Round Robin: Give It Up - For Good

For this week's Round Robin Challenge: Give It Up!, I asked to see "something you've given up at some time in your life, or would like to give up, or wish someone else would give up." I could maybe get clever or esoteric or, more likely, depressing on this one, but let's go with the obvious for once. Where does a successful dieter go to look at all she's given up? Why, the supermarket, of course!

In July 2011 I gave up high carbohydrate foods. I've since lost over 130 pounds, but I've been stuck at 170 pounds since December. I've going to have to give up carbs even more stringently. Part of the problem is I had to give up running, or even walking long distances, after injuring my right knee.

The empty plate here had a little round layer cake for one yesterday. I bought it for my dad's 90th birthday, deliberately small because we can't help him eat it. He didn't eat it, either. Tonight my dad is in intensive care, but not because of some food he ate or didn't eat.

My healthy choice is not to eat even "healthy" bread.

And my candy consists of one or two squares of sugar free dark chocolate per day, and maybe an Atkins bar.

Please visit the other Robins' entries, and comment if so moved. The list of entries is below, but please do check the Round Robin blog for any updates and late additions:

Linking List
as of Saturday, February 23rd, 2013, 12:02 AM

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/mavarin
@mavarin

Sue.
A Picture is Worth 1000 Words.
http://susiesphotospace.blogspot.it/

Carly
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

I have a defensive driving class in the morning and my dad is still in intensive care, so I won't be around much this weekend. I'll try to check in when I can!

Karen

Round Robin: Good Riddance, 2012!

For the Round Robin Challenge: Goodbye 2012, I asked to see one or more photos that represent 2012 in some way. For me it's been a year of transitions, and mostly not in a good way. I am actually in a car going west at 68 mph right now, so let me just share one photo on my iPhone and fill in details later.

Here are my dad, myself and my brother on Friday, December 28th, 2012. It's been a difficult year for all of us.

In January, my brother Steve went into the hospital with congestive heart failure, severe edema and kidney trouble and nearly died. He was in two hospitals and a rehab center for the next several months, recovering his ability to walk and feed himself while navigating his way through the Social Security and health care systems and trying to get the doctors to coordinate his meds and not overdose him. He's much better now, but still walks with a walker.

As for me, I lost a friend, Jan Lockett, to MRSA and kidney failure in January. In March I finally got a second part-time job, but as a temp, with a long commute. I finally became an actual employee in November. I've lost over 90 pounds this year, but hurt my knee a couple of weeks ago, which puts the kibosh on my walking any decent distance for exercise until it heals. So it's definitely been a year of ups and downs!

My dad started the year slowly going downhill with aortic fibrillation and dementia. In May my stepmother Ruth was diagnosed with cancer; on June 1st she died. Since then my dad has deteriorated rapidly in cognition. After five months of round the clock caregivers at home he went into the hospital with a-fib and urological issues, got a UTI and MRSA and nearly died. He's about to be discharged from rehab, and will need to be moved to Tucson, never again returning to his home. I had a great place lined up for him, but the concern is that his level of health may preclude his going there. So it's back to square one in finding him a place to live.

This week what's left of the family - my two stepsisters, Steve and I - convened at Dad's house to divide his personal property so the leftovers can be disposed of and the house sold to help pay for his care. Steve was delayed over 24 hours by storms and US Airways shenanigans and missed Amy entirely, who had to return to Detroit. Dad had no clue who Steve was, and introduced himself. But we got the job done and the papers signed.

Now John and I are on our way home in my dad's 2005 Prius, which is now ours. My dog Pepper is currently in an animal hospital at home, recovering from tick fever, not eating much or popping at all, and possibly cancerous. And my boss wants to know when I'm going to get the work done that I promised to do while on the road. But there was no Internet access at Dad's house, so this is my first evening back online since Christmas. I'm sitting on a bed at a truly cruddy motel with a cracked microwave oven and a messed up heater, but at least I've got free Wi-Fi. I'd better get to work!

