Cooking

     Last month, I told my students that I love recipes, but I hate to cook. Of course, they gave me this odd stare. I'm sure they were wondering how anyone could like recipes but hate to cook. Now that I think about it, it does seem odd, even to me. However, it is true. I don't really care to cook unless the dish is very easy to make.

     Today, I baked an oatmeal crumble topping because I've been craving it lately. I did quite a bit of research on what ingredients were in it (besides oatmeal) and what process I had to do to complete the recipe. I was looking for a recipe that would tell me how to bake the topping without first putting it on top of a fruit pie. Most of the recipes in both recipe websites and cookbooks listed the same basic ingredients: rolled oats (quick or traditional), brown sugar, flour, and butter (or margarine). I wanted to make the topping so that I could have it on hand to sprinkle over microwaved fruit. This craving started when I bought and tried Dole's Fruit Crisps (peach). The package contains two individual servings (plastic cups) of glazed fruit with separate topping containers. Each fruit cup is covered with a plastic sheet that is glued around the edges so that it doesn't spill all over the place (typical packaging by manufacturers). Each topping container is hard plastic and covered with foil (also glued around the edges). The topping container serves as a lid when turned upside-down.

 

     The topping container is made of a clear, hard plastic. Naturally, this means I will use it as a lid. I simply cannot throw it away when I can use it for something else. Below is a picture of the empty fruit cup, the topping lid (also empty), and a piece of foil (not the original packaging foil you see in the above picture).

     By itself, the topping lid is a bit too loose for the empty fruit cup, but with a sheet of foil on it, it's a nice fit. I could probably just put a strip of foil around the inside edge of the topping lid, and it would still fit well on the container. If I just want to keep a lid on the container but the lid doesn't need to fit securely on it, I could omit the foil.

     Below is the recipe with my comments in the directions because I added comments before, during, and after baking the topping.

Oatmeal Crumble Topping

Ingredients: [Exact measurements were taken from the Dehydrator bible]

½ C. quick-cooking rolled oats

½ C. packed brown sugar

¼ C. all-purpose flour

¼ tsp. ground cinnamon

¼ C. cold butter, cut into pieces

Process: Preheat oven to 375°F

In a bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. With clean hands, mix the ingredients together (yes, mix it up with your hands). Pour the topping mixture into a pie pan (aluminum or glass, I used a large aluminum pie pan) and spread out the mixture so that it covers the bottom of the pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. After those first 10 minutes, pull pan out of oven and toss the mixture around. Put the pan back in the oven and bake for another 10 minutes. Pull pan from oven and let the topping cool for about 10 minutes before using it. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. The mixture makes about one and a half cups baked. 

My homemade oatmeal crumble topping added to a Dole Peach Fruit cup

     Just before microwaving the Dole Fruit cup, I add a little bit of cinnamon-sugar and an even smaller amount of sea salt (about 2 shakes from the salt shaker). I've noticed that without the extras, the peach flavor is a bit on the bland side for me. I stir the cinnamon-sugar and salt into the fruit mix and put the fruit cup in the microwave for about 25 seconds on high (my microwave oven is a 1300-watt one). Dole's instructions for heating the fruit cup is 20-30 seconds. Then, I add my oatmeal crumble topping. 

     Just so you know, everything was absolutely delicious! I put the oatmeal crumble topping in a 2-cup plastic container (a generic version of Ziploc's containers with screw-top lids) and put it in the refrigerator. The next time I want a sweet, crunchy topping on some fruit, I will have it on hand. Since making this topping, I've put glazed fruit on my shopping list.

