September: still hot

It is supposed to be cooler this coming week, highs in the 80s some days and even 70s some of the others. But today it is 91 and it feels so awful. It might rain later, so that will help, although I have a lot of things on the line right now. They should dry quickly though. I just have to remember to bring them in before that first clap of thunder.

This was a busy week for me, with three trips to Boulder Medical Center, among other activities. On Tuesday I saw the orthopedic PA, the first follow-up appointment after my knee surgery. She was very pleased with my progress, very impressed with how much mobility I already have. Her helper removed my stitches and put some steri-strips on the incisions. I still can't go swimming, or in hot tubs, or take a bath, for another 4 weeks. But that's fine. I go back in four weeks, and after that I should be free to do whatever I want.

On Wednesday I went in for bloodwork, which was not fun, but not a big deal either (I remembered to make an appointment so I didn't have to wait for two hours like last time). Unfortunately my fasting glucose was as always too high (112) and my A1c went up this time, from 6.2 last September and 6.1 last March to 6.3. This is still within the "prediabetic" range, though, which is very good if you actually have Type 2 diabetes, and I think it's probably partly due to not getting any exercise all summer, due to the knee. If I start walking more, as the knee gradually heals, that will probably help. All my other numbers were perfect. She tested my Vitamin B12 level, because that's the kind of thing that people on GLP-1 drugs tend to have trouble with, especially if you also take Metformin as I do, but it was 1017 (normal is 232-1245). I almost never have anything wrong with anything except sugar.

On Friday I saw my regular doctor for my 6-month check-up. She seemed preoccupied with something, didn't even ask about my surgery. We mostly talked about nausea, and ways to treat it. After the surgery I was given Zofran, but I haven't taken it yet. She suggested I try taking it on the two days after my shot when I have the most nausea. I also showed her an anti-nausea medicine I found at King Soopers, but she didn't know anything about it. My plan this week is to take a dose of the King Soopers medicine tomorrow, Zofran on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the King Soopers medicine again on Thursday. Then I will also buy some ginger chews and try those. I never had any luck with ginger when I was pregnant -- it had exactly zero effect. But this is different, a different cause, so I'll try it again. It feels good to have a plan.

An example of how distracted my doctor was: I had told her assistant that I wanted to talk about nausea, and before Dr. T. came in, she'd glanced at the notes and thought it said "marijuana." She realized what it said after a moment, but she told me she was very surprised to think (for a moment) that I'd become a marijuana user. I assured her that I do not indulge (not mentioning my involvement with the substance at age 14), and explained that it's because marijuana is believed to be a trigger for schizophrenia. While I have no way to prevent the twins from using it, I have told them to be careful, and I figure it helps if I don't use it. (Not that I want to!) She said she felt exactly the same way with her kids.

The week also contained fun activities. On Tuesday evening I went to the Faculty Tuesday concert at CU, I think the first of the season. It was "Double Reed Faculty and Friends," and of course I wanted to hear that, because the oboe is a double reed instrument and I just love the sound of the oboe. The other double reed instrument is the bassoon, and there was a lot of bassoon music, too, which I enjoyed, just not as much as the oboe. Still, the bassoon quartet playing Bach's "Suite No. 1 for cello" was pretty amazing. 

Rocket Boy said, "Maybe I should come too," but I knew he didn't really want to. "No, no, you're fine," I told him. "Stay home, eat leftovers, relax." Instead, he and Teen A went out to eat at the Nepalese restaurant near us, which is the last thing I would have wanted to do on a Nausea Tuesday.

I am going to try to go to a lot of these concerts this year. There is absolutely no reason not to, no kids I have to help with homework in the evenings, etc. And Rocket Boy absolutely does not need to come. It takes me perhaps five minutes to drive to campus, park in the huge parking garage, and walk across the street to the music building. The concerts are free. I find a seat in the auditorium and sit down to enjoy some absolutely sublime music. I love it.

Wednesday afternoon around 3 pm, I was hanging out with the cats when I got a text from Teen B: "Marg are u home?" Pretty soon, along he came, walking up the driveway. He doesn't have class on Wednesday afternoons, so he'd hopped on a bus. It turned out that he wanted help with an assignment that required writing. Sigh. I *TOLD* the kids I was not going to help with homework in college.

But on the other hand, I don't want him to fail a dumb class like "Health and Wellness for Everyone" just because he finds writing so acutely painful. What am I going to do with this kid? I helped him. I didn't write it for him! But I gave him ideas, kept him going, wrote a couple of extra sentences for him. He managed to finish the assignment and submit it.

I don't know. He's doing so well in some ways, but in others... well, we'll just see how it goes.

I took him to the bus at 7 pm, and we haven't seen him since. He didn't come home this weekend.

On Friday after my doctor appointment I made Rocket Boy a birthday cake (his birthday was yesterday). I made a plum cake, out of the Barbara Pym cookbook, with some variations. Her recipe calls for chopped glaceed cherries, raisins, sultanas, chopped almonds, and chopped candied lemon, orange, or mixed peel, plus an optional glass of brandy. In my cake I put chopped prunes, chopped dried apricots, dried blueberries, raisins, golden raisins, sliced almonds, chopped pecans, and chopped walnuts, plus two very squishy bananas. It's a fun cake. But I think I baked it too long. Her recipe says to bake it for about 3.5 hours at 300 degrees. I baked it for 2 hours at 325, and I think 1.5 would have been plenty. Oh well, another time. As you can see, it is getting eaten, although it's mostly me eating it for breakfast (don't tell my doctor).

On Saturday Rocket Boy brought home another cake -- but this one wasn't for him. It was for the twins, whose half birthday was Wednesday. When they were little, we used to enjoy celebrating their half birthday, but now it seems a little ridiculous. Happy 37th birthday, for heaven's sake. And Teen B wasn't even around to try it. Teen A looked at it, said hmm, and then went out with his girlfriend. So Rocket Boy and I each had a piece. This was after going out to eat at Boulder Social, and I was full of golden beet salad (with goat cheese, raisins, and pecans, plus grilled salmon on the side, so delicious), so the cake was a bit much for me, but I finished it.

Oh, I've forgotten to mention Saturday's other activity -- the annual Pancake Breakfast! It was somewhat controversial this year, because it's always held on the second Saturday in September, and unfortunately this year the second Saturday in September was Rosh Hashanah, which the organizers either didn't know about or didn't think was important enough to move the breakfast. A lot of angry words were exchanged online about this, but in the end, the organizers promised to never do this again, and the breakfast went on as scheduled, it being too late to reschedule everything. 

I decided to volunteer this year, which I've never done before because I was always so involved in taking care of twins, trying to get everyone to the breakfast, etc. This year I figured everyone could go, or not go, as they pleased (Rocket Boy went alone, Teen A and his girlfriend slept through the whole thing, Teen B was of course in Fort Collins). However, there was the issue of my recently operated-on knee. I decided to sign up for a half shift, 9:30-11, and Rocket Boy actually drove me there, but I walked home (slowly) with no trouble. My job was serving fruit toppings, rhubarb and peach, so to each person who came up with a plate of pancakes I said, "We have rhubarb syrup, peach syrup, and traditional maple syrup," and then the person next to me would add, "We also have whipped cream, walnuts, and chocolate chips, plus the butter is self-serve." 

