More…

 More Jasper because everything really sucks in this country right now Covid and asshole right wing Republican party-wise.  If you’re one of them, I hate your fucking guts.  Have a nice day!

Morning!

 Morning!

Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas from our family to yours! (Photo from 2019, pre-apocalypse)

Happy holidays

 

Hi, how’s everyone doing?

Right now I’m trying my best not to worry and remember that doing so is unnecessary suffering.  I have no control over all the bad stuff happening in the world but I do have control over how I react to it.

So it’s 1:30 pm on a Monday and we’re blasting Jethro Tull’s Living in the Past, Jasper is perfection, sleeping on my lap, and Gary is baking his shortbread cookies, which, as per my fantasies, he’s amping up this year with some new flavors: brown sugar cinnamon and lemon almond.  

They melt in your mouth and I just saw my cardiologist, got a really good report, and weighed 130 pounds so screw the diet this month.

Anyway, enough about cookies, but yeah, we’re kind of nervously celebrating the start of the holiday season today, we just finished decorating the tree, approximately three weeks later than we’ve done it the last 50 years.  Due to everyone’s schedules, we’re celebrating Christmas January 1 this year. Assuming Omicron doesn’t raise its ugly head, Eric and Natalie will be here this weekend for Eric’s final week of Dr. Dog shows in Philadelphia and Julie will be here next Wednesdayfor almost two weeks!

Please oh please Omicron, stay away from my family. We haven’t had a holiday together since 2019. I don’t ask much.

So yeah, Omicron.  It’s a miracle I don’t have it, or just maybe, vaccinations work.

Ten days ago, I attended an intimate Christmas party with 19 other people.  I had dinner with the hostess the night before, and we sat next to each other for a couple hours.  We even hugged.  So when I woke up to the news two days later she had breakthrough Covid, I was pretty sure I would have it, too.  I immediately started isolating and home testing.

Guess what?  I’m negative and without symptoms.  So is everyone else who attended the party.

Are we the exception to the rule?  No clue, but I’m not anxious to find that out, so until we know more, we’re back in the house here at Casa Slick.

And we’re really hoping the kids can be here, but…

I can’t believe we’re still having this conversation almost two years later.

I still can’t believe Donald isn’t in prison for 850,000 American deaths.

Okay, I’ll stop because once I start on that mofo, I will stroke out.

In other news, Jasper is amazing.  He’s very smart and he makes us smile every day.  It’s like having a toddler all over again, he’s a handful and it’s glorious.

Retirement isn’t half bad, either.  I can’t wrap my brain around how much has changed in two years. I never would have believed Gary and I would both be home and actually enjoying ourselves.

Hahaha I was in Seattle for 4 days and when I called Gary to tell him I landed and to come pick me up, he was already at the airport, waiting.

You have no idea how out of character that is for him.

Omg the smell of cookies baking is killing me right now.

Gotta go, Gary needs a taster.  

More later, this puppy doesn’t give me much free time to write.

Happy holidays!

On my way home

 I had the most amazing time in Seattle and now all I have to do is move there.  Here are some pics from around town and a fabulous Christmas party I attended last night.  Ho ho ho! 

The above pic is our new Corner Club.  We’re available for party rentals 😎

Morning!

 Good morning, Seattle!

Here I Am

 …in Seattle!  Happy holidays from the badass Slick women.

Where am I?

 WHERE AM I?

OH MY GOD WHERE AM I?

Say hello to Jasper Slick

 

Gary said it was too soon but I went to Petfinder anyway and the first click was Jasper, just added that day.  I showed Gary and he gasped and told me to apply.  Unbelievably he was in a foster 10 miles away, next to the place where Gary got sober 35 years ago.  You can’t write fiction like this.

So, say hello to Jasper Slick.  We like to call him Jazz.

My heart is broken

 

Jake Slick

January 24, 2010 - October 20, 2021

The worst

 I’ve been awake since 4:00 am with my dog, Jake.  The reason his ear infection hasn’t gotten better is because he has lymphoma. I’m listening to his labored breathing and my heart is broken in a million pieces.  He’s clearly dying before my eyes and I am in agony this morning.  I hate being an adult.

 

I have what?! Part 2

 

The saga continues. Like I said, I don’t like discussing my health here or on Facebook. So I’m doing it on Medium 😎

https://link.medium.com/C1TyX9wF6jb

While I Am Too Scared to Move

 

So as I continue to sit on the sofa this week, hooked up to a heart monitor and scared to move because I now take blood thinners and know someone who hit his head and bled to death while taking them, I wrote a juvenile puff piece for Medium about annoying old people (like me) on Facebook 😎

https://link.medium.com/wDlDxsosNjb

So, as I threatened…

I wrote up my sad tale for Medium, where it’s enjoying a pretty large readership this morning 😎https://link.medium.com/WhATBxvaIjb

My week in hell

 

So Gary and I had such a terrible week I can’t even put it on Facebook because that’s where my close friends and family are.  I don’t think anyone reads this blog anymore except for when I put a link on Twitter so I’ll hide my post here.

