Yes, that’s muse the cat. In this case, she is indeed sleepy. This is her favorite place to sleep when I’m here, downstairs, probably because it’s very convenient for me to pet her while working on other things.
BTW my kids have taken to making fun of the poor little girl because she’s a little chonky. Like they have room to talk.
Anyway, in this case, non-literally, the truth is the writer is sleepy. I either need a nap or more coffee, and your bet is as good as mine.
I had a brilliant idea for a post, but it was the middle of the night, and I didn’t write it down, and now my mind is full of cotton wool.
It’s a relatively (Ah) low run-around day with only one brief medical appointment, to which I’ll leave in probably half an hour, and the work of refinishing the living room tables in abeyance, due to my not being able to find the mouse sander fine pads (trust me, that sentence does mean something) and therefore having to wait till Amazon delivers tomorrow. (Well, yes, I could in fact go to home depot, but that would make the chances of working on it today zero, since it’s all the way across town.)
So, if I can get a short nap in, it’s sort of an ideal day to write fiction after the (hopefully) nap. And I’m going to try just that.
Treat this as an open post, because there actually is a lot to discuss and my commenters are the most interesting part of this blog.
I’ll be upstairs, working on novels. If you need me, those of you who have my phone number, text.
If not, I’ll see you this evening.
According To Hoyt 
There are worst things than a tired Muse. [Twisted Grin]
LikeLike
By the way, where’s Indy?
LikeLike
And why did a delivery driver just leave two very large Erector sets and a 1200 piece LEGO™ kit on the door mat?
LikeLiked by 1 person
And where have all my small vice grips gotten off too, both needlenose and regular are missing!
LikeLike
Is now afraid to look outside.
LikeLike
Weird. I caught a glimpse of him going upstairs when we came back from the doctors, so he’s inside, but he’s not been pestering me.
LikeLike
He’s building a trebuchet, sized for mice and hairballs. That way you will really know when he wants the food bowl refilled.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nah.
Armored bulldozer.
LikeLike
I keep a dollar-store notebook and a pencil beside the bed. Only takes a minute or two to turn on the light and scribble down a couple dozen words — much less time than I’d spend kicking myself the next day for not doing it. 😁
LikeLiked by 1 person
Turning on the light would cause the Mathematician to be most seriously displeased.
LikeLike
Search the ‘zon for “pen with led light”.
LikeLike
A near UV light and fluorescent paper? And most paper does fluoresce some.
LikeLike
The last time I awoke with the urge to turn on the light and scribble something down I forgot whatever it was I was going to write as soon as I turned on the light.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I kind of hate the fact that it’s frequently easier to get exactly what you’re looking for from Amazon than it is to find it in local stores.
And I have tried to find what I’m looking for in local stores, even to the point of considering kludging together things from parts.
Buying the exact item designed for the purpose on Amazon… is cheaper in money and in time.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Corollary: I just demonstrated that the stuff you usually don’t find at your usual store will be there if you shop all around town getting those things and then go to the usual store for the usual stuff. Usually. Oh, and its about 20% less expensive at the usual store too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
An ask at the local Box O’ Stuff:
Me: “Why don’t you have ‘X’ in stock anymore?”
Red Shirted Guy:”Nobody buys it.”
Me: “Bull fuzzy! I came here every week and bought two!”
RSG: {shrugs}
Random Person: “Yeah, I always had to get ‘X’ because my daughter-in-law always needs it,”
Random Person No. 2, totally not an extra in the torchmob: “I always bought it here because it was cheaper here than online, and more convenient.”
RSG, starting to look nervous: “Look man, I just work here.”
Long story short, the local Box O’ Stuff got bought out by Bigger Box O’ Stuff and the BBOS thinks that since it’s not a big seller in X,Y,Z counties it’s not worth it where it sells well at decent profit in D county. Thus the only place to get it is via teh interwebz. Which old farts don’t prezactly trust, thus the not-a-torchmob incident.
I gots my widget thing delivered, yay, but had to pay shipping, boo, because BBOS pulled a stupid and made things stickier than they need to be. Grumpy man is grumpy. But eh. As such things goes, it’s not the end of Whirled Peas. Small spherical green things still spin when Doofus bats at them, thus the planet remains on proper axial tilt.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Oh, dear Bob. That’s what happened to book stores. They stocked for “Three states.” If I remember it was Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska? Something like that. And they couldn’t figure out why I lost my mind at that. The market wasn’t the same in DENVER and COLORADO SPRINGS, much less in three states.