Journal-Writing

     I was going to write a comparison-contrast post on Blogger and WordPress, but after I researched the topic, I decided the world has enough articles on it. Hands down, Blogger is my favorite site for writing down my thoughts and showing the world of readers what's going on in my life. I will, from time to time, add a post to WordPress, but I probably won't share many pictures because I've learned that once I use up the limited amount of space on WP, I will have to pay to expand. At this point in my life, spending money on blogging is out of the picture.
     I am used to Blogger as I've been writing entries in here for several years. Only recently have I started to write on a more regular basis. When I first started journal-writing, I didn't know what I wanted to write about, or maybe I didn't think anyone wanted to read anything I wanted to write about. Therefore, I slacked off on my writing.
     I keep a hard-copy journal, and I write in it occasionally. I have to say, however, that I haven't written in that journal for several months, and every time I start an entry in it, I write promises that I'll write more often (perhaps, tomorrow, I will actually write in that journal). I think I haven't been writing in the journal notebook because I don't have a couch. This is where my readers are thinking, "What are you talking about? You don't need a couch to write in a journal." Perhaps, an explanation is due.
      When I lived at my old place, I had a couch. I kept my journal notebook in a cubbyhole in the coffee table so that I could have easy access to it. Now, in my new place, I don't have a couch (yet), and my journal notebook is in my travel bag in my bedroom. I spend my waking hours at my desk, which is downstairs. This is another reason I need a couch: I'm spending too much time at my desk.
     I guess, tomorrow, I'll put the journal on a shelf under my desk (after I write an entry in it, of course). I have an adhesive whiteboard-like sheet on the wall next to my desk, and to remind myself to write in the hard-copy journal, I'll write a note on that wall-sheet. The picture below is half of the adhesive sheet on my wall. It has a quotation from Francis Bacon on the top and the spring 2013 semester checklist on the right-hand side of the sheet. Above the sheet is a calendar (that one is July); I have four of those on the wall above the sheet (currently reading from left to right and down: April, May, June, July). Directly above my pc monitor is a larger calendar (August).

     Now, perhaps, you might be wondering why August is on the larger calendar. Okay, I'll tell you why. The larger calendar (also adhesive) is for January and August of each year because they are starting months for the spring and fall semesters. August has been written on the calendar now. When this month (July) is over, I will erase April, May, June, and July from the smaller wall calendars and re-label/re-number them September, October, November, and December. I need to have the January to May and August to December calendars within easy view so that I can plan my lessons, homework assignments, tests, projects, and meetings.
     I hope you don't mind the links I've provided for you. I figure you might want to know where I bought these items, so I added links to them (in Amazon). The links should take you directly to the item's page. If they don't, please let me know.
     Whether I write here in Blogger (or WP) or in my journal notebook, I am writing my thoughts, and there are myriad benefits to "journaling." If you don't believe me, here's a website that may convince you to journal more: http://www.appleseeds.org/100_journaling.htm.

Cat Stuff

     I’m sitting here, at my desk, pecking the keys, slowly but steadily (not surely as some of you may have thought I would write), on the On-Screen Keyboard because my 14-year-old cat is stretched out across the front of the desk, blocking my access to the tangible keyboard. Obviously, using the unreachable keyboard would make typing this post so much easier; however, I will not disturb Moky just so I can jot down a few thoughts. Just as soon as I finished this first paragraph, Moky left the desktop. Now, I can use the real keyboard to type my entry.

     I have three cats: Moky (14 years old), Gypsy (13 years old), and Stormy (5 years old). I used to have four cats. The fourth cat was Bella. She died last November from the feline leukemia virus. She was not yet two years old when she died.

Bella

 

     The three cats I have now have their own quirks. Those are what make my cats unique. My cats make my life enjoyable. They also make my life healthier. [For further reading, try this website on the benefits of having cats: http://mritechnicianschools.net/2010/17-health-benefits-of-owning-a-cat.]

     Cats, generally, are healthy for humans. A purring cat creates a contented atmosphere, for both the cat and the human. I love when Gypsy lies on my lap because she purrs from the moment she steps onto my lap to the moment she falls asleep. Of the three cats I have, Gypsy has the loudest and most prevailing purrs. 

Gypsy

      Cats have a healing power to them. Gypsy’s warmth is especially comforting to me when she lies down next to me while I’m trying to fall asleep. I call her my feline heating pad because while I’m lying on my side, Gypsy will snuggle next to me, purring and emitting a profound warmth.

