Here comes November

Yes, here we go with November. I always forget what a weird month this is. Four weeks (only 30 days), and the last week is vacation. Also, there's Veterans Day on Tuesday the 11th, and this year the kids get the day before Veterans Day off too. So we've got one full week, then a 3-day week (preceded by a 4-day weekend), then another full week, and then a week of vacation (9 days off in all, with the two weekends). The last day of the month is a Sunday, so when they go back to school it will be December. Yes, November is a very strange month.

It will be especially strange this year, because tomorrow Rocket Boy starts his new job for real. Last week he technically started it, but he was at home the whole time, and it was just orientation and filling out endless forms (including a timesheet, whoohoo). This coming week he has to drive to Buckley Space Force Base every morning, leaving home at 7 am or earlier. Tomorrow he has to BE there at 7, so he's planning to leave here at 6, or maybe even 5:30, something like that.

If I can stay awake, I'll have a lot of time to myself during the day. I'll have to do all the cooking and cleaning and errands and kid stuff, but it seems like a fair trade-off. I like having time to myself. Now if I can just get the kids to not come home for lunch, sigh.

It's weird to think about RB starting a new job -- and all the extra income that will generate -- when so many people in the country are losing their jobs, or having to work for no pay. I'm thinking about donating money to a food bank, maybe on a weekly basis? 

In the newspaper this morning there was an obituary of a man who died of injuries "suffered while riding his bicycle." He was retired from the EPA and was a beekeeper. I found an article about the crash that said he was 88. Obviously a very fit 88.

The crash was determined to be his fault, although there were some mitigating circumstances. Sounded like a good intersection NOT to be riding a bicycle through. So it goes.

The obituary also said,

"He was not married, had no children, and his parents died many years ago. He is survived by many cousins and friends and more than 10,000 bees."

That seemed both sweet -- to be survived by more than 10,000 bees -- and sad, because what will the bees do now? Go on being bees, I suppose, but without the help of their faithful beekeeper.

*** 

So, anyway, we had a lovely Halloween. Only two days ago and I'm forgetting it already. Last Sunday we went out to Munson's and got our pumpkins, four of them. A squirrel began eating one of them immediately -- the pale orange one, which was an heirloom variety. Must have tasted better than the others!

I decided to let the squirrel have that one, and I would carve the others.

This year's Haunted House at the high school had the theme "Shipwrecked Souls." There were various sea creatures involved. Then, while driving Teen B home from school one day this week, we noticed a pumpkin in front of a building carved as an anglerfish! So cute! So I decided that we would do our pumpkins as sea creatures this year, including an anglerfish.

It wasn't easy, but I sort of succeeded. Here you see an octopus, a shark, and ta-da! an anglerfish! The octopus's arms are a little funky, well, a lot funky. The great white shark (notice I made the white pumpkin be the shark) appears to have hair. I swear the shark pumpkins I looked at online had that sort of cutout above the eyes and it didn't look like hair. But my shark pumpkin appeared to have hair. Sort of. 

The main problem with the anglerfish pumpkin is that the light is supposed to be in the LITTLE pumpkin, not the main one. That's the whole point -- the light in the little pumpkin attracts fish who don't see the jaws of the anglerfish behind it (in a real anglerfish of course it's not a pumpkin, it's a little lantern-like thing). But my little pumpkin was plastic, and I couldn't put a real, burning candle in that, and I didn't have an electric candle to put in it. Not at all prepared this year. I hadn't bought votive candles -- we were able to dig up a few, but now I am totally out, must buy more for next year. I lost my big box of matches and had to use matches from a tiny box that Rocket Boy found somewhere. 

We had a ton of trick-or-treaters, possibly more than ever. The weather was good -- it was cold, but not windy or precipitating -- and of course, it was Friday night. I was just finishing up carving when the first group arrived, and then I had to make dinner. Rocket Boy had gone swimming, so he wasn't there to help, and Teen B refused to answer the door. I started getting a little frantic. But it all worked out. I told the first group to take "a handful," which was a mistake, because they took huge handfuls and then shouted to their friends, "She says we can take a whole handful!" and then their friends came running up and taking huge handfuls, and pretty soon I was almost out of candy and had to open the rest of the bags I'd bought. 

After dinner, Rocket Boy and I watched the NewsHour and Washington Week, both of which were plenty scary, and then we settled down to a scary movie. I had gotten some movies from the library, but I said we could watch an old movie on the Criterion Channel if he'd prefer -- and of course he did -- so we watched "Vampyr," a movie made in 1932 by a famous Danish director, Carl Theodor Dreyer. It wasn't very scary -- in fact, it was very hard to follow. But that's OK, it was interesting.

