Come and tell us your dull and unexciting news 34: Calmly through the day

[Mumtobabyhavoc]

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Uman, that's funny about the gin added. I've somehow added multiple orders of things online, too. And, yes, I was quite surprised how far away baby got - a 2 year old running up a long winding ramp from one floor to the next then off into a room unnoticed???
Found playing at the water table thing in the Eureka room. Thankfully we're regulars as members and baby luckily went to a favourite spot.
How are you doing?

Been awake here since 6. I think I'll just get a coffee and get on with it. 😵‍💫

havoc, how horrible for you. Let's hope it's not the beginning of a habit. I've seen moms with toddlers who have them in a harness attached to long strap to keep them from running off. It's quite understandable.

I'm feeling a bit down and still having some insomnia. I've learned that both are common after open-heart surgery. I have a telemedicine appointment later today to discuss it with my GP.

I think the mild depression is due to the suddenness with which the situation developed. On a Thursday, I had the echocardiogram, on Friday, they put me in an ambulance and took me to a specialty hospital in the city, and on Monday, I had the surgery. There just wasn't much time to think it all through. And I was completely asymptomatic.

And of course, the surgery made sense. With my level of blockages, I'd never have survived a heart attack. But on some primal level, I still feel a bit violated by the surgery. They had to make seven incisions to open my chest, harvest the veins and arteries, and insert the drainage tubes. It's just a lot to heal from.

I'm trying to get out of the house more, so yesterday DH and I went to a lovely park along the Hudson River and walked about a mile. The ice on the river is mostly gone, thanks to some warmer weather we had last week. There's a lake adjacent to the river that still has some ice on it. I managed to get a picture of a swan just as it stuck its head underwater, looking for fish. The mountains on the other side of the river are the Catskills, a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains.

Miss, beautiful pics. Sending love to you. 🩷
My stomach was in knots for a bit, for sure. I deal with anxiety and panic attacks, so I really had to keep it together. 😅

@MyrtleLion We've worked out it's about £10 to fully charge it which is much cheaper than £70-£80 for a full tank of fuel.

That really is a big price difference! Well worth looking into I think.

Sending best wishes your way @MissConductUS- chin up!
That feeling of panic @Mumtobabyhavocis so awful!
That all sounds very satisfactory @Umanresources
@MyrtleLionwe have an EV with a charging port and EV tariff - just had solar panels this year which makes it all quite cost effective (though initial outlay pricey).
Not long got in from work - was crazy busy and got home to find that despite the weather forecast which I carefully checked this morning declaring 0% chance of rain it had rained all afternoon on my washing which ds had brought in and left in washing basket dripping over sink…..
Made pork schnitzel with apple sauce last night for tea.

@Mumtobabyhavoc The panini thing is like a sandwich toaster but can do paninis as well. DH plays the piano well. DD had some lessons but wasn't that interested. Love your photos. Glad you may have made a Mum friend. Sorry about the anxiety.

Pork schnitzel sounds lovely @sproutsandparsnips

@MissConductUS Glad you had a nice walk with your DH. Its understandable to feel down after such big surgery and this time of year is a bit depressing anyway. But things should improve day by day.

Had homemade aubergine parmigiana for lunch and homemade cottage pie for dinner. Have been sorting and cleaning upstairs today and yesterday and its done now. Hopefully can do some work in the garden this weekend as its forecast to be dry all weekend. Just having a cup of tea and some mini gingerbread men. We got some weird and wonderful fruit in and DS ate the dragonfruit, passion fruit as well as his usual fruit like apples, pears.

@MissConductUS I'm not surprised you're finding it hard to adjust. It must have been a tremendous shock to feel perfectly well and then to be told, pretty much out of the blue, that you needed surgery for something that could be a major problem - and then find out that surgery was happening so soon. However much sense it makes, you’re still going to find it tough adjusting to the sheer unreality of that, especially as you now have physical effects and pain that you didn’t have before.

In a way your brain must still be scrambling to catch up with what’s happened and I suppose it may take quite a while to work through. But it’s good to see your pictures and know you’re back out watching the birds - every small step of your familiar routine will gradually get you back to normal. Take care of yourself.

Penguins, your lunch and dinner sound so good! I need to make an eggplant parm with spaghetti now ... very inspired! 😊

Took the kids to school, home for lunch then over to N Van to the suspension bridge (again) - really making use of our pass!
Long drive home in traffic left me unmotivated to make the dinner I had planned, so I ended up making pancakes with some oats and choc chips stirred in.

