Category: Bow Ties

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A Day At The Hospital. Again.

I tried to play my cards right. I figured a king card Bow Tie o’ the Day might be enough to win the Battle o’ My Pancreas. I spent yesterday having a follow-up ERCP procedure to see if the lithotripsy had pulverized the pancreatic boulder currently blocking my pancreatic duct. It was clear that the lithotripsy had failed to break the calcified thing. The ERCP doc attempted once again to remove it with the scope-claw gadget, but couldn’t even get close to it. What’s left of my Hanky Panky after my Whipple surgery three years ago is highly unusual, to say the least. Its duct is apparently impossible to navigate with even an endoscope.

Surgery is likely the only option I have left. I predicted at the outset—way back in February—that it would most likely turn out this way, but we had to try the least disruptive options first. Well, here we are. And I ain’t happy about it. Not one bit.

My Hanky Panky surgeon retired last week, so I have to set up an appointment to meet the surgeon he handed me over to. Perhaps she will have other options for me. I hope so, but I doubt it. I’ve seen enough doctors in my day to be able to read between the lines of what they actually say with their words, and through this whole process, what they’ve been saying is “You’re probably gonna need surgery.”

What can I say? I’m a rather healthy 57, other than having a Cranky Hanky Panky. I really can’t complain. I’m getting older. It’s just life. Stuff happens, and then you deal with it the best way you can. Might as well make people smile by wearing a novelty Bow Tie o’ the Day to your ERCP—and everywhere else you go. It works for me.

I wasn’t the only thing being worked on in Endoscopy.
My trusty sidekick took the day off work to chauffeur me, so I didn’t drive after anesthesia.
Surgery is probably the only option left. I ain’t happy about it.
I wish we were leaving the Hospitals On The Hill for the last time.
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Day #7 With My Madras Shorts

I must confess something: One of the bigly pandemic changes I like is virtual church. I hope that’s a change that’s permanent. I never have to miss a Sunday. I can wear my Church Bow Tie o’ the Sabbath right there on my couch.

When attending church in person, I normally have to do a lot of toning down my attire—in order to not distract worshippers from the services. When I watch the services on my laptop, I don’t have to hold back my clothing choices at all. However, even though nobody’s around to see me watch church, I do believe in gussying up for the virtual event. One must make it special in some way. One must set the mood. Mom always wears earrings to just about any event, so I wear earrings to virtual church—with a cadre of lapel pins, pocket squares, and cufflinks. (Note: I’m wearing my CTR lapel pin here.)

As for my madras shorts, I won’t be wearing them soon. They are fun, but I’m tired of looking at them. I will wash them, fold them, and put them on the very bottom of my shorts stack. I cannot stand to wear the same exact outfit more than once a year, if ever. This last week has been difficult for me, because of that. Nevertheless, I survived, and I am a better woman for it.

BTW Skitter’s wearing her music tie because she likes to howl along with the virtual hymns.

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Day #6 In My Madras Shorts: A Tyvek Suit

I’m glad the pandemic panic is slowly winding down. I’m gladdest to know that if the dang thing lingers and powers back up, I can simply slip into my Tyvek suit and pull on my madras shorts—adding a Tie o’ the Day, of course. While being safe, I can still be as stylin’ as ever.

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Day #5 In My Madras Shorts

Bat signal Bow Tie o’ the Day seemed an appropriate piece of neckwear to be the cherry on top of my Superman tank and my Suzanne-made harlequin cape—along with my madras shorts. My cow Sloggers boots are deceptively fast. Even as an old broad, I can run fast enough in them to cause my cape to fly. If you put together a truly fantastic outfit, you’ll be amazed at the powers you can utilize. I learned this fact one morning when I was 12, when I woke up late for softball practice. Practice was at 8, and I woke up at 8:07. I scurried to get dressed and grab my mitt. On the way out of the front door, I was putting an old, broken set of spurs on my tennis shoes—just for the style of it. Spurs on, I jumped on my bike with all my fashion superpowers, pedaling so fast to the softball field that I was able to get there at 7:59. I kid you not.

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Pa’s Day

Father’s Day without being able to plant a kiss on Dad’s bald head is still a tough day every year. Fortunately, I am blessed with an incredible pa-in-law who is always up for a hug. We celebrated him yesterday with a combo Father’s Day/Birthday party. Suzanne’s family knows how to put together mega amounts of yummy eats for family shindigs. They are easy people to be with and welcomed me into their family from the minute I showed up in their lives over thirty years ago. Merry Pa’s Day, Steven. You are a beloved soul.

