It was less than a month ago that Natalie found out that Keith Urban was looking for a woman who could be in his band and sing duets with him on his High and Alive World tour that started in 3 weeks. Within 3 days she flew off for a 3 day rehearsal in an arena. Then she had to sort through all of the complexities of adding this to her commitments with Runaway June and learn all of Keith’s music.
She has 3 shows under her belt now it was amazing to see how she stepped up to this challenge. She KILLED it.
They are touring into October and if you have a chance to go see a show, I highly recommend it https://keithurban.com
We will see our first show on June 26th in Cincinatti for our 2 year anniversary and plan to see them again on September 26th in St. Paul and October 16th in Greenville, SC.
It was “amusing” to look at my last post on May 5. How naive I was – thinking I could outsmart a virus – particularly one that hit Craig so hard. I was still feeling pretty good on May 8th so I went to my personal training session, but did not push it. Later that night, I started feeling awful. My blood oxygenation was running in the low 90s so I went to urgent care on the 12th. A chest Xray did not show pneumonia and I was not running a fever so home I went with an inhaler. Based on previous experiences I knew I was going to need steroids but I had to wait until I could see my doctor on the 21st to get them.
It was a very long 9 days waiting for the steroids. My experience was complicated by the Wegovy. Craig lost his appetite for over a week so I knew that was a part of the virus. The virus plus my “Wegovy” diminished appetite became no appetite with aversion to drinking so I was essentially dehydrated and calorie impaired which contributed to my fatigue and light-headedness.
Today is my last day of steroids and my cough is much better. I have had a much harder time sleeping because of the steroids than I remember from past steroid experiences so I feel energized and sleep deprived at the same time. Now I have to wait and see if the cough will rebound off of the steroids.
I think this was a nonCovid coronavirus as it was reminiscent of my Covid experiences. I think my exaggerated viral syndrome responses are a manifestation of my long Covid (I still minimal taste and smell). While this is very frustrating, I feel fortunate that I know I will fully recover from these experiences.
Craig felt recovered from his cough and head symptoms after 2 weeks but it has taken another 2 weeks to get his stamina back. It was a nasty virus and we have no idea where he picked it up.
Our highest priority now is to be in top condition for our trip to DC for the Veteran’s protest on June 6th.
I was in Nashville last Tuesday night and when I got back Wednesday, Craig sounded awful. He said he had inhaled too much sawdust and would be fine. Shortly thereafter he started coughing and he was NOT fine. He lost his appetite and has had terrible fatigue but no gastrointestinal symptoms. He never had more than a low grade temperature but he got knocked down HARD. While I was busy treating his cough and congestion (with a few days of antibiotics that likely made no difference) I tried to keep myself from getting infected and potentially spreading it others. I worked out with my trainer on Thursday and when to the Veterans rally on Friday. Since then I have been home using Zicam nasal swabs, zinc tablets and hoping for the best. We isolated from each other the best we could. On Sunday I started getting a bit congested and had a bit of a productive cough by Monday. I was able to sleep a lot more than normal. I never felt truly bad and if it hadn’t been for what Craig was going through, I might not have paid much attention to the symptoms or tried as hard to get plenty of rest. For 3 days my daily assessment has been that I am not worse which was good.
Today I woke up feeling better. I then took a nap and am still in bed. Craig has been up for several hours but is now napping as well. He did say today he thought he was better as well as opposed to “not worse”.
Tomorrow I am going to work out with my trainer and get on with my life. Two weeks ago I offered to host the Robertson County Democratic Executive Committee (20 -25 people) for a social, team building event on June 1. While I do think our space will work well for this type of event, my secondary motive was to have a deadline to get A LOT of things done indoors and outdoors. Losing 7- 10 days to a virus was not on my plan.
No matter, we will get done what we can get done and host a lovely event. Fingers crossed that we do NOT have a heavy rain the day or two before that washes out our driveway.
Our dear friend Jack who was living with advanced heart failure died peacefully last weekend. Jack was the kindest, most supportive and creative human being. He will be missed by and live on through so many family and friends. One of my Covid projects was to use up 3 garbage bags of the yarn I moved from DC. I have been accumulating the yarn over the decades and decided to make lap blankets which were most amenable to the sometimes small amounts of certain colors of yarn that I had. I was determined to use it all. Most of what I have made over the years is baby blankets so the colors were generally not very manly. However as I was creating one that had darker bold colors, I knew immediately I was making it for Jack.