     When I am feeling blue or stressed, Stormy comes to my aid. She is the one who senses my sadness the most. When Bella died, Stormy often came to me, as if to see how I was doing or feeling. She would come up to me and look me in the eye. This was her way of seeking acknowledgement from me. I would look at her and say, “Hi, Stormy!” Then, she would rub her face against my hand and lick my arm. Stormy is my hugger. When she needs me, I usually also need her. She walks on my lap, and I say, “Stormy! Give me a hug!” Then, she stands so that her left side is facing me, and I wrap my arms around her and give her a hug. She does not squirm or run away when I do this. She is a big cat, which is why I love giving her hugs (weighing in at 12 pounds at the last vet visit in November 2012).

Stormy

      I am a patient and optimistic person. I think my cats have helped me with those two traits. Moky can be the most annoying because of his constant “talking,” but he has taught me patience, ten-fold. His idiosyncrasies include talking, kneading everything except scratching posts (including sneakers if I let him), batting cardboard box flaps (and vertical blinds), and trying to get into my drinking glass (I keep a lid on my drinking glass to keep Moky out of it).

     Moky loves to be groomed, and his favorite “tool” is the lint roller. I think he’s attracted to the sticky part of the lint sheets on the roller. He’s also a nut for the packaging tape on boxes. I do my best to keep him from getting to that kind of adhesive because I don’t know if it’s good for him (erring on the side of caution). When I groom the cats, Moky’s the first in line. I usually start grooming him with a brush, and then, I move to a grooming glove (bristled just for pet grooming). The last tool I use is the lint roller. I don’t let Moky sniff the roller because I know he’s trying to get at the adhesive on the lint roller sheets. Moky would prefer I groom only him as he tries to worm his way into my grooming of Stormy and Gypsy. I guess that is another quirk Moky has.

Moky

 

     My three cats have their own personalities. I am quite amused by their actions and behaviors, and I have no idea what I would do without them in my life.

Coping with Change

     I do my best to keep up with technological changes in today's world. Ignore the fact that I still own and use an iPhone 3GS (a dinosaur of iPhones). A recent change (today) occurred when I decided to combine my blogs with my Google+ account. A few days ago, I merely glanced at the information page regarding the merge, but, at that time, I just wanted to type a post and add it to my other posts. As I'm typing this post via an iPad app, I'm also looking at my Google+ profile page as the public would see it. That brings to mind another recent change: using my real name on YouTube. Anyway, I'm looking at my G+ profile page, and I notice that there's a link to my YouTube page. I want you to know that I have not posted/uploaded any videos to YouTube. I created the account so that I could watch videos and subscribe to the ones I like and view the most. Update: By the way, I just uploaded my own video; it's the one Blogger should have uploaded in my previous post (written earlier today). I'm adjusting and adapting to change! Yay!!! YouTube has this new feature called One Channel, so, naturally, since I'm on the bandwagon to technologically change with the times today, I switched to One Channel. I seem to be making a lot of changes today, but, actually, all but one of the changes are Google-related: Blogger merged to Google+, switching to One Channel in YouTube, and installing and using the Blogger app on my iPhone and iPad.

Changes, continued

     Today, I'm working on PowerPoint presentations for a friend/colleague of mine. I copied and pasted a paragraph from another presentation into the one I'm currently working on. With it came animation (Glide) that no longer exists in the Microsoft 2010 PowerPoint program. After I typed a title on the slide, I wanted the Glide animation, but when I clicked on the title and looked for the animation, no such kind existed. Then, I searched online for how to add an animation from a previous version to the MS 2010 PowerPoint program. 

     My results were futile, and I was ready to give up. I went back into the presentation and decided to add the title's text ("Addition") to the copied/pasted text so that "Addition" would have the same animation as the other text on the slide. A light bulb, of sorts, turned on in my head: I copied the copied/pasted text with the title now added to it. Then, on a blank area of the slide, I pasted the extra text box (so now I have 2 text boxes that contain the same thing). I clicked on the extra text box, positioned the cursor immediately after the title ("Addition"), and deleted all of the text after it. Then, I resized the text box and put it at the top of the slide. Now, both the title and the text below it (2 separate text boxes) play the same animation (Glide).