Pancakes sounds lovely @Mumtobabyhavoc

Woken up by a big soft white paw at 6am. Got him his tuna. Went back to sleep.
DH is now collecting the food shop from Waitrose (largely weird and wonderful fruit for DS) as well as a steak pie and giant chicken kiev and Melt in Middle chocolate puddings which DS loves. Then a Dunelm order.

We are planning to go out in the garden after that, maybe after lunch to do some work on the garden and garden path. DS walks so much in the garden, several hours a day we need to redo the lawn and some of the path.

Gosh @MissConductUS you have had a lot to deal with and I agree it’s going to take time to come to terms with something so serious. Will you have access to some kind of therapy. The older I get, the more I think talking things over with a professional, or even a friend is extremely important.

Yesterday, after my doctors appointment, which could have been done over the phone, I didn’t want to go straight home, as I was embarrassed about using my walker, just as the local High School pupils were going past my house. So OH drove us down a road that I had never been down before. We had to stop at a level crossing while a couple of trains went past, which was exciting and the first time for me. We had to open and close them manually (by we, of course I mean OH). We carried along this very rough track, filled with pot holes, which jarred my hips constantly. Then OH had the bright idea of turning on the sat nav. We were about 15 minutes away from home, but the route we were on said we were 49 minutes from home. We were on a walking trail, with no room to turn round and reversing was certainly not an option. So nearly an hour later we reached a real road, but Friday rush hour travel meant that there were delays of 30 minutes. When we finally got home it was 2 hours after leaving the doctors, which is normally a ten minute journey. Neither of us spoke for the last hour and a half, OH because he was concentrating on avoiding the pot holes and me, because I was slightly squeaking with pain!

We are on speaking terms now, but I had to increase my pain medication last night and this morning. Just had the Ocado delivery and I am back on bag folding duty and trying to organise meals for the next few days. It’s duck and mushroom stir fry tonight, with left over chilli in the freezer. We do have some diced tuna, so I’m going to look for recipes for that.

Uman, how was the duck stir fry? How exactly did you make it? Sometimes I venture down a different road, too. It's funny how we stick to out usual routes and have no idea where another road goes to even if we drive by it every day.

Have been awake since 6:30, but staying in bed half-listening to a podcast and cuddling w dc. They're up now and playing so I better get up, too.

It got a bit cold over night, 1c, and it's sunny again so far.

@Mumtobabyhavoc The duck stir fry is still waiting to be assembled. There are strips of duck breast, which will be fried first, then onions, cabbage, bean sprouts and mushrooms added, then egg noodles and I’m having soy sauce but OH is having a sweet chilli and garlic sauce with his. I’m making my mouthwatering now. There’s bread and butter pudding to follow, as a treat. We usually have yoghurt or fresh fruit. Oh and I’m finishing off a bottle of wine that DD started last week.

Oh, that sounds delicious Uman!

How did you persuade him to turn on the satnav, Uman? That was quite a trek. I hope you're feeling more comfortable now.

We have a three day weekend here, as Monday is Dr Martin Luther King Day. We're having hicken stew with dumplings tonight, and if there's any left over by Tuesday I'll make a chicken pot pie. Tomorrow will be the big post Christmas cleanup - there are pine needles in places pine needles shouldn't be - and I'll tackle the bathroom too. It's NFL football playoff season, with games on both Saturday and Sunday, so I'll have to fit in my cleaning around the games.

The bitter cold has returned after one very mild day last week. I put out some seeds for the birds. My downstairs neighbour left out a big tray of seeds on her deck yesterday, and it was immediately spotted by the squirrels. No wonder they're looking very chunky these days. One of the squirrels who was tucking in had almost black fur, which DD told me was a mutation. Our squirrels are all grey, not red.

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We don't use the car very much. It gets between 165-200 miles per charge, whereas a tank of fuel gets between 400-500 miles.

The car informs me that right now it has 57% charge which equates to 136 miles. But the reality depends on the kind of journey and the weather. If it's really cold it's less.

With respect to timing, I have to drive 30 miles tomorrow, so it won't need charging, but if I were going London or further I would have started to charge it yesterday to get to 80-90%. We are charging on our domestic supply which is 2.4kWh and very slow. We're always thinking ahead. We can charge a we go buy is expensive and takes more time than filling up.