I gave it to him in 2022 and it was his constant companion over the past 3 years as his mobility was increasingly limited because of the hear failure. It was on his lap as he celebrated his last birthday on April 15th. His daughter Sally wrote the most fitting obituary for her father a true officer and gentle man. https://www.sandersfuneralandcremation.com/listings
Knowing something I made provided so much comfort to someone else is such a gift. Thank you Jack.
I have had one week at the 1 mg dose and while I have not noticed any increase in the side effects, I did lose nearly 3 pounds this week which makes it a total of almost 10 pounds so far. My energy is good and my strength training is no different even though I am consuming a lot less food. Maybe there is more muscle under the fat than I realize.
While I saw a new article about microdosing with the GLP-1 agonists for improved cognition, I have had things happen while I was on Wegovy that have me a bit concerned. The first was the “Did you turn the switch on” incident that I previously blogged about. The second is about this appliance which I use a couple of times a week.
Last week while in the middle of doing several things I decided to make more herbal tea. I kept trying to open the lid by pushing the “button” on the lid near the pouring spout. The button did not push so I thought it was stuck. I got frustrated and set it aside to come back to later. Later, it did not work and I got out a knife to see if I could get the button to work. It did not help. I thought about prying the lid open but stopped short and set it aside to ask Craig about it. When I explained the problem, he simply pushed the button on the handle and the lid opened. This was clearly a short circuit in my brain of some sort. Even though I had used that handle button multiple times before, I did not even see it in my focus on the “fake button” in the lid which is not even an actual button. This may have nothing to do with the Wegovy. I have not noticed any other cognitive challenges but I will keep track.
Craig really got hit with URI this week that kept us from the May 1 and May 3 protests. I did attend a TN Democratic Party (TNDP) Town Hall for Veterans at the VA facility in Murfreesboro, TN about 20 miles SE of Nashville on Friday morning. I randomly found the “flyer” on Facebook and Craig really prepared for the event by reading the Project 2025 section on the VA. He was not in any shape to go so I went. It was a lovely day for a drive. We had thought that an event organized at the state level would have a bigger reach and thus more attendance which was not the case.
The flyer said Town Hall and Main Entrance of Murfreesboro VA. I drove in through the main entrance of the campus, parked and went in to the main entrance of the hospital. There was no event inside the main lobby and the information desk attendant only knew that people were asking where it was and she did not know. She said it might be at another property up the road a bit. I ran into two other people on the steps as I was coming out who were also looking for it.
It turns out the event was what I would call a rally at the main outside entrance to the campus which I drove through 15 minutes before start time and did not notice any activity. The organizer said she set the table up at 915 and perhaps a table was there, but there were no people or signage when I drove by at945. Because Town Hall implied something indoors to me, whatever was there did not register any potential significance.
This was the event. As with the event in Clarksville last week, there were more organizers than veterans. The TNDP just formed a Veterans Caucus led by a new TNDP Executive Committee member. This was the first event she had ever organized. She was pleased with the turnout and my expectations were obviously way out of line. I sent her a f/u email and offered to help her with her future efforts. Accuracy and clarity in flyers is important.
It is unclear if Veterans are not interested in being activated or if they are not spending enough time on line trying to find events to participate in. I think much is the latter.
I decided to starting posting on Facebook again about my activism endeavors so there is a place that those that I am meeting at these events can “find me”.
While I have been easily infected with viruses in the past few years, this is the second one Craig has had that I seem to have missed. I didn’t go to the Nashville protest yesterday because it was raining and I didn’t want to take any chances by lower my resistance in any way. He has been miserable.
While we had planned to go to Franklin KY today for their May Day protest, Craig has a bad cough and was up most of the night so we did not go. My Social Security phone appointment was supposed to be 2 PM so I set my alarm for 145 so I could be ready. At 1245, I got a call from a 1800 number and I wondered if it might be Social Security because most scam callers have 877 and 888 numbers now so I decided to answer it.
It was Social Security and the representative said she was running ahead of schedule. I had to go upstairs to get my computer to sign in while I was explaining the problem. I managed to mess up my sign in and got “locked out”. She went on to ask me a bunch of questions – not the entire application but key questions. After about 20 minutes she said application was complete and filed and I would be getting a hard copy in the mail to make sure it was correct.
She was able to give me my online access back and I was able to sign in.
After my recent experience, this was pretty easy. If the call had not been early and I had been focused on signing in, it would have been even easier. If we had gone to the protest, I would not have been home so it all worked out nicely.
