Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

plans

2021-12-18T01:48:00Z

cattitude, adrian_turtle and I are going to move in together, as one household.

We're all looking forward to this, except for the part that involves moving, and finding a place to move into. So, "plans" may be overstating it, but we have a decision/goal, and the beginnings of a plan.

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lunch out, at an actual restaurant

2021-05-22T15:01:56Z

cattitude, adrian_turtle, and I had lunch at Cafe Barada, which has a permanent fenced-off area with tables on the sidewalk. This is the first time the three of us have done something like this since before the pandemic. I suggested Barada for our first post-vaccination outing, and Adrian mentioned that they had been one of the first restaurants to go to take-out-only, last spring. (It's a family business, which might mean the management cared more about the health of the staff than someone who was employing strangers and expecting rapid staff turnover even in normal times.) I had lamb kebabs, cattitude had vegetarian kibbe (squash, mostly), and Adrian had falafel, and they shared stuffed grape leaves as an appetizer, and it was all good.

After lunch, cattitude went home and I went with Adrian to her place for a couple of hours. First, we walked up to Davis Square because she wanted to get vegan ice cream at JP Licks, but they were out of the flavor she wanted. I suggested taking a bus from Davis to Arlington Center and then catching the 77, rather than walking back to Mass Ave, but the bus ride it was bumpy enough to make Adrian uncomfortable, so we got out at Clarendon Hill. She was thinking of waiting for the next 87, but I suggested we walk along Alewife Brook Parkway instead, even though that was a longer walk than the one (trying to remember how long the walk would be) and said yes. After a few blocks of sidewalk, we got onto a boardwalk next to Alewife Brook. It was a nice day for a walk, and for sitting quietly for a few minutes on a random bench, and my hip was fine (with my usual caution of moving slowly and taking breaks before it started to hurt). Oddly, on the trip back to Belmont, my feet hurt from the short walk in the Harvard bus tunnel from the 77 to the 73.

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got my feet wet at Carson Beach

2021-05-18T21:32:35Z

I went to the edge of the ocean, and got my feet wet, and enjoyed the faint salt water/ociean smell. The water was cold, of course--this is Boston Harbor, and May--but fine for a little bit of wading with my pants legs rolled up.

A few days ago, I was thinking about how long it had been since I looked at the ocean, and I remembered adrian_turtle talking about having been near the beach while tutoring students who lived near the red line in Boston. I asked her for more information, and after telling me that there are beaches near the Andrew or JFK station, she suggested that we go there together. We woke up to a warm day, with nothing else planned, so we went after lunch.

I had fun, despite not being dressed for the beach. I rolled up my jeans, put my shoes and socks in my backpack, and left it on the sand near the water. I stood in ankle-deep water for a bit, looking at the water and the sky, and it was good. I ant to go back soon, dressed more appropriately, and without a backpack full of stuff that I didn't want to leave at her place for several days. (I tried that a couple of visits ago, and the weather shifted, and I wished I hadn't left my jacket there.)

It's been a long fourteen months, and also I hadn't been doing as much exploring (random or otherwise) of the area as I intended to when we moved here. This is a bit of that, and a good (re)start.

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redbird @ 2021-05-10T16:44:00

2021-05-10T20:49:43Z

cattitude and adrian_turtle are now (basically) recovered from the side effects (mostly fatigue) from their second doses of the Covid vaccine. Adrian was here so I could take care of both her and cattitude,to the extent needed.

Adrian left our place and went home a couple of hours ago. I walked to the nearby CVS to pick up a prescription, got home, and basically went flop. Fortunately, there's not much else that I have to get done today, and we can pull things out of the freezer to microwave for dinner if need be.

This is, however, a reminder of my own limits in terms of energy, fatigue, and executive function, which I don't usually have to pay the same kind of attention to, because I've already made adjustments in terms of what, and how much, I do, week in and week out.

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redbird @ 2021-03-23T19:19:00

2021-03-23T23:29:06Z

I spent last night and this morning with adrian_turtle. It was in my calendar as "date night," but she wasn't feeling well, so it was mostly quiet conversation and me taking care of her in low-key ways.

The friend who has been doing her (and a few other people's) grocery shopping forgot one of the things Adrian needed for Passover, and she was talking about it probably being safe enough for her to duck into Stop and Shop, go to the end cap with the Passover stuff, and then directly to the check-out. I noted that right now, that sort of thing is lower-risk for me than for her, because I've had the first dose of a Covid vaccine and she won't be eligible until early April.

