On All My Motions

Bits of this and that: ( Under the cut. )

And that’s it for now. Tune in later for the next pulse-pounding episode.

The ‘other thing’ I mentioned a few days ago, that interrupted our socializing with the couple from Canada?

Well, Susan got a text that didn’t make sense to her, telling her the time for class the following day. That naturally puzzled her, since she wasn’t taking part in any classes. She called back to clarify … and the sender apologized, he’d apparently got the number wrong, he was running a concealed-carry qualification course one town over, and assured her that there was room for her to join it if she wanted.

She wanted. I got my own CCL last year, and our current state of residence is ‘constitutional carry’, but an official CCL (particularly the enhanced version) still grants certain clarifications within the state, and is recognized by other states with which we have reciprocity agreements.

I accompanied her through the process, of course, mainly to be available in case she needed anything (i.e., her continuing mobility issues). There was the full-day classroom, followed by range qualification. It had been some time since I’d taken her shooting, and we’d both failed to appreciate just how many things she’d forgot, she needed several corrections and reminders … but, by the end of the range exercise, she had incorporated all she was being told, and she qualified on the first attempt. We sent off her application, and it arrived a couple of days ago, so now we’re both licensed to carry.

And, because she’ll be carrying in her purse (we’re still shopping for a suitable model), she’ll actually have a larger weapon than mine.

Makes me feel all secure and protected and stuff.

I set up a list of things I wanted to accomplish, and yesterday was when I first set myself to really focus on that.

Then our daughter called from Ireland, and was on the line (Facebook Messenger, actually) for something like three hours. And in the evening, after I was almost caught up, we likewise got a call from our son Kevin, which was good for another hour or so. So I managed a number of things on the list, but not all.

Then today, Susan and I got a late start on the day, and some of the shopping I had to do wound up taking more time than intended. (Also, yesterday and today were both cooler than the current norm, which interfered with or negated some of the planned items.)

Tomorrow is when things really begin to count, it being the first day of a new month. Simply having a list has made me take care of more things than I would have done without it; still, I need to do more to catch up.

With both of us retired now, it’s easy to spend all day, every day, reading online and watching streaming TV and not accomplishing much of anything else. Better if we can manage more than that. So far, not a bad start.

Minor issues over the last day or so.

( Personal trivia under the cut. )

Here we are, then. The plan is still to get the driver-side cab window repaired Wednesday, proceed on to Tombstone on Thursday, and settle there for a bit to get the other things done. At least a month, is the current plan, perhaps longer.

So, let’s see how that goes.

I’d put in a call to the VA back in my ‘home’ state, because one of my medications (metoprolol) had run out; I got a call back explaining that it had been canceled because I was already on one beta blocker (carvedilol) and it wasn’t advised to have two at the same time.

Okay. If I’m not supposed to have the both, it’s better that the first one ran out. It makes me wonder two things, though. 1) Why was I prescribed two in the first place? 2) Is it possible that the two, together, might have something to do with the palpitations that disturbed me a month ago?

***

We’re still looking at moving over to Tombstone after this week, but all the weather forecasts show lower overnight temperatures there than here. Still better than we’d be looking at if we hadn’t headed west back in November, but I’d rather we were in some place where the temp doesn’t ever get down to freezing.

Finally, I put a pan on the gas burner tonight, and didn’t notice that a potholder had stuck to the bottom till the potholder caught fire. I didn’t react quickly or well, though I might have done better if the danger had been more dire; as it was, I moved things around till I could pour a bit of water on it to put it out, and that was that. Susan was calling for the fire extinguisher during this process, and I judged (correctly) that it wasn’t necessary to go that far, but overall her instincts were better than mine.

So, another day in paradise.

Our plans to proceed to Tucson got delayed while we waited for already-ordered medications to arrive at the spot where we were camped. ( Read more... )

It turns out that cheap egg nog mix, plus cheap whiskey, is …

… drinkable, but not exactly a treat, ‘holiday’ or otherwise.

What the heck, I drank it all anyway.

Because waste is wrong.

Yesterday Susan and I went to Mass for the first time since we started our latest travels. There were two Catholic churches close to our current location, and we had checked out both a few days ago. We went to the one I most liked the looks of (more old-fashioned, I’m strongly oriented toward tradition), and …

New Mexico, of course, has a substantial Hispanic population. Where we’d been living before, our church also offered a Spanish Mass; here, English is the ‘also’. That’s the Mass we attended, of course. Even with that, I was more than a little surprised that I only saw four people in the church who were obviously non-Hispanic; Susan and I were two of them, and the other two were black men. (One of whom was the priest, clearly from Africa, but both his English and his occasional Spanish were easy and clear.)

We may try the other church, just to see what it’s like, but if we keep attending this one till we move on, that’ll be fine. It’s nice to be back in community.

I had a carotid echocardiogram yesterday, and will do my regular yearly physical on Monday, and that will be the last of the things I have to take care of. (Unless one or both of those show issues that require further addressing. Fingers crossed that we can skip that.)

Susan also has a quick appointment on Monday (afternoon, while mine is morning). She’s been on a weight-loss program — 25 pounds gone since she started — and will be picking up enough meds to carry us for some of the months we’ll be away over the winter. I’ve dropped 13 pounds myself in just the last couple of months, so we’re working this together.

Finally, the Army NCOs who straightened out my filing for retirement (only 11 years late!) said my first pay should come sometime in November. It arrived this morning, and was about 25% more than I had hoped for as the minimum. I still look forward to the lump sum payment for what I should have been getting since the officially recognized date of October 2013; no idea how long that will take, and I may have to inquire further to facilitate the process, but the results so far have been encouraging.

Meanwhile, Susan is still investigating what would be necessary for an RV cruise up to Alaska. We’d do it in the summer, of course — IF we wind up doing it — so there’s time to check out the details and make a decision.

Life is a work in progress.

The good news is that I’m almost halfway through clearing our big storage space, throwing away or giving away lots of stuff, and moving some to smaller storage (to keep, or to sort through more carefully later).

The bad news is that the ‘nearly half’ means I’m about to reach the part that is uniformly-sized boxes stacked nearly eight feet high, where before that have been irregularly-sized boxes stacked four to six feet. Meaning, I’m almost to the point where things get really intense.

On the other hand, I’ve located enough Rubbermaid totes full of yarn that Susan has decided not to buy any more till she works through them. (She crochets, and a substantial amount of space inside the RV has been taken up with the materials or partially-completed segments of various projects.) We’ve consolidated quite a bit of that, so momentarily there’s more free room than previously. Which helps.

I just hope my heart can stand all this excitement …