Day four...

Day Four of violent nausea really stinks.  I hate my body.  SIGH.

Electrician Man came today, cleaning and servicing my air-conditioner so that it will be all ready for when I start using it.  I would, today, except for the fact that it is still too cold overnight to run it.  When the days are in the 70s, though, my bedroom gets awfully warm by day's end.  Warm temperatures make me ill and sleeping in a warm bedroom is difficult.

I had another one of those kicking-myself-in-the-head budgeting moments because I have yet to set up or account for in automatic savings, the bi-annual servicing of my HVAC unit, which also includes the purchase of two HEPA filters and a filter for my humidifier that runs in the winter.  Idiot Myrtle! 

So, after I wrote out the check for Ben, grousing once again how unbelievably expensive the month of April is, I logged onto my bank account and set up another automatic savings transfer.  First, I renamed the account that was for the taxes over the past two years I needed for the purchase of the house to Household.  It has the interest that I earned over the time the money sat in there until I had to pay the IRS (quarterly payments), which is just over $48.  I was going to sneak that interest money off for something fun, but instead it is now the seed money for my Household savings, which will fund Electrician Man's two visits.  I added up what I pay him, then put in some extra money in case something happened elsewhere in the house.  I have done ever so much restoration on this old house that I have doubted the need for savings for repairs, but since I will be saving for Ben's visits, I padded the bill, so to speak.  Now, $25 a month will go to that account.

Then, because I do get so easily confused these days, I renamed the House savings account, which was for the real estate taxes and now has extra padding for the property tax on my vehicle, to a more appropriate name:  Taxes.

Finally, I made the name changes in my electronic register.  I entered the data for the monthly transfers starting on the 25th.  And I updated my Over/Under chart for my budget.  Again, while this change did not help with today's expense, come next fall, when Ben services the heating part of the HVAC, I shall be able to simply pay myself back out of the Household account when I write that check.

I really, really, really wish that I had someone who could sit down with me and go through all the spending throughout the year and tell me if there is ANYTHING else that I have forgotten that I should be saving for monthly to off-set the one-time (or twice) larger expense.  How?  How, in all my planning and thinking and number crunching, could I have FORGOTTEN about Electrician Man?  SIGH.

When Ben comes to work here, he always times his visits to include lunch.  He did this even before I started cooking tasty freezer meals.  It is his way of giving me a bit of company.  I texted him the freezer meal options earlier in the week, and he chose the Thai Honey Peanut Chicken.  I am far, far too puky to eat, so I only took another dose of Zofran and then zapped his lunch.  [In case you were wondering, he chose Double Chocolate Dr Pepper Cake for dessert.]  Then ... then we went up on the airing porch to eat!

The chairs are still ever so slightly tacky, but not enough that we couldn't sit in them for a small bit.  Ben was amazed at the porch and liked being up there as much as I did.  I wanted to be able to eat with my first guest, but I am near giddy that the table is just large enough for two people without taking up too much room.  The chairs are also solid and comfortable.  If I were less nauseous, I would have "staged" the photo with the cushion on the steamer lounger, but it was all I could do to set it back up before Ben got here.

One of the best parts of the airing porch, if I have not "remembered" it here yet, is that the roof overhangs the porch by about two feet.  I left the steamer lounger out all winter, folded up and leaning against the house.  It barely had any snow on it, despite our copious accumulations this winter.  All the airing porch furniture can be folded up and set against the house beneath the roof overhang, so I am not hauling it in and out.  Though, I do have room for it all in the servants' room closet.

Last night, when I was carrying the chairs upstairs, I fell down the stairs with one of them.  The chair didn't break and I didn't break, but I did realize that I should have waited to have someone else do that particular task.  I shouldn't be carrying things up and down the stairs anymore.  Really, I ought to get over my worry about clothes being caught in the laundry chute and start using it.  At least I have stopped carrying Amos up and down the stairs when he begs to be held.  So, I am not totally stupid yet.