LikeLiked by 5 people
Something with the MBA degree factories borked, methinks. Always seems to happen once things get up to such a rarified space that things seem to make sense at the higher altitudes of management that cross-eyed Joe working the receiving dock could have told you was bunk.
When you look close at the local level, which the local management is supposed to do, they could tell you that what sells in even this district of Colorado ain’t gonna move at that one when the first is way out in the ‘burbs and the second is either by the big college or out near the hoity toity ‘hoods.
“But we can’t cater to small markets when we make our money in volume!” Bull puckey. This is what distribution centers and proper supply chain logistics is for. What those degrees in aforementioned disciplines, plus business folks, is for.
Giving the customer access to the things they are willing to pay filthy lucre for is business 101. Consistently failing at that is what makes my brain hurt for the poor noodle headed fools that think you can make MOAR MONEH providing cookie cutter sameness to wildly individualistic populations.
Bah. I’ll cop to there is a point where ROI ain’t worth the squeeze. But when I’m looking at the numbers and 2 + 2 adds up to something in the negative it really, really puts sand in my metaphorical britches.
LikeLiked by 3 people
One of the MBA classes I took involved a simulation where teams of us ran a virtual imaginary company. Had to pick products, figure how much to buy, what sold, what didn’t, and so on. As I recall, none of us exactly covered ourselves in glory.
LikeLike
Borders had earlier indicators that things were going south (years of them, TBH), but the whole directive of “you won’t schedule events, use your own signage, or stock to your particular market” was the real early death knell.
(My husband told me a year in advance that Borders was going to die. “As soon as they’re late paying their shippers” is a known spiral point.)
(I still miss working for them. Wasn’t the glory days, but wasn’t the “Push Book” days either.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hm, maybe that’s why our local B&N does fairly well– it’s at a mall, of course, but intelligently so. They’ve got a huge section of parking lot where they’re the only demand for most of the day, it’s easy to walk through past the eye-catchign displays if you want to get into the main mall (more pleasant than the two nearest entry ways) and they fairly regularly schedule both author signings (apparently based on “willing to walk into store”) and stuff for people with kids. LIke, lego-building competitions, and Star Wars trivia.
LikeLike
Then there’s me working for an auto parts store in Minneapolis for a chain based in Memphis. Come early March, the directive comes down to change the Seasonal pod from winter to spring merch. So I am taking down the windshield scrapers and lock de-icers and putting out the trimmer string and lawnmower spark plugs and filters – as what turns out to be four inches of Globull Warmening is falling outside. Memphis and Minneapolis both start with the letter M, but they are not the same . . .
LikeLiked by 2 people
The window AC in my study died in early August. I went to Lowes – they’re the only hardware store in town now – to buy a new one. The pallets full of air conditioners were all gone. I asked when they would restock. Next year. WTF Why?! “It’s a summer item, and we’re setting up for fall items.”
It was 107F, and at least another two months of that before “fall” was on the table.
Same thing at Wal-Mart, when I went to buy a spray nozzle for the garden hose.
This is why I primarily buy online. Because the “local” businesses suck at being businesses.
LikeLike
This is essentially Costco’s model. They get in season stuff before the seasons. If you don’t get your air conditioner now, typically well before it gets hot here (this year an exception, hit 95 already), when you want one, it is gone.
Older homes, unless retro fitted, won’t have whole house air conditioning. Family home didn’t, until mom & dad put it in early ’00s. Our house still doesn’t have full house air conditioning. When the furnace goes, its replacement will include air conditioning. Right now we have 3 floor units, and one wall unit, that kinda sorta keeps the house tolerable; as long as it isn’t a long hot spell (no more than 3 days) that doesn’t cool down at night, in the early AM. House can’t cool down.
LikeLike
Took me YEARS to come to terms with that.