     I repeated the process for another slide where I had to add a text box via copy/paste from a previous-versioned presentation. This slide is called Time, and it shows a sample paragraph of how the time order is used in a paragraph or selection. The animation that came with the copied/pasted text box from another presentation is called Thread, and it is not included in the MS 2010 PowerPoint program. How annoying that is to those of us who enjoy using certain animations to convey messages to our students but those animations no longer exist in newer versions of Microsoft PowerPoint 2010!

     Changes like these really irk me. I'm annoyed because MS took it upon itself to remove certain features I (and others) consider to be important. That kind of change irritates me to no end. I have to live with it or find a way to modify it. Many times, I can modify changes to suit my needs. Sometimes, I cannot.

     A couple of days ago, I replaced the battery in my iPhone 3GS because I'm too poor to buy a new iPhone (I like iPhones, and there are other perks my iPhone and data plan have that I can't get from a new iPhone and data plan), and I didn't want to send the only cell phone I have to an Apple Service Center to get the battery replaced. 

     The old battery in my iPhone 3GS was dying; my phone would shut off during calls or texts or app use when it was at only 75 - 85% power. Online researching told me my iPhone's battery was on its last legs of life. I went to YouTube to watch videos on how to replace the old battery with a new one. I found a reputable website (www.ifixit.com) that not only showed me how to replace the battery (with a video, still photos, and step-by-step directions) but also sold me the battery replacement kit for a hair less than $20! Wow! 

                         
[The collage of pics above shows the innards of my iPhone 3GS, as well as the new and old batteries. The video that I hope will uphold after I press the Publish button shows the iPhone booting up and explains the tools I got from the Replacement kit. Then, I can be heard exclaiming joyously that the replacement process was successful.]

     The next change I will have to make will be to replace the graphics card in my desktop computer. This is a change I know how to do because I replaced the old graphics card with a new one about 13 months ago. This is a change that also somewhat irritates me because I don't think I should have to replace the graphics card if it is only a little over a year old. The old graphics card lasted from 2009 to 2012. I'm wondering if the replacement card was not so new, or maybe the graphics card I bought (same version and model as old one) was just as old as the one I replaced, but it hadn't been used on any other computers. That reasoning would explain why I now have to install a new card, a newer card, actually. This time, I ordered a card from a different manufacturer. The graphics card that is now in my computer is an NVidia card (NVIDIA GeForce GTS 240). The new one I recently received in the mail (from Dell) is an AMD Radeon graphics card by VisionTek (AMD Radeon HD 7850). Once I install the new card, I hope that this change is one I will be happy with now and in the future. 

     If you're wondering how old my computer is, it's four years old, and I am not planning on buying a new computer for quite some time (again, because of financial reasons). My computer is very capable of handling all my computer needs despite the recent problem with the graphics card. I bought it in 2009 because it has the ability to hold up to 12 tb (terabytes) of memory. Right now, it has 1.5 tb of memory. Despite all the programs I have installed on this computer, it still is running well.

     I, no doubt, will have other changes I will need to write about, but for now, I had to write about the change I was able to modify to suit my needs (ppt animations). Now, I have to finish the PowerPoint presentation, and start working on another one.

Changes

     In January of this year (2013), I had hoped (and prayed) that the spring 2013 semester would be better than the fall 2012 semester in regards to my personal life. However, the spring 2013 semester was no better, and, at times, a bit worse than the previous semester.

     This is what happened during the fall 2012 semester months (of August to December): From late October to the middle of November, my mom was hospitalized because of a fall she had taken. My dad has short-term memory loss and didn’t know where his wife (my mom) was. Mom returned home during Thanksgiving week, which made my dad a very happy man, thankful God returned his wife to him.

     In the middle of November, shortly after returning home from an educators' conference, my youngest cat Bella became so sick I had to take her to the vet. The veterinarian took some blood from her, and when the results came back, he said she tested positive for the feline leukemia virus (FLV). He told me Bella was in the final stages of the disease. Since Bella was in the final stages of FLV, the vet told me that there was not much that could be done to prolong her life. The doctor said her life as it was would get progressively worse in a short period of time. I had to make the difficult decision of having her put to sleep. Therefore, on the morning of Thursday, November 15th, Bella died. She was almost two years old.

