A few problems being worked.

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The checks, sent to closed accounts, were... problematic.  First, two of the five were sent to accounts which have been closed for years.  Second, all of them were dated in January.  But January 2025.  No good.

I called the title company, to zero effect.  Absolutely dogmatic.  We will only reissue the checks if you come to our office.  We will only cancel the two dead accounts if you can prove those accounts are paid in full, maybe.  Both of those accounts were paid off, and ended, years ago.  I have no proof, and no way to get it on two year dead accounts.

I called my bank.  They... helped.  Made it so if I voided and ripped the checks, took a picture, and texted that, that would work.  To the best of my knowledge that suceeded.  However, they will reissue, with the correct dates, but to the same accounts!

I was told to sinply send them to the accounts, then wait for a refund.  Fine.  So... now I just wait for the new checks.

Then I got a call from one of the construction companies.  It ISN'T on auto pay.  Wasn't.  A bit late, but not too late.  I was able to catch up, pay this month, then automate payments henceforth.  Now to check on the other construction bill.  Pay it up, if needed, and automate it too.  Ugh.

One thing at a time.  But getting there.  If I can get it all done, then I can really rest for a while.  Wasn't planning on working on these things until Monday.  But... just...  saw an opportunity and hopped on it.  Very nice.

My last pain, the left foot, did well last night.  But hurt hellalot again when I woke and got up today.  Still, the first solid non-paimful sleep in... weeks.  Painpills are helping.  But I can't, won't, dose daily.  So tomorrow and Sunday I must simply suffer.  Every third day I will dose, once.  It's how I do.

Oh.  I made cornish game hens the other day.  One for each of us.  Excellent, according to both of us.  My mother is impressed with how well I cook birds.  We each saved half our bird.  I made a chicken stew tonight.  It was excellent.  Mom made ice cream, but using a new recipe I sugested.  It didn't work.  The first recipe was flawless.  I may have a fix for it, will try later tonight or tomorrow.

If the heloc update finishes going through, I'll be able to get on the electrical updates and upgrades, and the electric and gas tankless water heaters.  As well, begin getting quotes for hvac needs and make connections for a concrete driveway, three new exterior doors and screen doors.  Oh, and getting the kitche flooring installed, and paneling in.  Ugh.  Double Ugh!

Spend, spend, spend.  But... living in a warmer, cleaner, better, safer home?  Okay.  It isn't even just for value addition, or sales potential, at this point.  It's about better quality of life.

An successful experiment.

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Fudge.  I found an "easy" recipe.  Chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, butter, vanilla, and salt.  Okay.  But I was almost certain that could be made in keto form.  Went looking.  Sure enough, one of my favored keto gals had both the sweetened condensed milk and fudge recipe, all together in one video.

Would it really work?  Would it really be keto?  Only one way to find out.  I had to buy chocolate chips, of the keto sort, too.  And, unsalted butter.

All done, then to it.  It took forty minutes, maybe ten to fifteen minutes more, to reduce the cream and butter, with powdered allulose, and two to four drops of liquid sucralose, to produce the sweetened condensed milk.  My dogs are still rough, so it was a painful challenge.  I need a tall chair, for cooking!  If my feet are going to be bad like this this often, for this long.  Ugh.

Still, I sweated through it.  Then added more butter and the chips.  At first, I didn't think that was going to work.  Patience, Grasshopper.  But my dogs were making patience a challenge.  Finally, after fifteen minutes, it started looking... possible.  Then vanilla, a few last stirs to swirl it all even.

In the pans, I added walnuts to most of it, and stirred those in, or pushed them down in.  Some left plain.

Poured into two 8" square glass baking dishes, with oiled parchment.  Then set to cool.  Liquid, still, after an hour?  Freezer!  It never did get to where it could be cut.  Spooned out.  After days in my very hard freezing freezer.

