Yesterday turned out to be a lot better than the day before. The day before I was feeling pretty frustrated, hopeless and just totally defeated when it comes to my meds. My biggest fear is that I’ve been hit with a disease in which there is no medication I can tolerate in order to treat it. That means I’m finally going to have to make a very big decision. I’m going to have to either seek an alternative if there is one out there for me, treat it partially, or stop treatment altogether. Sometimes I just feel very overwhelmed, but that’s for another entry.

For now, we bombed the place yesterday and went to Denny’s. The music was blasting, as usual, but the customers were civilized save for the blacks who had to make a show of themselves by blasting their car stereo for a few minutes in the parking lot before entering the restaurant. The food was good but not great. He got an omelet and I got my last cholesterol-filled meal with a T-bone, fries and rice pilaf.

After that, we drove around for a while until Walmart opened. As I headed toward the back of the store, while Tom was still checking something out toward the front, there it was. I practically squealed with delight! When I spotted Tom, I excitedly waved him toward me with a big happy grin as I jumped up and down like a kid on Christmas. Then as he got closer I pointed to the beautiful cruiser bike for $89. It’s absolutely gorgeous! It’s got 24” wheels which has a rider height of 4’ 6” to 5’ 6”, so that’s more appropriate for me. I had a 26” in Oregon and it was scary fast. My old pink and purple Quasar was very hard to control when going downhill because it wanted to run at breakneck speed and was way too big for me. However, I never could get used to the 20” Stowaways we got after my blue cruiser was stolen. I felt safer on them but smaller wheels leave you a bit underpowered and the fucking gears kept slipping and then there was this thing sticking out that sort of poked the back of my foot on one side and I just never liked it.

The only negative to cruisers is that they’re better suited for flat terrain. These hills can be both treacherous and dangerous so you have to be careful and in good shape. My old cruiser was a La Jolla. This one is a Huffy. Its frame is lavender and it has purple splatter guards, and its inner wheels are hot pink. The pedals and handlebars are pink and purple. The seat and chain guard are white with magenta, teal and white dahlias. There are also a few flower decals scattered around the frame and splatter guards. It’s truly beautiful and totally me. The woman discounted it down to $75 because the seat was a little dirty and the very back of the back splatter guard had a little scuff mark on it.

We strapped it in the trunk and drove very slowly home, glad we didn’t live far. When I took it for its maiden ride around the circle I thought, uh-oh, something’s wrong. It was a major struggle to ride! I even struggled going downhill. But then when Tom hooked up the air pump it said it had only 6 pounds of pressure in the tires when it’s supposed to have 40. So he blew up the tires and then I made a swift round around the circle which you should be able to do in 60 seconds or less, and I did. It was just like old times on my old cruiser!

This one doesn’t have a basket but I’m getting a pink wire one, colorful LED lights for the wheels, plus a tie-dye helmet that’s a kids’ helmet but that will still fit since I’m small. LOL, maybe I’ll go out and get one of those pink sparkly kickstands at some point.

Right now the bike is sitting in the laundry room. I could get a new lock for it and keep it outside but then the sun will fade the designs, the accessories could be stolen, and the spiders will take over it. Because it’s a pain to get in and out the door and I can’t reach the thing that props the screen open, we’re getting a new hydraulic arm to put in the center of it where I can reach it. This one doesn’t work properly anyway. It’s supposed to keep the door from slamming or staying open. Well, it doesn’t slam, but it doesn’t close all the way like the front one either.

The two rounds around the circle that I made really sucked the juice out of me and made me realize just how out of shape I’m getting. I’ve felt weak, tired and lightheaded and it’s getting old. I’ve been slacking off and working out for 10-20 minutes when it really should be 45-60 minutes like I used to. Certainly no less than 30 minutes. I need to start mixing it up again too, and do a variety of exercises. If you just walk or you just ride a bike, that’s better than nothing, but it really is best to work different parts of the body in different ways. This way I won’t have to worry about feeling weak, out of breath, or tired when we go to Hawaii and want to do things that are physical. We typically do adventure vacations, not relaxation ones. We’re usually on the go doing something practically from the minute we wake up until the minute we go to bed. I want to be in shape for that and so does he, so he’s working out more too. He’s been doing exercise videos. We love Fitness Blender.

