Doctor, Doctor....

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow. For almost 3 weeks now I have been experiencing tenderness and somewhat painful feelings in my left lower neck region. It started during the middle of Cheeseburger week in Caseville. I noticed that when I drank water it felt funny on the left side of my neck. I thought maybe I just slept on it wrong. After a week it was getting more pronounced and I thought I must have a swollen lymph gland or something. But the left side felt the same as the right to my touch. I didn't really feel any difference or swelling. Then about a week ago, I realized that the pain was coming from further down my neck...more where my thyroid gland is. The pain is mild but there and it is now extending up towards my jaw and side of my face just under my ear. I have been feeling a bit headachy, especially around my eyes, kind of like sinus pressure. And I have been so damn tired all the time.

I don't want to diagnose myself but I am guessing that it's 'thyroiditis'. I am reading about it online and it describes everything I have.

1. Painful, with pain extending to the jaw or ears.
2. slow pulse rate (fewer than 60 beats per minute)
3. swelling around the eyes.
4. feeling tired and unenergetic.

At least those are the symptons I have....some I don't have.

My pulse rate has been low...in the 50's. Sometimes when my friend in Caseville and I go to Walmart, etc., we use one of those blood pressure machines and her pulse rate is high like over 100 and mine is always like 51 or 54. She laughs at how low my pulse is. Even when I take my blood pressure at home, my pulse has been in the 50's.

And I've been blaming allergies all summer for my eyes being swelled when I've been in Caseville to my neighbor.

I don't feel any enlargement....no lump or anything....just tenderness and mild pain. The website recommends aspirin or ibuprofen and when I take that it eases up quite a bit, but if I don't take anything, the discomfort comes back. I was hoping it would just go away, but after almost 3 weeks hubby said I better get to a doctor. So I'm going tomorrow and we'll see what he says.

I'll keep you all informed....

Movies and Sales

So last night there was absolutely NOTHING on TV worth watching, so I went to Hollywood Video and bought 5 movies. We watched "We Own The Night" with Robert Duvall, Mark Wahlberg, and Joaquin Phoenix. Duvall is a police chief and his son, Wahlberg, is a cop. His other son, Phoenix, has no interest and would rather be a nightclub manager for these drug guys. But he ends up taking down the drug guys and he becomes a cop in the end. It's a pretty good movie. Tonight I think we're going to watch "Rendition" where some guy disappears on a plane and the CIA is involved. I also bought "Shine the Light", a Stones concert movie; and "Sweeney Todd" with Johnny Depp that I've been dying to see and wanted to wait until I bought the movie. I already have the broadway play version of Sweeney Todd with Patti LaPune and Patrick Neil Harris and I've watched it at least 3 or 4 times. So I'm hoping that the Depp version is just as good. And I got another movie with George Clooney that takes place in Nazi Germany back in the '40s, a period movie. I always wait until the movies are available at 'previously viewed' prices...so I bought all 5 for $22.50!

Today I went to an estate sale and a church garage sale and bought a few things. I am really really trying not to buy crap I don't need but I just can't resist these type of sales...! At the estate sale I bought a Big Boy bank for $1.50, which was a good deal. When I was in Caseville, I went to Big Boys for lunch and was looking at their merchandise for sale and asked about the bank. Then I went to the Flea Market in Port Austin and a dealer had one but with no price so I passed. So when I saw it at the Estate Sale today, I just knew that it was meant for me to buy the damn, useless thing!!!! So I bought it....

(He's sitting on my computer desk right now chuckling at me....)

Yesterday I did some Time-Travelin'