However, the taste was fantastic.  That is some of the best fudge I have eaten.  Was it keto, though?  I had serious doubts.  Mother quite liked it too.  We gobbled those dishes up in less than a week.  Some daily, more some days.  I refused to test my blood sugar, for fear.  Though, on the evening, after I ate my last portion... so last evening, I broke down and bit the bullet.

Blood sugar was 89!  A fluke?  Was the test strip old, too old?  It was the last in that pack.  So, this morning, with a fresh pack of test strips opened, I checked again.  It was 99.  Nice.  Thar HAS to be solid keto.  So rich, decadent, and yet didn't cause the mildest of glucose spikes.  And, it tastes like regular fudge.  Could not differentiate, and I am very discerning.

I still have the mats to make regular fudge, but I think I will toss that.  Or leave it for mom to use, in other things, just for herself.  If she really wants more fudge, I'll get more keto mats.  For me?  I am done with fudge for... another year or two, three maybe.

As to health?  Better.  Mostly needing sleep, to recover.  That broke me pretty hard.  My left foot remains in serious pain, but my right foot seems healed, mostly.  And my internals, from the illness to the biopsy, seem better.  Just... tired.  I was exhausted before I got sick and damaged.  Healing kept me from resting, even while resting.  Everything was going toward healing, not resting.  Maybe now I can begin catching up on sleep and such.  Or die.  ;p

Later.

Warmth.

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Socks, not even the thick wader/hunter socks, which go up even over my knees, was doing it.  I noticed some stick-on handwarmers, made for the feet.  Now... not all feet are created equally.  Having size 15 means it takes two patches on the bottoms, and one on the tops, to warm the stupid things.

The large wool socks help, once the patches begin warming.  Wouldn't mind a few higher up, say on the calf, and shin.  And, maybe, sometimes.  But worried about it getting too warm, and running out.  Even so, these are helping with healing.  Probably helping with circulation, which then helps with healing?  Maybe both, straight up.

Slowly improving.

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Colder out there.  Finally got to below freezing, for the high?  For a day or three.  Looks to be in the 40s this coming week.  Very strange, even for a la nina year.

My feet still hurt, and hurt the most.  But internals are still tighter than is comfortable, with recovery aches?  Or the remnants of what was wrong before the procedure.  I am wearing the robe on to bed to keep a slight fever.  Would have that, from time to time, anyway.  Without the robe, I would have chills on off times.  The maintained slight fever, I think, is helping me get better slightly faster.

Better on better.

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Far from well.  Half way back to humanity?  We'll see.  The internals are... better.  Less swollen, bloated, compressed, less blood in my urine.  Still some.  They suggested if there seemed to be too much blood, that I should go in.  The key, to me, was too much.  Well, and where.  No bleeding on my back, or bruising, infection.

As for urine, the first day there was a lot.  But I expected that.  Every time I have been hurt or else, internally, I have bled a goodly lot.  I can't say that is normal, only normal from me.  Hit by a vehicle, dropped a bit far, and some sorts of... unofficial repairs or surgery or surgery-like events.  Can't... remember all the deets.  Only that this is far from my first rodeo.  So I wasn't worried.  Expected blood in urine for longer.  At day three I would have started to worry, a bit.  Day four I would have seen about going in.  I can go pretty low on blood.  As low as 40%, initial loss, and run at 60% for... a while.  Though I was young and fully healthy, that mighg be pushing things these old ill dog days?

Better.

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For the moment, again.  As when I woke for supper, warm sleep had helped.  Though I woke a time earlier, after supper, in impressive agony.  Which surprised me.  I thought, from feeling so much better, at super, I was getting through to the better side.  Nope.  Each time I wake, it is better or worse, but in the better episodes I begins to fail quickly.  So that taking a few sips of water, tylenol if it is time, then jumping back to sleep to attempt escaping agony, seems the best.

I am surprised either the condition, or the procedure effects, continue to physically or otherwise, plague me so long.  Thankfully, I have the time and way to attempt to sleep it off.

Sleep helped.

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I was in such absolute misery.  I couldn'y get warm.  My feet hurt.  My wound hurt.  My insides felt bloated, bruised, and more.  I would call the sensation closer to absolute misery.  Worse, I couldn't escape it by sleeping.  It was simply too intense.