Normally I would post the Linking List here so you could visit the other Robins and see what they found photographically worthy for this Challenge, but it's already taken me forever and three different devices to get this far with this post. Please click the link at the top of this entry to see the original Round Robin Photo Challenges entry, and click on the links you will find there. Thanks! And I promise to be more cheerful in my next post - I hope!

K.

Round Robin Photo: Leaves of Cloth

For Round Robin Challenge: Leaves, I asked to see any kind of leaves. I was sort of hoping that on one of my walks I would find some really pretty leaves to show you, but really, Tucson isn't generally the best place for this. Then tonight as I changed into a T-shirt for my walk, I had a very different idea for this topoc.

Over the past fifteen months and 125 pounds or so of weight loss, I've given away or thrown out many, many pieces of clothing, box after box and bag after bag. Now that I'm hovering around size 18, I'm wearing clothes I last fit into 10 to 20 years ago. It shouldn't surprise me that a lot of the surviving clothing is Aloha wear, tropical or Hawaiian shirts. Nevertheless, I'm a little surprised that there are so many of them - all with leaves in their printed patterns.

This is my one true Hawaiian shirt, from the Hawaiian manufacturer Hilo Hattie. It is my second or third shirt in this pattern. I got this one at the company's only mainland store at the time, in Orange County, CA. That store is long gone. The shirt was way too small for me for several years. Now it's way too big, but I love it too much to give it up. Look at all those big teal-colored leaves, some of them looking a little like fish! Love it!

Another shirt I'm rather fond of is as inauthentic as the Hilo Hattie one is authentic. It also came out of a trip to California. This one I bought cheap in a Southern California grocery store! I waited more than a few years for the day when I was able to wear it. Those pale green leaves go perfectly with a pair of pale green slacks I bought recently.

I think this one and the other Caribbean Joe brand shirt I still have dates back to my days at Worldwide Travel (1993-2005). The leaves on this one come in several shades. I got it at Dillard's, before they stopped carrying the larger sizes.

Here is the newest tropical shirt in my collection. I got it at Disneyland in May. Leaves aren't the most important element in this one, but they are in there. I may be passing this shirt on to John.

Now let's see everyone else's leaves!


Linking List
as of Saturday, October 20th, 1 AM

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/mavarin
@mavarin

Freda - Posted!
Day One
http://fredamans.blogspot.ca

Sue
A picture is worth 1000 words
http://susiesphotospace.blogspot.it/

Jama Hameed
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Danielle *** Welcome, new participant!***
Din_Dannie on Flickr - Posted!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43009039@N07/7961780714/in/set-72157631478705508
My Blog Thingy
http://dindannieblogthingy.blogspot.co.uk/

Carly - Posted!
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

 Karen

I'm Walkin' - for Two Charities!

Here's my last call for sponsors on the Walk to End Alzheimer's (this Saturday) and Tucson AIDSWALK (this Sunday). I will be walking at both events, but the dogs are only allowed on the second one. 

Click below for details!

2012 Walk to End Alzheimer's
Tucson, AZ
Saturday, October 13, 2012 - 9:00 am

Gene C Reid Park,
Concert Place, S Country Club Rd
Tucson, AZ 85716

Coordinator: Dan Lawler
Phone: 602-528-0545
Email: dan.lawler@alz.org

AIDSWALK Tucson

Sunday October 14, 2012

Downtown Tucson -

Jacome Plaza

For more information about AIDSWALK Tucson

click here. 

Karen

Two Lonely Cats

Sorry I haven't been online much lately. This is the time of year when I do a little consulting work at a second church, plus I've been dealing with a close friend's major health crisis. Jan is in Tucson Medical Center with a serious lung infection and kidney failure, and has nearly died three times that I know about. I was the hospital's only contact person until this past Friday night, when I managed to get the names of Jan's parents in New Mexico and pass the info on to the nurses. Jan is seriously confused when she is conscious at all, absolutely miserable and restrained for her own protection. This is someone I was taking to church, out Christmas shopping and to restaurants just a month ago! 

