Report Card

Last week…

1. I had my chemo on Monday with all the usual symptoms that followed—nausea, body aches, fatigue, and insomnia. As of today, I’m getting back to normal.
2. I worked on edits for one author.
3. I slept—a lot.

This next week…

1. Tomorrow, I’ll get a white cell booster shot and have a blood draw. At some point soon, my oncologist is going to order up some more scans to see how the treatment is working.
2. I’m still working on edits for one author and will finish it by the weekend. Then I’ll start the next set.
3. I’ll try working/editing on of the pages I’ve already written for Ignition, just to keep the story in my head so at some point I can commit to writing new pages.
4. I have the last Delta Heat stories to take wide, meaning, to upload to sites other than KU.
5. Yes, my plan is very unambitious, but that’s okay.

Open Contests

Be sure to check out these posts and enter to win the prizes that are still up for grabs!

1. September into October (Contest) — Last day to enter! Win an Amazon gift card!
2. Happy International Coffee Day! (Contest) — Last day to enter! Win an Amazon gift card!
3. Word Search: Crafts you might enjoy… (Contest) — Last day to enter! Win an Amazon gift card!
4. Gabby Grey: Dedications (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win a FREE book!
5. Saturday Puzzle-Contest: Bucket List — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
6. Cameron Allie: The Perfect October Fantasy Read is FREE–(for a limited time only!) — One more day to get your FREE book! 
7. Puzzle-Contest: Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day! — Win an Amazon gift card!
8. Krysten Lindsay Hager: YA Second Chance Romance that’s F*R*E*E for a Limited Time — Get your FREE book!
9. Saturday Puzzle-Contest: Halloween Movies & Activities — Win an Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Pansy Petal!
*~*~*

Halloween is always a fun time of year for our family. It’s the kickoff to the holiday season—Halloween, Thanksgiving, St. Nicklaus Day, Christmas, New Year’s Eve… We celebrate them all because we love excuses for celebrating.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, and then offer suggestions in the comments for Halloween movies or activities that would be fun for the family!

For those interested, here’s my health update:  Read the rest of this entry »

For all of those displaced or battening down the hatches to ride out this 1-2 punch of a second devastating storm, all I can say is you’re in my thoughts today. As a former Florida resident, many moons ago, I know you’re resilient, but this one looks so bad I worry for you all. I hope you had the wherewithal to escape the area. For those who chose to stay, I’ll be sending blessings and praying for you. ~ DD

UPDATE: The winner is…Debra Guyette!
*~*~*

Yesterday was Chemo Day—the third round. It’s funny; I almost looked forward to it—or at least I wasn’t filled with dread or fear. I know it’s the beginning of a miserable week, but I don’t even dread that. Not yet. I’ll probably rethink it on Wednesday or Thursday when the deep muscle and joint aches begin—but I have some good drugs to help with that. 🙂

Anyway, I came home from chemo, which ended at 3 PM, and headed straight to bed. Other than getting up for dinner or walks to the bathroom, I slept all the way until 3 AM this morning, and I’ve been up since, on a roll. I puttered picking up things, and even dusted my desktop (a huge chore given all the crap I have on the surface).

Then, I turned my attention to what to do with my blog today—since I def feel up to it.

I love quirky, obscure holidays, and today is an important obscure one. It’s Ada Lovelace Day!

Who is Ada? From the website Time and Date:  “Ada Lovelace was an English mathematician who worked with Charles Babbage on his calculating engine, called the Analytical Engine. Her plan to calculate Bernoulli numbers using the engine is now widely considered as the world’s first computer program. In 1980, the United States Department of Defense created a programming language and named it Ada in honor of Ada Lovelace’s contribution to the world of computing.”

I remember when the ADA programming language was a thing back in the day. I remember, too, the state of computers back when I was new to the Army. In fact, during my summer ROTC training before I graduated from college, I was selected to be part of a team that went to an Army base to evaluate an exercise the active duty units there were undergoing. Our job was to shadow and assist the active Army observers. We were the ones entrusted to gather their observations and put them together into a single, extensive report. We were given access to a computer to write up the report—beginning after duty hours so we didn’t disrupt the people who worked there during the day. I was assigned the job of typing up all those reports, editing, then printing out the report (my first editing job, y’all). The computer sent the book to a printer that spit out hundreds of punch cards that looked like the picture above. The others had to take that stack and walk it to another device that read the cards then produced the written report. All those cards had to be kept in order so two people carried it, one holding the cards from the ends and the other supporting it so it didn’t fall to the floor. If you had one card out of order, you had to reprint the entire thing. If they (the active duty folks) decided to make changes to the report you had to repeat the entire process again.

Still, I thought how cool was it that we were able to type up a report, making changes along the way, and we didn’t have to retype the entire thing. It did save labor on that end. LOL

A few years later, I was assigned to work on the general’s staff at Fort Gordon (now, Fort Eisenhower), Georgia and we actually had an internal email system that connected the staff to all the heads of different organizations on the post. So much progress in so few years. Shortly after that, I bought my first computer, a Radio Shack TRS-80, and I was the first on my block to own a personal computer. I had to learn a smattering of code to work it, but that was just part of the adventure!

Today? We all take for granted the innovations. Back then, we felt like we would soon be living in the Jetson’s future.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. Have fun with the puzzle. Solve the puzzle then tell me about any computer innovation that amazed you for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

I have a long To-do list today filled with things I need to complete before tomorrow’s date with the chemo chair. I even woke up in the middle of the night and downloaded a movie, My Spy (I know, it doesn’t have the best ratings, but I want something mindless and filled with action), and the series Reacher, so I have choices. I will be in the chair for six hours, and the initial Benadryl they hit me with to keep me from an allergic reaction will only help me nap for so long. So, I have to pre-post a blog for tomorrow morning (if I get it from my guest author in time), charge up my headphones, and pack my backpack with a jacket and wipes. I’ll have to pack my lunch bag first thing in the morning, but I’ll leave it sitting on top of my backpack as a reminder.