Because you know when I’m upset I gotta write about it.

Long story short (though I am planning on writing a regular column about this for Medium.com), I flunked my routine physical, my alarmed doctor made me a STAT appointment for a chest x-ray and an echocardiogram after which I got an emergency appointment with a top cardiologist at Penn.

Yay.

So now I’m one of those retirement stories.  Busted my ass working for 50 years, made it (so far) through a pandemic, and just as I’m starting to relax and travel and have a good time, I find out my left ventricle is malfunctioning and my aortic valve calcifying.

I have persistent atrial fibrillation.

So fuck fuck fuck, I need to have a mildly scary procedure which may or may not work, if it doesn’t work there’s a slightly more scary procedure, and if that fails, we’re talking pacemaker.

Wait, wut?

Me?

The vegetarian who right now weighs 134 pounds?

Anyway, if this isn’t a big enough nightmare, I have to be on blood thinners the rest of my life.

I also have a whole story about that.

All you need to know for now is that the medication I have to take is $600 a month and is not covered by my insurance.

I spent the week doing research and talking to insurance agents about this and luckily Medicare open enrollment starts 10/15.  I can swap out Part D for insurance that will cover my medicine.  I’m on the hook for $600 a month until 1/1/22, though.

Good times.

Luckily we can afford it but I can’t help but wonder what happens to people who can’t?

Without this drug, I will likely die of an errant blood clot.

Sooo, the week wasn’t shit enough, on Tuesday we get a frantic knock on the door, it’s the gas company, there’s a gas leak on our street.  All day Tuesday and into Wednesday we had PGW workers traipsing in and out of our house.  I had to stay upstairs with the dog.

We were both very unhappy.

On Thursday, I got a call from my new cardiologist’s office.  We scheduled my procedure along with a Covid test two days before.

I also have to quarantine a week.

She also went over a whole new list of do’s and don’ts now that I’m a heart patient and on blood thinners.

The doctor had already gone over this with me but I think he saw my shocked expression and knew I was hearing nothing but white noise.

Oh yeah, I also have to wear a heart monitor 24/7 for the next two weeks.

Between that and everything horrible that will happen to me if I accidentally bang/cut myself while on blood thinners, I am never going to leave the sofa.

Scratch that, I was told I should be walking 30 minutes a day.

Welcome to my nightmare.

Thursday afternoon, Gary and I had a conference call with our financial advisor.

Yeah, I know.

I can’t believe we have one, either.

Sometimes for a stoner hippie I can be fairly smart, though.  Everyone should have a financial advisor. It’s how we were able to retire and afford $600 a month blood thinners.

Arghhh.

We also had to fill out beneficiary paperwork which really freaked me out given the other developments of the week.

So yeah, that was a weirdly stressful phone call, too. Gary and I are not money people.  Something something annuity something lump sum something.  No clue, but we’re all set.

And then naturally this morning Jake woke us up at 4:00 a.m. with ear trouble again.  I went downstairs with him and couldn’t fall back asleep.  I was so exhausted that Gary took him to the vet without me.

For the first time, our vet mentioned possible cancer.  I have to admit it’s been on my mind, too, but I’m trying not to think that way.  His appetite is still great.  He just seems out of it a lot and very low energy.

In a way, I was glad the vet told Gary without me there. I would have broken into sobs.  Gary handled it stoically though he thinks Jake’s decline is old age, he’ll be 12 in a few months.

I’m so sad either way.

But we’re taking it a day at a time and as long as he’s still happily eating and not in pain, who cares if he doesn’t want to go for runs in the park.

Ms. AFib over here can’t chase after him anyway.

We’re always going to have a dog.  If it were up to me, we’d have 2-3 rescues, more if we had a bigger yard.

So that’s my week.

My response at the moment is to regroup and hit the beach next week.  

I mean, what the fuck else can I do?

I’m also gonna have a fun weekend before I have to go through all this stuff and start eating kale and shit 24/7.

Pizza tonight, french fries tomorrow.

Hahaha I should probably go to the beach now, huh.

Sounds like a plan.

Dead to me forever

 You’re both dead to me forever.  Abbott’s already dead, the only shock is that he’s out in daylight without his cape.  I seriously want to move to Portugal.

A little humor

 So I’ve been doing some humor writing for Medium 😎 https://medium.com/boomerangs/our-50th-reunion-is-a-luncheon-6e5c1aa8e407

Odds and Sods for 9/4/21

So I’ve been looking for a place for my political posts because if I type what I am really thinking about America these days, I’m gonna be thrown in Facebook jail.

I also cross post to the blog I’ve had since 2004, but I am even nervous about losing that.

So I started poking around a couple sites like Medium and Substack. You really have to dig deep to find the good writing but when you find it…wow.  But the bad writing is really, really bad.