We got a huge projector screen to use in the living room in light of all the rearranging we’re doing. He set up his new office and it looks a little weird but is more efficient for what he wants to use it for.

I was thinking that instead of mounting my 32” monitor to the bedroom wall I would just play set on the small desk that I used in the trailer. Then I might get the even smaller desk he just got that’s on wheels to place in front of it. It too, may look a little strange, but I don’t care. Comfort is what I care about, and it’s usually quieter in the bedroom than in the living room. Traffic can be insane no matter what room you’re in, but you hear landscaping and other sounds better in the living room because of all the big windows.

I swear, though, I’m going to quit running from noise in the next place and just accept that life has gotten noisy in most places, and just set the place up however I would normally set it up if I were stone deaf like I sometimes wish I was.

Tom thinks he might have an infection in his ear. He regained some hearing but then lost it again. He will be calling his doctor today to see if we can both get in with him. I just don’t think I’m going to get anywhere with mine, and still think some of what I feel is connected to my meds.

I wonder if it’s his tooth. He has a phobia of dentists as I do with medication so he doesn’t keep up on his teeth. I tease him about eventually needing dentures but I’m afraid I might be right someday. He’s already lost like half a dozen teeth. He once had beautiful bright white teeth but now they’re stained and yellowed from age and lack of care.

So after I set up my office in the bedroom I’ll move the treadmill back into the living room and get a purple five-foot bean bag to put the doll on in the bedroom. Plus I’ll put some of the fake palm trees in the bedroom as well.

We decided that rather than break down my desk along with his, we’ll just leave it in the corner of the living room. It’s not only a nice desk that’s in good condition that maybe the next people could use, but it’s a monster of a desk. His is smaller, older and flimsier so it was easier to break down. This one would be tougher to take apart. It sure wasn’t easy to put together.

Between him not feeling well and the excitement of getting the bike which neither of us expected, we didn’t get to the chandelier yet. We didn’t do a lot of things we wanted to do this weekend but oh well. They can wait.

We went to Walgreens before we went to eat and to Walmart. I got a couple of large bath bombs. One is brown sugar and fig and the other is black tea and rooibos. I used the black tea one earlier and it made the bath water look like I was bathing in black ink.

Now 2 out of the 5 lights on the master bathroom’s vanity have blown out. These bulbs should pretty much outlive us so I’m thinking the fixture is old and defective. Hey, it’s 35 years old. Maybe it’s time to upgrade the vanity in there.

I also got this really cool coloring book that only has six pages to color but they’re thick cardboard with velvet backgrounds and patterns that appear when you use the markers to color them in with. Things like hearts, Chevrons, smileys and stars. It’s kind of cool. It’s different. I had my choice of butterflies and Barbie ballerinas and I got the butterflies. It only came with like six markers.

I also got coffee nut peanut M&Ms and he got a few things as well.

Duolingo is offering to pay $500 for every story they use if you write one they like for their “Stories,” a way to learn language through conversational dialogue. They want between 150-250 words and it has to be a narrative with a solution. It can be adventure, romance, travel, etc. I think I’ll write one and we’ll see what happens.

The only dream I remember was walking down a street and seeing this big black woman disappear between the driver’s side of the car and whatever was at the edge of the road which I think was just a wooded area or a hill or something like that. I then realized I would have been able to see her had she gotten into the car or if she walked off in any direction. The fact that she disappeared between the other side of the car and whatever was behind it made me hesitant to pass by and afraid she might be crouched and ready to pounce on me as I walked by.