We walked from her place to that supermarket, and I went in, grabbed the Kedem grape juice, plus U-Bet chocolate syrup and some fruit-flavored jelly candies (for cattitude). I gave Adrian her groceries, and took the 77 bus up to the Arlington Heights busway, and then walked a couple of blocks to Trader Joe's. It was uncrowded (though not to the extent that the Stop and Shop had been), and I came out with lots of dried fruit (mostly cherries) and frozen things, some chocolate, and a bell pepper. I wound up calling a Lyft for the trip home, because it was 63°F (17 C) and I was worried that things would start to defrost on the bus (the entire length of the 77 bus route, connecting at Harvard Square, and then the 73 to near the end of the line).

Tomorrow is in my calendar as a rest day, because I don't want to chance being worn out Thursday, when I have an MRI scheduled.

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being there for each other

2020-08-29T18:40:20Z

I just spent two days at adrian_turtle's that we hadn't planned on, as practical and emotional support for a somewhat scary medical thing that seems to be mostly resolved.

Tl;dr: she had double vision, it is now mostly better, and an assortment of tests have ruled out a lot of scary things, but not figured out what happened.

The long version: Adrian called me Wednesday morning and asked me to say some calm and soothing things, because her vision had just gotten bad in a weird way: double vision even if she only had one eye open. Talking to her helped, and she already had a telemedicine appointment with her neurologist for that afternoon.

The neurologist told Adrian that he wanted to run some tests, and that the way to do this quickly was via the emergency room. So she called one of her comrades who has a car, and he took her to Mount Auburn Hospital. A few hours later, Adrian called and told me that she had not had a stroke, does not have a tumor, and also doesn't have diabetes, COVID, or Lyme disease. (My reaction to that last was "oh, right, New England.") By then they had done a lot of low-tech neurology, plus a CAT scan, MRI, and chest X-ray, and drawn blood for a variety of tests. The hospital had her stay overnight while they waited for test results, and maybe also to see whether/how quickly she recovered. She was seeing better, if not well, yesterday morning. So they sent her home and told her to see an ophthalmologist, and to follow up with her regular doctor after that.

I met Adrian at her apartment, and brought roast lamb and melon for dinner. Conveniently, she already had an eye exam scheduled for yesterday morning. I kept her company on the bus to and from the eye doctor, for comfort and in case she had trouble navigating. The eye doctor ruled out some more possibilities, and told her to see a neuro-opthalmologist. That will be on Tuesday, and I can't go with her because ;m seeing my own neurologist Tuesday.

The double vision had mostly resolved by this morning, but again weirdly: the left eye is OK, but the right eye still has double vision. Which isn't supposed to happen with only one eye open. One bright spot is that we got some excellent fruit from the farmers market on our way home from the eye doctor. I had meant to bring home some of the grapes, but got distracted, so Adrian will have to eat lots of grapes. Oh woe!

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Impromptu visit

2020-08-21T01:05:06Z

adrian_turtle and I were comparing our calendars for the next couple of weeks, looking for a chunk of time when neither of us had plans, and then she said "Should I just come over now?"

So we did that.

cattitude went for a walk that included going to the Belmont farmers market, giving me and Adrian some time to ourselves, and then came home with all sorts of tasty things, and we had a few hours of three-person social time, which we have also missed. Three people is a small bubble, especially since we don't all live together.

We had an early supper, because Cattitude had a phone date and Adrian wanted to walk home while it was still light out. We sent her home with the last few strawberries, a pint of blueberries, and two plums, and I walked with her for a few blocks, also unplanned, and thus without a mask. (Residential neighborhood, early evening, it wasn't even difficult to maintain distance from other people.)

I stopped on the way in to do one of my PT exercises, which requires a stair to step on and off of, and it was the most normal thing I've done in ages: walk a few blocks with my girlfriend on a cool evening, then come home, exercise, and bring in the mail. I've been wearing a mask whenever I went anywhere beyond taking the trash out, gardening, or bringing in the mail, because it's a habit worth getting into, and who knows, I might want to go into a shop.

In the morning, I planted lettuce seeds in two small flowerpots and placed the pots in the garden next to the newly transplanted cucumbers. The already established cucumber vines not only have several small fruits, I saw flowers and bees visiting the flowers, which is promising.

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a hot day in July

2020-07-20T02:00:31Z

cattitude and I got up early this morning so we could go for a walk before it got too hot, on a day with a heat advisory. We got back around 7 a.m., an hour before the heat advisory took effect. It wasn't a long walk, but it's good for me to walk a bit (the hip and knee problems are chronic and need attention, but I did okay despite not having taken an NSAID, because I try not to do that on an empty stomach.

adrian_turtle sent me a stuffed turtle, like the one that I've been propping my left hand up on when I stay over at her place. This is both emotionally warm and cozy, and practically useful, (The turtle is of just the right shape, more so than the stuffed animals I already had.)

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