Volunteering was really fun. I had been nervous about it -- I'm just afraid of committing myself to anything right now -- but it was great. Everyone was so friendly, I talked to lots of people, I got to know new people... Usually when we go to the breakfast, we sit next to some people we don't know, talk to them a little, and then go home. This was MUCH more fun. So I'm going to try to remember that, and volunteer for more little things that come up.

I was really tired Saturday night, just could not keep my eyes open, so I turned off my light and snuggled down before Rocket Boy had finished his hour-long session on the pump. Then, he woke me up. "What's that weird noise?" 

What noise? I didn't hear a noise. 

"It sounds like there's someone in the living room, working on something." 

There's no one in the living room. It's probably just Sillers. 

Rocket Boy took off his pumping paraphernalia and went out to investigate. But Sillers was sitting innocently in the middle of the kitchen floor and there was no one in the living room. Suspiciously, Rocket Boy came back to bed and we turned out the light.

The next morning, maybe an hour or so after her breakfast, Sillers threw up all over the kitchen floor (don't worry, I don't have a picture). The thing was, it wasn't just her regular food, it was something sort of bluish. The picture has already given it away, so I'll jump to the solution: when Rocket Boy was hearing something weird, it was Sillers, who had gotten up onto the dining room table and opened the cake box (which I had closed, but not tightly enough). She had licked all the frosting off Teen A's side of the cake (his name was written in blue). I cut off a big chunk of the cake and put it in the compost bin -- I think the rest is still OK to eat.

After that initial vomiting episode, she vomited I think five more times, here and there around the house, and also pooped, I think eight times (in every room in the house), the last time serious diarrhea. And I imagine she's not done, and I also imagine there are messes we haven't found yet. But she's subdued now -- I found her hiding in the corner by Rocket Boy's side of the bed, and now she's asleep on top of the bed. 

Honestly, it wouldn't be the worst thing if this digestive nightmare was the end of her. I said that to Rocket Boy and he actually agreed. But I think she's getting better. Sigh. I just can't take her to the vet and have them put her to sleep, I just can't, but her lack of bladder control is driving me somewhat crazy (this is in addition to all the vomiting and pooping going on today). Every single day I have to wash multiple pee pads, plus blankets, rugs, etc. Thank goodness I invested in a lot of reusable pee pads, because it would be quite expensive to keep buying more disposable ones. We now own two big ones and I think six smaller ones. Most are either currently in use or on the line. Sigh.

Well, on we go. This coming week should be simpler, no medical appointments for me, though Rocket Boy usually has some. He has two types of physical therapy, plus his various doctors, so he goes to a lot of appointments. I don't know how he has time to work, plus commuting an hour each way. He's tired a lot. 

The only thing I have on the calendar this week is the CU Faculty Tuesday concert, which I will try to attend, and of course I will be experimenting with anti-nausea medicine. And I'll try to do some writing and some genealogy, and make dinner, and hang out with Teen B if he comes for another visit. Just a pleasant week. I hope. You never know! Hope you have a good week too. 

September plans

It occurred to me that since it's September, I should review my summer achievements (or lack thereof) and make fall plans.

I'm not really in the mood to do either thing. I'm weirdly apathetic these days. I think it's partly the endless heat, partly the recovery process from my surgery, partly feeling strange with the twins being in college. 

But let's look at that list that I made back in May, see if I did anything on it.

1. Get Teen B to pass his driving test. YES! Done! He got his license!
2. Get passports for me and Teen B. NO. Did not do. Maybe this fall (for me). I doubt if we'll be planning any international trips before next summer.
3. Plan trip to California. YES! Planned and taken!
4. Prepare for college. YES? We screwed up on some things, but basically, yeah, we got ready and they're both doing it.
5. Teach independence, e.g., laundry, banking. YES/NO. They're both doing their own laundry now, although it was kind of a last-minute thing. I just said to Teen A -- Teen B has to do it at college, so you do it at home, and he did. I think he's done it three times now (but he won't put his clean clothes away, just leaves them in a pile). And Teen B is apparently doing his at college, since he hasn't brought any dirty laundry home, and each time I see him, he's wearing clean clothes. Both of them could use some more money knowledge, though.
6. Clean & reorganize the kids' room. NO. Teen A actually did some of this himself (see photo above). He cleaned off the desk in their room and set up his gaming computer on it. But I did nothing, no energy all summer long.
7. Work on files and piles in the desk room. NO. I did absolutely nothing on this all summer.
8. Write thank-you notes. YES (almost). One set of cards & cash came in very late (from our next-door neighbor) and we didn't write her a note (yet), but everyone else got thanked.
9. Flying lessons for Teen A. YES/NO. He took a couple, but then he stopped and it turned out he doesn't want to be a pilot after all, so it's fine...
10. Continue working on the yard. NO. Once it got hot, I stopped doing anything.
11. Convert my blogs to books. NO. I actually forgot about this. Maybe this fall?
12. Take Teen B's clarinet to be refurbished. NO. He told me it didn't need refurbishing. I could still do it this fall, because he doesn't need it until second semester. I'll see. 

So, four yes, two yes/no, and six no. Not a very good record, but oh well. Summer is hard. And we did some of the most important things.

OK, now it's fall (doesn't feel like it, but it's September, anyway). First day of astronomical fall is September 22nd, so 16 days from now. But the first day of meteorological fall was September 1st, so it's kind of fall.

And the hummingbirds are gone -- so early! Why did they leave when it's still so hot? I thought mid-September was when they leave, but this year it was more like mid-August. I should probably take the feeder down, maybe fill it just ONE more time, but I don't think any birds will come to it.

Hmm.

I was thinking that it occasionally snows in September, but I can't remember when it last did that. Looking back at old blog posts, I found one from September 11th, 2014 where I said "it's supposed to snow tonight." Then in another post, from September 24th, 2016, I talk about going to the mountains to look at leaves, and on the road over Boreas Pass the temperature dropped to 33 degrees and it began to snow lightly. Then in a post from October 9, 2017, I mention that we had the first snow of the season that day. And in 2019 our first snow came on October 10th.

Oh! September 8th, 2020, it snowed heavily! So there's a fairly recent one, only six years ago. It CAN happen! 

Wouldn't that be amazing, if it snowed this week? (Or any time this month?) Instead, it's supposed to be: 91 (today), 89, 87, 85, 91, 91, 88. I guess I should make plans to really enjoy Wednesday, the 85 day.

So, do I have fall plans? Well, there was that interesting schedule I made for myself a month ago, let's look at that again.