While all this has been going on, the Pima County Fiduciary Office has been badgering us to get Jan's belongings out of the home she lived in for 15 years, so they can sell the house. It belonged to Jan's housemate, who has been declared incompetent with dementia. Sale of the house will help to pay for the housemate's care. So yesterday, I rounded up some volunteers, rented a U-Haul truck and went out to the house to clear out Jan's bedroom and storage shed, and move it all into a $150 a month storage space which I'm hoping the family will ultimately pay for. It took eight hours and the hiring of professional movers to help, but we got it done, except for one important detail....

Sweet Pea has similar coloring to this cat, but shorter hair.

I wish I’d gotten a photo of at least Sweet Pea, but I’ll try to rectify that later. You see, Jan had two cats left behind in the house, being fed by a neighbor against the day Jan could move out of the nursing facility into an apartment. That's not going to happen now. Even if she does survive this crisis, Jan won't be able to live on her own, let alone care for two cats. We need to find a home for both cats, or two homes for one cat each. 

Here are the details, as written up by another friend of Jan’s:

Sweet Pea is a youngish tortie cat, black and amber/orange, with a distinctive black splash down her nose.  She lives up to her name.  She needs an immediate new home.

Flash (temporary name I gave yesterday), her gold offspring, also needs placement but hasn’t had much chance to socialize with humans, and hides when approached.

The situation:  Sweet Pea’s owner has multiple medical problems and has not lived at home for well over a year.  She hoped to find a new location, but her condition is worsening.  Her house-mate, the home’s owner, was caring for the cats until she was institutionalized several months ago with dementia.  Neighbors have been feeding the cats and changing the litter box.  The fiduciary is planning to sell the house.

Friends of the cats’ owner closed out the house as best we could yesterday (a protracted ordeal), and I brought Sweet Pea to my house.  Flash is still hiding in the only house he/she has ever known.

The present:  As of last night, Sweet Pea is living in my screened nook, safe but a bit chilly.  She is bewildered but likes the food and being petted.  Luci, the most temperamental of my three (already one over my limit) is scandalized, a state which she shows vigorously.

If I can’t find a placement or at least temporary fostering, Sweet Pea will probably go to The Hermitage late today or tomorrow.  Ditto for Flash, when he can be lured into a cat carrier.

I am hoping we can avoid shelter placement at least for Sweet Pea.  Let me know if you can help or have ideas.

What I can guess about the cats, and a promise:  Probable ages are 2 to 3 years for Sweet Pea, and 1 year for Flash.  Immunizations are probably overdue.  I don’t know if Sweet Pea has now been spayed, and for certain Flash (of whichever gender, but probably male) will need to be neutered.  The promise:  If someone can foster one or both cats, I will ask our good friends at Spay and Neuter Solutions to refer for neutering, and I will make a donation to them at least equal to their costs.  I am willing to negotiate re the additional vaccinations.  Sweet Pea seems to respond well to other cats.

Help!  I really can’t take on another cat, especially since I have to have a house-sitter all summer, when I am in Guatemala.

And thank you.

Ila

***

As of tonight, “Flash” is still out at the house, being fed and watered by a neighbor. I’m trying to arrange for someone to go out and retrieve her (I’m horribly allergic, and still have multiple rashes a day after being in that house), but that’s not the biggest problem. What we really need is someone to take in one or both of the cats. Is that someone you? If so please message me (mavarin on Tumblr and AIM, mavarin2 on gmail). Thanks!

Karen

EMPS: Motivating on the Move: The Patience of Jan

Carly is asking for Motivational Messages. I've been wracking my brain all week, trying to come up with something in the motivational poster format that is both motivational and funny, or at least one or the other, using one of my photos, new or existing. Now I'm out of time. I can show you a few fake not-very-motivational poster images I did years ago, and then I'll add a new one that may actually fit the parameters. I'll get to that shortly, but meanwhile here's what I've got:

But never mind those. I had to run over past the deadline to finish, but I have a poster design that I think is truly motivational.

This is my friend Jan, and the quote, minus the word patience, is something she actually said today. She had knee replacement surgery last year after tripping over a rolling stepstool at a bookstore, and nearly died over the fall and winter when the leg became badly infected. Her blood sugar was at a lethal level, her blood pressure dropped like a stone, her larynx collapsed, and her edema was the worst I've seen in anyone ever. It's been a long and tedious road back for her, stuck in a rehab and elder care facility most of that time, when she wasn't in one hospital or another. (She's been in three different ones since this began.)

