Saturday, December 24, 2022

 Saturday, December 24, 2022

 I started my in-bed exercises around 3 am when I woke up. I got up at 7:30. While I got all the exercises done. I must have dozed off in between.

   As I started my morning walk, I found a dead rat in the driveway. I left it for someone else to clean up.

  I called my Hanai sister, Jean, this morning. She had problems hearing. The doctor had misadjusted her new hearing aid, and she was worse off than before. While it is now possible to buy hearing aids over the counter, it doesn't sound like that will eliminate the prescription hearing aid business. A cousin of mine had one in the 1970s. I suspect his was a much simpler version. They weren't digital then.

   Jean and I talked about the amazing weather. The bomb cyclone hit the east coast. The temperature dropped from 57 to 9 degrees in a matter of hours. The east coast was free of snow. However, my sister, who also lives in New Jersey down the road from Jean, said there was black ice.

   Jean and John live in a retirement community. Community activities are planned for every night during the holidays. They love living there.

   I received a text from an old friend wishing me Happy Christmas Eve this morning. I met Carol in 2004 when I started working at Licking Heights Middle/High School. We've kept in touch ever since. She lives in Ohio in the Cleveland area. The Midwest got hit harder than the East Coast. It was seven degrees there with four feet of snow. Yesterday, there was a fifty-car pile-up on the Turnpike around Sandusky. What were all those people doing on the road? They were warned. I spoke to one friend on Thursday. She said a sixty-degree drop in temperature was predicted for Columbus, plus snow. She made sure she was tucked in for the duration.

   I got off the phone with Carol because I had an eighty-thirty appointment with Mama K's crew. They never showed.

   I had an appointment with second-grade M. I gave her a four-digit addition problem. When she did a two-digit addition problem the other day, she drew a line between the ten's and one's columns. When doing the four-digit problem, she drew only one line between the hundreds place and the tens. She didn't understand the significance of the line. It was there to help her focus on solving one column at a time. The answer was a four-digit number, which she couldn't read, even though she had been reading four-digit numbers with ease.

   My renewal of Elsa's skin ointment was available at the vet. Elsa loves to ride in the car. I told her to come, and she eagerly ran for the car. She sat in my lap, focusing on the bottom of the door, anticipating my opening it. She thought we were going up to visit Auntie P. We go up there to get more Kangen water and visit. Elsa loves visiting Auntie P. She has a cat, cat food, and a stuffed mouse, which Aunite P throws for her the whole time we're there. I love it, too. We sit together, enjoying each other's company. But we weren't going there today.

   Elsa, aware that something was wrong, started hyperventilating. She clawed frantically at the door. Concerned she had to go to the bathroom, I pulled the car over. I keep a leash in the car. I put it on her, stopped the car, and opened the door. She leaped out and sniffed the ground. She didn't need to go to the bathroom. She realized we were not going to Auntie P's. She got back in the car and was peaceful for the rest of the trip.  

   I had to return the Oofos to get replacements. I thought earlier in the day that I would wait until after Christmas. What was I thinking? People would be lined up to return Christmas gifts. Once I dropped Elsa and the medication at home, I headed to UPS. As I assumed, there was no line. I was in and out.

   I started watching the new episode of Emily in Paris. Lily Collins is a delight to watch, but the show's a little too silly for me.