• 7 am: Rocket Boy gets up, goes to work.
• 8 am: I get up, feed the cats, have breakfast, do the dishes, start a load of laundry, do an exercise video, etc.
• 9:30-10:30: read for an hour
• 10:30-12:30: work on writing projects
• 12:30-1:30: lunch break, put the laundry in the dryer, do other miscellaneous things
• 1:30-3:30: do genealogy
• 3:30-4:30: read for an hour
• 4:30-7:00: put away the laundry, do other household tasks, take a walk, make dinner 
• 7:00-11:00: eat dinner with RB, spend a pleasant evening together, feed cats, bed 

I took a stab at following this schedule one day this week, Thursday or Friday, I forget. There are a few problems with it, to wit:

• I don't really get up at 8, when my alarm goes off. Sometimes I get up at 8:30, sometimes 9, sometimes even later. (Today it was 10, but of course it's Sunday.) I think it has to do with the heat. I'm just so lethargic This means that I don't have time to get my morning chores done by 9:30. But one day this week I was ready by 10, so I read for about 45 minutes and then moved on to writing.
• I simply do not want to cook. Not a couple times a week, NOT AT ALL. But Rocket Boy still wants to eat dinner when he comes home. Again, this may get a little easier when the weather gets cooler.
• As I noted back when I first made this schedule, there's no time in it for planning meals, going to the grocery store, paying bills, etc., except maybe in the late afternoon, but hmm.  

OK, I think that was enough planning. Realistically, it's going to take a while to get back into a fall routine.

I wish it would cool down.

We've been dealing with a lot of issues with the cats. Sillers is still peeing on everything. I ordered six more reusable pee pads from Chewy and they came today. We made up Teen B's bed with clean sheets and then put a giant pee pad on it, in case she decides to sleep on it, as she does sometimes (you can see it in the picture at the top of this post). We've been keeping pee pads on our bed, and I've been continuing to do laundry. But today, when Teen A and I got home from Starbucks, we discovered that she had peed on the living room floor. It got on a little washable rug, so I threw the rug in the washing machine. It's on the line now -- I should probably bring it in.

Baby Kitty got out briefly one day this week, ate something in the yard, and the next day had diarrhea in All Three Litter Boxes (and on the pee pads under the boxes). That was fun to clean up. Then we thought he was better, but today he had diarrhea in two of the litter boxes and on the floor. Why do we have cats, I keep asking myself. Is it worth it? I don't know.

Last night we went out to dinner at the restaurant at the golf course and brought Teen A's girlfriend along. I like her a lot, and it's nice that she's getting more comfortable with us. She and I both ordered the beet salad, which is very delicious. But for dessert, a sad thing happened. She and Teen A ordered the tiramisu to share, Rocket Boy ordered the lemon tart, and I ordered the orange pana cotta. But the waiter didn't bring my dessert, and he didn't come back to our table until the others were done with their desserts. He said, "Can I get you anything else?" and I said, what happened to my dessert? He looked stricken and offered to go get it, but at that point it seemed too late. So I didn't have dessert (I had some ice cream at home later). It was fine, the world is so full of misery, who cares about me not having dessert? But it made me oddly miserable, as though I had been found unworthy of having dessert. It brought back memories of childhood, when I was always thought to be too fat and thus shouldn't have various treats. Silly, I know. It sometimes seems as though we never grow up. 

This coming week is going to be mainly taken up with medical appointments. First we've got Labor Day, tomorrow, so the kids don't have school, but I think Rocket Boy may go to work anyway. He's considering it. He's had a hard time the last several days -- another bout of cellulitis, and then a head cold -- so he'd like to get back on track.

Tuesday I have my follow-up appointment at 2pm, for the knee, and I'll find out if they want me to have physical therapy and all that.

Wednesday I have a 9:45 am appointment to get bloodwork done. I am not sure if I have to fast or not, have an email into my doctor's office to find out.

Friday I have my half-yearly appointment at 1:30 pm with my regular doctor. 

Saturday is our neighborhood pancake breakfast, and I have signed up to work for part of the time. I hope my knee won't object. They've had a hard time getting people to sign up -- there was a big brouhaha because of course Saturday is also Rosh Hashanah, which the breakfast organizers apparently didn't realize, or didn't care about, I don't know, but anyway, many people in the neighborhood got upset about this when they noticed the schedule conflict. The organizers promised never to do it again, but it was too late to change the date this year. 

Saturday is also Rocket Boy's birthday, but since he doesn't like to be reminded of it, I don't have to do anything special for it, just get him a card. If I feel ambitious, I might make a cake on Friday. I like to make him cakes full of fruit and nuts, the kind that the twins hate. I'll see how it goes. 

I hope it's a good week. 

Reading post: August

It's the last day of August, so I must quickly do a post. In August the plan was to read more biographies, specifically, to get caught up with my presidential biography reading for the year. But since everything I wanted to read had to be requested from other libraries, I started with more of the fiction I'd planned to read in July but didn't get to.

Books I said I'd like to read

The Fell by Sarah Moss (2021). For me, Sarah Moss is hit or miss: sometimes brilliant, sometimes irritating. This book falls more on the brilliant side, although it's about the pandemic. I've read a few novels about what it was like to wear masks, practice social distancing, etc., and they make me angry. Maybe because reading about it brings back bad memories, I don't know. But this is a decent book about Covid. Kate, a single parent, breaks quarantine to go for a hike, though if she is caught the financial penalty (in England) will be high. She falls and injures herself, triggering a rescue operation. That's the whole book, but it's kind of mesmerizing. Also, there's a raven.

Extinction by Thomas Bernhard, translated from the German by David McLintock (1986/1995). Oh dear. I want to like Bernhard -- I liked Wittgenstein's Nephew -- but I'm beginning to think maybe he's not for me. This book is his magnum opus, and I just hated it. It's one 326-page paragraph (at least it's not one sentence, like Septology), and it's mostly just a rant from the estranged son of a wealthy Austrian family whose parents and older brother have just died in a car accident, making him the heir. He rants about Austria, his family, how he hates almost everything, he hates pigeons, he hates the Catholic Church (even though he now lives in Rome), he hates... I forget what all he hates. Some of his hatred is intelligent (e.g., Nazis), and some is very sus, to the point where I thought he was probably certifiably insane. So glad to finish it, not sure why I made the effort. Now I have to decide whether I want to read anything else by Bernhard. Hmm.

Past Forgetting: My Love Affair with Dwight D. Eisenhower by Kaye Summersby Morgan (1976). My second Eisenhower book. It was ghostwritten while Summersby was dying of cancer, and it's hard to know how much is really from her. However, it sounds very believable. It's fascinating how hard the Eisenhower machine has worked to erase her from his biography. She isn't even mentioned on his Wikipedia page, except that under "See also" there's a link to her page, and she's listed as "chauffeur and secretary." Her page says:

It is generally agreed that Summersby and Eisenhower became extremely close during the war; some writers have suggested a sexual relationship between the two, although people who knew both of them at the time have rejected that claim, as have most of Eisenhower's biographers.

But Jean Edward Smith, who wrote the best biography of Eisenhower (the one I read) absolutely accepts the claim. I think Summersby's getting a raw deal on Wikipedia, just like the raw deal she apparently got from Eisenhower, when he dumped her with no warning and no explanation.