But today she got out of Devon Gables long enough for Easter Mass and coffee hour, a fabulously indulgent lunch at Olive Garden, and a trip to Bookman's, the local used books and media superstore. It made for a long day, and I spent a lot of it positioning the car as close as possible to doors and ramps, and waiting for Jan to get where she was going. But I have to be inspired too. She's been through an awful lot this past year or so - losing her job, multiple health issues, financial difficulties and so on. But she's battled through it all with patience and a positive attitude that I really admire. Brava, Jan!

Karen

Round Robin: Feelings Without Faces

My entry for Round Robin Challenge: Express A Feeling is going to be a bit on the experimental side. As you may have noticed, I don't take many pictures of people's faces. I don't like to intrude on people's privacy. John forbids me to post his picture in any case, and there's really nobody else I feel I can ask to pose for me. So to "express a feeling" in this entry (as suggested by Lisa of Lisa's Chaos in 2008), I'm going to rely mostly on a building and some sky. I'm also going to cheat a little, and tell you about the building. See if you can guess what feeling is expressed here.


The main entrance to Devon Gables, as seen from the annex parking lot.

This is a place called Devon Gables. I don't want to call it notorious, exactly; in fact, I don't want to criticize Devon Gables as an institution or disparage any of its personnel. But it's a very well-known place in Tucson. If you live here and are old enough to have aged parents, friends with health issues that come with age, or even health problems of your own, you probably have heard of the place. You may even have walked its halls, or been pushed down them in a wheelchair. Devon Gables is a combination rehab facility, nursing home and assisted living center, one of the largest in town.

My mom was here, circa 2001 and 2002, twice I think. They were supposed to be teaching her how to manage her ostomy, but it took her a long time to learn to cope. She was at Devon Gables on an awful Christmas Day, possibly her last Christmas. I brought her presents there. Another time, in this place where the lights are on 24 hours a day, she called me on my new cell phone at 4AM, not realizing what time it was. I had it on the charger so it didn't ring; instead a voicemail prompt played, from the (male) previous owner of that phone number. My mom left an angry message about her paying for a phone so that John (she thought the recorded voice was John, live) could hang up on her.


A welcome to their home - but how homey is it?

One thing I'll say for Devon Gables: it tries to be welcoming and homey. Emphasis on the word "tries." In addition to this sign, the word "WeLcome" [sic] is painted on an otherwise featureless wall of cement blocks outside the annex.


The view from the annex entrance: clouds, mountains and medical transport.


It's hard to feel at home, though, in a place that residents typically reach by ambulance or medical transport. Some people, like my friend J., are destined to come to Devon Gables for a few weeks only, to recover from a fall or an illness or surgery before being shipped out again, to their homes or perhaps another institution. For others, this is the last stop, or the last except for some brief, final crisis in a hospital nearby.


The reflection on the annex doors is broken by iron grain, Kokopelli and my revealing shadow.

Still, as I say, they try to make the place look nice and welcoming, decorating it with Southwest colors and iconography - fake prickly pears out front (real cactus might injure someone), Kokopelli in the ironwork on the annex door, saguaro shapes and an incongruous spear hanging on the walls.


Wheelchairs in a lounge, in negative.

Beyond these touches, though, and beyond these doors, the main things one sees are hallway after hallway full of rooms, two beds to a room, and, outside the rooms, lots and lots of people in wheelchairs: mostly not talking, usually barely moving. These people tend to congregate in lounges with a television hanging on a  wall. This is odd, because they don't seem to really be watching it, or hanging out with each other. Nor do they necessarily need a lounge to get to a television, judging from J.'s room. She has a little flat screen tv that swings out over he bed on a metal arm, looking very much like a medical device - an X-ray machine, perhaps. J. was watching one of these when Kevin and I stopped by.

We didn't stay long, for various reasons.

