Random Notes, October 21, 2022

Chemo day yesterday. Well, it’s not chemo day anymore, I guess. Immunotherapy day. We saw Vasireddy and then headed to the infusion suite. Fucking Pod One. Worst pod. We haven’t gotten Pod Four in eons. Damn it. I truly can’t complain however as we were only there a bit over an hour. One hour is VERY different than four hours or more.

As we were sitting and waiting for valet parking Ernie commented that I looked tired. I wanted to say, ‘Gee, thanks, Ern,’ or even, ‘right back atcha,’ but I just nodded. Afterwards we didn’t really want to go home but we were too full for lunch and it seemed too early for a drink. Instead we drove around looking for good golden trees. As much as I love the red in fall colors, it’s the trees that become totally golden that just take my breath away. I reminded Ernie that there was a great gold tree in front of our old apartment on Columbia. We drove over and sadly, the tree was gone. We found some other good ones though before heading home.

Later, Ernie was antsy, wondering if they had torn down the roundhouse in Villa Grove yet so we drove down there (more to follow on that). We zigzagged through the corn and bean fields back to Champaign. Yet again, we just didn’t feel like going home so we dropped into Huber’s for a drink. About halfway through my glass of wine I realized that I just wasn’t feeling great….stuffy nose and tired. We left and I came home and dozed a bit. Woke up today with a cold. I hardly ever get colds these days so I did a COVID test but no…just a garden variety cold I guess. So, yet again, a quiet day, although it’s gorgeous out so might at least migrate to the front yard.

In other random notes:

We made chili the other day and damn it was good. Ernie dug some ground beef out of the freezer along with a few summer tomatoes that I’d thrown in there when we were leaving town and I didn’t want to waste them. Ernie made some garlic oil, then browned the beef in it. I tossed in a mixture of chipotle flakes, ground cumin, oregano, smoked paprika, cayenne, salt and pepper. Ernie stirred that all for a bit and then we dumped in the tomatoes (I think it was four or five), some leftover mashed sweet potato and a batch of leftover shredded zucchini that had been sitting in the refrigerator for a bit. It simmered for an hour or so. I thought about adding some peppers but it looked damn good as it was so we left it. We served it with a bit of grated cheddar and sour cream. It was so good as we just hadn’t had anything with those flavors for a while. We used to make chili a time or two every winter but we’ve gotten away from it. We had it on one of those cold cold days we had so all in all it was delightful.

I must admit, I am feeling quite resentful of those frosts we had this week. This weekend is supposed to be glorious and my beautiful morning glories could be proudly waving if not for those frosts.

I met my friend Nancy for a drink a few days ago. We worked together close to fifteen years That’s a lot of our lives that we shared with each other, so it felt just wonderful to catch up.

That’s a picture of my cane, my father’s old shillelagh, waiting for me. I’m not completely used to it but I’m liking it for times when I’m not walking super far.