The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys by Doris Kearns Goodwin (1987). My first JFK book. I am planning to read three in all -- we'll see how that goes. This one is really a history of his family, almost a genealogy book, and it's very interesting. It was also hard to obtain. None of the local libraries had it, so I had to get it from the Regis University library via Prospector. The text was 817 pages and it took me FOREVER to get through, but it was worth it. I imagine the other books I read about Kennedy will also talk about his mother's and father's families, but this one went into so much detail. I would have liked to read more about JFK's younger siblings, but I learned a lot about his brother Joe and sisters Rosemary and Kathleen. When "Kick" (Kathleen) died, the life went out of the book in the same way it must have gone out of the Kennedy family.  

Books from the New Yorker's "Briefly Noted" reviews

The Moral Circle: Who Matters, What Matters, and Why by Jeff Sebo (2025). So, ever since AI began to explode and there's all this talk about how it's going to take over everyone's jobs, etc., I've been thinking a couple of things. First, general annoyance because it sounds as though AI is very good at doing exactly the kinds of things I'm good at, organizing and sorting and whatnot. Second, I've started thinking about other species and where they fit in. If AI is gradually going to get much much smarter and more capable than us, won't human exceptionalism go by the wayside? (as it should) and then will we become just another animal, like bears and wombats and dragonflies? This philosophy book is about why we ought to expand our moral circle (our collection of beings that we believe matter for their own sake) to include everything that's conscious -- possibly including robots, in part because we need to train them now to include us in their moral circle. There is one example in the book about what if your house was burning down and you could only save either one person or one fruit fly, and the author argued that there wasn't an obvious choice between them, they were both important. I'm OK with accepting insects into my moral circle, but shouldn't we include trees too? Sebo argues against factory farming of animals and insects, but if plants are also conscious, is it OK to factory farm them? Anyway, a very interesting book, lots to think about.

Other reading 

Your Kid Belongs Here: An Insider's Guide to Parenting Neurodiverse Children by Katie Rose Guest Pryal (2025). My eighth autism book (I didn't read any in June or July). This was a very good book, one I would recommend to parents -- but it's a little late to be much help for me. It's mainly about parenting school-age autistic kids. And oh how her stories and comments rang true. Some of them, anyway. I never had a principal accuse my kid of provoking other kids to bully him. When Teen B was being bullied, the teacher and principal worked with us to find a solution. I think it really helps to have your kids in the same school, same district, all the way through, to have the other kids in the school live in your neighborhood, to volunteer in the school so the staff have a good feeling about you. But also be flexible: sending Teen A to Hillside School for his dyslexia was the best decision we ever made. I was also lucky enough to find a parent network group to support me through the preteen and teen years. But it was still always really hard to be "that mom," and I think a book like this would have helped me.

One quibble: she recommends "unschooling," which I am 100% against, based on the experience of some people we know. But otherwise there's a lot of good stuff in this book.

The Dry by Jane Harper (2016). The NY Times recently published a list of "the 50 best thrillers of the 21st century so far" and this was #24. I studied the list carefully, but didn't see many that I haven't read and would like to. I had already read 10 on the list (and with this book, 11) and there are maybe 5 more I'd like to read. Anyway, this book is more of a mystery than a thriller and for a debut novel it's quite good. It's set in rural Australia, a five-hour drive from Melbourne, so probably somewhere in the middle of New South Wales, which appears from the map to be the middle of nowhere. Federal agent Aaron Falk comes home to the drought-stricken town he and his father fled from 20 years ago, for the funeral of his former best friend who has apparently shot and killed his wife, young son, and himself. But are things really what they seem? Harper has written other books, so I may check them out too.

End of summer

I know, I know, summer doesn't officially end until September 22nd, and the traditional end of summer is Labor Day, which is very late this year, September 7th. But I've always felt that the end of August is the end of summer. So there.

This has been kind of a weird week, due to my knee surgery on Thursday. I had to spend Wednesday consuming only clear liquids (Sprite, iced tea, a lemon popsicle, some hard candy) so that my stomach would be really and truly empty when they did the procedure. This is a Mounjaro thing, because it makes your stomach empty more slowly. 

They sent me so many instructions (take this, don't take that, stop this a week before, stop this two days before, wash with this, don't wear that, on and on) that I was getting kind of confused. But the one thing they didn't mention was what time we had to be there. On Wednesday I got a text asking me to confirm that I would be there at 6:45 am (I thought it was at 9 am). I called and sure enough, that's when we had to be there. Oh well, good to know.

We arrived at the very pleasant and new-looking surgery center in plenty of time, filled out paperwork, and signed a bunch of things. At about 7:15 they took us back to the preop area, where I was put in a lovely gown, a hairnet, a sock on my bad leg, and a compression stocking AND a sock on my good leg, oh, and a heated blanket. 

A nurse studied the veins in my hand and decided to put the IV in the crook of my arm instead. She said, "They don't like me to do this, but the vein there is much better." I was happy about this because I hate having an IV in my hand. They tested my blood sugar and it was 105, which is very good for me. My blood pressure was 129 over 69, which is a bit high, but I was probably a little dehydrated.

Then Rocket Boy went off in search of a cafe (he'd had breakfast, but that man is always hungry), and I was wheeled into the surgery room. The nice anesthesiologist asked me if my heart rate was always slow. I thought about that. When I was younger, yes, I had a very slow heart. But not in the last 10-20 years! 

The surgeon, anesthesiologist, and nurse all stood around waiting for me to go to sleep and at first it didn't seem like I was going to. Hm hm hm, OK, when's it going to happen? And then I was out and then I was awake and it was all over.

I was in a lot of pain when I woke up, kind of cramping aching pain in my leg. The surgeon came by and he said the back of my knee was "very tight," whatever that means, so they had to kind of dig around to do what they needed to do. I guess that was the explanation for the pain. My nurse gave me first one thing and then another, and finally she got permission to give me something called Toradol, which is like super duper ibuprofen, and that did the trick. The pain finally subsided and then I could go home. 

I spent most of the rest of the day sleeping, only waking up to take more pain meds and eat a little something (wheat thins, a banana, a piece of banana bread coffee cake). Rocket Boy had made his famous 4-cheese macaroni & cheese, so we had some of that for dinner. They had stuck a scopolamine patch on my back (for nausea) and I kept it on until Saturday night because it was so wonderful not to feel any nausea.

Friday was much the same as Thursday (except I didn't have surgery again). I could hobble around slowly, so I fed the cats and did some dishes, but mostly I just lay on the bed and read and slept. And took meds. 

Saturday was the same, except that in the middle of the afternoon Teen B showed up again! He had taken the bus that gets to Boulder at 2:48 pm. I don't know if we're going to see him every weekend or not, but it was certainly nice to have him come by. Again, he only stayed a few hours, caught the 6:10 bus back to Fort Collins. While he was here, Rocket Boy was nice and went to Starbucks for us, getting me an iced pumpkin cream chai and Teen B an iced pumpkin spice latte and a hedgehog cake pop.