I poked around the music section and thought, ooh, maybe I will take a stab at writing there, too.  But then I read what felt like a twelve year old’s review of a concert.  He spelled the musicians’ names wrong.

I just can’t.  

Another review, this time about the Beatles, made me hold my head in my hands altogether.  It was 40, well written paragraphs.

Unfortunately, 32 of the paragraphs were all about the author/reviewer.  He went on and on about himself.

Only 8 paragraphs were about the Beatles.

I know, I counted.

Stuff like that drives me nuts.

Anyway, Twitter and Facebook aren’t doing it for me right now so I think I am going to take my anger and frustration about our country elsewhere.  

I’ll let you know where I end up and provide links. Shhhhh.

Of course I will still post Facebook-y stuff here. Like, Eric has been staying with us all week!

And tomorrow, we’re throwing a barbecue for his band outside their rehearsal studio. Gary is doing some serious cooking right now.

He does barbecue beans from scratch and they are everything.

Yeah, I’m excited about that.

Also, Eric will be here for Thanksgiving AND Christmas.

Julie will be here for Christmas, too.

Stay away, Delta.  I’m warning you.

Tuesday night we’re all going to see King Crimson and the Zappa Band at the Mann, and then Eric literally hops on his tour bus right after the show for a couple gigs in New York and beyond.

Good times!

I leave you with a pic of Gary, because it’s hilarious to me.  He’s now addicted to watching Great British Menu.

I know, right?

Who is this weirdo and what has he done with my husband?

This pandemic, man.  I don’t know about you guys, but it was sure life changing for us.

But hey hey, if you like Great British Baking Show, Great British Menu is even better.

Plus, each season has 45 shows.

It’s been on since 2005.

I started binging with Julie in Seattle in July and I’m not even half way done.

Anyway, enough out of me.

Happy Labor Day.

 

I’m home alone…

Hahaha, see link below, it’s my husband and Adrian Belew singing “A Hard Day’s Night” in Woodstock last evening.  I’m home in Philadelphia with the dog  this week, ordering insane meals from Grubhub and having my groceries delivered from Giant and Whole Foods.  I just ordered fresh flowers, a grass fed steak for the dog, and some serious vegan ice cream for me. Hey, it’s hot outside and I’m old and retired.😎

https://youtu.be/5ABECyKdhws

Seattle

 Yeah, I decided to stay here.  Seattle is incredible 😎

Seattle

 So I’m hanging out in Seattle these days 😎

I need a better title than Retirement Chronicles

 

I am not naming names, this is not an official Top Chef spoiler, but it is kinda so here’s your warning if you’re planning to watch it later.

I can’t fucking believe a series in which I invested three months of my life and really had a spectacular finale now has to deal with a disgraced winner who might end up disqualified and losing the title of Top Chef…if there’s even such a thing in reality television world.

Gah!  That will teach me.  

I’m going back to listening to music 24/7.

But I was so shook up by it all yesterday that last night I had not one but two ridiculous nightmares right in a row and I’m sitting here now still shaking.

As I may have mentioned, I’m flying to Seattle on Tuesday morning to spend ten days with Julie.

In nightmare #1, I arrived at the airport without any luggage.  I also left Gary without any instructions, like things he can do to keep busy while I’m gone and a refresher course in how to FaceTime with the iPad I got him for Christmas.

I was frantic but I was escorted onto the plane anyway by two security guards even though I told them repeatedly I couldn’t go without a suitcase.

I woke up at that point, went to the bathroom congratulating myself for just being nuts and not in Seattle without a change of clothes, went back to bed, and promptly had nightmare #2.

In the second half of this double feature, Gary and I sold our house.  We were sitting in a room somewhere with money in…yep, a suitcase…and we had $500,000 which we kept trying unsuccessfully to count.

It suddenly dawned on me that we were now homeless and the way we spent money, we’d burn through this pile of dough in a couple years.

I couldn’t believe we did anything that stupid.

Luckily I woke up before I had a stroke.

So no clue why that happened, my subconscious clearly has issues, but I am beyond ecstatic to be going to Seattle Tuesday morning and joyously forging ahead with my plans.

But JFC, one of the reasons I wasn’t freaked out about getting older was that I thought I would finally be comfortable in my own skin and have zero fucks to give about anything.

Yeah, right.

I would dive in here and tell you what it’s really like getting older but I’ve been told it’s been done many times before.

Anyway…

Today feels like an eating day so it’s French fries for dinner tonight with maybe a Jersey tomato and mayonnaise sandwich on milk bread.

I know how to live.

Actually, as I sit here, I know we have all kinds of fresh berries in the house. Gary won’t be up for a few hours.  I’m gonna go bake a breakfast dump cake.

Ever make one?  Three ingredients, totally unhealthy except for the berries, and shockingly delicious if you don’t care about calories or ingesting chemicals.

Haha, works for me.

Happy Saturday!