Less Hustle More Coffee

September is almost here. There is a little bit of excitement in the air, but there is also hesitation. My sister is having a rough time with her cancer treatments. She is near the end of the treatments. Almost through with chemo and almost through with radiation. She has reached the point though where she has some very painful radiation burns that has peeled the skin back to raw flesh in numerous spots and in very tender parts of her body. We are very upset but there is nothing we can do to make that better except let her know we are thinking of her. She is hoping not to be hospitalized as many are at this point. And she hopes she can continue with the radiation treatment til it is over. The tumor is shrunk into 1/4 the size. So the treatment is working. But the pain she is enduring……

Test Results

My tests are not back yet from MRI. The first day after the MRI I had some anxiety over what would be found. The second day, since everyone is saying “no worries, they won’t find much – just little things that need to be tweaked or fixed, but nothing big”. I’m taking that as a sign from God that everything is ok. But when my sister is in so much pain, do I even have a right to expect everything to be ok? I hope everyone is right. What ails me are things unseen by others. I look fine, I walk somewhat fine, I seem fine. But inside I’m weak, tired, have pain in the same places, sometimes dizzy, weird sensations and random sharp pains, inner ear and balance. Things people don’t see. My guess is there is some auto immune things going on. I’ve guessed that for years. Rest makes it all better along with nutrition. But I can’t get much down time anymore as we are always gone and I’m always rushing.

My daughter and her family fly in tomorrow for Labor Day Weekend. We are very excited to see them and finally see our grandson again. I was supposed to pick them up at the airport, but Mom’s eye injection fell on the same day. So George is going to pick them up.

So then we are going to meet up with them after Mom’s shot. I asked Mom if she will feel up to it because it will be a bit later than we normally eat. She said it was ok. I also asked her if she would eat Thai food. She said yes if they have chicken. They do. I think we will have to wait for them a bit at my house. They probably won’t leave the airport til about 6.

Retirement Finances

George is off tomorrow or most of tomorrow anyway. He is going to be looking at our financial retirement numbers and budget based on today’s economy. We have our financial advisor and investments but he wants to take a day and just number crunch, do research, etc. He will also be looking into signing up for Medicare and Social Security and all that. And he has decided to hire an accountant that is close by to have them do our taxes. It is a goal of mine for 2024 to make sure I know our finances and to give each other passwords for our computers and such, and where he keeps the bills and what is due. Our finance spreadsheet is on his computer. Likewise I need to make a list of all my subscriptions and UserID’s so if something happens he can easily stop them. It’s time to start thinking about that stuff and should have already.

Power of Attorney

We are working on Mom’s Power of Attorney thing. I had printed off what we needed but that was mainly a worksheet I think. So I have to go back and do the long legal version. But George wants to go through it and figure it out so we can look up and know what it is saying before we try to explain it to Mom, so we can advise her correctly. I think it’s just a matter of her deciding what all she wants me to handle though, at what point. Some things she is wanting me to handle now, like her finances and bills. But some things she may want to wait until she is disabled. So it’s a matter of just deciding what and when. But we need to get on it. We just haven’t had much time. I gave Mom the papers to look at. But we need to make some time to sit down with her but I got to get George to sit down with it first by himself so he can absorb what it is saying too. We just need to make sure we have the right things in place to be able to handle things for her when she needs it, where no one can give her/or us red tape.

Back to September….

I’m looking forward to the new month. A chance for some cooler air in the evenings and mornings. We already have 58 this morning! But we will have some hot days still. I’m looking forward to redoing my Notion for the September month. I’ll share with you what I did for August. I’ll reset my pics for a more fall feel.

I’m also going to do the fall decorating this weekend. Little by little. I’m wanting to work on my B Roll for the videos. I love a video with cool B-Roll shots. It just gives it a feeling, much like pics do on a blog. I’m going to be doing more of that. I finished with the “much shorter” video last night and it’s uploading now to YouTube. I’ll do the thumbnail tonight.

I’m almost finished reading The Spare. I’ve made some progress recently. It’ll go fast now that I’m toward the end. More motivation to read it. We have not watched any shows this week. I’ve read instead. We have just been busy, eaten later, had phone calls with family.

Aunt Martha and Uncle Ken have endured the tropical storm and still have power. Was worried about them yesterday. They are in Yulee, FL (near Amelia Island, Fernadina Beach, and not too far from Jacksonville (45 to an 1 hour I think). The storm went north but they had up to 60 mph gusts and lots of rain.

So I’m excited of the change of seasons. But will be glad when my sister is better, and when my tests arrive. I’m aware of how fast things can change. So I’m hoping all is going to be ok for all of us.

Better get to work. I’ll post again soon.