     The vet told me that the feline leukemia virus is highly contagious to other cats (not to people). Naturally, I thought of my other cats that came into contact with Bella. Stormy loves to lick (herself, other cats, and people), and I remembered Stormy licking Bella's head on the morning of November 15th - before I took Bella to the vet's office. I took my three cats to the vet, and they all tested negative for FLV. I was so happy they were okay that I took pictures of each of them in their respective cat carriers, as well as pictures of their negative results and posted a collage of the pictures on Facebook.

    The Monday and Tuesday before and after Thanksgiving, I substitute-taught for a fellow reading teacher in addition to teaching my own classes. In all, I taught nine classes, and those classes wiped me out. Thankfully, my boss was able to find another teacher to cover my sick colleague’s classes after I realized I could no longer teach them because of the toll they took on me.

     For the rest of the semester, life was basically normal for me. I cried a great deal about Bella's demise, and I felt guilty about having to make the decision to have her put to sleep, but I felt comfort knowing that she was in heaven and pain- and illness-free (yes, I do believe animals go to heaven after they die).

     Changes occurred for me during the fall 2012 semester. Even more changes occurred during the spring 2013 semester - changes I wish had never happened.

     The first half of the semester was, thankfully, uneventful. I taught five reading classes and one writing class from Sunday through Thursday. In February, I aged another year (although I always tell my students I'm still 39). In February, my dad fell two times. The first time he fell, he broke his shoulder (hairline fracture that required a sling), and the second time he fell, he broke his ankle. He had to wear a cast and was ordered not to put any weight on it while wearing the cast (for 12 weeks). The problem with that order is that dad could not remember it. The two falls caused him to have to leave his assisted-living apartment and live in a nursing home while he was healing. In the meantime, early in March, my mom fell and had to be hospitalized and then, she, too, had to go to the nursing home (my dad is 96 and my mom 94). Their new home became the Lutheran Home, which thankfully is a mere few blocks from my friend's home (where I stay when I go to PA). Because of their separate health conditions, they each had their own room. They were not put into the same room. I was disappointed in that, but, as it turned out, Dad did not miss Mom so much because they did not see each other as often.

     At the unofficial start of Spring Break, I hit my left pinky toe against the corner of a book-filled cardboard box and ended up elevating that toe (and foot) with ice on it periodically for the whole week of Spring Break. This was a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that I could not do the housework I had planned to do during the week-long break. The curse was that I could not wear closed-top shoes except for my $5.00 pair of Crocs (yes, real Crocs for five dollars!) for several weeks after the break. Today, I "touched" a box with that same pinky toe, and now, I'm wondering if wearing my sneakers would be too painful (if I had to go somewhere).

     In the wee hours of Monday, April 8th, I experienced two severe dizzy spells while I was trying to find objects in a hidden object game in Facebook. Later in that morning, I asked my friend if she could take me to the emergency room. While I was waiting for her to come and get me, I called my boss and told her I couldn't teach my classes because I was having dizzy spells off and on that day, and I was going to go to the emergency room to get checked.

     The ER doctor tested my coordination and motor skills by having me follow his finger as it moved left and right in front of me. I also did the test where I had to put my right hand out in front of me and with my index finger, touch the tip of my nose and then touch the doctor's palm repeatedly. Then, I walked away from him and, on return, did the "sobriety" walk of one foot directly in front of the other. I was hesitant to do that because I was feeling off-balance and lightheaded, but I did it. Then, the doctor ordered two separate CAT scans, one without dye and one with dye, called a contrast scan. He told me he was worried a little about me, that my head was wobbling a little. I knew that my eyes were wobbling when I was following his finger left to right; he said he noticed that, too.

