A Good Day

Today was a pretty good day. 

I got up, made some baked oatmeal, walked dogs, went to CC's to exchange Christmas gifts and make plans for tomorrow (lunch & movie), came home, went with hubby to buy a new microwave and am now at home just relaxing.

CC mentioned rejoing WW, lol!!!  I told her I had just done that myself and helped her find a coupon to get it a little cheaper.  Right now WW is offering the app only at $12/month; but we found a code for $10/month for 10 months.  I had to laugh though....she was trying to weigh herself and the scale kept giving her different weights....I finally told her I'd bring her my old scale (which syncs with the WW app) and my old fitbit.  I personally don't think she needs to lose weight, but it will be helpful to me to have her along for my journey.  Official start will be after New Year's.

I also went to the grocery store and bought some of the wraps in my last post.  I really like to make an egg wrap with them.  I'm a very basic person - my egg wrap is two eggs scrambled and then cooked, place on the wrap, topped with spicy mustard and then rolled into the wrap.  It's a very filling breakfast.

Not A Weight Post

 Sorry that my posts have been few.  Kickstart kind of has gone to the side as I'm dealing with a dog with a neck injury and it's just been way too stressful.

But with this post, I want to discuss the Bay City Rollers.  Yeah, you heard that correctly, the band from the 1970's famous for the song Saturday Night and causing young girls to run around in plaid and scream their heads off.

I was one of those girls:

Yep, that's me in my Roller Gear too many years ago! 😁 Eric was my favorite.

When I first got the internet, the Rollers were something I looked up.  There were many fan sites and I was able to reconnect with a few penpals.  When FB rolled around, I found some more, connected with new ones and rehashed my Roller days.

I became a fan during what is known as the "classic" line-up:  Eric, Les, Woody, Alan & Derek.  I am very much aware that Les replaced the original lead singer Nobby Clark and that fans in the U.K. are very familiar with him.  Though Nobby was with the band since the start and recorded songs with them, he left before the really big break and the worldwide Rollermania (I'm not saying there wasn't any when he was in the band, but the classic line-up is what most remember).  Nobby sometimes comes to fan fests held throughout the world and it is my understanding that some of the early recordings are actually his voice and not Les' as there wasn't time to dub them over.  I don't know if that's true or not.  What I do know is that Nobby wrote a book, Nobby comes to fanfests and Nobby, in my opinion, has never gotten over not being part of the big break.  He's a little quieter these days but it was there for a long time.

The fan pages these days, for some reason, are in competition with each other.  Keep in mind this is a band from the 70's that hasn't been together in quite a long time.  Of the classic line-up only Eric, Woody and Derek are still alive.  Both Alan & Les passed a few years back as well as Ian (who replaced Alan for a short period).  I must mention Ian as he and his wife Wendy were always very nice to fans on FB.  Wendy still shares pictures (and stories) from her private collection.

Anyhow, there's bullying, there's threats, there's accusations......and I can't help but wonder; why?  Why is it so important for one group of people to try to be named "The Only True Bay City Roller Fans"?  And these groups join with the band member's wives/significant others/children, who apparently don't really get along that well with each other.  So it's a divided group.  There doesn't seem to be any middle ground and for some reason I can't enjoy my band from my childhood because of it.  I can't understand why grown women behave like that!!  I can't really understand why anyone would behave like that over anything.

Grow Up People!

A Quick Update

Today I got a new stove!

That may seem like such a small thing to most; but it's a big deal to me.

Many years ago, when the 2 oven stove came out, I purchased a Maytag Gemini. I LOVED that stove and had it for many many years.  When we did a cheap upgrade in the kitchen, I wanted stainless steel appliances.  We got a refrigerator and dishwasher and I held out on the stove, because I loved mine so much. Eventually though, I broke down and got a stainless steel one - just one oven - in a price range I could afford.  It worked, but it just wasn't what I wanted.

***I was unaware that there a people that can wrap appliances to the color you want. Had I known that, that's what I would have done with my Gemini."

Anyway....I finally bought a new two oven (they no longer make the Gemini).  It's a Samsung this time.  It has an air fryer mode and actually connects to wifi and my phone.

Rather than pay Lowe's to take away the old one, we sold it on FB.  I kid you not - the person that bought it was pulling away as Lowe's delivery was pulling in!!  Perfect timing!

I haven't used it yet, but obviously I will.

My Shapa has had me in the light gray for a while and now has me in green, which is good. I did get a walk in today, the weather was so beautiful!

Sickness and Something Funny

 I've been sick with a horrible viral head cold since Saturday and haven't been working.  I went to the doctor's today and they put me off work until Monday.  Feeling a little better but get tired very quickly.

When I got home from the doctor's, I grabbed the mail from the mailbox on my way into the house.  I notice a 8 x 10 envelope hand addressed to me with no return address and the stamp indicated it was mailed from overseas.

I began thinking if I had ordered anything; but couldn't remember and then questioned if I should even open it as it was flat and didn't feel like it had anything in it. But I opened it...

...and, out came two photographs of the actor Stellan Skargard autographed to me!!

I almost choked laughing....

Back in 2008, after the movie Mamma Mia came out; I became a fan of Stellan Skarsgard and found a small online group of women similar in age who were also fans.  Stellan didn't seem to have a website, fanclub or anything at that time and the one lady told each of us to send a photo or two of Stellan to her with our addresses on the back and she was going to mail them all in together to his management company hoping for autographs.  I sent my two, never heard anything, and lost contact with those ladies some time ago.

