Toby is still sick and apparently developed some pneumonia on one side.  I do think he'd not feeling well so it makes sense.  But, of course they had to take an x-ray so $200 there, plus meds plus doc time.  He's now been sick for almost three months.

Beaux is NOT sick but has an occasional cough and sneeze.  Texas has year around allergies so I think it is a permanent thing. But he's fine and perky and just as happy about walking and anything else going on as he can be.

Today was pickleball day and it was right around freezing.  I'm now an indoor PB player for good, I think.  This time last year I'd have been putting on my cycling gear and heavy coat and gloves and playing.  That was OK but I was sure happy to be NOT doing all that today.  It will be the same in the summer when it it hot at 9AM and we're playing in the AC.

Meanwhile I signed up for a mixed doubles series of matches with the wife of the couple we had dinner with.  She'd signed up for this Thursday afternoon not realizing that she was supposed to sign up with a male partner.  So she looked at me and said please and what could I do.  It will be fun and I will be exhausted on Friday morning for those games.  She is late forties, a little order than my eldest son, and has way more energy than I do.  But we play well together and she's smiling whether or not she wins.  Perfect partner.

Living for long enough is painful at weird times.  I keep getting caught off guard.  

John Prin's death at the beginning of the Covid epidemic was a gut punch.  It still rattles me.  I'm not sure why.  Lots of others around that age, just ahead of me, have died and I just nod and move on.  But his landed.

Rob Reiner is the same.  It is going to be a long while before I move past it.  He was a mainstay in my life due mostly to All in the Family.  Sally Struthers is the remaining member now.  Of course Reiner did a lot more than that and there are column inches and hourly podcasts being built right now to honor the works.  

The last couple of days have been pretty bad in general.  I need to sit with it all.

Pickleball strikes again. We're fairly reclusive. Dana has her few friends, women of a certain age, she goes out with for meals once a month or so. I've got my three networking friends I have lunch with nearly every month. And that's about it. No chummy neighbors, no meets downtown for coffee or, heaven forbid, at our house. We do have a couple or three leftovers from the company that we see now and again but it is never really much more than a lunch two or three times a year.

So going out for an evening with a couple is VERY rare, almost unheard of. But, pickleball. One of the many really nice women in the group we play with three times a week asked if maybe we wanted to get together for dinner one night. I think she was actually trying to get her husband out and social much like Dana tries to do with me but regardless she is a very sweet and positive person and I thought it would be fun. And it was.

We went to a place in downtown Georgetown (GT is very festive this time of year):



We ended up having to wait for over an hour for a table but it was really lovely weather and we sat outside and talked. Turned out we are all in tune and the whole thing was really fun. One of those kismet kind of things. They are a generation behind us having kids in college and us having, nearly, grandkids in college but it was more like talking to contemporaries (who have a bit more energy than we do).

So we ended up being there until about 10 and didn't get home until 10:30. Turns out we live less than 2 miles from them. And we have a ton of other things in common. It was an interesting evening and really weird to be with people and not end up feeling exhausted. And, of course, I see Amy at pickleball two or three times a week and we end up playing together and talking between games so the relationship will have a natural pace and we'll end up hanging out with them again, I'm sure. Weird.

Meanwhile we are having winter today. Down below freezing by tonight. By Thursday it will be back to above 75 degrees, sunny, and time for shorts again.

Today is a good nap day, I think.

I've had right much pain in my right hand mostly when I play pickleball and it usually goes away in a day or so, but sometimes it is extremely painful. And it is always a little bit painful. So I made an appointment with the hand doctor long time ago and it finally came up today. Turns out he's a pickleball player too so he understands. My thought was that I just had arthritis and there wasn't much I could do about it. But he is tracked down to what he thinks it might be more likely which is the ulnar nerve in my elbow. So he gave me a shot. If the shot works then we've identified what the issue is and if not we've also identified what the issue is. So my right hand and my right arm from my oboe down is almost useless. I'm dictating this on my phone because I tried to type it in my right end. Fingers just do not operate correctly.

The doctor was a great one and we had good conversation and among other things he said oh you have a little bit of arthritis. But turns out I don't have all that much. Interesting.