LikeLike
When we came to Flyover County, F-Falls had one JC Penney catalog store, and a rather shady Sears in the strip mall. Flyover Falls used to have the nickname of Catalog Flats for a good reason. With the ‘zon in place, I dread having to go to town on Mondays. The incoming pile at the mail drop is impressive. And moderately scary.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Went to Home Despot for a white oak 1×6 only to discover that they stopped selling hardwood sometime since the last time i bought white oak there. WTF, O? ☹️
LikeLiked by 1 person
My local Home Depot gives me 1000s of hits from various hardwood items.
LikeLike
Oh dear. F-Falls’ Despot never had white oak, but I could get red oak on the regular. There’s a project in my “when I have time” file that will likely need some oak. If they don’t have it, a local supplier has myriad woods, with the caveat that you have to do the planing yourself. Their 4/4 maple is actually 1″ thick…
(Another local outfit sells 4/4 planed poplar. I think of it as the poor man’s birch.)
(In San Jose, Southern Lumber was spendy, but if I needed anything, they’d have it. Not venturing south of State Line road for that, no way, no how. ‘Tain’t civilized there, not any more.)
If HD stops selling 4/4 cedar trim, I’ll be pissed.
LikeLike
Youngbloods’ Lumber in NE Minneapolis was the place to go for lumber, especially craft stuff. Need an 8′ long, 12″ wide, 4″ thick piece of African Zebrawood for your custom fireplace mantel? Yup, they had it. For a pretty penny, of course, but it was there.
Covid killed them, or put the final nail in the coffin.
LikeLike
This is something that has driven me nuts about the “but you’re short-changing the local stores by going to Amazon!” argument.
Yes, I’m not patronizing the local stores when I go to Amazon. Do you know when I go to Amazon most often? It’s after I’ve gone to three or five stores, and I couldn’t find the item I’m looking for!
Look, I prefer local — I get to see the things in person, and I get the thing I’m looking for immediately — but I can only do local if local meets me halfway, and stocks the things I need, darn it!
LikeLiked by 3 people
When local entails an 80 mile round trip, Amazon drifts to the top of the preference stack right quick. Now that they’ve insisted on Amazon Delivery drivers who actually can read and speak English (and who don’t leave packages at the front door of a business closed on Sundays, as was too common at first), their delivery service is fairly good. Add in the additional warehouses, and I stand a chance of ordering something Sunday night and picking it up on the Tuesday market run. Not always, but often enough.
(For reasons, we don’t ask for deliveries to Casa RC for things that I can carry home. The $100 delivery charge for building materials is a factor, as is a lack of a 16′ flatbed trailer. But still.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Aye. I’d “shop local” if I could actually “buy local” – and sometimes I can, but other times all I am doing is wasting time and motorfuel. And it’d be nice if I could confirm stock online and be sure of the trip being worthwhile.
HEck, it’d be nice if Walmart would be let easily set to LOCAL and push shipping by default or in the primary mix. There are times I want to just go get something NOW.
Much like I’d like to confirm menus and hours (of local places). It astonishing how business hours seem to be an afterthought if not a Secret.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve been happy with the Home Depot website. Needed to get a battery for the lawn mower (protip: don’t drop one. The charge indicator circuit* went toes up, and I cannot trust it any more), and I could confirm stock. Handy when the orange guy couldn’t find it.
(*) At least. Too much stored energy to take a risk of battery flambe.
The bit where it says where in the store said item is supposed to be stocked is also quite handy. Saves a lot of wandering around,.
FWIW, the F-Falls Yelp sites have hours for restaurants locally. I seldom go to them, but there’s a diner where I can get breakfast after an Oh-Dark-Thirty medical test. (There’s a cafe/”bistro” at the hospital. Tried their scrambled eggs once as they started b’fast. No. Most of their lunch dishes are off the safe-to-eat list for my body, but they seem far better than those poor eggs did.)
LikeLike
I went to the local mall to look for sandals. The one shoe store there that does not price things as “Buy one pair for $100.00, get one free”…doesn’t carry my size. The other three did not have anything under $100.00, or that was something I’d wear. So Amazon it HAD to be.
The local Walmart, last time I went, had 2 pair of Dickies work pants, no boxers, and no work socks. Had I been looking for graphic t-shirts or denim jeans, I would have had hundreds of options.
I really do try to shop locally. Seems local businesses don’t try, though.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Once size 14 footware started to get too small, I had to go online for it. Sasquatch Supply doesn’t exist, alas, but I can get size 15 shoes at the ‘zon, and Danner has a really nice set of boots.