I just updated my weekly work plan. In the last two go-rounds, I completely blocked out chemo week, but this time I added some light tasks to each day, so I have something to prod me into doing something other than sleeping. I need to move around as much as my tired, achy body will let me.  I am determined to accept chemo week as part of my new “normal.”

Anyway, I have things to do, so let me move on. I hope you all have a happy, productive week. I wish you good health. Find little and big ways to find your joy.

Report Card

Last week…

1. I worked on edits for one author. I will complete them today!
2. I had my chemo blood draw on Thursday. My white blood cell count was back up into normal range due to the shot I got the previous week. My red blood cells, platelets, and lymphocytes took a hit. I’m anemic—which is why I feel so fatigued—so I’ve been adding more meat to my diet. I’ve been napping—a lot!
3. I finished my binge of the old Sci-Fi series, Andromeda. The last season was awful, but I persevered. I also finished Evil and hate that it’s over after only four seasons. I loved everything about it—the cast, the story lines, the sets, the way they filmed it, the funny little nun who battled demons—she was my favorite character—and I have mixed feelings that she wound up retired in a silent cloister. Yes, she deserved rest. Maybe she was actually ready for it. And yes, she felt like a real person, so I’ll miss her. 🙂

This next week…

1. I’ll undergo a round of chemo infusions, and I’ll continue to track how I react throughout the days following treatment because I need to consign it to a schedule!
2. I’ll begin another editing project, but I’ll set my expectations for my productivity very, very low.
3. I’ll try working on of the pages I’ve already written for Ignition, just to keep the story in my head so at some point I can commit to writing new pages.
4. I’ll try to force myself to move more than I usually do after treatment. I want to know whether it helps the awfulness pass more quickly!

Open Contests

Be sure to check out these posts and enter to win the prizes that are still up for grabs!

1. What does this mean to you? (Contest) — Last day to enter! Win a FREE book!
2. Anna Taylor Sweringen/Michal Scott: Mary Church Terrell – Lifting As She Climbed (Contest + Excerpt) — Last day to enter! Win an Amazon gift card!
3. Pretty Scribbles Puzzle and a Question (Contest) — Last day to enter! Win an Amazon gift card!
4. Saturday Puzzle-Contest: Vintage Board Games — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
5. September into October (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
6. Happy International Coffee Day! (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
7. Word Search: Crafts you might enjoy… (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
8. Gabby Grey: Dedications (Contest) — Win a FREE book!
9. Saturday Puzzle-Contest: Bucket List — Win an Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Mary Ann Dean!
*~*~*

Happy Saturday!

The kids are getting ready to head out for the annual Pumpkin Fest in a neighboring town. There will be vendors, tractor rides, hayrides—that sort of thing. I used to go to it every year, but these days, I avoid crowds as much as possible. Plus, I don’t have the energy to traipse around a field. I’ll stay at home and try to get some work done since today feels like it will be a “good” day for me. I have today and tomorrow to work, and then Monday is Chemo Day. So, next week is toast.

I saw the picture in the puzzle, and it reminded me that I had a bucket list before all this started. I did have a few places left in the world I still wanted to see. My dd and I have always wanted to do a “foodie tour” of India—we love Indian food. I’ve always wanted to go to Iceland, Bali, or Tahiti. I wanted to revisit Ireland, Germany, and France. If the world weren’t so nuts, I would’ve loved to head to Turkey and Egypt. I’m extremely lucky to have traveled extensively when I was younger. So, I’m not bummed about the fact I likely won’t get to tick off any of those destinations.

Right now, I’d be happy with another road trip to New Orleans. That’s doable, I think.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me whether you have a bucket list. Your list doesn’t have to be ambitious or for far-flung places. Have fun with it!

UPDATE: The winner is…Jackie Wisherd!
*~*~*

It’s not an official holiday, but it’s one I can get behind! I looooove coffee. When I was younger, I drank it all day long. Black. No sugar. All day long. These days, I have to keep it to two cups in the morning or I wreck my ability to fall asleep at night. My mornings, though, are always super-charged by the mighty coffee bean.

I know there are folks who detest the taste. Not something I understand. I drank from a large community urn when I was in the military. You were lucky in the morning to get a fresh, aromatic cup. By late afternoon, it was sludge, but I still poured a cup of ambition.

Coffee is more than a drink. It’s a ritual—for me, anyway. I have my first cup sitting with my daughter as the kids scurry to get ready for school. I carry the second cup to my desk to begin work for the day. I set it on that old cup warmer at the corner of my desk and drink it, one sip at a time, while I check my To Do list, begin my blog—and I’m off. I love this particular cup. The kids gave it to me one Christmas as a joke, a gentle funny dig because…guess what? I’m not so silent about correcting their grammar. I have tons of writerly mugs. Tons of Grandma mugs. They all have meaning and memories. I have cups my dad used for years that I cry over whenever they break or crack. Some I glue back together and use as pen holders because I won’t consign them to the trash. I’m sure you have some of those meaningful/memory-packed cups, too.

Enough about coffee and cups, though. It’s Tuesday. The first day of the month. I have a calendar to update, bills to pay. Pages to edit. It’s time to get to work.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me whether you’re a fan of coffee. If you are, how do you like it? Black or doctored? If there’s another beverage you prefer, tell me what it is and how you like it, too! Have a wonderful day, y’all!