I am a little worried about Teen B because he is already convinced he is going to fail Freshman Comp. I dragged him, kicking and screaming, through 9th grade language arts, 10th grade language arts, 11th grade language arts, and 12th grade language arts, so this is not exactly a surprise. But I had told him, you're in college now, I'm not doing your homework for you. It is not clear whether saying that is going to be enough. He still expects me to help him. And of course he seems to have an impossible teacher who has already assigned a whole bunch of stuff for them to write, much worse than I ever did when I was teaching freshman comp at CU. Arrrgghh.

He may end up dropping the class. Maybe it would be for the best. 

We're continuing to deal with our peeing cat, Sillers. I washed the blankets on our bed twice this week before my surgery because she had peed on them. Fortunately I had put a pee pad under the blankets, so the urine didn't soak down to the sheets and mattress pad. But still. She's also peeing on the carpet in our room, and quite possibly elsewhere as well, since she wanders all over the house and I don't think she has much control over her bladder anymore.

Finally I got annoyed and ordered some big fancy reusable pee pads from Chewy, plus more Nature's Miracle and a package of cat diapers. They arrived on Friday. I figured she could wear a cat diaper at night, when I can't watch what she's doing. But so far I haven't managed to get a diaper on her. You have to stick their tail through a little hole, and while I'm doing that, she wriggles away from me and the diaper.

At least both cats like the new pee pads (you can see Sillers rolling around on one in the picture at the top of this post). It's soft, like a blanket.

Well, I think this is about all I'm going to write today. My knee does not like me to sit in a chair for long periods of time, it wants to be elevated and iced. I did take the bandages off this morning (after 72 hours) and my knee looks very nice! Three little incisions, each with their little black stitches. The knee is very swollen and tender -- the other knee is swollen too. When I weighed myself on Friday morning I was up six pounds! But that's from the swelling. It will go down. I decided to stop taking the oxycodone today, and that seems to have been the right decision. Still alternating ibuprofen and acetaminophen. I miss the scopolamine patch -- my usual nausea is back. They gave me some other drugs for nausea, but I feel like I shouldn't take them, because this is Mounjaro nausea, not from the surgery. Oh, I don't know. Maybe I'll ask my doctor about it.

On I think September 8th I have a follow-up appointment and then after that I think physical therapy. But at some point I should have a more functional knee. Looking forward to it.  

 

An empty-ish nest

OK, I know it's not really empty -- Teen A is still here! In fact, he's asleep in his bedroom right now (at 1:13 pm). But he's so independent. The nest is starting to empty, let's say that. I'm thrilled... and also feeling the loss.

Teen A actually started classes at Metro last Monday, driving himself to Denver each day (Monday through Thursday -- he has no classes on Friday). He asked me to wake him up at 8:30, which I did each day (his classes start at 11 on Monday and Wednesday and 12 on Tuesday and Thursday), but gradually he started waking himself up. I'd like to stop being my kids' alarm clock, so we'll work on that. I also want to be less involved with their homework, etc., but I can see that's going to be tricky too. I couldn't help saying to him, once or twice (maybe more than twice), "do you have any homework?" "have you started your homework yet?" "shouldn't you be working on your online classes?" Etc. The transition is hard. On the plus side, I did show him how to do his own laundry and he did a load (but only one). Baby steps.

He had a little trouble getting his books ("I don't know where to go..." "I don't know where the bookstore is..." "I went in the bookstore, but I didn't see the book...", but finally on Friday he managed to pick up his Meteorology book at the campus bookstore. $211! I argued for a digital version ("Nah, that's too much work...") or a rental ("But Dad will want to keep it..."), but we ended up buying a hardback that we will keep. In fact, the book looks very interesting and maybe I will read it. (But not TO Teen A -- new college policy on homework, he has to read it himself.)

The book for his history class had to be ordered directly from the publisher, so we did that. Only $53. It's supposed to arrive tomorrow. 

Parking in the 7th Street Garage is very expensive. I guess I'm going to buy him a parking permit (also very expensive, but cheaper than paying each day). I thought he would be taking the bus at least some of the time, but that doesn't seem to be happening. We're figuring this all out.

Also on Monday, Teen B and I took one last shopping trip. He wanted more clothes, although I wasn't totally sure what he was looking for. We went to Kohl's, wandered around the extensive, confusing men's department. We looked at pants, but none of them appeared to be baggy. "Are baggy pants out of style now?" I wondered aloud. I googled it, but AI reassured me that they were still in style. Then why doesn't Kohl's seem to have any? We moved on to Walmart (in the same shopping center) and there he found two pairs of pants and a CSU t-shirt to go with his other two. 

And then we went to Starbucks, one last time. It was the last day of the horrible Unicorn Frappuccino, so he got that (and then was sorry).

The next day, Tuesday, Teen A drove the Prius V off to Denver again and Rocket Boy, Teen B, and I packed up the Highlander and drove to Fort Collins. 

We got there a little before 2 pm, his official move-in time slot, but they were happy to let us get started right away. First we walked to his dorm room, to take a look at it. It was full of people! His roommate and four relatives were taking up quite a bit of space in the small room. The dad and mom introduced themselves to us, as did the other people, but I immediately forgot everyone's name. We left to go get a load of stuff and when we got back they were all gone, obviously leaving us alone to get settled.

I unpacked the suitcases, finding places for all of Teen B's clothes (including the new ones). I hung all the clothes in the closet according to color (which is how I organize my own clothes too), knowing that Teen B will mix everything up as soon as he does his first load of laundry. Rocket Boy made the bed. Teen B set up his electronics, plugging them into his new power strip. He stowed his small suitcase under the bed and we put the big one, now empty, back in the car to take home with us. We explored a little, went down in the basement to inspect the laundry room (and I gave Teen B a quick lesson in how to use the machines), looked at the recreation room and the communal kitchen and the mini-mart.

We were all very hungry at this point, so we went to an Olive Garden that wasn't too far away. I hadn't been to an Olive Garden in donkey's years, but it didn't seem to have changed much. I had mushroom ravioli, which was pretty good, and both Teen B and Rocket Boy had seafood alfredo. Teen B, unfortunately, lost his lunch in the parking lot afterwards, but I think that was just nerves. We stopped at a King Soopers to buy him some laundry pods, and I also bought some chewable Pepto-Bismol and some special drinks, as a treat. 

It was so hard to say goodbye. He won't let anyone hug him, so I couldn't do that, just patted him briefly (he immediately pulled away). "You can come home every weekend, if you want," I told him. "I'll come get you this weekend -- Friday, Saturday, whenever you want me to." "Mmhm," he said, noncomittally. We left.

The next few days were stressful for us. I tried not to text Teen B unnecessarily, knowing that if he wanted to be in contact with me, he would be. He asked me to send him pictures of the cats, and I did so, a few times. I made dinner, I did the laundry, I encouraged Teen A to buy his textbooks. I talked to a nurse about my knee surgery (this coming Thursday).

I wasn't sure if he'd want me to come get him on Friday or Saturday. On Thursday, something he'd ordered arrived at our house, and when I told him that, he asked me when he should come get it -- Friday or Saturday? I told him I could come to Fort Collins either day. Rocket Boy actually called him from work on Friday afternoon to see if he wanted him to come get him, but Teen B was vague. Rocket Boy decided to just come straight home. We had a power failure that night (some weird underground electrical fire up at Kohler Reservoir), and I texted Teen B about it. But he didn't say anything about wanting me to come to FC the next day.