So yesterday I went to the show and saw "The Time Traveler's Wife". I love those type of movies. I liked the movie but it was a bit confusing for me. Sometimes he'd be in the present and his future self would also be there. Sometimes he had dark hair and sometimes he had gray in his hair. One scene she loses the baby and the next scene they are talking to a doctor and saying she is 10 weeks along and they want to be sure that the baby is okay. It's definitely one of those movies you need to buy on DVD so you can stop and rewind scenes to figure it out. He even goes forward into the future and meets his daughter who isn't even born yet....and even after he's........well, you'll have to see the movie!
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My high school class reunion is next month and a classmate and I are on the door prize committee so today I'm taking what I have to her house and see what all we have and put it together. Should be fun. We aren't getting a big turnout this reunion but I'm hoping we get at least 50 classmates. I'm also putting together a photo memorial for all the classmates who have passed away. We have lost 30 that we know of. Anyway, I got that done a few days ago. So now we just have to finish the door prizes.
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Yesterday the tub reglazer guy came to the house to repair a few spots on our tub. He did a really shabby job and has been here twice making repairs. So far it looks good.
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So why is my electric bill for my house $48 and the bill for my cottage is $68?? I would think my house would run more than my cottage. I called DTE and they are having a guy check our meter today. Maybe it's the well pump that is costing so much. But I'm running a washer and dryer here and a computer! Who knows....

That's about it....

Did some Star-Trekkin' today...

At the Detroit Science Center they have been having a Star Trek Exhibition there all summer and it ends on Sept 7. So today I finally got down there to see it. I would have loved to have seen it with my oldest son who is a big ST fan, but when he came to Michigan the end of July for a week to visit friends, he never bothered to call or even come see us....so today I went by myself. It was a really fantastic exhibition! I was there for over 2 hours. They had memorabilia and re-creations of sets from the Star Trek films and TV series. They had everything from all the different costumes, to the various ship models, to a set design of the Original Series Bridge and I even sat in the captain's chair. The hallway was designed like the real hallway of the ship and there was a set display of Capt. Picards living quarters. And, of course, the transporter room.....and I stood on it and I could see myself on this TV screen and then the ST worker there "energized" me and I could see myself disappear and then reappear again.....kind of scary....haha. There were tons of plaques on the walls with various information that you had to read, but it was all very interesting and it tied in Star Trek with real NASA stuff of today. The last display was where they go from the very beginning of the timeline from Captain Archer (2151) to Capt. Kirk (2254) to Captain Picard (2364)to Capt. Sisko (2369)to Capt. Janeway (2371) and intermingling with all 11 movies ending with the current Star Trek movie. And now I read that they are going to make another ST movie with Scott Bakula, Patrick Stewart and William Shatner....COOL!!

I also read that the exhibition will next be in San Jose Oct. 23....I'm glad I found the time to see it. It was well worth the money.

Finally back home!

I survived another "Cheeseburger in Caseville"! The town was crazy with people and cars for 10 days. Hubby came up by the first Friday and we went to the concert in the park and saw Marty Viers and the Music Doctors. They play every year and they are very good. They play more rock type songs like Mustang Sally, etc. And they really rocked with that Kid Rock song "All Summer Long". We sat down by the band and where the dancing is and we danced our buns off.

Saturday it rained all freakin' day.

We went to the kid's parade and they had dancing in the street the following Monday.

Wednesday was the big town parade and it was nutso. They estimated that there were around 70,000 people there!! Everybody always puts their chairs up way in advance of the parade...like the day before. Tuesday I had driven through town at 10:00 in the morning and chairs were already lined up all along the parade route. By 6:00 that evening, hubby and I put our chairs in place at the village park. The parade wasn't until 6:00 the next evening and our chairs were still sitting there right where we put them. Ya sure couldn't do that here in the Detroit area! Your chairs would be gone for sure...

Parking is a bit of a problem to say the least. We got there a couple hours before it started and got lucky that we were able to find a spot within decent walking distance from our chairs.

My son and his girlfriend, her daugher, and a cousin of her daugters came up in time for the parade. The parade lasted over 2 hours!

We spent a lot of the time on the beach riding the jet ski. I rode it once. It still scares me. Once when we were sitting on the beach, 3 guys came down and one of them plunked his young ass down on our beach chair and started talking to us. He was guessing how old we were. He guessed me at 37....HARDY-HAR-HAR!!...LOLOLOL....He was drinking obviously. Said he was 21 which I had doubts about but he had a beer so maybe he was. Then my son came over and I introduced him as my son and explained that Noelle was his girlfriend....so he got up and went back to his friends. Sorry to disappoint ya bub...

