Sunday, September 27, 2020
I chose to stay in my jammies all day. It was a hot day, high of 97 F. I spent time on Suburban Married Lady before doing dishes and making supper. I took Emily out in my jammies and robe, using the 6-ft. leash and attached collar that I retrieved from under the ottoman at the foot of the bed.
Monday, September 28, 2020
Today’s “medical appointment” was my acupuncture session at 3:10 p.m. in Union City, so I didn’t get much accomplished before then. I had a message from Brian asking if we were going to be home, that they had some things from their garden they wanted to drop off on our porch. I told him that we were going to Union City but they could leave whatever they wanted to on our front porch.
I took all 5 of the practice tests on the DMV site and scored 5/10, 8/10, 9/10, 8/10, and 10/10. Then I attempted to fill out an application online at the DMV site, and I guess I did, because I got a screen that gave me a confirmation number and said, “You now need to go to the DMV!” It also said, “Make an appointment to save time,” but when I clicked on that link it just took me back to the page where it said, “DMV offices are open to assist customers with existing appointments and with transactions that require an in-person visit. The DMV has already begun rescheduling appointments canceled during the temporary closure and notifying customers of the new date. Once the DMV has accommodated those customers, the DMV will begin offering a limited number of new appointments. New behind-the-wheel drive test appointments are available. Other new appointments not yet available.” So I decided I should just print out that confirmation and just show up at the Claremont DMV in Oakland with $40 in cash (to pay the $37 renewal fee.
It was super hot today (97 F. in San Leandro and 100 F. in Union City). So when I got in line to get “screened” before going into the building, the attendant kept taking my temp (touchless forehead) over and over and over and over, saying, “You’re a little high.” Whereupon I said, “Well, if my temp is registering high, it’s because it’s a hundred degrees out here! It’s NOT because my body temp is high!” She finally let me go in. So it was nice to get into the coolness of Building B. When I checked in at the Acupuncture Department, I slid my Kaiser ID card in a card reader and the MA did not ask for payment. (They may decide to bill me later, but if they do, I’ll deal with it then.) Sophie was nice, as usual, and just asked me to remove my tank top and lie on the treatment table, face down (in the donut hole), and she put a towel over my back. Sophie is definitely ready for things to get back to “normal,” though she did admit that there would not be any more group acupuncture for the foreseeable future. The room was comfortable, the music was on, and I did mindful breathing with a sort of self-guided body scan meditation. I didn’t doze but did enjoy the full 30 minutes.
When I was on my way out, I noticed a young man and black woman sitting idle behind a floor sign that said, “Get your flu shot HERE!” They saw me glancing at them and said, “Would you like to get your flu shot today?”
“Well,” I said, “I had planned to go through the drive-through, but this would be much more comfortable in here!” So I sat down and asked about the “over 65” flu shot.
“Would you like that?” the young man asked. I nodded, saying, “Yes, I’m well over 65!”
He cleaned a spot on my left arm, as I quipped, “I just came from my acupuncture session, so what’s one more needle?!” He worked quickly and efficiently and I barely felt the syringe needle. I would not feel the slight soreness until two days later when I took a shower.
When we got home, there was, indeed, a porch drop off in a Styrofoam cooler, filled with fresh tomatoes, a huge cucumber, green onions, and a small bouquet of yellow flowers and lavender with a fresh lavender aroma! They even included a small ceramic vase for the flowers. So we had a nice supper of fresh sliced tomatoes (mayo for Linda, cottage cheese for me).
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
Linda got up and made fresh coffee for us and I made breakfast for all of us, then started getting us all ready to go on our Tuesday “road trip” to Alameda.
Our first stop, though, was to the smog inspection station on the corner across from Greenhouse Marketplace. Linda just walked in with her crutches, so I carried Emily, our coffees, and my bag with the DMV paperwork. Everyone was properly masked. The attendant did not appear to have any trouble with my USAA Visa card. I signed here and signed there and in 15 minutes he was done.
When we got to the Alameda Safeway, there was a long line of 15-20 people. I had not seen any lines at Safeway since March! But I got in line and tried to take a picture, but by the time my very old Samsung Galaxy S5 had come alive enough to open the camera, the line started moving. I found everything on my list and, for a change, there was no waiting in any of the cashier lines.
I had intended to go to the BofA ATM on the way out (to get cash for the DMV), but I forgot. So that will have to wait for another day.