Saturday morning around 11 am, Teen B texted me: "Are u awake?" I said I was and did he want me to come bring him his package? He replied "maybe." A little while later he added, "I'm outside the house."

WHAT?

I opened the front door and looked out. And here came Teen B, walking up the drive. He had taken THREE buses to get from Fort Collins to Boulder (a FC city bus, the FLEX which goes from Fort Collins to Boulder, and then probably a Skip to get home). I knew he knew how to do this -- he'd researched it a few weeks before. But he'd also dismissed it as being too much trouble. And now here he was in the flesh. He'd done it.

"Where's my package?" he asked, and I went and got it for him. He also wanted his old backpack because, he said, "That shower caddy we bought is useless. I need something to put my clean clothes in. A backpack works better." So we found his old backpack and he put it on under his new one.

"Are you going to stay overnight? I can drive you back tomorrow in time for the meeting" (he had an orientation meeting scheduled for Sunday at 10:30 am).  

"No, I want to be back for the movie today. It starts at 3." It was 11:30 at this point. 

"Ohhhkay," I said. "I can drive you, but we should leave by 1:00."

"No, I'll take the bus back," he said. It turned out the next bus didn't leave until 2:10, so he would be late for the movie, but he didn't mind. He obviously wanted to take the bus himself, be in charge of his own destiny. 

He did allow Rocket Boy to make him some lunch (three poached eggs) and he asked me if I could print out a map of the campus, so he could see where his classes are. This turned out to be a little complicated. The campus is so huge that it took two sheets of paper to print enough of the map to get all his classes onto it. Then we had to research where his buildings are. He's basically going to be walking miles and miles every week, but it'll be good for him. Maybe he'll even start riding a bicycle again (after avoiding bikes ever since that accident back in 2015). I'll wait until he asks us to buy him one. I'm getting the sense that anything could happen now.

He let me drive him to where he could catch the FLEX, so he didn't have to bother with a Skip. The bus was already there, idling. I wondered if anyone else was on it. "Goodbye," I said. "Have a good week." I didn't ask whether he wants to come home the next weekend. He knows I can't come get him, because I'm having knee surgery on Thursday. But he also knows he could come by himself. The bus doesn't run on Sundays, but he could come home Friday, go back Saturday afternoon, all by himself. Mind-blowing.

Saturday night, Rocket Boy and I drove to Longmont and had dinner at Aunt Alice's. Teen A didn't want to come along, and of course Teen B was back in Fort Collins. Before dinner, we drove by the house that our tenants have purchased. They're having a wheelchair ramp put in. It looked like a nice house, in a pleasant neighborhood. I'm so happy for them, but I will miss them too. 

Today, Sunday, I missed Teen B a lot. There was nobody who wanted to go to Starbucks with me. Normally, Teen B and I get Teen A something when we go, so I thought he might be interested, but he wasn't. He mostly feeds himself these days. Finally, around 4 pm, Rocket Boy wanted to go to Home Depot, so I went along and we stopped at Starbucks on the way back. I got an Iced S'mores Chai, because it won't be available much longer. The fall menu launches on Tuesday, but Teen B won't be here to try a Hedgehog Cake Pop.

I'm going to be OK. In fact, I'm going to be FINE. But I miss him. And at the same time I'm so happy that he's growing up. 

Almost a new beginning

Yes, it is almost happening. Teen A starts classes tomorrow; Teen B moves into his dorm on Tuesday. I've been having some trouble sleeping, and when I do sleep, I have crazy dreams. A few nights ago I dreamed that I was pregnant, with a little girl. Rocket Boy and I walked around the house (sort of a combination of this house and our first house in Ridgecrest), making note of all the baby things we had conveniently saved, like a rocking horse (we never actually had a rocking horse), clothes (we have a lot of baby clothes stowed away for absolutely no reason), and so many toys. I patted my fat belly -- I could feel her head, she was that close to being ready to come out. We were a little worried, but basically happy about becoming parents to a third child, just as the first two are leaving the nest. 

My parents did this -- had a baby girl just as their oldest was going off to college. Jenny probably left home in early September and Nancy was born at the end of October. But my parents weren't in their 60s/70s.

I suppose the baby girl might represent me, the new me who can now emerge, now that my baby birds are fledging. Or it might be a dream about not wanting to relinquish the joys of motherhood. Why not have another baby? I'm only 66. Sigh. I told Rocket Boy this dream and he said, "Would you have liked to have had a third child?" and I said yes, oh yes, but it was obviously impossible, even back then. I was so lucky to be able to have our two.

I also had the dissertation dream AGAIN this week, second time in less than a month, I think. This was a quick one, no complicated worries about who would chair my committee now that John has died, etc., although I was a little concerned that Jeff would be in Africa and unable to participate (the fact that the other two committee members have retired was not mentioned). In the dream I actually had most of the dissertation written, maybe just needed to write one more chapter, but I knew I was too late, there was no way they could possibly accept it at this point (30 years later!). So I figured I'd just write something quickly, send it off, wait for them to turn it down, and then write the whole thing off, stop worrying about it.

I was telling Rocket Boy this dream, and he said, "So then what happened?" And I said, "Oh, nothing. The dream always ends with me making some sort of decision about what to do next." And then I thought about that. Why is that? What does that mean? I'm not sure.

***

We're pretty much ready for Teen B's move-in on Tuesday. That is, we have to pack up, but we're pretty much done with shopping. We could still buy a little electric fan -- we looked at fans at McGuckin's on Friday, but didn't buy one. But I think we've pretty much got everything else. We chose a desk lamp at McGuckin's, and found bulbs for it. We also got a power strip (Rocket Boy said, "Why did you get a power strip? I have so many!") and a pair of scissors, because scissors are so useful. (Teen B said, "Why scissors?" and then, "I don't like those scissors," and then, "I'm going to steal the purple scissors from the kitchen and bring them with me!" Everyone loves the purple scissors.)

We went to Target yesterday to buy him an electric shaver, and while we were there I tried to buy him a bathrobe, but nuh-uh, he wasn't having any of that. "If you put that in the cart I'm leaving," he said, so we didn't buy a bathrobe. It's fine, he'll figure something else out.

We gave up on the idea of a new laptop. He wanted a small, thin laptop that wouldn't overheat when he played games on it and wouldn't have an annoyingly loud fan noise, and it turned out that there is really no such thing. I even posted a question about it on the autistic adults subreddit, got over 50 responses, and everyone agreed, such a laptop does not exist. So he's just going to use his old high school Chromebook to start with, and then see what other people have, what his major will require (once he chooses a major). 

*** 

Teen A went to his orientation on Friday -- I was sure he'd oversleep and miss it, but he was good, asked Rocket Boy to wake him up at 7:00 and left in plenty of time. He didn't have to stay for the whole thing because as it turns out, he has chosen the air traffic control concentration, not the pilot concentration. So he's not going to learn to fly, at least not for a career. I think this is a good choice, though I wonder why it took so long for him to tell us. He definitely likes to keep his own counsel.

