Thanksgiving Grace

This has been a lovely, lazy Thanksgiving Day. And I have so much for which to be grateful.

Last week we traveled to Corning to be with our son, Mike, daughter-in-law, Laurelyn, and our two grandsons, Graham and Dean. The night before we left, we enjoyed an Indian dinner at a wonderful restaurant in Corning. On Sunday, we drove to Stamford and had a quick visit with Al's folks. I also had a wonderful Greek dinner out with my sister, Anne, and two of her wonderful friends, Miki and Sandy. It was a fabulous way to really stretch out our Thanksgiving celebration.

On Monday, I took the 7:43 Amtrak from Stamford to Boston for an afternoon work meeting in Cambridge. Lunch at my boss's favorite Indian restaurant. Dinner that night was at an Afghani restaurant in East Cambridge; it was amazing!

Seeing a theme here? International. Eats.

We're back in Maine now. And today is Thanksgiving. But it's quiet here. We lost power several times from the horrible storm that came through on Tuesday evening. Trees down everywhere. Thousands of customers lost power. Our power was out Tuesday night overnight into Wednesday afternoon -- out for 12 hours or so. Came back on for 4 hours, went back out for three hours. Neighbors not too far from here are still out of power.

We had decided several weeks ago that we'd enjoy our Thanksgiving dinner at the Quietside Cafe in Southwest Harbor. The owners, Frances and Ralph Reed, open up the diner to the community for a free Thanksgiving meal every year. Any leftovers go to a nearby soup kitchen. The spread was amazing --- turkey, ham, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips (fabulous!), broccoli, beans, gravy, cranberry sauce. And the pies! Oh, the PIES! Frances' baking skills are world-famous --- people travel to MDI for vacation and make a point of going by the diner for her pies, cookies, and macaroons. Today, she outdid herself! Every kind of traditional Thanksgiving pie you can imagine, but I swooned over a piece of Espresso Pecan pie. Wow. I'm sure I'll still be wide awake at midnight, but it was worth every morsel.

Thank you, Frances and Ralph, for a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner! Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Travels in Storyland . . .

I love children's books. And, of course, I love our grandsons, Graham and Dean, to pieces! So the opportunity to read book after book after book with Graham and Dean is always a highlight of our visits. It's a winning combination!! Grandma and Grandpa have unlimited time to read story after story after story --- and a number of favorites are read over and over again.

Dean is still more interested in chewing on books, but Graham is now helping us to read! It's so much fun to re-read a familiar book to Graham and leave off the last word in a sentence he knows well. He LOVES to supply the missing word, and during this visit, I've started leaving out entire phrases. He'll play along for awhile, and then plead, "YOU read, Grandma!"

The Southeast Steuben County Library (formerly the Corning Public Library) is a treasure trove! It has one of the largest children's rooms I've ever seen -- Graham is so comfortable there, and loves nothing more than to choose new books and CD's! You can choose as many as you want to borrow (Really! No limit!) and this week he picked out 13 new books and 2 new CD's. The Travels of Babar, Babar and Father Christmas, and Curious George Gets a Medal are three favorites this week. We all (the adults) got a good chuckle out of the not-so-politically-correct "fierce and savage cannibals" that tie up Queen Celeste (Babar's wife) and hold her hostage. The book was indeed written back in the early 1930's.

Better than just about anything. Reading books with our grandsons. Ahhh...

The Verdict is In and . . . I'm OFF!

Yup. Looks like the glucosamine-chondroitin is the nasty culprit. But, it's amazing to me how long it takes to get rid of edema in your feet. So, I'm faithfully carrying my pillow wherever I go so that I can put my feet up. I've gotten quite used to working in a nearly-reclined position.

And, I'm breathing a huge sigh of relief that it looks like our travel plans to see Mike, Laurelyn, Graham, and Dean are still intact. Ahhhhh. . . I can't wait to spend this coming weekend with my NH friends at our twice-a-year rughooking retreat. I'll be continuing to work on a special rug for grandson Dean. It's a scene of barnyard animals and here's what's done so far. Lots yet to do but it's just SO much fun to work on! And then we'll head right out to Mike's after that. :)

Hope all is well with you and yours! Appreciate your health EVERY day!

Balloon Feet and Empty Boxes

I'm truly NOT trying to break any world records for going to the E.R. and Dr's office, but these feet are pretty concerning. We *think* we may have had a breakthrough, but we're not absolutely sure. Yet.

So, about a month ago, Al and I decided to add a new "vitamin" to our daily regime (along with the multi-vitamin and the calcium supplement) -- it was Glucosamine-Condroitin -- good for what ails you (and aging joints). Or so we thought. About a week into it, I noticed my right ankle starting to swell. Now, mind you, this was about the same time I spent mega-hours driving -- from Bass Harbor to Stamford, from Stamford to Merrimack, from Merrimack to Bass Harbor. A lot o' driving.

