1. It’s the first day of summer and already I am looking forward to October when the weather starts to get civilized again. It used to be September, but the corporate types have to keep those third quarter profits rising and the right-wing types think science is a conspiracy so now the planet is burning down and October it is. Soon it will be November.
2. I’m mostly out of my various wrist braces and whatnot. They cut off my nice purple cast after only a week or so – not two days after Lauren and her friends signed it, sadly enough – and gave me a heavy-duty splint that I could take off to shower. I kept it for two weeks, and then last week they gave me a light one and told me to start taking it off “as tolerated.” They also gave me PT exercises to be done “as tolerated” as well, which is a great thing because it fits so neatly with my overall philosophy of life: “No pain, no pain.” So I do my PT exercises and mostly go without the splint except to drive (which requires more than is comfortable without the brace) and sleep (since I have no idea what I will be doing asleep and would rather not reinjure anything). Progress!
3. The PT person in Madison was impressed that my left (broken) wrist has about as much flexibility as my right one and I wasn’t sure if I should tell her that some of that is because I’ve just never really been that flexible to begin with.
4. One of the joys of having fully adult children is that they recommend good liquor stores. Lauren told me about this place not far from the clinic up in Madison that I should check out if I wanted good wines so I went and sweet dancing monkeys on a stick but this place is the size of an ferry boat terminal. I spent a happy time just wandering the aisles and picking out some interesting looking things. Naturally Kim wanted to go so we went back a few days later when we had to be in Madison for a different purpose and we found a few more things. It was a good time. Also, you know you’re in Wisconsin when the liquor store gives you free samples.
5. I may slowly be turning into That Guy when it comes to wine. A while back some friends came over for dinner and brought a bottle of wine with them – a perfectly lovely wine that I have myself purchased on occasion, though not for a while now – but I have been experimenting with Italian wines for long enough that it just didn’t seem right. I’m not sure this is a good development, but then the half dozen or so bottles we bought at the Giant Liquor Store are probably going to last us well into 2025 so I don’t think it is a terribly pressing budgetary or dietary concern. But it is a strange thought.
6. We were up near the Giant Wine Store for two reasons, the first of which was that we had an appointment with a Finance Guy to try to get a handle on the various accounts that we have scattered all over the Financialsphere. We are reaching that age where we should have a Finance Guy and need to be thinking about that sort of thing, and speaking as someone whose grasp of Finance begins and ends with “try not to spend more than you have” the whole thing just gives me hives. But it has to be done, and it seems to be progressing along the path we want it to progress along. First, rationalization. Then, sorting. Then something something something something retirement something something at some point. Weren’t we in our early 30s not six weeks ago? No? No. Sigh.
7. The other reason was to meet our friends Heidi and Travis for dinner so we could hear all about their recent vacation and get suggestions for when we plan to be in the same place, and it went quite well. It is always good to share meals with friends.
8. On that note, our friend Eli was in Madison this past weekend playing at a jazz festival and Kim and I managed to catch him for coffee on his way back home, which was lovely.
2. I’m mostly out of my various wrist braces and whatnot. They cut off my nice purple cast after only a week or so – not two days after Lauren and her friends signed it, sadly enough – and gave me a heavy-duty splint that I could take off to shower. I kept it for two weeks, and then last week they gave me a light one and told me to start taking it off “as tolerated.” They also gave me PT exercises to be done “as tolerated” as well, which is a great thing because it fits so neatly with my overall philosophy of life: “No pain, no pain.” So I do my PT exercises and mostly go without the splint except to drive (which requires more than is comfortable without the brace) and sleep (since I have no idea what I will be doing asleep and would rather not reinjure anything). Progress!
3. The PT person in Madison was impressed that my left (broken) wrist has about as much flexibility as my right one and I wasn’t sure if I should tell her that some of that is because I’ve just never really been that flexible to begin with.
4. One of the joys of having fully adult children is that they recommend good liquor stores. Lauren told me about this place not far from the clinic up in Madison that I should check out if I wanted good wines so I went and sweet dancing monkeys on a stick but this place is the size of an ferry boat terminal. I spent a happy time just wandering the aisles and picking out some interesting looking things. Naturally Kim wanted to go so we went back a few days later when we had to be in Madison for a different purpose and we found a few more things. It was a good time. Also, you know you’re in Wisconsin when the liquor store gives you free samples.
