It bites

(Not such a) G'day all!

I've been all of a twitch recently.  I read my cancer's pathology report.  Then I looked up research papers.

I wish I hadn't.

I know what the words mean.

Then, today the (recently stepped down) president of my footy team in Oz died of melanoma.  He was only six months older than me and has been engaged in battle with the blasted thing for 2.5 years.  RIP Jimmy Stynes.  You will always be a legend.

Last year my fave footballer, who played alongside Jimmy and also came from Ireland (though he was technically Scottish), also died.  He was a year older than me.

So I am all of a twitch.  These deaths cut way too close to the bone.

People often tell me how well I deal with it all, the cancer stuff and all that crap.  Y'know how I deal with it?  In a good old-fashioned human way of ignoring it.  It is too much to cope with, so I ignore it and hope that if I ignore it, it will forget about me.

I'm overdue for my 18 month checkup, due to the move overseas and trying to find a new oncologist and my records now having to play catch up before I can see anyone.  My scar areas are really playing up as I've been doing a lot of different things, like unpacking boxes and organising things and sorting stuff and sewing and spinning (plus no chiropractic or massage for months, apart from what I can give myself).

So I am extra twitchy, which means doing more crafting.  I'm sewing some curtains out of flannelette (flannel, in American) for our storage units in the loungeroom, I have started a new quilt top, I am knitting frantically on the sleeve of my new cardie, I am spinning yarn at a rate of knots, and of course I have NO pics at all of them because I've been entranced by the colours in the petals of the now blown tulips and have only taken pics of them.  Typical!  But being distractable is a good thing.  Reduces my fussing level.

After all, fussing over things only makes it feel even worse.  I have to remind myself one day at a time, one thing at a time.

Vale, Jim.

anon!

Two months

G'day all!

Two months ago, we arrived in Seattle.  It feels like we've been here a lot lot longer than two months.  Almost like two years, except if that was really the case, we missed out on two summers.

Love the shadows of the curlicues by the fish
ladder by the Crittenden Locks

I am understanding what people mean when they say Seattle's weather is changeable.  I thought I knew what changeable is.  After all, I've lived in Melbourne for most of my life and my darling Melbourne has weather that can be very excitable indeed.  But not quite as changeable as Seattle's it seems.

However, is it worse than when DH lived in Scotland (St Andrews) for a year when he was a kid and the local saying was "It's a nice day at the moment?"  And if it hit 25C (say mid-70s F) everyone died of heat exhaustion?

Love these crocuses.

Spring is starting to spring around there.  The crocuses (croci?) have been out for a couple of weeks, the daffodils are coming into full bloom and the cherries (we call them cherry-plums) in Australia are just starting to go gangbusters.

So of course it is likely to snow on Tuesday!

Our Stuff arrived on Monday.  I have had a week of looking at Stuff, building our shelving units with DH, realising I don't have enough bits of wood to chock under the shelving units' feet (we have laminate floors here and I am worried that the fully laden shelves will punch through the laminate...the feet on them are very small for things that can take over a metric ton of stuff (actually 1250kg, multiply by 2.2 for pounds)).  Admittedly our Stuff does not weigh that much, well it might in total but it does not all fit on the one shelving unit!

Our furniture (my sister's old stuff) suddenly looks quite small.  It always looked enormous in the Sydney flat but this place has a lounge/dining area that is bigger than the bedroom and loungeroom of the flat combined. 

And I have no idea how we fitted all this Stuff in there.  None whatsoever!  But we did.

A Seussian tree!

I have been knitting and spinning and writing crappy stories, because that is what I do when I have so much Stuff to deal with that I get overwhelmed.  I am so glad to have my spinning wheel here!  I have found all sorts of pretty tops to spin and celebrated having my wheel here by spinning clown barf yarn.  Yay!  (Pics?  I took some but umm, not downloaded and edited yet.  Instead you will have to deal with pics from a walk we took last weekend down to the Ballard locks - I notice that they are described as being in Ballard, not Magnolia, even though Magnolia is on the other side of the canal... maybe locks are too declasse for Magnolia....).

Now that I have my sewing machine again (my US sewing machine) I can start sewing.  This will be handy as DH wants curtains across the rather industrial shelving units, and I think I want brighter, lighter slip covers over the furniture.  It is a bit dull and dark, and I want more than just quilts on it.

The rail bridge lifted up - not uncommon to see

I am starting to wade through the bureaucratese that I have to deal with.  I've applied for an EAD and got the acknowledgement letter.  I've talked to IRS about my Oz income.  I am yet to find a primary care provider or ring Aetna about my cover and whether I need a PCP before getting an oncologist here.  We need a dentist too.

And look what came through!  A little wee yacht

It's funny how these sorts of things can throw you.  You think you are a Big Girl but really it would be much easier if someone else found you a good doctor and dentist and dealt with all that crap.  It will happen, just not this weekend.

Wherever you are, have a good one!

anon!