Most local shoe stores get spotty at 13, and checking all the places, I might find a 14.
LikeLiked by 1 person
In my case, it’s the other way. I wear an 8 to 8-1/2. Every pair of socks I have is like wearing potato sacks. I imagine yours are like 10 pounds of sausage in a 7 pound casing.
LikeLike
“One size” should stop right there with their phrasing, because “fits all” doesn’t. I have to get my general socks online, because women’s socks are in that “one size” that doesn’t fit me, but brands like GoldToe actually bother to have some other sizes. (They’re also more honest about what their sizes fit. “Fits shoe sizes 6-10” is a pipe dream even with spandexy fabrics.)
LikeLike
Used to be you could send in not only preferred shoe size, but a tracing of your feet, and you could order a pair of made to order from Danner. Or how I got work boots that lasted me more than 3 months. Couldn’t get the wild land fire boot heals recommended by co-workers and classmates because feet aren’t big enough (women’s 7.5 W, men’s 4.5, boots would have been mostly heel on the sole). Worth every penny of the $80, 1976 dollars, I could barely afford. Wore them 6 years for work; longer hiking. Got replaced for hiking, not because they wore out, but weight (they were overkill for hiking).
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am told that most brands stock ONE pair of 13s per model style.
My eldest has size 13 feet. Hopefully his feet have stopped growing (he’s 18.)
LikeLike
Same, even here in Eugene.
It isn’t that the stores do not have the Sketcher’s slip on shoe. It is they do not have any 7.5 wide; ever, at any price.
LikeLike
Skechers probably doesn’t make them.
LikeLike
Recent option.
I now have two pairs of Sketchers hands free slip-ons in 7.5 W, women edition. From? Amazon.
Also got a decent pair of hiking shoes in 7.5 W, womens, from Amazon. Hiking boots tend to be a little wider than a normal shoe. But hiking shoes? Not so much. Going up to a size 8 is a no go. Doesn’t matter.
LikeLike
About 50% of the local Wal-Mart’s clothing invetory is gangbanger/rapper garb. Most of the rest is women’s clothing. The tiny selection of men’s clothing was all in Small and Extra-Small.
LikeLike
Alas, they’ve stopped carrying Lee denim for women, which means that my one reliable place to get shorts is no more. They are (for the moment) still carrying LEvi Signature, which works okay for jeans, but the shorts they had were a zero-inseam style and That Isn’t Happening*. (My sister asked, What do you mean by that? and she is of the generation that I could respond, They’re Daisy Dukes.)
*I have a naturally long inseam, so Bermuda shorts actually hit like normal shorts for me. I’ve been doing okay with listed-as-8-but-actually-6-inch inseams, but I’d love the option of 10.
LikeLike
Real fun in the USA:
The wild enthusiasm that some Europeans are having at seeing the smaller side of the US. Granted, the Tartan Army is just nuts [No surprise – they’re Scottish.], but the absolute ball people seem to be having as they travel and discover the US outside of the big cities.
Along those lines, this is the centenary of the designating of Route 66 as a cross-country highway. People all along the route, and those traveling the route, are throwing parties, enjoying the cultures and sights, and generally having a weeks-long celebration. It is totally non-political, non-partisan, and pure Americana kitsch. The Arts at the Sunset in Amarillo, for example, has a quilts of 66 show in progress, showing 100 art quilts with Route 66 and America 250th themes. As well as an enormous street party last weekend on one of the few still-commercial stretches of 66 that remain. It is all truly family-friendly, and people seem to be having a blast.
LikeLiked by 4 people
There has been the English guys that have been posting their American experiences for awhile now. Explaining America to Europeans, particularly the England. Different states, different weather conditions. The ones on the “Great Lakes” were hilarious. As was the one on “why American’s do not have passports”.
The “World Cup” visitors, are also posting:
Just a small sampling.
So far very little on “why can’t Americans drive on the left side of the road?” About what one would see for American driving for the first time in Europe.
LikeLiked by 2 people
NOT EUROPE. Only England.