I went with him to get his hair cut on Saturday, and when we got home, I asked him (not expecting an answer) when his girlfriend is moving into her dorm at CSU. He said, well, there's a problem with that. It turns out that for some reason having to do with her "not very nice" father, she's going to go to Front Range Community College instead, and then transfer after a year or two. I'm sorry for her -- maybe it's a financial thing -- but it means that she and Teen A probably won't break up right away. Interesting.

Teen A has two online courses this term, which he has been puzzled about. "Mom, when do I find out about the online courses?" he asked me today. "Well, have you gotten any emails from your instructors?" I asked. Of course, he didn't know. I looked at his email and sure enough, here's all the information. I told Teen A he needs to schedule time each week to do the work for these classes, like 1-3 pm every Monday and Wednesday for a start and then see if he needs more time than that to complete the work. 

I TOLD the boys, I'm not going to be so involved with their college classes as I was with high school, they need to do the work THEMSELVES. Not getting off to a good start. 

***

I decided that I didn't want to cook any regular meals this week, just make things with peaches. The family thought this was weird, but I ignored them. 

Monday was Rocket Boy's and my 24th anniversary, but Monday is kind of a strange time to go out to a fancy dinner and it's been so hot, etc., So I bought salmon and lettuce, and when he got home he fixed rice and salad and sauteed the salmon. But I was feeling nauseous, so I didn't eat any of it. I had planned that we could go out for ice cream afterwards, but it was too late. We did have nice cards for each other. RB's card was meant for someone else to give to us (it read, "You two are so good together..."), but I just crossed off the "You" and wrote in "We" and then it was fine. My card referenced our endless dinner issues.

On Tuesday it was still horribly hot, so we just had leftovers, and again I didn't have anything. You'd think I'd be really skinny, all the meals I don't eat when I'm hot and nauseated, but somehow it doesn't work that way.

Wednesday it finally started to cool down, so I made "Easy Buttermilk Peach Cobbler" from the NY Times cooking section, and it made a delicious dinner. We had some old whipping cream in the fridge (unwhipped) and I was a little suspicious of it, but I whipped it and added a little sugar and it tasted fine with the cobbler. 

Thursday it was cooler yet, and I made "Cardamom Dutch Baby With Caramelized Peaches." We had some aging raspberries in the fridge, so I threw those in too, which maybe wasn't a good idea, but overall the recipe turned out pretty well. Rocket Boy had gone swimming, so he was quite late, and by the time he got home, Teen B had eaten more than half of the Baby and almost finished the cream (I had a little and Teen A wasn't home).

On Friday I relented and made Brenda's Sticky Tofu (the kids' favorite meal), with "Peach Tea" as a special beverage. The peach tea did not turn out very well, I must say. I gave it about an hour to cool in the fridge, but it didn't get very cold, even with lots of ice cubes added. Plus it was very thick and strange. I ended up drinking most of it.

Yesterday we ate out at BJ's, and of course tonight is Forage Night, but tomorrow I am planning to make "Peach Crumble Slab Pie," with some fresh whipping cream and perhaps the last of the peaches (there are 14 left and the recipe calls for 6 pounds). 

And on Tuesday we'll be in Fort Collins. My heart skips a beat when I think of that. 

***

I figured I might as well go ahead and schedule my knee surgery, so I contacted the surgeon, and his assistant said, "How about the 27th?" So, a little over a week after we drop off Teen B, I'll go under the knife. I am NOT looking forward to this, but might as well get it over with. Once that's fixed, it will be easier to get on with my new life. I think. 

I signed up to help serve food at our neighborhood Pancake Breakfast on September 12th. That might have been a little overly optimistic -- I might have to do it on crutches. Usually I don't volunteer to help because I have to focus on getting the rest of the family there. But this year... Teen B won't be here and Teen A will probably be busy with his girlfriend... might as well help out, right? Except for the knee problem. Well, we'll see. 

You can tell it's late summer. The hummingbirds are buzzing the feeder and the flowers almost constantly, although they probably won't start migrating until mid-September. Maybe some of them go early. When I sit on my bed with the window open, it's just buzz buzz buzz all day long. They start very early in the morning, too. I didn't sleep well last night and was awake very early -- and so were the hummingbirds. Buzz buzz. 

We also have a big orb spider making a web by the front door. We spotted her a couple of nights ago. She spins this gorgeous web every night, and then at some point early in the morning she eats it back up, so there isn't the slightest trace of it. She sits in a little corner by the door during the day. Then at night -- here she goes with the spinning again. She spins it really fast. We like these spiders. They don't come in the house! In a month or so she'll make an egg sac and then die.

I took Sillers to our regular vet on Tuesday, because trying to give her the liquid Prednisolone (prescribed by the specialist vet) was just a nightmare. The vet agreed with me and prescribed the pill form (which I can grind up and mix with her food). I already do this for Baby Kitty. So now every morning I grind up a half pill for Sillers and every evening I grind up a half pill for Baby Kitty. It is not a problem. I'm not sure she's doing any better, though. She keeps peeing on the bed, accidentally. We're now keeping a large pee pad just under the cat blanket and the blanket that we use for a summer bedspread, so if she pees, I only have to wash those two things, not tear the whole bed apart. I had to wash them twice this week. Sigh. 

Sillers is very fond of Teen B, although he doesn't like her. I wonder what she will think when he's not around anymore. 

Well, maybe I'll stop here and see if Teen B wants to go do anything today. We have one full day (after today) left to get ready. I hope I can sleep tonight. And maybe no crazy dreams?

Getting ready...

...for the big Transition. The start of college, that is. Today is August 9th. On August 17th, Teen A starts his college classes (he also has a mandatory orientation next Friday, August 14th). On Tuesday, August 18th, we will drive Teen B to Fort Collins and move him into his dorm. His classes start on August 24th. 

We spent three days this week shopping for Teen B. On Wednesday we went to Target, Thursday Walmart, and Friday Best Buy. He now has new sheets, a new throw (that he uses as a blanket/comforter), and a wedge pillow, a laundry backpack, a shower caddy, a lot of hangers, a small first aid kit, extra toothpaste, wipes, and a new laptop, which is proving problematic and will probably have to be exchanged.

This coming week, in addition to dealing with the laptop, I figure we can buy some miscellaneous stuff, like shampoo and school supplies (notebooks, pens), plus he might want his own shaver (right now he and Teen A both use Rocket Boy's). He also wants me to help him map out where his classes are on campus. Teen A also needs help with that, maybe, and he wants me to make him a schedule (maybe a Google Doc) of his classes. 

We also need to figure out how to pay for college! I asked Teen A if he's been getting any emails about bills and whatnot, and he said, "I don't know! I don't read my email!"

(Why does anyone think 18-year-old boys are ready to go to college? Maybe other people's 18-year-old boys.)

