We have been snowed in for a very long time.  The news has finally admitted that this is the worst and longest storm in history.  We didn't see any sun for over two weeks.  And every day we'd get 5 or 6 more inches of snow over three inches of ece.  The temperatures never got over freezing.  On Tuesday before Xmas, Jim Jr. and Suzy called to ask if we needed anything.  I said yes, we were out of milk, juice, and food.  ( The Dairy truck couldn't get into our neighborhood) Jim said they were in our neighborhood and would take me to the nearest grocery outlet which is about three blocks away.  He has a four wheel drive, but everything, and everyone slid around.  Suzy kept telling him to slow down though he wasn't really going fast.  She and I feared for people who were trying to walk, and when a car starts to slide, it can't control the slide.  He let Suzy and me off at the door, but I had trouble staying upright while returning to the car.

 

This is the first Christmas I have missed with two of my grandchildren.  That whole family had Dec. bithdays and we missed those too.  I have to admit that I was jealous of their friends who got to share their events as did the other grand parent who flew in before this all started.  But our Prius is a low car and the snow was much higher than the lower third of the car. 

 

Jim Jr. did come and pick us up along with his daughter and family so we did have a nice lunch with them on Christmas.  Suzy, Jim Jr., Josie and I had our Scrabble game.  I figued it was high time for me to win.  Well  I almost made it.  I had one vowel left and several places I could put it but Suzy used all of hers first.  I still would have won but we had to give her all the points left over and that put her over.  (sob!)   Oh, well.  It was nice to be with family.  And now we wait for a new year with a slate soon to be washed clean, and time to hope and dream for a vast improvement over the whole world.  Has there ever been a time in so much need of prayer and hope?

 

I wish you all joy in the coming year.

 

 

 

 

Today we went to the hospital for a day of tests that required I lay down from start to finish.  Since this was  set up yesterday by the Endocrinologist because both sets of tests before showed a very low adrenal harmone.  If it checks out he can fix it.  Today he was testing to see if the pituatay gland was failing to put out the stimulating harmone for the adrenal gland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They were handsome and oh so nice, the three fireman running around our house at almost midnight.  They didn't even wake my dear husband.  I didn't call them at first as I didn't want to bother anyone that late at night.  It all started around 10 pm when I turned off the light after reading and I was sooo tired.

 

Suddenly the Carbon Monoxide alerter started a loud piercing warning.  I jumped out of bed and pulled it out of the wall plug in, found the reset button, pushed it, and then plugged it back into the wall.  That had worked only time this had happened before.  But this time it didn't work.  I tried again.  It still didn't work.  I woke up DH who got out of bed, pulled it out of the wall, set it on the floor, climbed back in bed and went back to sleep, after saying do what you think is best.   The thing kept screaming and sometimes a steady shrill shreak.  I got up plugged it in again and tried the reset button again with no good results.

 

I lay in bed feeling more tired by the minute.  I thought of just taking it to the garage and letting it shreak out there.  I thought, well if the reset button doesn't reset, maybe there is carbon monoxide in here.  The first death in this housing development was a woman who committed suicide by running her car in a closed garage.  When the firemen came they said this gas was so thick in the other 4 units of her building too, that even firemen in masks could not go in safely so they had to wait.  Fortunately no one else was killed.  I so wanted to just go to sleep, but didn't want it to be my last sleep.  I wondered if my heavy tiredness meant there was gas present.  I thought, "Why have a detector if you aren't going to heed the warning".  So I got up and went downstairs to see if our cats who usually slept with us, but not now, were still alive.

 

The cats were fine.  So I took a phone book and looked up the phone number of the power company.  I just wanted to talk to someone who could tell me what to try to figure out if I really needed outside help.  They didn't answer their emerency number and a recording said to call back tomorrow during business hours.  So I tried the non emergency number of the fire station and got a similar message.  So I bit the bullet and called 911.  I said I don't know if this is an emergency but my CM Detector is going off and I need to talk to someone who..... She interupted and said I needed the firemen with a gadget that would tell if we had a problem.  She asked my address and name but had already rung them as we talked.  As the station was about 6 blocks away, I figured about 3 minutes.  She said to open windows and wait outside.  I ran upstairs and opened two windows on a very cold night.  DH was still asleep.  Should I wake him? Nooo.

 

I ran back downstairs and shut off the burglar alarm and unlocked three locks on the front door.  A huge firetruck arrived then.  Red lights were filling the darkness in many directions.  Three firemen rushed in heavy coats and followed me upstairs.  Dh slept through it all.  They determined that it was safe enough with a reading of 11 there and 9 downstairs.  To be dangerous it needed to be over 30.  Finally one of them brought the alarm down and said he thought it's problem was a low battery.  Since it was plugged into the electricity and we'd had it for 8 or 9 years with out a problem, I had no idea that it even had a battery.  I had a new one of the size needed.  So they fixed it.  It no longer beeped.  And I could go to sleep safely.  I thanked them profusely, and apologized  for what seemed to me to be a false alarm.  But they insisted that it was okay.  They said they were the ones to call and they were so nice.  They left.  I plugged it in and went to sleep at 12:30 am.

 

This morning I told my DH what had happened.  He started teasing me saying he bet that was an expensive way to get three firemen to change a battery for me.  Yeah. 

It's just an observation, but for me it is 100% true.  Did you ever notice that when you are late for an appointment, every traffic light is red.  But if you are early, every traffic light is green and you get there early.  We are having a three week course about Proverbs in a church class.  The second session we were to select proverbs that seemed to appy to us.  The third will be this Sunday and we are to make up our own.  So this is my truism.

 

 

Since Jim Jr. hasn't brought you up to date, let me tell you how the Scrabble game turned out on Thanksgiving Day, and I'll also give you an update on a hope to find a cure for my CFS.

 

I was determined to win because I hadn't won since the first game and this was unacceptible to my pride.  Well, I almost made it.  Suzy and I had the same numbers count at the end, but she ran out of tiles first so I had to subtract my one tile for a count of four.  So I didn't make it.  But then there is Christmas and hopefully another game.

 

Today I went to see the Endocrinologist again to get the results of the tests he had run two weeks ago.  I was so afraid he'd say they showed nothing but hoping for an answer.  Well, I still have hope.  There were no promises and more blood tests and another two weeks to wait.  The tests showed my adrenal gland may be under performiong so he is doing further tests for that and the pituatory gland and another different T4 thyroid test and cortisone, whatever that is.  If these tests confirm a glandular problem then I can treat it and get well.  He also said I was low on vitamin D which I take 400 g in my multiple vitamin and in milk.  So he wants me to take 3000 g and thinks that will help me feel better too.  So I hope this is the problem confirmed so I can be well again.  I am praying hard for this.

 

It was another pretty, rainy day here today.  But there hasn't been enough snow in the mountains for the ski runs to open.  So a lot of people younger than we are, are disappointed.  This is unusual.  The Christmas tree that my daughter gave me is so pretty.  I just love it with the multicolored lights.