I decided that maybe this would be a good day to go to mydoctor420 (Heally.com) to get my medical cannabis card renewed. I clicked through all the screens then got to one that said I was in a waiting queue and it would be approximately 5 minutes. That “5 minutes” turned into 30 minutes. I could hear my cell phone ringing but I ignored it, turning all my attention to what was happening on the computer. Long story short: their “online” appointments are a mix of computer screen and cell phone, so I had to call their phone number to start my session with “Dr. Cheryl” who I could see and hear on my computer but she could not hear me without my phone. Well, of course, my phone froze up and I had to re-boot it while she was holding up her phone which showed she was calling my number. But I couldn’t answer her calls nor make a call to her until my @$$hole phone got re-booted! When it finally was able to connect, I had 11 minutes left (of my 15-minute appointment) and the session ended before we were done so she disappeared from my computer screen and just finished up with the voice call. Afterwards, I saw that I had email which told me to go to the heally.com website and log in (I had to scrounge around in my OneNote file until I could find my user name and password), and it said my application was accepted and that I would receive a new card in the postal mail in 5-7 business days. No PDF to download (like in past years). No email to print out. Just have to trust the process, I guess.
Miraculously, I was able to log in to the Kaiser Pain Group online at 4 p.m. Angela was the host and gave a presentation on the stages of grief and how that applies to us living through this pandemic. Apparently, it hit a lot a nerves because there was a long discussion which went 15 minutes into Francis’ half hour for exercise. But he dealt with it very graciously. He did a quick review of the balance exercises that he had presented for the past few weeks and then focused on today’s backend stretches. At the end, when he asked for feedback, I texted that I did my stretches whenever I took the dog out for a “walk” in our yard. He complimented me on making that “tiny habit” association.
After that, I scheduled our Zoom time with Alex for tomorrow. And then we had another supper of fresh sliced tomatoes.
Wednesday, September 30, 2020
I finished up with Arlene’s Fall Brain Bulletin and uploaded her first podcast to “Taylor Brain Bytes.” She was beyond pleased! So excited, like a kid in a candy store.
As I was sitting at my computer, I noticed a man in a white pickup truck parked on the curb in front of our yard. I watched as he used a knife to cut into some kind of food (I thought it was a bagel but it turned out to be an apple). Then he got out of his truck and started walking through our front yard. By the time I opened the front door and went down the front steps, he was gone. So I went out the back door and saw him walking through our carport around the trash cans. I asked him what he was doing in our yard. He said that some people in another block had asked him to come here and clean up our property. I told him that other tenants could not just ask him to come on to our property and do anything and he would have to go to the office. So he left.
Some time later, the back doorbell rang and I opened it to see Tom (I think, or was it Dale?), one of our gay couple friends in the next block. He explained that he wanted to pay for a gardener to clean up our property but apparently the “gardener” didn’t know how to tell us that. (I’m thinking now that English may not be his first language.) Tom/Dale told us now that the gardener would be back on Friday at 8:30 a.m. and we discussed what exactly he was going to do. I had a hard time believing that someone was actually offering to pay for this clean up!
Thursday, October 1, 2020
1:45 p.m. – Linda’s appointment at Batra Vision. I logged into Bluehost and set up an account for David H. Hegarty, Organist. I managed to get the DNS (nameservers) changed with GoDaddy, but had to wait until we got home from Batra to work more on it.
Friday, October 2, 2020
8:30 a.m. – The gardener, indeed, arrived to clean up our property. Tom/Dale came by later to make sure he was doing a good job. I was super busy all day, on the phone with GoDaddy and online with Bluehost, trying to get David’s domain transferred properly. I had an interesting conversation with the GoDaddy tech support guy that I talked to. While I was on the phone with him, he accessed davidhegarty.com and was super impressed with the Castro Symphonic Theatre Organ. He wanted to know how much an organ like that costs. I told him I didn’t know. Then, because he saw that we had the same last name, he asked me what our relationship was and I told him David is my ex-husband and we have a good relationship. Then he told me that he, too, is divorced and has a good relationship with his ex-wife, kids, grandkids, etc. Tech support people aren’t usually that talkative! So it was funny.
Saturday, October 3, 2020
I got up in time to make breakfast and then watch Adventist Today Sabbath Seminar. Spent some time working with David’s website files and watched Green Lake Church service later. Pretty much a relaxing day (except for watching NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt).