LikeLike
Back in 1967, Dad took Mom and me down Route 66. We made it as far as the Grand Canyon before we had to turn back, but it was a fun trip. About 4 years later, 4 of us went from U of Redacted to California on the interstate version thereof. (I stopped at San Diego to visit a friend, while the rest made it to Modesto-ish and Yosemite.) Not quite the same; some of the most beautiful country was traversed around midnight, but we did our best. Fun, despite car troubles. (Mercifully, our road disaster was 10 miles from one of the guy’s extended family. Did not have to find a motel in metropolitan Blythe, California. Blythe, where a Pontiac was too exotic for the local auto parts store…)
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Tartan Army has been in the neighborhood (mostly down in Boston, though I’d swear I heard a couple Scots accents in the distance here on the North Shore, that’s quite a haul down to Foxboro). The most amusing thing is that the Tartan Army invaded the Sam Adams Boston Taproom and ran it dry of Sam Adams Lager. That’s like running Newcastle out of coal. Impressive those lads (and lassies).
LikeLiked by 2 people
You realize, of course, you will find the fine mouse pad sandpaper now that it has been ordered. The only question is whether they appear before or after the delivery.
LikeLiked by 2 people
The lesser mouse dwelling will remain unsanded – Brits might call that ‘living rough’.
LikeLiked by 1 person
maybe? the problem is the little pickle has taken over vast portions of my workshop, so things got shoved where I can’t reach them without walking on boxes. This too shall pass.
LikeLike
Ah, is she the “little” pickle?
LikeLike
She’s younger, but the Younger Pickle sounds odd.
TBF she needs the space for business stock, and they’re moving here as we move out in about a month, so it all comes out in the wash.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Somehow, I had an image of Little Pickle being 6’2″. It’s been a day; had to take Kat-the-dog for heartworm test, but they forgot about the lupus-on-the nose check. Not critical; we can review it in October. (Two kinds of canine lupus, this is the not-so-bad one.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
No. She’s shorter than I. her husband is six four though.
LikeLike
Did we meet her at Confinement?
LikeLike
I believe so? Maybe? She was sitting at the table with me. People thought she was my daughter, which amused me, and made me happy.
LikeLike
“Pickle the Younger”, obviously.
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL
LikeLiked by 1 person
“as we move out in about a month,”
‘scuse me? You had hinted – is this now a Done Deal?
LikeLike
Or, as my late FIL said once to his flittering wife, ‘F’r heaven’s sake, woman, light somewhere!’
LikeLike
We’re hoping the new place will be for a good long time, but life is uncertain, so not promising.
LikeLike
At least, as you indicate above, the house is just getting passed on. That’s much easier on the nerves than a sale.
LikeLike
Trying to duck Oregon inheritance tax, we put our house into my living trust; kids are trustees – successor trustees, so long as I am around.
>
LikeLike
Went online and printed 3 copies of the single signer for the elimination of the death tax. We’ve all signed it and mailed to the initiative PO Box. Nextdoor had a link.
Comments against were what you’d expect.
Aunt and uncle had their estate in a trust. Don’t know what went wrong, but definitely not 100% protected. They had well over the 1 million per partner (2 million for married couples) of the state limit. Federal limit? That IDK. Regardless, not fully protected just because it was in a trust. The state is going to get their cut.
We’ve set ours up for trust too, including the house. If everything is pooled, our combined estate is just over *2 million. But that includes our life insurance values which never enter the estate, not even for each other (son gets that money directly).
(*) Which is amazing. We started with nothing. Negative balances if you count the student loans we each had. We had to borrow money from his parents to be able to move to our new first out of school jobs. My parents still had a child in college, and another one headed to college in another year. In addition, our careers included a number of layoffs. Hubby’s most of his career for that employer. My case, not as many layoffs, but a lot longer, and at least one major salary setback.
LikeLike
Well, our even considering it was heavily driven by the kids, because their neighborhood is getting a homeless shelter put right smack dab in the middle of it, and there isn’t much else they can afford to rent that’s safe. So–
LikeLike
$SPOUSE’s father (passed before I met him) had a serious case of the wandering. She much prefers to stay put. My first house (AKA, the townhouse from hell) was a one-year deal, second some 8 years, third 17. We’re coming up on 23 years here, so no wandering.
(We looked at moving closer to town during Covidiocy, but the California refugees slurped up the types of property that we wanted, and the prices are still rather high. Not sure what Casa RC would go for; almost certainly much higher than Zillow (infrastructure improvements FTW), but it’s still a stretch. Add in a dog allergic to strangers, and we wait a while.