On my return leg (pun intended) to Bass Harbor, I decided to stop at the ER in Ellsworth. "Take off both of your shoes and socks so we can compare 'em," says the nurse. I dutifully obey, knowing that they're not going to see a thing on my left . . . Ooof! Yikes! The left ankle is working hard to catch up to the right ankle. Damn.

Nah, the doc says. It's probably just from lifting heavy things (while packing up the last few big items from Merrimack). You strained the ligaments. Try to keep your feet up, she says. I mention the Glucosamine. And that I had just discontinued it. Nah, I'm sure that's not it, she says.

SO...a few days go by, I'm obeying my orders, but they're getting worse. I call the doc's office and get an appt with the PA (or maybe it was a NP? I don't remember). They draw blood to rule out rheumatoid arthritis. Yes, I agree. Let's rule out the nasty stuff. Two days later, I get a call back. RA panel is negative (whew!) but we'd like to do a D-Dimer test; it requires going back to the hospital and waiting for the results. If the results are positive, more tests. By now, it's Halloween. Al drives me to the hospital.

Five hours later (after "Superman" takes my blood twice), they've concluded that even though the d-dimer is positive, I do NOT have any blood clots in my legs. They came to that conclusion after doing ultrasounds of the venous systems in both legs. Actually pretty cool -- thank goodness the tech wasn't dressed as Dracula! They decide to put me on a diuretic (a high blood-pressure medicine) and more leg elevation. O.K., I can do that.

Another week of good behavior. There isn't really any change and certainly, I'm not impressed by the diuretic. I don't notice any difference at all in my # of trips to the bathroom. On Thursday morning, I decide to take a Glucosamine-Condroitin tablet. Thursday afternoon and Friday morning were about the worst yet. The swelling is now nearly equal, and it goes down to my toes. It KILLS to wiggle my toes; walking is nearly impossible. I call the doctor's office again. Yes, I'm due to see the doctor (previously-scheduled 'new patient appt') on Monday morning, but I really want someone to SEE these balloons at the end of my legs. Come on in at 4, they say.

Al (such a trooper!) takes me in, and I hobble to the exam room. The nurse (same one who checked me in the previous week) takes a look at my feet - YIKES, she says, they do look worse. I breathe a mental sigh of relief; I'm not crazy. A wonderful PA comes in (Wendy) and spends about 40 minutes with us. The long and short of it? She's seen THIS reaction to glucosamine-condroitin a few other times in her career. She's somewhat sure that's what it is, especially since it got so much worse after taking ONE tablet the previous morning. She strongly suggests TONS and TONS of water (as she said, it seems counterintuitive but it's really what helps to draw away the excess fluid) AND. . . compression hose. It's official. I'm O.L.D.

To say that putting these socks on is painful would be a terrific understatement. However, while they're on, I have the sleekest feet and ankles in town! I have to take them off for one hour mid-day (what quickly appears are bagel-like swellings on each ankle) and overnight. I have to put them back on before my feet hit the floor in the morning. And I was actually able to be up on my feet for about an hour altogether yesterday (which is quite amazing!). I actually made (a quick) dinner AND finished unpacking one last box in the kitchen!

I'm eager to see the doctor tomorrow for another once-over. I sure hope we're not going to have to change any of our plans for the coming two weeks. And it would be really nice to have a firm understanding of what caused all this edema.

And it's SO nice to have empty boxes. We're almost done . . .

Congratulations, President-Elect Obama!

Yahoo! What great news!

And how wonderful to know that we will once again have an intelligent, articulate President of whom we can be proud!

Fantastic. Just fantastic!

And what promise he holds for our children's and grandchildren's futures.

Thanks for voting!

(photo by Truda Bloom)

I'm SOOOOoooo Ready . . .

for this campaign season to be done. D.O.N.E. Others have said it, and I couldn't agree more. Just IMAGINE how much GOOD could have been done with all of the money that was paid for the hundreds and hundreds of hours of campaign ads, "debates" (nothing like the debates I remember from HS), and thousands and thousands of campaign signs (yeah, like they'll be gone tomorrow. Riiight.). Yes, I know. It's all a part of the democratic process. But seriously. Imagine what good could have happened in places like New Orleans.

And what ever happened to fact-checking? One of the biggest challenges this "campaign season" has been tracking down the truth. Where does one go? Who has the facts? Does anyone? Whose "facts" do we subscribe to?

And it certainly wouldn't be the good ol' USA if there weren't a way to sexualize even the ELECTION! Jeesh. What's with that "Obama girl"? Good grief.



My favorite "Get out the vote" video is this one. Be sure to watch to the very end.

The best thing about this election is the way it has mobilized voters. The expected record turnout is just fantastic. And the fact that some places have had as much as 20% of their eligible voters vote EARLY is incredible!



I'm looking forward to voting today. It's the first time Al and I are voting in Maine. And we'll be proud to cast our ballots. We're certainly voting on behalf of our two favorite little ones. We hope that our votes might help to make the world a better place for Graham and Dean.

Who are you voting on behalf of?