It’s still winter. Hopefully just today. We had lot of winterwarnings on TV and everywhere else about this storm. The roads were supposed to be very icy and schools were already canceled.
So - a perfect day to write a blog.
James had his first office visit with the cardio people on January 27. Amazing how this works with the pacemaker. The nurse with her iPad (looked like one) checked how the little cables worked and told us that the battery life was 13 years, at which time James laughed because he would be 95 at that point. But she said immidiately that one never knows because they had patients 103 years old.
Happy to report that he feels fine. None of those strange "episodes" any more.
Of course for 4 weeks he has to be careful with his left arm and that yoyo weather is not helpful with our walks. We try to take advantage of every warmer day. January 29 our outside thermometer told us 66 degrees. You bet we got some steps on our fitbits.
Even though we can not do enough walking we are very busy. I was finally able to hand-over the monthly church newsletter to a younger person. She is lovely and dedicated and we worked on it for several month already jointly. It helped tremendously that she has the same computer system as I.
I had liked doing it but I was asked for several years already to be the president of the ECW (church women) group and felt that I really could not do both. Strangely enough without having an official president I was involved already a lot. What can I say, James and I love our church friends.
And here is an ode to my father. He loved his amaryllis and cared very nicely for them. I must have inherited that (as you might have noticed in previous blogs). The two stalks of this one had both died but a third one had appeared out of the same bulb. James and I both thought you could look at it and see it grow. It got so tall. This photo is from Jan. 27.
February 1 it was already open and showed besides the regular 4 trumpets also 2 more, all 6 on top of one stalk. It got so heavy that I had to cut it off and put it into a vase. Actually, I think that helped because it stayed nice even much longer than usual. So much fun for soooo long from one $6 bulb!
For several months and especially before Christmas I had contemplated about a new iphone. I do like the apple phone camera. Having had all sorts of expensive cameras in my life, I just love the practical side of this and the quality can't really get much better.
I had asked both of our girls whether I should trade the old one in or whether they have some use for one of their children for it.
On Jan.31 we received a text from Helen that William's phone's battery had now finally given up. It also used to be an old phone of mine. Poor boy now was without a phone. Since the school shooting in a Nashville Highschool and all that followed, Helen was very uneasy about him not being able to contact her. It was a Friday. Could we get something into the mail asap?
So we rashed out right away to the apple store. That is the easy part. I even was successful with all my passcodes. Wow.
Here is the first selfie with my new phone. Yes, that was actually easier done because of a little change in the new gadget. I always found it a bit difficult before.
Sending it off was a bit more tedious because of the lithium battery it is "something dangerous" in the mail. Needless to say that the boy was very happy to hear that it was on the way to him.
USPS came through for us and the parcel had arrived in time for Helen to have a new symcard installed. The text from William was precious. He sent me a selfie with a smile right away.
I sent a selfie back but then said I wasn't so sure liking my new camera because it was too good. It showed every wrinkle in my face. His answer: "You are still beautiful, Omi!"
Same day I had a routine appointent at my doctor. So much flu and other nastiness is going around, I decided I didn't want to catch it going for a check-up. So far so good!
I was invited to a painting party on February 6 and could bring a friend. I had never been to one and it was fun. It was a lesson and it was very interesting even though I am not that thrilled with my efforts. It was a lot of fun including wine and nibbles but I think I will stick to my other art work.
Sunday we rushed after church over the river to see the twins play basketball. We were very surprised to see how good this age children already are. Owen is a hassler, ends up on the floor often and got to throw twice from the line. Colin is excellent in handling the ball. It was fun to watch.
The birds are happy on our feeders though.
And now it is time to have a cup of coffee and play cards!