     My friend stayed with me while I was in the ER. She waited outside the CAT scan room while I was having the CAT scans done, and she walked alongside my gurney while the nurse was taking me back to the hallway spot in the ER. I was so worried that I had some awful disease or illness that I gave my spare house key to my friend in case I had to spend the night (or more) in the hospital. I tried to call my other friend (the one I stay with while I'm in PA visiting family et al), but my cell phone lost its signal in the ER hallway. I had to use my friend's cell phone to call her and leave a message on her voicemail. She sent a text to my friend's phone to confirm she had gotten my message and hoped everything would be okay.

     The scan results came back negative, and the ER doctor told me he thought it was an inner ear infection. He prescribed meclizine for the dizzy spells (Did you know that you can buy prescription-strength meclizine at the local grocery store? At the time, I didn't know that.) He told me that if I needed to, I could go to my own doctor for further treatment. The one thing he didn't do was look into my ears to confirm the ear infection. My guess is he just wanted to rule out anything more serious.

     I tried to call my doctor, but I couldn't get a hold of him. The number I had for him was wrong, and the number the hospital had for him was also wrong. The hospital's number was that of an ordinary citizen's number, which I discovered when I called it and talked to a woman who said people keep calling her thinking it's the doctor's number. I profusely apologized to her. Because I couldn't contact my doctor, I had to change doctors through my health insurance company. On Thursday of that week, I went to see my new doctor. She looked into my right ear and instantly said, "Ear infection." Then, she looked into my left ear and confirmed her own diagnosis. I asked her why the ER doctor did not look into my ears, and she, too, thought it was because he wanted to rule out other illnesses. My doctor prescribed the Z-pak (azithromycin) because I'm allergic to ampicillin, as well as Ciprodex (anti-bacterial and anti-biotic ear drops). The doctor told me to cut down on salt because the fluid in my ears needs to dry out and salt makes the body retain fluids. Then, the doctor said, "It'll be a while." Wow! She was absolutely right about that.

     I then did extensive online research on bacterial inner ear infections and discovered that healing time can take 10 to 90 days! Wow! The meclizine didn't totally remove the dizzy spells, but it did tone them down considerably. I took meclizine day and night, and because it is an antihistamine, it made me very sleepy. That was great for night-time use, but not so great for day-time use. I was not able to teach or go to work for that whole week. I did teach my Sunday, April 7th, writing class because I was not sick at that time (or so I thought). At least, I wasn't contagious. I returned to work on the following Sunday (April 14th). I was very nervous about getting in the car and driving to work that Sunday because I was afraid I would have a dizzy spell while driving. I did not have a dizzy spell while driving to and from work. I even stopped at the local PetSmart to buy much-needed cat food and litter (I saw my new doctor there; she was stocking up on cat food because she has six cats!).

     While at work that Sunday, I did feel somewhat dizzy and lightheaded while my students and I were in the lab room, but it was very mild. I worked that whole week. By the time my classes ended each night, I was very tired. There is no doubt that the medications and the infection and the work made me more tired than normally.

     On Sunday evening, April 21st, my brother called me to tell me my mom died. In a way, this was not a surprise because Mom had been hospitalized and then taken to the Lutheran Home (LH) for rehab and, eventually, to live there. At one point, one of my brothers called me to say a nurse at the LH didn't think that Mom would make it through the night. I questioned my brother about the nurse, saying, "That was the nurse. What did the doctor say?" Apparently, I wasn't the only one who questioned the validity of the nurse's diagnosis. Other family members also had doubts about Mom's condition. Another brother went to see Mom and called and told me she was fine, that the nurse didn't really know Mom. As the days passed, Mom continued to improve. However, she was very quiet, and, at times, both the nurses and my brothers had to feed her because she was not able to feed herself. She ate very little, and the nurses gave her "power shakes" to restore lost nutrients.

     While I was on the phone with my brother, I told him I could not fly because I had a bacterial inner ear infection, and flying could damage my ears and hearing. When another brother called, I told him the same thing. He told me that some of the other family members could not get to Pennsylvania (PA) until Wednesday or Thursday. Then, I realized that I could drive to PA and make it in time for the viewing and the funeral. I was also texting my friend about Mom's death and future travel plans. I told her I was going to drive to PA. I notified my boss about my mom's death and plans to drive to PA. She told me that arrangements would be made to get a substitute teacher for my classes (the same colleague, by the way, whose classes I covered in November, 2012). She told me, as well, that I could take off for several days for bereavement and illness. What a relief that was to hear that. My colleague covered my classes for two weeks (unlike me, she was not teaching her own classes this past semester).