So what is the feeling expressed by these pictures of Devon Gables on an overcast day, and indeed the feeling my friend Kevin and I experienced during our visit? Highlight the answer in between the * asterisks * below:

* ******* GLOOM ******* *

Now let's go this the other Robins' photographic feelings. I feel sure there will be lots of them that are more positive that the one above!

Linking List
as of 3:16 AM PDT/MST
Saturday, August 28th 2010 (K)

Carly - Posted!
Ellipsis
http://ellipsissuddenlycarly.blogspot.com

Karen - Posted!
Outpost Mâvarin
http://outmavarin.blogspot.com

Jama - Posted!
Sweet Memories
http://mummyjam.blogspot.com

Freda
Day One
http://fredamans.blogspot.com

Linda
Mommy's Treasures
http://mommystreasures.blogspot.com

Holly **Welcome, New Participant!**
Easy Living The Hard Way
http://easylivingthehardway.blogspot.com

Ethos - Posted!
Passion in the Moments
http://ethos-photographic.blogspot.com

Sandy - Posted!
From the Heart of Texas
http://sandyfromtheheartoftexas.com

Sherrie
Food for Thought
http://100sweets.blogspot.com

Rich - Posted!
Rich Image
http://richimage.blogspot.com

Mary - Posted!
Mary Tomaselli's Photos
http://marytomaselli.blogspot.com

Dawn - Posted!
Dawn Elliot Photography
http://dawnelliotphotography.blogspot.com

Gattina - Posted!
Keyhole Pictures
http://gattina-keyholepictures.blogspot.com

(And by the way, I promise to catch up with my blog-jogging and commenting this weekend. Thanks for your patience!)

Karen

I CAN HAZ HEALTHCARE?

Nothing like a well-reasoned argument...!

Meanwhile, Back at My Life

Yes, I admit it. These days I'm having trouble motivating myself to do anything productive beyond shopping, dishes and laundry, unless you count the daily visits to the dog park.

I have buttons to make for the Democratic Party office and for a collector, and button designs to do for the Inauguration. I haven't done any work on any of that.

I should be sorting through boxes, and getting the old Chrysler New Yorker hauled away, and working on the novels. There are so many things I theoretically have time for. Instead I watch Countdown with Keith Olberman, The Rachel Maddow Show and Doctor Who, my email and my Twitter feed. It's no longer a question of trying to keep up with election news. It's an attempt to distract myself from my personal situation.

My biopsy is scheduled for December 10th. The office visit and procedure will cost $163. The lab cost will be $140 "per specimen." My doctor's assistant says there should be only one specimen.

It will go on a credit card.

Even when I had health insurance, it once took me the better part of a year to pay off one stress test at Tucson Medical Center that fell under the threshold of my deductible. This new procedure costs considerably less than that. If it rules out cancer it will be well worth it.

And no, I never heard back on the latest job opening my main recruiter called about last week. There were supposedly four staff accountant positions available on a temp-to-hire basis. What, did they decide I wasn't worth an interview for any of them? There was something hinky about the industry they were in. My recruiter kept hinting about a regulatory reason why the pay scale changed for the worse between his first phone call to me and his second. The only thing he would confirm is that it's not the health industry, which seems to be behind most of the listings I see these days. The health industry jobs all want health industry experience. What other industry is highly regulated? Airline? Banking?

Maybe the four openings disappeared like vaporware as the company got caught up in the economic downturn. I used to see listings all the time that Citicorp was hiring, for about the same money I was making at Worldwide Travel in the early 1990s. But on Monday the news was that Citicorp was laying off 53,000 people (or 52,000; reports vary). John just received a notice that American Express, which just received government help in the form of deregulation, was raising John's interest rate. We haven't owed a penny to American Express in three years. So yeah, if that regulated industry K. was hinting about was banking, the jobs may not be filled at all.

And I'm getting fewer and fewer search results emails from CareerBuilder and other job sites. The ones I do get often have only one to three listings for jobs I'm underqualified or overqualified for - and they're all in Phoenix or Tempe, a hundred miles away. Latest local news here is that unemployment numbers are expected to be up in the imminent statistics for October, and fewer winter visitors are expected here to keep the local tourist and other industries afloat.

Troubling times. Is it any wonder I'm distracted?

Karen