LikeLike
Dad was active USAF from 1952-71; we lived in … 11 places before I graduated HS. Myself and married, just 4, though changed houses in the same city a couple times.
>
LikeLike
we have had 9 houses in 41 years. Longest was 13 years. Part of it was dictated by jobs, schools, kids’ needs.
LikeLike
We’ve been here 37 1/2 years. As grandma said “They’ll carry me out feet first.” Not that it is our dream house. It isn’t. Not by a long ways. But selling and building, even if we could agree on where (can agree on where not), we couldn’t sell current home, and buy/build and move, for less or same. Right now can’t come close to the same home loan rate. That isn’t counting the blow up in property taxes we’d be facing. In addition, we’d have to pack, move, and unpack. Baring someone else packing, moving, unpacking, and paying for it, not happening. The paying for forced moves ship sailed 20 years before hubby retired. At least we got the forced move from Longview paid for before that benefit went “poof”. It was gone for the 2003 forced transfer hubby had, not that we were moving regardless (he put in for a voluntary transfer back and commuted weekly).
Lots of reasons why we chose to not move. In addition, there would have been another forced move by 2008. As it was the voluntary transfer back happened in 2005. Cost? What does it cost to drive a pickup 900 miles round trip, the second half hauling a 28′ RV trailer back? One of the reasons choosing not to move was housing options were limited and horrible. Hubby wasn’t the only one forced transferred there to use their RV’s instead.
LikeLike
barring something very odd.
An unforeseen bit of luck allowed us to go somewhere we wanted to go and let the kids have this house. (Younger kids.) Not giving it to them, yet, but they get to have it, and if the writing goes well (and my health improves, which is the condition for the wirting going well) we hope to make arrangements in a few years so….
We didn’t expect to do this for ten years or so, but husband had an unexpected and beneficial opportunity come his way.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Court ordered fines for sand-spreading mice can obviously not be unpadded. Everyone knows that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So the Reader is a month out of surgery and his resting heart rate is running about 110 bpm. Today the cardiologist ran an EKG and an echo and saw faint signs of an atrial flutter. So tomorrow the Reader will undergo an outpatient procedure called Direct Current Cardioversion. As the cardiologist put it, he is going to hook a car battery to the Reader and attempt to shock his heart back into a normal rhythm. This is apparently a rare complication of valve repair (rare enough that it wasn’t discussed pre surgery).
LikeLiked by 3 people
Adding to prayers.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks!
LikeLike
I hope you soon live better electrically.
LikeLike
If it helps my mom had valve repair in her sixties, and died at 91 from running downstairs carrying a vacuum!
LikeLiked by 1 person
According to today’s echo, the repaired valve is working like a champ. Somehow along the way something got out of sync. When the Reader saw his surgeon for a 2 week followup, he thought this would just fade with time. Today, regular cardiologist added the Reader to tomorrow’s outpatient load as a forced add to the schedule.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It does help.
The heart team (OMG, I have a heart TEAM), recommends the mechanical valve. Lots of reasons, not the least is my mom is a healthy 91.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Reader notes that his surgeon told him that in the unlikely case the Reader needed the valve replaced (he didn’t) that it was relatively easy to go through a leg vein and do a second pig valve replacement if needed 20 years down the road. The downside of a mechanical valve is blood thinners for life.
LikeLike
–
Unfortunately, 100% truth.
The problem the team pointed out is that in my case, they could, do the TVAR but they’d be replacing it again in a year to 18 months, and then it’d be OHS regardless.
Good news is my veins are clear. Bad news is naturally small valve.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Prayers for your re-volting experience.
LikeLiked by 3 people
The Reader wishes you a bushel of carp delivered from orbit.
LikeLiked by 5 people
I hope the shocking experience is well worthwhile. (Sitting with a resting heart rate of 53. Better than my mid-30s first thing in the morning.) Yes, “pacemaker” comes up every time I see the cardiologist. So far, “it’ll be 20 years out, maybe”. OTOH, it used to be 30. That was 14 years ago, so I’m good.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Maybe that’s what Indie is working on?
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s when you sell your little Chevy electric car, but you found you needed it for your round trip from Burkina Faso, so you bought it back.