Next door to my condo there were 4 women renting. They said that it was the first time they have ever been to Caseville, but one of them looked real familiar to me. Turns out she works at my bank and is the teller I usually go to inside the bank....small world!

The last Saturday we all went to the concert in the park. After we got back home, my son comes in the cottage with my nephew. Turns out he drove up but got lost and didn't get there until later and didn't know where to find us at the concert so he bummed around in town til it was over. That was a surprise. He stayed with us at the cottage and then hung out at the beach Sunday. Sunday was the classic car show so hubby and I went to that.

Then it was the end of Cheeseburger this year.

Hubby left for home on Wednesday and I stayed through the weekend so I could visit with my godson and his new wife. They came Sunday. We went out to eat...then back to the cottage where he showed me all his wedding pictures on his laptop. They ended up getting rained out for the park wedding. So someone they knew had a big pole barn type thing so they had it there instead. It was so good to see them again. I am so happy that his life has turned out so well.

I'll be around here for a week or so....then back to the cottage for Labor Day weekend. Can't believe summer is nearly over.....WHAT SUMMER??

A new looking Kitchen....

Today I had my new kitchen cabinet doors and drawer fronts installed and they look really nice. It makes my kitchen look so much nicer. My old doors were so trashed and now I have nice new ones. One of the doors was measured incorrectly though so it has to be reordered and installed later....but that's no big deal.

Well, I'm all packed and ready to leave for Caseville again tomorrow. The Cheeseburger Festival starts Friday for 10 days. I'll get up there and get my yard work done before the weekend. Hubby will drive up in a couple days. My youngest son and his girlfriend will drive up by Wednesday in time for the parade.

The Cheeseburger Festival is a take-off of Jimmy Buffett's song, "Cheeseburger in Paradise" and Jimmy himself is going to be in the area playing at the DTE next Thursday night, so everybody is kinda hoping that maybe he'll stop into Caseville and check things out during the last weekend hoopla. Wow...wouldn't that be something if he made a surprise appearance either Fri or Sat onstage at the concert in the park. He knows the band "Air Margaritaville" because they play his songs and they play in Caseville during the festival so I'm sure he knows about us. Well, we can only hope. I'll be checking out the crowd. They have a Jimmy Buffett lookalike contest going on so maybe he'll just try and blend in!

I'll stay in Caseville an extra week after the Festival because my godson and his new wife are coming to the thumb area to visit his folks, so we'll get together then. He and his fiance are getting married Aug. 15 and then making a trip back to MI to see family and then down to Indiana to her family. It'll be nice seeing them again. I wish I could go to the wedding, but besides it being during Cheeseburger week, it's also in Wyoming. They are having a park wedding and it sounds really nice.

Okay....I'm off to bed...

Funerals and Hangovers

I was re-reading the paper from yesterday this morning (cause they don't deliver on Saturday so I re-read Friday's paper) and saw an obit that I must have looked at yesterday but scanned again today and this name caught my eye. It was my mother's neighbor from her house that I sold. They were the neighbors that helped me with my mom. They had a key to her house. Jim is the one that called me when she locked herself out of her house. There was his name...."James Gorke...husband of Lillian". It was 9:30 this morning. The funeral was at 1:00. I had an appointment at noon. I called and cancelled the appointment. I got ready and went to the funeral home.

Lil was so surprised to see me. I was there for over an hour. She and Jim use to vacation in Port Austin in the area of our place in Caseville. She and Jim use to vacation there all their lives with their children...a couple weeks a year. They were there a couple years ago. Now he is dead. He got diagnosed with prostate cancer 4 months ago. And now he's dead. He was only 77.
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Tonight I figured hubby would be watching the Tigers on TV so I decided to go to the theater and see a movie. For some really odd reason (cause he hasn't gone to a movie house with me for over 10 years!), he said he wanted to go with me to see "The Hangover".

OMG...THIS IS A REALLY FUNNY MOVIE!! OMG...I would go see it again!! That is why this movie is making so much money.....cause everybody is seeing it more than once. Hubby loved it....he and I laughed so much during it.

We had another Saturday night DATE NIGHT!!....

That's why I am so blessed that I have a hubby who still takes me out to a movie ....

and not in a casket