Category: 2025

When I was sitting in the eye doctor’s waiting room late yesterday afternoon, someone commented, as she was heading out the door, that she was done for the day. She sounded so gleeful that we all laughed. The rest of us were not done for the day. And we all wished we were!

I have been fighting exhaustion and have had one terrible cold-flu after another all winter. I finally feel maybe sort of ok, so I was out doing errands yesterday. I wore a mask all day, because I’ve just had it with being constantly sick and I don’t want to catch anything else.

Laura says it’s still common for people to wear masks where she lives in California, but not here in Tucson. I didn’t see anyone else in a mask all day. But I didn’t care. My main complaint with masks is my glasses fog up. But I discovered a good brand that has a foam strip under the metal strip that contours around your nose. It is cushioned and comfortable and it blocks the air gap that causes your glasses to fog up. No more fogging up! (Or very little anyway.)

I wish these were available back in the day when we all needed them! Plus, they are genuine N95. Here is the link in case you want to get some. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HY48BK6?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

After I did all my errands I came home and went to bed. I just don’t have any energy anymore. I keep cancelling on all my friends. They are all like, “What is wrong with you?!” And honestly I don’t know.

I’ve probably just gotten rundown and my immune system needs to rest and recharge. Of course there’s always that little whispered fear in my mind – in all cancer survivor’s minds – did it come back? Is that why I’m so tired and my immune system isn’t keeping up with all the cold and flu bugs? Is it too busy fighting a new round of cancer? But I set that thought aside because it doesn’t help anything. I have a regularly scheduled CT scan in early March. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Meanwhile, our cold winter temperatures are going to break soon. It will be warm next week. I can’t wait! I want to meet my friends for lunch and I’m waiting for it to be warm enough to eat outside on a patio. Yep, I’m in full pandemic mode again, masking, eating outside at restaurants, ugh. But my doctor says to give my immune system a rest, so that’s what I’m going to have to do until winter is over. In hindsight I should have started wearing masks a couple of months ago, and maybe I wouldn’t have been so sick all winter.

Here’s a final winter picture…because next it’s going to be spring!

The luminarias are down now – I actually took them down early due to a big wind storm tearing through the yard. Our hammock nearly ended up at the bottom of the pool.

We’ve also been having issues with funky smells in the middle of the house. Sorry no photos of that, lol. It’s been a real mystery trying to figure out what’s going on. We’ve scoped our drain lines, cleaned our ductwork, checked the bathroom fans, changed all the HVAC filters, cleaned drains and traps, added charcoal filters to the sewer vents on the roof, etc., etc.

We finally have a handle on it, but it’s been a process. We have fixed a lot of little issues including air from the roof drafting back down into the house. Our last step is this week is to replace our gas hot water heater with an electric one and seal everything up around the conduit so there’s no more backdrafting. That should happen Wednesday.

Adding to the difficulty has been John’s schedule. He had a big project at work and has been working nights and weekends. I’ve been trying to handle everything at the house myself, and it’s not my thing. He works in a secure area where he can’t have a phone, so I can’t even reach him with questions. Luckily that project was finally done on Thursday. He did a great job. He always does a great job. He is exceedingly competent at work (except for the talent of saying no to more work).

Also I was gone myself for a week on vacation in Palm Springs with Tracey. That was fun and I have a bunch of good photos. I’ll blog about that soon. I was lucky to be well enough to go on that trip, although I got sick at the end of it, and had to drive myself home with a fever of 102. Not fun! I’m glad I didn’t have to cancel that trip, but I was still trying to deal with sewer issues back at home, and get contractors in, and get John’s sign-off on contractor quotes. The stuff with the house was a nuisance and frustrating!

Here’s a couple pictures of Biska, sitting on the couch waiting out the weather. She prefers to be on a lounge chair in the backyard, but she has been wisely staying indoors as the last of the winter storms blow through.

The family room couch and blanket will just have to do for now (sigh). It’s a hard life for a dog in the winter. Lol.

She likes to be outside as much as I do, so we are both looking forward to the high temps next week. Whoo-hoo, spring, here we come!

To send me a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Happy New Years everyone!

Here’s some flowers growing at our local botanical garden, where I volunteer on most Monday mornings. December flowers! I still can’t believe how lucky I am to live in Tucson.

Every Christmas the gardens has a light show. Here I am at the end of October, helping get some lights in place.

And here are those lights during the show.

I also helped put together this tunnel of lights.

This crescent moon is a new exhibit, made specifically for selfies and family shots.

I’m sure some people will use this for their Christmas cards. But not John and I. We never look good in selfies, although we seem to be able to successfully take photos of each other individually. What’s with that?

This train exhibit is also new.

It includes miniature replicas of real places; famous old lodges and churches in the southwest. Unfortunately the photos didn’t turn out very well – it takes patience and good equipment to take great night shots. But hopefully you get the idea.

One of these days I’ll take pictures of this exhibit in the daylight. It’s really quite nice.

Here are some more photos from this year’s Tucson Botanical Garden’s “Lights Up” show.

This year Lights Up runs from November 29th – January 12th, so there’s still time to go see it if you’re in Tucson. And if you want to come see it next year, and don’t want to travel with the holiday crowds, just come visit me in early December or early January. Here’s the info, https://tucsonbotanical.org/lightsup/

To send me a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.