LikeLiked by 3 people
IF The Reader doesn’t post here first thing with “It’s ALIVE” after his procedure, I shall be most disappointed.
LikeLiked by 3 people
The Reader took note. Assuming all goes well he will post that sometime tomorrow evening.
LikeLike
Good.
Watch yourself for a bit. It’s a different procedure, but when my beloved got a later the second time his unusual compliation was to start retaining water. Easy to fix, caught in time, but good for a hospital stay.
LikeLike
That’s all?
Say on
Be sure to pay your cardiologist in currency.
LikeLike
Glad everything is going well. Prayers up for the follow up procedure.
I’m still 7 weeks out from my procedure happening. When I read the material on mechanical VS tissue valve replacement, AFIB is a possible complication with either, but slightly higher with mechanical. My take? Well that ship has sailed. AFIB is what started me on this whole mess. Then they found the valve problem. I get the open heart surgery for mechanical valve and the ablation, etc., that stops the AFIB.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re still eligible for ablation? My ship sailed on that long ago and is at the bottom of the Pacific. (Suspect I had AFIB several to a dozen years before I was diagnosed.) An acquaintance had the procedure, and it worked really well for him.
Cardiologist says my valves are “good enough”. OK.
LikeLike
The AFIB is two-step. Not medical knowledge to repeat all of it. The ablation, plus there is a pocket in the heart where blood pools, and a source of the clots. That pocked is closed off to prevent blood from pooling.
While I have AFIB, I am lucky enough that isn’t constant. I thought having an episode every 10 days, for 8 hours, before it self-resolved, was bad (started out once every 8 to 10 weeks, once I realized “um, this isn’t right”). From what I gathered, based on techs conversations, that is relative mild. Came up pre-stress-Echo/EKG. I was afraid the test would trigger AFIB. Didn’t. Was interesting to hear and feel the difference.
My Aunt’s, one is 85, the other is 80, have had the ablation more once. Only related by blood to one of the Aunt’s (dad’s younger sister).
LikeLike
I had cataract surgery in both eyes, a couple weeks apart. First eye, no problem. Second eye, the powerline transformer packed it in two nights before the festivities. I was concerned that the 300′ underground line was borked, but it was a bad transformer. Still, no CPAP because no alternative power source back then.
AAR report from the anesthesia doc: “You did fine, but you have AFIB.” Me: “What’s AFIB?” Long conversation later, along with orders to see my primary care guy ASAP, followed by referral to the cardiologist. Seems the stress triggered it for that time. AFAIK, it’s constant, but only painful on very rare occasions, usually stressful occasions.
LikeLike
–
Thinking back, it might have been you asking if it was “constant” along with side medical conversations during cataract surgeries and tests for the aortic valve visits, that made me realize “Okay, mine is bad, but not as bad as it could be.” Or, rather not constant, good. Don’t feel it, bad (because of consequences not that I can do anything about it).
Only become aware of it because Fitbit heart rate number is out of line for what I’m doing. Which means if it triggers in the middle of the night, I won’t know unless checking the app (which with the switch from Fitbit to Samsung Health the AFIB detection isn’t working, go figure). Also, medication I’m on is mostly handling the AFIB, except one trigger, at 2 AM, in the last year (which I didn’t know about until I looked at heart rate stats on Fitbit app for some paperwork).
What did come out of my cataract surgery, second eye, was “do you have high blood pressure?” Was high first time, but not unreasonable. Second time they brought it up. Was already working with primary. Ended up on BP meds.
Because of the valve status change, after cataract surgery scheduled, had to have *both heart doctors (because heart plumbing and electrical can’t have the same doctor), and heart team, sign off on the procedure.
(*) Little sarcasm. The same heart team for both. One surgery will deal with both. They wouldn’t normally be doing the afib portion now, because “not constant”, but already in surgery with OHS.
Probably TMI for blog. Here is the thing. I was lucky. If I hadn’t been aware of something being wrong. Been proactive (Kardia purchase), and send files. Primary wouldn’t have heard the valve “whoosh” (minor then), until it was severe or worse. Follow up wouldn’t have caught the sudden degrade (6 months) to severe. I’d probably had a heart attack, actual heart damage, or stroke, out of nowhere. All I can say, is “Use me as a cautionary tale. Pay attention to your body.” We, children of the ’50s – 70s’ (a minimum), taught to ‘walk it off’, ‘work through it’, are too likely to wait too long. Don’t. Just don’t.