     On the day I left for PA (Monday, April 22nd), I stopped at the grocery store to buy Dramamine and sodium-low munchies for the trip. I discovered that prescription-strength meclizine can be bought over-the-counter (called Bonine). I took Dramamine during the day and meclizine at night. On Wednesday, when I was about an hour from my final destination, I experienced a bad dizzy spell while driving. Fortunately, I did not have an accident. I kept driving, slowly but surely, to reach my friend's home. My friend drove me to the viewing and the funeral. As a matter of fact, I didn't have to drive while I was in PA, which was good because I figured the more rest I could get the better because I had to drive back to TX that next week. Frankly, I was very scared to drive back home, but I knew that there was no other way. As it turned out, I had to take an extra day of driving to get home. I could drive only about 500 miles a day (a normal trip to PA takes three days).

     I have discovered that caffeine is a no-no during an inner ear infection healing process. I didn't have any coffee while I was in PA. I did have coffee during my trip up to PA. That's why I experienced the bad dizzy spell on day three of the trip. Once I got home, I did have a cup of coffee on Friday and one on Saturday, and on Saturday, I, once again, had a bad dizzy spell. Off and on, for the next few days afterwards, I felt dizzy and lightheaded, so it took a while for me to feel better. I have since bought and made decaffeinated coffee; there is caffeine in decaffeinated coffee, but it is a very small amount (and cold-brewing decaf coffee reduces that amount even more). Today, I drank a cup of decaf coffee. I have not had a dizzy spell (yet), and I hope I don't have one. I don't take Dramamine during the day anymore because that was not working. I wonder if I built up a resistance to it. I still, however, take meclizine at night because that is still doing its job and helps me get to sleep.

     I have not really cried about my mom's death. I did cry on that Sunday night (that she died) when I saw a picture of my mom (in her teen years) that my niece posted on Facebook, but that was a short-lived cry. I cried the other night, but, again, that was a mild cry. I did not cry at the viewing, but I did come close to it. I did not cry at her funeral. I think I did not cry while I was in PA because I thought I had to get things done first. I know that, eventually, I will cry for my mom.

     My brother told me he talked to Mom and Dad several years ago about their will and last wishes. Both of my parents had already told me they wanted to be cremated. When my brother asked my mom what she wanted the family to do with her ashes, she said she wanted me to have them. I was greatly touched by that, but I did not cry. I took Mom's ashes home with me. My friend thought that my mom wanted to go back to Texas (where she was born). The beautiful box that my mom's ashes are in sits on a shelf in my living room (next to Bella's box of ashes) and between two bowling trophies. My friend thought that was a very appropriate spot because Mom used to bowl, and she was very good at it.

     I am still healing from my bacterial inner ear infection; however, the dizzy spells have nearly all gone away. My right ear still feels full, and I hope that that, too, clears up soon. My friend told me that the dizzy spells would go away before the infection does. I think that is true because I have had to cut down considerably on my sodium intake (and caffeine). The fluid in my inner ear is slowly (too slowly, in my opinion) drying up. I look forward to the day I have no dizzy spells, clear ears, and no infection.

     Changes occur whether I like it or not. I'm all for good changes, but I'm not too keen on the bad ones. I have to adjust and adapt to whatever changes happen. God-willing (and with God's help, of course), I will be able to cope with the changes that happen in my life.

     One change that is happening right now, and that I need to pay attention to, is my computer's graphics card is making noises. I know what those noises mean. They mean I have to open the CPU tower, remove the card, and clean it. Eventually, which will come sooner than I want it to, I will have to replace the card with a new one. The card that's in the computer now is only a little over a year old. It's time to upgrade my graphics card - get one that won't die on me a little over a year old.