I got up for something.  This morning?  Time isn't, doesn't quite yet, make sense.  Just got up to get more electrolyte powder, vinegar, water, and tylenol.  Some of which to bring up.  I took four tylenol, but forgot extras.  About cried when I suffered down and up only to realize I had forgotten those.  I was terrified to make another trip any time soon.

Biopsy.

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I've never had one before.  Kidney, left this time.  I wasn't at all sure what to expect.  As well, I am still suffering from... whatever has recently been plaguing me, plus the simple mechanical pains and mobility issues caused by a fractured or broken big toe (or two, both hurt terribly).

Still, this had to get done.  Stall after delay after reset, if it killed me, I was going in.  Today.

Better.

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Probably temporary.  It seems that in early morning, for a while, my symptoms partially lift.  Still something of a stomach ache, minor feverishness, mild aches.  Just nothing crippling.  Mostly.  Still wouldn't be up for a marathon, or even heavy excercise.

Mother made supper.  Something I would easily eat.  A chuck roast in the crockpot.  But she added many vegetables.  No.  I am backing away from those.  I had to think about it.  I may have some meat, just no juices or veggies.  My week to month averages are all three below a hundred, for blood sugar.  My fasting read is 110, oddly.  With nothing but water for a day and a half.  And only one meal for the three days before that.  Meh, probably my metabolism pulling muscle for it's needs.

Still bad.

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A stomach ache, bad one, remains.  The fever too.  I am mostly mamaging the chills.  The dry mouth is difficult, but having water up here helps.  I think I need to bring up doses of electrolytes and vinegar somehow.  Those things help, slightly more than water alone.  Perhaps drinking flat, reverse osmossis water too, rather than carbonated water?

Aches, pains, exhaustion, muscle weakness and pains.  A very difficult time.  I have had worse, but this isn't close to good.

I was able to get up for a bit.  And will do so again, if just to bring Jasmine in, test hydration recipes, and let mom know I am alive.  Well, and show her how to get Jasmine in her cage.  It will be a very short run.

I am in serious trouble.  In some ways it is better, in some ways it is worse.  Later, or goodnight again most likely.

Not... out of the woods.

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Not quite yet.  I think the trees are thinning.  The parh is slightly easier.  But fever remains, muscle cramps... especially the legs, a continued stomach ache if milder, lungs are sore from the fever I think.  Little general aches too.  My joints, currently, aren't hurting though don't know if that is a short reprieve or if that part is better.

I did get up, had food and coffee, gamed, got Jasmine out, drank a lot of water, and am going back to bed.  What was hurting started to hurt more, fever and chills returned with vengeance, and my legs began giving out to cramps and exhaustion from just sitting.  Still, this is better.  Oh, and neck glands started to ache... like a sore throat, but not quite.

On to sleep.  Good night, day, whatnot.

So very sick.

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My usual if irregular illness returned.  In some ways worse, in other ways not as bad.  Usually it is a combined fever and chills, and inability to do almost anything.  This time, while that occurred, it wasn't as cripling.  However, it also came with extreme random joint pain, general aches, plus specific pains at various points on my body, for example the sensation that I had been punched in the stomach enough to leave it aching, directlg hurting.

Usually it lasts a week, more often two weeks, sometimes longer.  This time it seems to be breaking in a few days?  Will know for sure in the morning.  One thing that may have helped is that mother offered a meal.  Something I couldn't have made.  I decided to at least try to eat, and was able to ingest and retain.  One meal, itself, couldn't have done it, but a cleaner house, food, and else, may have added to it.  Living in a sty is a good way to get and stay sick.

A bit rough.

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A kink in the neck.  Difficulty sleeping.  Too many things to do.  Christmas almost upon us.  At least I am ready for Christmas this year.

I have been (trying) to sleep.  Mom isn't helping.  But I don't mind, most of the time.  If I can't wake, I just don't.  She is learning that waking a sleeping dragon, with a dire need for sleep, is not as fun as it might initially appear.