LikeLike
Did the cataract stuff a few years ago, left eye then couple weeks the right.
But had a low blood glucose event early in the morning for the second, and y’know what? The nice anesthesiologist won’t give you the happy juice if you’ve eaten in the last 12 hours (which I knew, as they told me beforetime, and I approve).
Did it while awake. About like a tooth filling without the smell of burning bone.
My cardiologist offered ablation for PSVT 15-ish years ago – he was one of NorCal’s specialists and a bit of hammer-nail applied, I think. I passed, and it’s under control now. But a heart rate of over 200 is rather startling.
LikeLike
I thought my heart rate high of 145 was bad. Which, okay if at the gym. Back off and let it come down. Problem was, I was sitting on the couch, or in bed trying to sleep. Or the 2 am detection, it was only 125; I was asleep. Um, not okay.
LikeLiked by 1 person
On the fifteenth I’m getting a CTscan to look at the kidneys AND a bladder scope. Fifteenth of July.
LikeLike
Hope things look good.
Prayers 🙏
LikeLiked by 1 person
Prayers. Aunt B needed a transplant. I hope it doesn’t go to that.
LikeLiked by 2 people
May your beloved plague doctor be as useful and worthwhile as any could ask. May the storms be friendly, the bolts in your neck not ache when the barometric pressure changes, and may the stitches be relatively well camouflaged in the mean time.
And if the plague doctor runs into problems, might I recommend a good auto mechanic to advise him on proper valve timing? I’m given to know that such things can make or break the mechanical heart, so, considering the amount of automation coming to the health field it might be worth a shot.
LikeLiked by 3 people
🙏
LikeLike
Prayers up.
LikeLike
OT, but we have had a day:
Woke up to thunder and rain. Went to devotions (we’re at a project) in semi-finished “hut”, listening to thunder and rain. We’re running out of work, as sometimes happens, so beloved and I got tasked to go install half a dozen towel hooks in the girls’ shower.
While the senior maintenance guy was talking to us, there was a loud noise and the lights went out. Maintenance guy goes outside. Says, “Sh**!” I ask why, he tells us a tree has come down and when I asked which one, said, grimly, “You’ll know.” It turned out to be half a large tree between the shower house and the RV park, and once the rain slowed down you could see the power line the tree was now holding down. Meanwhile, along with the wind, the temperature dropped and the wind chill was in the 40s. And a barn swallow had somehow gotten into the shower house, so the door had to be open so it could get out.
We finished the job with battery-powered tools and cell-phone flashlights. Came back down the hill and discovered the guys had put benches together which needed painting. Somewhere in here I started smiling, because Somebody was obviously working hard on making the day interesting. (About the time the hiccups set in).
About the time the team leader suggested we go up after lunch to work in the (warm) dining hall, the ConEd guys showed up, and blocked the only road up the hill.
Power is back, all is now well, but it was definitely Day , Those, One Each.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Actually, sounds like you got the bogo special.
LikeLike
I initially read that as, “The Muse is Tried” with the obvious corollary of ‘and found wanting’ – of sleep, caffeine, time . . .
LikeLiked by 1 person
Our home is our last home. It was built in 1974 by my parents closest friends. My first visit was not long after. It was by itself in the Mohave Desert in a yet to be fully developed Lake Havasu City. Burros roamed a few yards from the back door. Roadrunners would come up to the lady of the house to be fed. It was a few miles to paved road. A swamp cooler was the only environmental treatment indoors. The town grew and neighbors arrived slowly at first. Less than ten years later and only a few visits, he died. She remarried. Gordon was at least as gregarious as his predecessor and socialized with the likes of Pearl Bailey and her drummer husband. Gifts from them are to be found throughout. Then he died at about the same time my mom passed. I was stationed nearby at the time, and Dad made a beeline to the twice widowed lady, proposed and was married where I lived near Vegas at the time. I got to visit a lot more often. When she passed suddenly one of the first things Dad did was get her brother off the homes title and put me on. He knew I would need to be here with my new wife who married me right here in what was his (but now our) backyard with him as our witness. There are so many memories and good ghosts here, I can’t see leaving.
LikeLike