Other things going on. I got it in email from Jennifer Alex's, new wife and she asked if we wanted to have the two granddaughters, Lillian and Laurana(AKA Juliette) to come out to Texas to visit us in April. So they're going to come out and we got a few things in order to make that happen. Dana has what will be their bedroom completely full of Dana stuff as in in the floor is completely covered and there is no way to walk into the room. So she has a ton of work to do before we can get a bed to go in there. And then we need to find a suitable bed. They're only going to be here for 3 days I guess four nights so it's not a huge commitment but it should be really fun.

Laurana is going to college next year. Not sure where she's going. We've actually never had too much of a relationship with him because neither of us talk on the phone. Either Dana or I don't much on the phone and it's pretty hard to establish any kind of relationship by texting. So this is a real opportunity to create a relationship with both of them. And it's very nice of Jennifer to think of doing that. But there's lots of things to think about. We do not normally do things like that. We are so sedentary and set in our ways but it should be interesting and it is after all only 3 days.

Other than that, things are fairly quiet here. Beaux is entirely well and Toby is nearly well. They have both been sick for nearly 2 months now. Coughing and sneezing and trying to clear their post nasal drip out. It's actually been fairly dramatic but I think they are both nearly over all of it and back to just being normal dogs. It's very nice. Beaux is just as perky as he could be. It's hilarious. And we have a great time going on walks. He loves his walks.

Dana is doing fairly well and I have not yet killed her cardiologist. There is still potential for that. He still thinks he should be running the world and it would be easy if it was just me, but of course Dana wants to let him do more than I think he should be doing so if I get overly involved, I'm really being too controlling. The whole thing is just very difficult. He wants to run all kinds of tests and put her on drugs and I think less is better. But I can't direct it. I have to form a coalition and that does not appear to be happening very well so I just have to stand by and pick up the pieces later on. That part is more than a little frustrating, but at least at the moment she's doing well.

It's in the 40's today and wet and windy. Beaux and I went for a walk early on (Beaux ALWAYS wants to go on walks) but other than a later walk I'm not going to spend much time outside today. No pickleball today. Nothing else on the schedule. I'm doing some Prolific work and will likely knock out $50 or so today. I've been getting higher paying jobs recently and it has been much more profitable.

This is the duldrums between the Thanksgiving noise and the Christmas News noise. Then we'll get the quiet of the winter and spring. Looking forward to that.

We lost our electricity last night between 9:30 and 11:30. Didn't make too much difference to us. It was time for bed anyway. No indication from the electric company of reason but the area was fairly small and the epicenter was where they are doing a lot of work adding a commercial center across from our HEB. The last time we lost power was when they were building the HEB. I'm suspicious of both incidents. I suspect they have to shut off power to do something or other and it is easier to just 'lose' power than any of the alternatives. Just my thought. No harm done anyway.

Dana went to the doc yesterday to get an injection in her spine, an LESI L4/L5. She's gotten them in the past many times. They help with her rather severe sciatica. But this time the doc said that she could not get it if she was on Plavix. She said she was prescribed Plavix but was not taking it. Two docs and the nurse told her she should take it if prescribed. I'm kind of wishing I was there but maybe better that I wasn't. Yet another example of a doctor out of their lane. Dana was very confused and now had someone telling her something different from what we had figured out. She got the shot she needed and told me about it all afterward.

I decided to nail down the cardiologist and wrote a note asking for the basis for the Plavix prescription. No response yet. BUT I did discover that Plavix potentially interacts with two of her current meds AND specifically should not be taken with Aspirin which she takes. The Cardiologist did not, apparently, notice this. So my blood is on a slow boil and I will not respond well to anything other than a full retreat from the prescription at which time I will ask him to ammend her record removing the drug so we don't have to go through this again.

On the off hand he decides he will not budge I'm going to get a second opinion during which I will definitely be sitting in the room.

And why the hell doesn't their system flag the two meds and the aspirin problems?

I'm starting to get fed up with shoddy medicine and increasingly have an issue with the inability of medical systems to do the same thing I can do with ChatGPT. I was able to find the three interactions (all three have very specific and fairly serious hazards) in about a minute in the AI.

Having already had a discussion with the Scott and White patient relations department I'm just standing by.

She is not going to be taking Plavix unless and until I see a test or procedure that indicates she is in hazard from blood clots that merits serious interdiction to prevent.

Nothing more dangerous than a retiree who had time and a computer.