You caught that date, right?  2008 - SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO!  And my autographed photos arrived today!!!! 😂😂😂

It's not like they've been lost in the mail, it was postmarked February 11, 2025.  He's one busy man!

2024 In Review

 I am so happy to be saying GOOD-BYE to 2024.  It has been the worst year ever - even worse than covid.

Here's 10 things that happened:

1.    On January 17th, my cousin-in-law Paul passed.

2.     On January 24th, my Aunt Wilda passed.

3.     On March 7th, my Mom passed.  I never thought I'd be living without my Mom!

4.    On August 29th, my Dad passed.  I really miss my Dad!

5.    On October 26th, my long time friend Suzy passed.

6.    We lost our Dexter.

7.    My long time co-worker retired December 1st.  I've worked with Brenda for 26-1/2 years and learned so much from her.  We'll stay in touch, but I'll miss the day-to-day interactions!              

Some Happy Things:

8.    CC and I went to Monroeville Mall for the Living Dead Weekend and got to meet Greg

Nicotero. (I have such a fangirl crush on him now).

9.    Got to see Duran Duran from the THIRD row.

I've always had the fangirl crush for them!!

10.    I was hoping to find another happy thing...but it looks like I'm ending the year with a 

bad cold and cough virus!

Shall I add more:

11.    My cousin-in-law Greg just passed away - December 23rd.

GOOD-BYE 2024!

2024 Hasn't Been A Good Year So Far

 2024 - what can I say? We're only 5 months in and things just haven't been good.  

The first week of the year my mom needed moved from the rehab center to a nursing home.  None of us were able to give her the 24 hour care that she needed.  However, during that time, the nursing home was saying she didn't qualify for a nursing home; nor did she qualify for assisted living.  You're reading that right, too bad for one - not bad enough for the other.  During that same week, my brother-in-law, unexpectedly, needed to have quadruple bypass.

Also in January, my one Aunt passed as well as my cousin's husband.

My parents live with my sister J and this was her husband needing the bypass.  No surprise she was very stressed.  She has my Dad, her husband needs serious surgery and Mom's in limbo. Naturally the rest of us-myself and sisters E & S, jumped in to help with Dad.  Brother-in-law came through surgery perfectly and has healed nicely fortunately.  

I got the flu in January....which led into my 60th birthday....which meant really no celebration.  Though my sisters did take me to dinner.  They went out afterwards, I went home to bed.  For my 60th year I decided to invest in me by rejoining Weight Watcher meetings and buying a walking pad...neither has gotten much use 😞.

Because my sister hired an Elder Law Attorney (if you have the money, so worth it) we did get Mom into a nursing home.  Mom had her good and bad days.  I never seemed to catch her on her good days and several times she didn't know who I was; sometimes I couldn't get her to wake up.  It was sad and the mother I once knew, was slipping away.  I hit a point that I didn't want to visit her anymore; I knew I had to, but I didn't want to (E felt the same).  I started going over during my lunch hour; it limited the time I could stay.

Unexpectedly in February, my dog Dexter needed put down.  We knew this was coming due to a tumor by his liver; but it just was another thing to happen in an all ready stressful year.  I miss my Dexter Doodle Noodle. 

The end of February my Dad turned 90!  A celebration finally! Not a big one, but we took him to his favorite diner and that made him happy!  (by the way, he and mom celebrated 70 years in 2023).

Then March started.  At 1:30 a.m. on March 7th, I was awakened by a phone call from J letting me know that Mom had passed away.  We knew this was coming; but you're never truly prepared for it.  And also, once again, I was 7 days in with a flu! (no meds as the doctor says it was viral).  My work is very good with bereavement leave, so I didn't have to worry there; but we had all the preparations, contacting family and such and it just seemed so whirlwind.  We went through a lot of photos, reliving the memories.  My Dad kept insisting the photos of him in the younger days weren't him.  We told him that that must be our real dad - the mailman (inside joke, my Dad was a mailman 😀).  

We get through that.  And then, Dad is in the ER with an UTI....he was very ill, but doing much better.

The day after the funeral I went to Urgent Care and finally an antibiotic for my flu!!  It's gone, but I've been left with a dry cough for a very long time.  And of course, allergy season started.....

We spent our first year without Mom on Easter.  There will be a lot of firsts this year.  Mother's Day was hard.

Last week, Dad was back in the ER with an UTI again!  He was there a week and they just moved him to a rehab center; but things are just not going well.  He has several medical issues that affect his mind and we just don't know if the craziness (for lack of a better word) is going away this time.  More than likely he'll end up in a nursing home.  J can no longer take care of him as he can do nothing for himself anymore; we're not sure he'll be able to walk again.

So 2024 hasn't been a good year.

A Few Losses

 But the week didn't start good.  This week I had to say good-bye to my dear sweet Cooper.

Cooper was 13 years old and age wasn't well for him.  It was time to go but I stayed with him to the bitter end.  I loved this cat.

We've been looking to adopt another dog.  We found one and applied for it at our local shelter.  When days went by with no word; we stopped in and I explained that I had put in an application on Ginger but had not heard anything.  Without even asking my name they informed me that they were behind on applications and I wouldn't hear anything until the following week.  I asked to get Ginger out and the happily allowed it.  Hubby and I spent almost an hour with her, playing fetch, taking photos, bonding...  A few hours later she would be gone from the website - adopted, to someone else.  I wish they had told me there were other applications, that I would of understood; but allowing me to bond with a dog that you already had approved to someone else?  REALLY!!

So the week was about loss.

But I'm trying to not let it get me down.  There will be other dogs; Cooper is in a much better place.