If I were still commuting 50 miles (100 miles round trip) a day for 2-3 days a week, it would be more money as I'd have to charge it every day. But I would probably charge at work for free.

The cost to install a proper charge point which would get us 7kWh is thousands because our garage is not next to the house. We have a set of garages built behind the houses and we would have to dig up the garden, the path behind the houses and then across the driveway for the length of five other garages. The driveway to the garages is laid with fancy herringbone bricks. A new cable has to run from the meter at the front of the house to the garage.

The power in the garages was laid before they were built.

So I would recommend doing the research before buying, to be fully informed rather than do what we did, and buy the car and work it out later. 🤣😂🤣

That sounds really complicated to me Myrtle. 😵‍💫

I had the kids out to a farm today for their first pony rides. They loved it. 🤗

The dc have been asleep for about an hour and I'm watching Ford v Ferrari.

Yes! And I didn't realise before we bought the car.

However there are many great things about the car. Today's great thing was being told by Scott Mills on the radio that Clive Dunn was the same age as Scott is now when he recorded Grandma.

I asked the car's smart speaker when Clive Dunn was born and it told me! And he was 51 when he made the recording. I then asked when Scott Mills was born and ir said 1973, making him 52.

Amazing stuff, particularly because I thought Scott was about 39.

Two hospital appointments with two consultants today - orthopaedic surgeon and infectious diseases consultant. Currently the surgeon is running 90 minutes late.

ouch uman that sounds like a hellish journey.
Myrtle i hope the appointments went well?
Miss I’m not surprised you’re down, it’s a lot to process 😵‍💫

I was supposed to go away for a couple of days with my grandmother for a big birthday but with the tension with Iran we have postponed, which was disappointing. Kids are doing missile drills again in school and we are quietly doing a little prep while trying not to make a big deal and frighten the kids in case nothing happens.
Decided to half take off work since I’m not going away and bought myself a little mini illustration course on domestika by kate Sutton, which is quite fun. I’m not talented at all at drawing but thoroughly enjoy it 😅 been itching to try one of these courses out.
DS and I are on and off with pride and prejudice- Mr wickham has just been introduced 🤩

Myrtle, I'm the same with my phone. I ask Siri lots of things. I remember seeing people talking alone in their cars a long time ago and it looked so funny - how things have changed! 😂

Ella, keeping you in my thoughts. 💙

Gorgeous and sunny here today and currently 2c. 😎

Was supposed to have a contractor stop by for a quote, but I think I messaged my availability too late. Medical appt late afternoon. Just finished breakfast and would like to have another iced latte and watch the opening of a talk show I pvr'd.
Read online something along the lines of, Things Canadians Do That Confuse Tourists, and one item was our penchant for cold/iced drinks in winter. Guilty!!! 😊😂🧊
Not on the list, but equally common is males teens and over wearing baggy shorts in winter. 😂

Havoc, come to the UK and you'll see our famously hardy postmen (= mailmen) who just wear shorts all year round, but especially in the depths of frost and snow 😂

@Umanresources I'm sorry to hear your pot-holed journey was so painful, but it also made me remember when DH and I were in our very early days of 'going out', and I drove a Mini (an original one - not the inflated ones they have now which are about twice the size!). He suggested I drive us over a notoriously-bumpy area of a country park near where he'd grown up, but he withheld the crucial info about the bumpiness. It was like being on a roller-coaster - my poor car's suspension was in severe danger. I got more and more alarmed as we jack-knifed up and down…..and then when we finally emerged, he grinned broadly and said 'I've always wanted to do that!'

For some reason I still married him 🤔

Sorry you had to miss the big birthday trip @EllaDisenchanted

Hope you had a nice 3 day weekend @mathanxiety

Hope you medical appointment went Ok @Mumtobabyhavoc

DS is eating a lot of the fruit I got - since Saturday he's eaten all of the plums, the passion fruit, the lychees, the tangerines and the kiwis. We got 4 hours of gardening and cleaning downstairs floor done on Sunday which was good so about 3 metres of a garden path has been laid, leaves cleared, shed cleaned, gutter on shed cleared. DH has tomorrow afternoon off work so we can do more in the garden, predicted to be dry and 10C. On Sunday we had a squirrel, robin, birds and our 3 silkie chickens watching us, they were very happy with my leaf clearing as worms then appeared. We also have grey squirrels though there are some red squirrels in certain places in the UK like Tresco on Isles of Scilly.

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