We were excited when we saw this posted on the Mobilize Us website. After attending the “round table” we are still mystified by the seeming lack of veteran presence there and at the two protests we have attended so far. I learned on a recent podcast that 60% of veterans supported Trump and 40% did not. Why are these individuals who swore an oath to defend the Constitution still on the side-lines? If one actually takes the time to read the section concerning the Veterans Administration in Trump’s “Project 2025”, there is no mystery as to what the ultimate intentions of this president are for the VA: elimination and privatization. His priorities are certainly NOT the welfare of the American veteran–nor, for that matter, do they appear to be the welfare of the majority of the American people.
Clarksville is about an hour NW of us. Craig was stationed at Ft. Campbell right outside of Clarksville in the mid-70’s. There are many veterans in that community so we thought we would find a sizable group gathering for this event. When we arrived there were more organizers than veterans. It was hosted by Tennessee for All with participation of the AFGE (American Federation of Government Employees), IRVA (Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America) and a member of the Nashville Metro Council Veterans Caucus. The organizers seemed undaunted by the low participation and everyone went through their talking points. Then we got to the open discussion. There was a very vocal Afghan vet who had done 4 tours and was very connected to the local vet community. He was on disability because of lung damage from burn pits and PTSD. He puts himself out there as an “informal” suicide prevention volunteer – sharing his personal phone number with vets he thinks are at risk. He said that many of the vets like to socialize at the gaming table establishments. I had to ask what that was. Apparently there are places that veterans gather to play all sorts of games (dice and board games) to pass the time. For the organizers, connection with this vet that knowledge of where the vets gather was worth all of the chicken fingers.
An older couple that who were not veterans had driven an hour to attend the event because of their personal concern for the VA and Veterans Services. The woman was looking for ammunition to use with her community that did not share their concern. Specifically, her son’s opinion was “if things are so bad for the vets, why are they not out protesting?”.
The organizers learned that there is a community that wants to protest and there is an avenue of getting to and activating a larger group of veterans. Craig met with the leader of the local chapter of the IAVA who is also affiliated with the local and national American Legion and VFW. He asked Craig if he would be open to writing an OP Ed and perhaps doing some public speaking. Craig said YES to both.
So while we were disappointed about the turnout of vets at this event, we are hopeful that the organizers will keep moving ahead to organize a protest in Clarksville that will draw a sizable and growing group of veterans and a community of concerned people.
Craig and I are going to DC for the June 6th rally Unite for Veterans, Unite for Americans event.
We drive north 20 miles to Franklin KY for excellent massages. Nancy, our massage therapist is a very active member of the community of 9,000 people. She is first rate promoter of their community events. One of our early dates was to see a production of Steel Magnolias – the musical in a small dinner theater. The Arts Council of Franklin KY puts on at least 3 productions per year. Their downtown square is vibrant.
Nancy founded the R.E.A.C.H organization Racial Equality through Action & Community Help several years ago. The first project chosen was to build a multi-use park and walking trail on undeveloped park land – something the entire community could get behind. They are finally through the underground ‘infrastructure” part of the process and will be breaking ground very soon.
One of their main fundraisers has been a lip sync contest. We decided to attend last night for our 22 month anniversary. Nancy told each of us about the event during our last massage and texted us the flyer immediately after. We arrived about 10 minutes before start time and ended up in the second row – the community showed up.
There were 3 judges in a “roped off” area right below the stage. This was a serious production that was well-executed. The youngest contestants were 10 y/o and the oldest were many decades older. The performers “acted” their roles. The Guns’ and Roses group “sang” Sweet Child ‘O Mine. They were in the 12 and under category. Craig assured me he was that tall when he was 12.
The Master of Ceremony was the school superintendent and during the show he announced that the Girls Bass Fishing Team had qualified for the state competition. Who knew?
When I got to Tools yesterday morning, I heard that my wood working mentor Harry had fallen and broken his pelvis and was in a Skilled Nursing Facility. Harry must be 93 now so I was quite concerned. I had brought in a loaf of banana bread for him as he usually comes in for the group lunches. I was worried. I texted him and after a couple of hours I heard back from him that he wanted to see me with the banana bread. When I got there this is how he looked. I was sooooo relieved. The fracture was not a severe one in that it was not displaced so no surgery was required. He was having minimal pain and was almost stable enough with his walker to go back to his apartment. While Harry does not make the drive through rush hour traffic to work in Fine Furniture at Tools very often anymore, his spirit is always over my shoulder adjusting my technique.
Tamara Unleashed 