I ate some candy that night -- not a lot, but some -- so I was expecting that to show up on the scale, but this morning's number was truly alarming. Since it's a new month, I'll give the Mounjaro report.

June 14, 2024: 254.6

Aug 1, 2025: 214.8
Sep 1, 2025: 210.8
Oct 1, 2025: 211.4

Oct 31, 2025: 211.8
Nov 1, 2025: 214.6
Nov 2, 2025: 218.6

Oops!

I am not going to get too upset about this. Obviously I didn't eat seven pounds worth of Halloween candy in the last few days. Something funky is going on, and I am just going to ignore it. Continue walking regularly -- I've been doing pretty well, recently -- eat three healthy meals a day, and don't worry. 

(Note: the photo is of Teen A's banana split at the restaurant last night, not anything I ate! It just seemed like a good place to stick it in.) 

Speaking of eating, this was a good cooking week. The NY Times had some suggestions for easy meals that toddlers would like, and I made three of them. Rocket Boy also cooked.

• On Monday I made Cheesy Tuna and Tomato Orzo, which was pretty good. Everyone ate it, and I had the leftovers for lunch on two days. 
• On Tuesday Rocket Boy made his Vegetable Pot Pie, which turned out really well.
• On Wednesday we had a second Pot Pie (RB had made enough filling for two pies) and it was even better than the first (he remembered to add some cream).
• On Thursday I made Skillet Broccoli Cheddar Rice, with a can of red beans added. It was OK but so terribly bland. It would have been a good recipe if it had just had some flavor. Good for toddlers, I guess.
• On Friday I made Cheesy Gnocchi with Corn and Pesto, substituting a can of white beans for one of the cans of corn. That was really yummy. I thought I was the only one who really liked it, but Teen B requested a plate of leftovers for breakfast Saturday morning and Rocket Boy had the rest for Saturday lunch, so I think I'll make it again. Maybe in three months or so. Every time I make a recipe that's not horrible I have to think about how long I have to wait until I can make it again. Some recipes are once-a-year affairs; others can be made once a month.

This coming week, since it's November, I can make Brenda's Sticky Tofu again -- I'm getting so tired of it, but Teen B asks for it every few days. And maybe salmon. And some other delightful vegetarian concoctions. Sigh.

What do I need to think about this month?

Well, Thanksgiving. I'll have to figure out what to do about that. I imagine we'll just be home, cooking our normal stuff. If Rocket Boy hadn't gotten a job, we might have taken a trip somewhere, but I doubt he'll have more than the one day off. Maybe the day after too. And then the following Monday, December 1st, he'll finally see the orthopedic surgeon.

Oh! I forgot to mention his MRI results. He had the MRI done last Monday and we heard back from the PA the next day. The news was bad, very bad. 

Large full-thickness rotator cuff tendon tear involving supraspinatus and subscapularis tendons, with retraction of torn tendon fibers to the glenohumeral joint level and associated fatty atrophy of supraspinatus and subscapularis muscles.

What this means is that the tear is old, not new. He must have had a partial tear before and the recent injury just pulled the last bits off. We know this because of the "fatty atrophy" part. Fatty atrophied muscles can't be repaired. 

In addition,

Infraspinatus tendon is subluxed posteriorly over the humeral head, with marked interstitial tendinosis and partial tearing distally.

Not totally clear on what this means, but I don't think it's good. Plus,

Acromioclavicular degenerative arthropathy.

And

Glenohumeral osteoarthritis with diffuse grade 2 chondral thinning of the superior glenoid articular cartilage. Associated moderate glenohumeral joint effusion with synovial debris accumulating posteriorly.

Honestly, we're kind of trying not to think too much about this. It sounds really bad and unfixable. But he's in a lot of pain. I wonder if there's something they can do. 

If he does have surgery, maybe it will be around Christmas. That would be a good thing. We need to buy a recliner for him to sleep in -- my friend in my book group told me the best place to go is American Furniture Warehouse -- but we won't do it unless we're sure he's going to have surgery, so we'll wait on it for now. 

So, anyway, that's our life for now. Rocket Boy's life is very complicated, with the new job and the injury and prospect of surgery. The twins are working on college applications and homework and senior stuff. And me? I'm just chugging along, trying to keep the household running. Trying to pay attention to the news while not paying too much attention to the news, because if I do, I get so so so depressed.  

Election Day is Tuesday. We voted, finally, a few days ago, and we both got the emails saying our ballots were received and then counted. So we've done our part. I put our blue "Vote" sign in the front yard by what's left of the pumpkins. If you look closely, you can see our resident bunny in the grass between the tree and the car.