So he handed me his phone and I read his MSU email and discovered that the bill for his first semester of college (about $8000, very reasonable) is supposed to be paid by next Friday. OK, good to know. We clicked on "how to pay" and there was a section on paying with a 529 college plan. Unfortunately, although it listed lots of 529 plans, ours ("CollegeAmerica") was not there. I tried to put it in manually -- the form wouldn't let me. Hmm. What do we do now? I probably should have called Metro, but instead I called our financial advisor (the one who set us up with this 529 plan back in 2008) and left a message for his assistant. She's supposed to get back to me tomorrow. I'm sure we'll figure this out -- there must be a way to use those funds. (If not, we're in trouble!)

There was another interesting email in his unread list, from the head of the aviation program, telling him about this mandatory orientation meeting on the 14th. So I RSVP-ed him to that (with Teen A's permission), and then read the email in more detail. It explained that he needs to sign up with a flight school (we've already done that) and then arrange for 3-4 flights PER WEEK as soon as the semester starts. He was supposed to be flying all summer, but for some mysterious reason he stopped wanting to fly, and hasn't flown since we got back from vacation. Maybe he doesn't want to be a pilot anymore? That would be fine, but of course he isn't going to tell us. The mysteries of Teen A.

There are other options within the aviation program, such as becoming an air traffic controller or a drone pilot. Both of those sound like they might be good choices for him, and they wouldn't require all these flights, maybe no flights at all.

I'll just wait and see what he decides to do. It drives Rocket Boy absolutely crazy, but I try to be mellow about it. Sometimes I succeed.

Teen A seems jealous about all the things I'm buying for Teen B. I periodically offer to buy him things too, but then he wanders off and we don't do it. Maybe things will change, once Teen B moves out (assuming he stays moved out, which might be assuming a lot).

Edited to add: We are figuring out this money thing. Apparently we have to ask our 529 plan to send a paper CHECK to the schools. It will take 7-10 days, so we are already too late, which is annoying, but I will make this happen on Monday. There is a way to expedite the check, so we can do that (for a fee, I'm sure). I have plenty of time to pay Teen B's fees, which are not due for a few weeks, so I can do that tomorrow too. This is so complicated, but I'm sure once we get things started, it will get easier. I hope. 

***

I'm thinking a lot about how my life will change once this college thing gets going (assuming it really does get going). I will have so much time to myself! Maybe. Don't I already have a lot of time to myself? I am planning to only make dinner three times a week, MAXIMUM. Maybe only two times a week. The rest of the time we will have leftovers or eat out. Rocket Boy doesn't mind eating leftovers. We'll see.

I came up with a tentative Mon-Fri schedule for myself, as follows:

• 7 am: Rocket Boy gets up, goes to work.
• 8 am: I get up, feed the cats, have breakfast, do the dishes, start a load of laundry, do an exercise video, etc.
• 9:30-10:30: read for an hour
• 10:30-12:30: work on writing projects
• 12:30-1:30: lunch break, put the laundry in the dryer, do other miscellaneous things
• 1:30-3:30: do genealogy
• 3:30-4:30: read for an hour
• 4:30-7:00: put away the laundry, do other household tasks, take a walk, make dinner 
• 7:00-11:00: eat dinner with RB, spend a pleasant evening together, feed cats, bed 

Doesn't that sound nice? SIX hours per day to do "me" things. I wonder if I will actually do this, or how close I will come. I don't know when I will go to the grocery store and all that. Well, I'll figure it out gradually.

I also started thinking about our Sunday morning Starbucks run. Am I actually going to keep doing that without Teen B? Maybe not. I'm certainly not going to go myself and get Teen A something, if he won't come with me. Hmph! Maybe, it occurred to me, I could resume going to church. I used to enjoy doing that on Sundays, and there is a church near us that I've wanted to try (a liberal Presbyterian church). We'll see.

***

This was a really hot week, and the next few days will continue to be bad. Yesterday it was supposed to be 102, but I think it only got to 99. Only. Right now they're saying 96 on Monday and Tuesday, with a "cool down" to 88 on Wednesday, but also a good chance of rain that day, which means humidity. The real cool down will be Thursday and after, when the highs are supposed to be in the high 70s. 

By then, some of these peaches may have ripened enough for me to make a peach cobbler. I bought a case of peaches (42 in all) from the Fairview marching band fundraiser and now I have to figure out what to do with them! I'm going to bring some to book group tonight, and maybe our neighbors will want some.

Speaking of neighbors, we have some big changes ahead. The people to the west of us, who have lived in our rental house for exactly ten years, are buying a place up in Longmont and plan to be out by the end of the month. I'm so happy for them, that they'll have their own place, but at the same time, we'll really miss them. At the moment, their youngest child (who is 20) and that child's partner (I'm intentionally being vague about pronouns, because they're both kind of trans) are thinking they may want to take over the lease, but we'll see. That would be the easiest thing, because then we wouldn't have to go to all the work of cleaning up and fixing up the house again for a new tenant. But they're so young and they don't really know what they want to do with their lives. It would probably be a temporary situation, at best. We'll see what happens. 

I no longer use any of the rent money to pay for our life, so we can afford to be kind of loose about this right now. I use the rent to pay for the water and trash pickup for that house, and of course the insurance and property taxes, but all that is paid up until 2027 and we have, hmm, $8,801.50 in that account right now (plus a check I haven't deposited yet, so actually $10,201.50), so we have time to let this work itself out.

Rocket Boy saw his orthopedic surgeon this week, and they tentatively decided not to do any surgery on his shoulders at this time. The shoulder that's in terrible shape doesn't have a deadline -- the rotator cuff is trashed and atrophied, so they could do that reverse shoulder replacement any time, there's no rush -- and since he's not in pain, no point in doing it now. The other rotator cuff is torn, but not badly torn, and the physical therapy he's having is helping a lot. So... maybe he'll never have surgery. It's a possibility, apparently. Since I am looking ahead to two unavoidable surgeries (my torn meniscus and my umbilical hernia), it's good to know that Rocket Boy won't be having any, right now at least.

I'll probably call MY orthopedic surgeon this coming week, tell his assistant to go ahead and set a date. Might as well get it over with, as soon as we get Teen B moved in.

I saw an interesting thing on the NewsHour this week. Apparently most cases of ovarian cancer begin in the Fallopian tubes, so the best way to prevent ovarian cancer is to remove the Fallopian tubes. The doctor from Johns Hopkins said you could have it done if you were having any other sort of abdominal surgery, LIKE A HERNIA REPAIR, and it would add about 8 minutes to the surgery and make you 80% less likely to get ovarian cancer (or something like that). OMG! I am going to talk to my doctor about this. I have a longstanding fear of getting ovarian cancer, probably because one of my grandmothers died of it and I also had a friend who died of it. How wonderful to think that I could get rid of the risk and the fear with 8 extra minutes of surgery.

Well, maybe this is a good place to stop. My book group is meeting tonight, and Rocket Boy is going to come too, since he read the book (Project Hail Mary). The rest of the book group is very excited about having him there (they like him a lot). So that will be fun, especially since Sally has air conditioning. And then we will come home and get ready to start the new week.