A few random images from a random Wednesday afternoon

Truth be told, I'm not really up for doing any writing right now.  But I wanted to put something new on here, just to say hello.  I hope everyone is doing well.

1. This morning's breakfast (and yes, I'm quite fond of black pepper).  I enjoy guacamole with everything.  

2. This is my sister Shawn & her husband Jim at a friend's wedding 2 weeks ago.  Speaking of weddings, these two recently celebrated their 26th anniversary on May 20.  They're the parents of my 21 year old niece Sophia, who recently returned from a trip to Italy.

3.  I signed up for a Netflix account this morning.  (I love Sally Field as much as I do my family.)  Do you know I was one of Netflix' first members in the 1990s? They had an obscure website advertising "We have over 500 dvds!"  Half of them were foreign and that's why I joined.

Anyway, I quit a long time ago but I'm anxious to check out what they have now.

4.  I'm so out of touch with things, I just noticed I never updated my wall calendar (on the right) from April and May is almost over.  Meanwhile, my dining room wall is pleading with me to hang some artwork on there.  I think I found something I like, more on that soon.

(My friend Patty saw the photo above and said I needed a third chair.  Here it is Patty, around the corner!)

5.  And finally, here's my early dinner.  I got the recipe for that macaroni & beef from a 1940s Readers Digest in my dentists office umpteen years ago.  It's made with cream of celery soup, ketchup and Worchester sauce and beats Hamburger Helper every time.  That's it for now, thanks for stopping by.  

A big setback.

I'm not in a good place right now.  I know I've been talking a lot about this long covid since it's return last September, and many of you have been kind and supportive.  It's been very much appreciated.  But it's especially difficult right now.

I've been living daily with varying degrees of discomfort, 3-4 on a scale of 1 to 10.  Not bad enough to prevent me from sitting on my living room floor and blogging, or doing mild exercises, or a walk to the store a couple times a week.  But enough to prevent me from going on long walks or family visits or meeting up with people.  They call it a "hermit's disease" for a reason.

But this past week it's been steadily building in symptoms.  I woke up Saturday morning in some severe distress, Sunday morning even worse.  (My head feeling like it's in a painful clamp, aching cheekbones.  Burning dry mouth.  Lots of inflammation.  My jaw muscles are swollen and hurt a lot.)   

I've been spending my time in my bedroom with the door shut and under a blanket with my tablet, listening to podcasts with old celebrities like Linda Blair, Barry Williams, Melissa Sue Anderson, Crystal Gayle.   I just have this strong need to hide away from everything, everybody.

I don't know how long this is going to continue.   I'm hoping it dies back down a bit and I can go back to posting blogs.  But right now I don't know if that's 3 days, 3 weeks or 3 months.

Just wanted to put it out there.  As always, thanks for listening.  

Una bella signora a Roma (A beautiful lady in Rome)

I just wanted to share some photos of my beautiful niece Sophia, who just returned home after a week in Italy.

My sister Shawn was worried she wouldn't want to come home to Greene County, Pa;  I was worried she'd be snatched up by one of those Italian modeling agencies looking for their next tall and skinny model!

(Sophia is 21 years old, 2 inches taller than me and probably doesn't weigh half what I do.  Plus she's beautiful.)

Anyway, here's some pics of her in Rome at the Coliseum, Venice and Tuscany.  I was only planning on showing "selfies" here as I don't know Sophia's friends, but we'll see.  

I just wanted to focus on Sophia anyway. 😊💛

Ok, this one of Sophia and her friends is so pretty I couldn't resist