder -- but that doesn't really mean anything," etc. I've always been anti-meds, but I wish now (since he's almost 18) that there were a pill we could give him that would make his life easier. There probably isn't. We'll see.

Thinking of the future, this week Teen B and I completed his applications to two colleges: CU Boulder and CU Denver. He's also going to apply to CSU, but they're free to apply to all the time, so we didn't have to do it this week. Maybe next week. I also need to help Teen A apply to Metro, but again, it's free, so no rush. Teen B asked a teacher to write a recommendation for him and she said she would, so that's good. Now I have to fill out the financial aid forms, the FAFSA and maybe there's a state one too, not sure. I don't think we'll qualify for (much? any?) aid this year, because we have lots of money in their college funds, plus we own three houses, and it's based on our income in 2024, when Rocket Boy earned a lot of money. You fill out the form every year, so next year it will be different because we had much less income this year, and as we gradually drain the college funds, we're more likely to be considered. I think. I don't really know how it works. They'll probably expect us to sell the cabin.

Parent-teacher conferences were this week, on Monday night, so that was interesting. We had particularly good interactions with the teachers we DIDN'T need to talk to: culinary, pottery, and life management. Nobody was in line to talk to them and they all looked bored, so we spent a lot of time chatting. Apparently Teen A is excelling at pottery, even showing other students how to work the wheel. "I think he must have done this before," the pottery teacher told us. No, we told her, not unless he's been doing it secretly. He's just good at figuring out how things work.

I was unimpressed by Teen A's physics teacher, which is too bad since he isn't doing well. Physics! Such an impossible subject. I liked his math teacher a lot, though, and also Teen B's senior lit teacher was good. Teen A's senior lit teacher, maybe not so much, and Teen B's geology teacher, hmm, meh. Teen B's math teacher was off coaching the golf team, so we'll try to meet online with him this week. And we skipped the band teacher. I've spoken to him multiple times before.

It was a decent cooking week. Monday we just had a frozen pizza, due to conferences. On Tuesday, Rocket Boy made his famous French onion soup, and we had the leftovers on Wednesday. On Thursday, I made cauliflower marranca, from the old Moosewood cookbook, and that was a hit, and on Friday, I made Arabian squash-cheese casserole, also from Moosewood, and although that was less of a hit, everyone ate it. Last night we had dinner at Red Robin and tonight of course is forage night.

I think this week I might do what I did last week and choose one cookbook to cook from. I'll see. Have to do something to make cooking bearable. I'm really trying to be less negative about cooking, lean into it as a strength I have rather than a burden to bear, but it's hard. On Thursday I was really tired, hadn't slept well, and cauliflower marranca is a complicated recipe (though none of the steps are actually hard). At one point I burned myself on the steam from the rice cooker at the same moment I was trying to saute the cauliflower and the oil was leaping out of the pan and stinging me, and I started screaming. Rocket Boy came out to see what was the matter: "Can I help?" "You could have helped if you'd come out half an hour ago!" I screamed at him, which was totally not fair, since he always helps if I ask, and I didn't ask.

Anyway, eventually I got it done and everyone really liked it. But god I hate cooking.

I also hate cleaning. This week I started thinking about how all the tasks I do lead to other tasks. I cook dinner, which leads to a big heap of dishes which I then have to do. I load the dishwasher and run it, which means later I'm going to have to unload it, which I do not enjoy doing. I feed the cats, which means later they're going to poop and pee and I'll have to clean the litter boxes, which I hate. I throw a load of laundry into the washer, which means later I'm going to have to put the clean clothes away, which I don't mind that much, but it's just ONE MORE THING.

I wish I could figure out a way to make the tasks not lead to other tasks, but I think it's impossible.

Oh, almost forgot to mention the fire! A few nights ago, almost the entire business district up in Nederland burned to the ground, including a lot of little animals at the Wild Bear Center -- a turtle, some salamanders, things like that. Salamanders with NAMES. Also, I heard that two orange cats died, that lived in one of the clothing stores, but I haven't had that confirmed. So far they have no idea what caused it, but of course everyone is wondering about arson. It started at about 3 am. So sad. At least the Carousel of Happiness didn't burn down, nor the grocery store, but about 18 other businesses did. It's awful. 

On a more cheerful note, I had a pretty good week, personally. I read a lot, two different spooky books plus part of a non-spooky book that I'm also enjoying, and also managed to do some writing on a few days, maybe three. I am trying to finish a draft of my November book by the end of October, so that I can spend November revising it on the days that it takes place. I always forget exactly what the weather is like at different times of the year (of course, it differs some from year to year), so it's helpful to work on these books right when they would be happening. If that makes sense. Even things like how dark it is at different times of the days. Anyway, it was a good writing week. I'd like to be able to write at least five days a week, but three is good.

I also decorated the spider web on the front porch -- forgot to take a picture, but I'll take one for next week. The spider web has been up since last October, but yesterday I tied a whole lot more little insects and things to it, so it looks like the spider has been really busy. 

We don't have any pumpkins yet, maybe next weekend. I was amused by all the Halloween stuff at Home Depot, where we went yesterday to get furnace filters, but didn't buy anything. Our neighborhood is already FULL of skeletons and ghosts, however. People here really enjoy this holiday.

Well, I should go eat some lunch and then help Rocket Boy install the furnace filters. It's just crazy windy today. I want to take a walk, but hmm, maybe I'll skip it today. I walked the last five days in a row -- I can take Sunday off. It's fun just to look outside and watch the leaves blow. We are going to have some raking to do this week, for sure.