Weak day.

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I could not wake for the life of me.  I did make it down for breakfast.  Barely and just.  Then right back to bed.  Up around, after, 16:00.  A few things for mom, myself, and a few things managed just as I was doing other things.

One thing is, I ordered a year planner book.  Mom uses one, and I am impressesd with how well it works.  She ordered a new one, as hers is aging out.  I ordered myself a large and small one.  Plus I am putting things in the phone.  We'll see.  I needed to get our schedules, so as to make plans for confession.

Resting, sleeping.

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I have been hitting it hard.  The last few days to week.  Gaming when not doing one, or both somehow and the same time, of the other two things listed.  Much needed.  Between moving mom in, moving and clearing what of mine was still in the way, the prepping for improvements, while dealing with pets and mom?

It has been a brutal summer.  All good though.  Even if it ends up killing me, dying for something right has value... even should that defeat the very purpose of the death?  Amen, I say to you.  For we are already dead for our sins.  So dying for what is right, and good, is as good as it gets.

Needed rest, sleep.

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Got some yesterday.  Wanted more today.  The problem was that the leftover siding and trim was out there.  And it is likely to snow tonight.  Or there is a solid chance of it.  I am not certain this stuff, laid out, can handle weather, precip, on it.  

So... I had to figure how to tote, say, fifty thirty to forty pound panels, and some heavy trim pieces, into the garage and store it above.  As well, help mom a bit in the garage so as to, finally, again, back the Xterra in, for the first time this summer.  Can't clear the drive with the auto on it.

A very good dinner.

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The initial plan, not mine, was food at 13:00.  We ate an hour or two later.  As you know, if you know me, time is irrelevant.  Events occur when they do, because of course they do.  Make all the plans you like.  Reality perfits.  Your plans are great, until they aren't.  Which usually means as soon as your plans meet reality, physics, limits, time, and such.  Mother doesn't agree, but that is her problem.  Reallity and myself are happy to just be.

A very good meal.  I would have roasted the bird longer.  Mom decided it was time.  The thermometer agreed with her, even so I would have let it go for another half hour to more like hour.  She ate it, without fuss, but put the remnants back in the oven to finish.  Not terrible, or even raw.  But, medium rare.  I like it that way, on to medium well.  She not so much.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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We finished shopping yesterday.  We had the goose, and most ingredients.  With medical appointments in Ogden, work on the house, exhaustion, and else, getting to the store, for final ingredients, wasn't possible, until it was required.

I'll tell you, I hate shopping the day before a holiday.  Any holiday.  Anywhere.  On the good side, in a mostly white area, at least the worst I face is crowded aisles, slightly reckless folk (though apologetic, usually, in incidents), and some grumpy behavior.  The boons have learned not to ape in these areas, so far.

Almost all of it.

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One window, built to the wrong spec of what was ordered, is being rebuilt.  For now there is just a piece of wood in the space.  It is all ready, the installation should be fast.  They said to give the bath twenty four hours for calking to set, I'd like to give it another day, forty eight hours.  If longer, for me.  With the limit of a fifty gallon tank, not enough hot water to fill the thing to hot.  Maybe not even warm.

Now, rest, and sleep.  I was beginning to screech, physically, under the efforts.  Too little sleep, even rest.  Too much noise, when trying to sleep, constant waking, for questions, and a lot of work.  Before and even between contracted work.  My ears are ringing from the levels of stress and agitation.

Two, and waking up.

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I have been awake since midnight.  Reading, listening, deciding if I should get up or try to sleep a bit more.  Cold.  Not... frigid?  Mostly.  But not able to warm enough to sleep well.  And... feeling good, generally, otherwise.  So might as well get up.

I want to take a shower first thing.  They say they can replace the tub in one day.  Promises, promises.  Then clear out the bathroom... the built-in drawers, but the cabinets too, just to be sure.  As well, clear the room generally.  Other than that, no work today.