5. I may slowly be turning into That Guy when it comes to wine. A while back some friends came over for dinner and brought a bottle of wine with them – a perfectly lovely wine that I have myself purchased on occasion, though not for a while now – but I have been experimenting with Italian wines for long enough that it just didn’t seem right. I’m not sure this is a good development, but then the half dozen or so bottles we bought at the Giant Liquor Store are probably going to last us well into 2025 so I don’t think it is a terribly pressing budgetary or dietary concern. But it is a strange thought.
6. We were up near the Giant Wine Store for two reasons, the first of which was that we had an appointment with a Finance Guy to try to get a handle on the various accounts that we have scattered all over the Financialsphere. We are reaching that age where we should have a Finance Guy and need to be thinking about that sort of thing, and speaking as someone whose grasp of Finance begins and ends with “try not to spend more than you have” the whole thing just gives me hives. But it has to be done, and it seems to be progressing along the path we want it to progress along. First, rationalization. Then, sorting. Then something something something something retirement something something at some point. Weren’t we in our early 30s not six weeks ago? No? No. Sigh.
7. The other reason was to meet our friends Heidi and Travis for dinner so we could hear all about their recent vacation and get suggestions for when we plan to be in the same place, and it went quite well. It is always good to share meals with friends.
8. On that note, our friend Eli was in Madison this past weekend playing at a jazz festival and Kim and I managed to catch him for coffee on his way back home, which was lovely.
9. I am in the process of reading Red Side Story, Jasper Fforde’s long delayed sequel to Shades of Grey, and once again I am reminded that Fforde’s head must be an interesting place to live. I’m happy that I get to enjoy what comes out of it, though.
10. I’ve spent much of this week on a Family Project that has been much more rewarding than the other projects that I should have been spending much of this week on, and you know? I’m okay with that.
3 comments:
1. We’re having a bit of a heat wave over the next few weeks - highs in the triple digits and lows in the 70s, however, we also have a whole different reason to wish for cooler weather. We are currently experiencing a swarm of these joyful critters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormon_cricket
Last night, just before dusk, I managed to count roughly 70 of those little critters per square foot on our rear porch. We have 2½ acres of these things literally numbering in the Multiple Thousands. When we let the big dogs in, we have to make sure none of those critters are hitchhiking in the dogs. They’re everywhere! Covering the ground, walls, roof, car … annoying as hell. I’m in the 😣 phase. Wife is in the 🫣🤢🤮 phase. Hopefully, the swarm will pass in a couple of weeks …
2. Progress good. However, re-injury risk is highest in the next few weeks. Resist the urge to push it.
https://youtu.be/s0ZZHNRHA2g?feature=shared
5. No need to worry. If you were turning into That Guy, you wouldn’t be spending time wandering through any Giant Liquor Stores. You would have done your research in advance, walked directly to the area where it sat on the shelf, and been in and back out in less time than most people spend wiping their butt. I know... I have a family member who IS That Guy! (14th most annoying person on the planet.)
6. Good on you! I should have engaged the services of a Finance Guy a few years ago. I made several mistakes in my retirement planning that are having a direct negative impact on our whole “enjoy your retirement” bit.
Lucy
1. Your heat is much worse than ours, though I reserve the right to complain any time the high is over 63F/17C. Also, re: Mormon crickets, WTF? That's a lot of objectionable biomass! I definitely sympathize with your wife's phase.
We're supposed to be on the northern edge of the cicada swarm(s) but to be honest I have yet to see a single one. My friends have posted photographs of dense concentrations of them, so it must just be me. I am okay with this. I had enough cicadas as a kid in Philadelphia - those things were everywhere, every year.
2. Thanks! Taking it easy is indeed my plan. They were very clear about not pushing through pain and I thought that was lovely advice.
5. HA! I used to be able to tell the difference between a $2 bottle of wine (I may have posted the story of My Cat And The Hungarian Wine - I'll check) and a $10 bottle though no higher. Now I can differentiate up to about $28. Some of that is inflation. But some of that is just that I have been trying new things.
Kim and I have the same basic attitude toward alcohol, which is that it is fascinating in the abstract but we rarely end up actually drinking it. Sometimes! But the seven (I went back and counted) bottles we bought at this place is seriously going to last us a year, maybe two. I still have whiskey bottles I inherited from my parents, at least one of which has a tax stamp from the state of Maryland dated 1978.
6. Oh no! I hope that those can be corrected or at least mitigated. Kim is a planner, so I just nod and go along when she says we need to do things like this and it works out for the best that way.
*are
Sigh.
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