When I am really feeling wretched, and someone is here, I talk non-stop.  Poor Ben.  However, he did ask about the books piled in the dining room and I got to explain about donating them.  I am torn ... truly ... over whether or not to donate all my children's books (at least the ones I do not regularly re-read myself).  Mary helped me to understand that what I torn about is what is the right thing to do:  keep books I do not really need but like, since they represent my past work and my Ph. D., or give them away so that they can be read.  Mary told me that there is no right or wrong in this.  I did comfort myself with the knowledge that, now, when I die, I have a designated place for all my books.

My one thought about keeping the books I still have was that I could give them away when folk with children come over here.  So, I chose a book for Ben, since he just had a new baby and has mostly young children.  It was a book for young children about hugs.

I also asked if he knew anyone who'd like the rest of the Lutheran theology books that I culled (my pastor who took another call and taken the first batch several months ago).  His church has sent three guys to seminary recently, so he took the bag of those books that I had set aside.  I also showed him my penny-collection books that I used to do when I was younger.  My father would get $10 worth of pennies when we were little and visiting for the weekend (after the divorce and before his remarriage) and we would look for pennies to fill our books.  Ben said he and his father collected nickels when he was young, so he liked the idea of starting to collect pennies with his children.

Lest you think I am this generous person, the best part about giving him the books and the penny collection was the down-sizing it was for me, not the gifts they were for him and the seminary students.  I am a sinner, after all.

Ben tried the Maple Chili sunflower seeds (I do not have pumpkin seeds roasted at the moment) and really liked them, even though he is not a sunflower seed person.  His wife is, however, and so I sent a snack bag of them home with him for her.  I like to send stuff to his wife because I have been so blessed by Ben's meticulous and caring electrical work in this home.  Truly, more than anyone else, he has rendered it safe for me.  If ever you wanted to study the execution of vocation, I think studying Ben and the choices he makes in his business would be the perfect lesson.  He truly treats each place his works at as his own, trying to ensure that he always serves his customers to the best of his ability and to the glory and honor of God.

Plus, well, he loves my old house as much as I do ... the stained glass windows and French doors and woodwork and all.  Maybe it is silly, but I really do savor having someone to share my awe of this house with from time to time.

Amos is honked out on the couch, so deeply asleep that folk have walked past the house without eliciting a single bark of canine protestation.  He exhausts himself, whenever Electrician Man his here, following Ben all over the house and yard and jumping up repeatedly to be held.  Amos has known Ben the longest and Ben even has a nickname for him "Little Pupper."

My "happy" news is that my robins returned to my house, even though we had to take down their nest when doing all the work on the back porch.  Mr and Mrs. Robin decided that the front porch was a better option and rebuilt the nest there!

I took this photo through the dirty glass of both the front door and the screen door, because I did not want to disturb Mrs. Robin.  But ... once those babies are born ... I plan to stand on the capstone railing and take me some bird babies photos!  I am so happy that they stayed with my house.  Plus, this location is better than the one out back because I can see it ever so much easier and more completely!

Finally, I thought I should post a more fully bloomed, sun-shiny photo of the weeping cherry.  It is blurry because I am shaky (and nauseous and short of breath) today, but it still is, to me, a glorious photo!  Plus, the weeping cherry is a veritable hive of honey bees at the moment.  I think that seeing the honey bees was Ben's favorite part of his visit.  He did stop to deeply admire both the magnolia and the weeping cherry.  What a cool electrician, eh?

There is this window of lesser nausea in between Zofran doses, about two hours in, that makes eating more palatable in thought.  So, I am going to try and eat something substantial.  I am also struggling with a constant headache, so I am fervently hoping this wretchedness is more due to a spate of especially low blood pressure (I keep forgetting to check when I am near the monitor) and not the end of the efficacy of the erythromycin on the gastroparesis.  Therapeutically, the window of its efficacy is reported to be just 3-6 months. I think, I'm on month 21.

I try not to think about it too much, but I do dread the day when erythromycin no longer works for me.  Thankfully, even then, I will still have Zofran can get it in even higher doses if need be.

Wretched Dysautonomia!  SIGH.