*Meandering Thoughts

• I am going to the doctor this afternoon. It is just a once-a-year checkup so that I can continue to get my blood pressure medications, but I do have a couple of things *I* want to bring up. I am going to ask for the blood test that checks my kidney activity. Since I only have one, I tend to be a bit concerned about it. There are no symptoms that anything *is* wrong as far as I can tell, but I want it checked. The other thing I am going to ask for is to have my back looked at to be sure there is nothing suspicious for skin cancer. {If you have only started reading me lately you may not know I am a survivor of two different cancers, renal cancer in 1998 and uterine cancer in 2000.} I may have to make a separate appointment to have that checkup done, but since I can’t see my own back, or the backs of my legs for that matter, I think it is something I need to get checked out. If I have to make another appointment, I will make it for the new year.
• It is a little disconcerting to have one’s adult child say things to you that you said to him when he was a child! Not unpleasant things but things I needed to be told. I may write about this some more another time.
• I decided this morning that I do not needed to wash two big loads of laundry in one day. To understand this, "wash" means to wash, dry and put away. The putting away is the part that takes longest. When I was working at the library several years ago, then yes, I needed to do it all in one day and it was part of my routine, but now, who is there to be concerned about clean clothes except me? You may wonder why I have big loads since I am the only person here, but I don’t wash once a week now as I used to when it was Fred and me. I wash when the two baskets are full which these days tends to be two to three weeks. {I have a basket for whites and one for non-whites which actually sounds racist, doesn’t it. It makes the laundry chore a little easier if the clothes are  presorted before I have to put them in the machines…}
• For the past week or so I have been occasionally wondering where my Kindle Fire was. Yesterday i found it in my purse! I have no idea when or even why it was there! If it had been the ordinary Kindle I use for reading, then yes, I often put that one into my purse so I can read if I have to wait for anything. {It will go into my purse when I go to the doctor this afternoon.} But I seldom read on the Kindle Fire since I am one of the people whose vision blurs when the writing is back-lighted. ‘Tis a mystery!
• OK, time to check on the current load of laundry, get more coffee and start on my list of things I want to talk about when I see the doctor this afternoon.

Fear not for the future, weep not for the past

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) English Poet

{When I was sixteen and studying for my Huge and Frighteningly Important end-of-school tests that would allow me to go or not go to college, that year our assigned English poets were John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Because we were teenagers, we thought it was hilariously funny to refer to them as Sheets and Kelly!  I still smile when I see either of their names.}

Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.

– Oscar Wilde

Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone. ~Fred Rogers (Mr. Roger