FYI Suzanne’s dapper Dad is the one in the blue Hawaiian shirt in both pix. In the first picture, I am with my best buddy, Liam, who enjoyed posing with me and Bow Tie o’ the Day for pix. He also took me on a tour of every room of his house—three times.

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Just Practicing Faces

Peace sign Bow Tie o’ the Day and I are just sitting around being peaceful on this Friday afternoon in June, contemplating the infinite possibilities the upcoming weekend holds for us here in the House O’ Ties And Fabric. That’s all. That is absolutely all we are doing this afternoon.

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The Examined Life

This canine Bow Tie o’ the Day is somewhere in my Top 25 all-time fave bow ties in my collection. I like everything about it: its jumbo size, its plaid, its mutts, and its combo o’ colors. It’s perfectly snappy.

While I was in the waiting room at my hearing doctor this morning, something got me thinking about my life—in terms of my bigly little contributions to civilization. It’s a mentally healthy thing to do, to periodically navel-gaze—to critically assess where you are and what you are. It’s a way to sort of give yourself a grade. Am I getting an “A” at being true to who I am? Am I passing the course called Good Character? Does what I do, and how I behave, represent what I say I value and believe? Can I do more for others? Can I be more for others? What legacy—if any—would I leave behind if I were to die today? Has my life made a positive difference to anyone? Am I at peace with what I have done with my existence? You know those kinds of questions. There are a million of them.

We answer those existential questions about ourselves with varying levels of satisfaction at different times in our lives. If we’re honest with ourselves, sometimes the answers to those questions are painfully humbling. We fall short. It’s especially at those times that it is wise to re-chart our course. We have to take responsibility for letting ourselves down with our heretofore unproductive choices, and we must vow to do so much better at living our own true soul out loud. In short, we have to change. Again and again, ad infinitum. It begins with forgiving ourselves for being the imperfect human beings we all are.

Cut yourself some slack, y’all. Give yourself a bear hug and carry on.

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Half My Hearing Is Still Lost

It’s been two weeks since my left hearing aid disappeared. I’ve emptied the ShopVac and searched its contents twice. I have searched nooks and crannies I never even knew existed in this house before now, but to no avail. My left ear is still empty. I now hear lopsided.

Tomorrow, I have a previously scheduled appointment with my hearing doctor. I’ve been contemplating giving up the search and giving in to buy a new left hearing aid. I think it’s time. If I haven’t run across the device after two weeks of living my usual life, in all my usual places, I doubt I’m going to one day just happen upon it in one of my pockets or something.

When I first realized my hearing aid was probably truly lost, I thought I could probably just buck up and go without replacing it. To my amazement, I have found that when sitting two feet to the right of Suzanne on the love seat, I see her lips move but can’t hear a thing above a mumble of a mumble. If I’m not looking at her directly when she talks from my left side, I don’t detect she’s talking to me. I cannot imagine what juicy tidbits of information I’ve missed out on in the past two weeks, but I’m certain I’ve probably missed out on numerous to-do items she’s assigned me. Now that I think about it, I suppose that’s the bigly argument for why I shouldn’t replace my left hearing aid. 🙀

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Donate, Donate, Donate

It was that time of year again—time for the Davis Education Foundation’s Gala, with its accompanying silent auction. This year we were treated to dinner and a screening of the movie, A Quiet Place II. This annual event is better known in our house as The Night We Spend Too Much Money On Acquiring Too Many Completely Unnecessary Things. My excuse for bidding with a vengeance is always the same: It’s for a good cause. I then spend the next year making a gallant effort to use at least some of the items I brought home from the event, so I can feel better about all the spending I’ll surely do at next year’s annual fundraiser.

And what did we walk away with from the 2021 auction after we emptied our purses? (Yes, I took the Saddle Purse to the shindig.) We ended up with a funky blue chair we don’t need, a portable grill we don’t need, a fluffy green chair I can’t wait to deliver to Gracie, and a 6 ft-long fuchsia metal cabinet which nobody on earth needs. I do love the color, but I have no idea what I’ll use it for beyond storage. It really is for a good cause, though. 💸

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Staying Cool

Skitter and I stayed in the house—and out of the heat—yesterday. An outside temperature of 102 in mid-June is not our kind of thing. We did talk about getting in the pool, but the HOA does not allow Skitter to do that—despite the fact that Skitter is a much friendlier resident than the wacko lady a few doors away, who seems to think she is the HOA Rule Monitor. I have no doubt the old bat always has a notebook handy, in which she constantly logs alleged rule infractions committed by neighborhood residents who have better things to do than keep tabs on everybody else’s garbage can placement. While the rest of us live our lives, the HOA rules seem to BE her life. To each, her own. God bless her.

Skitter took charge of snapping TIE O’ THE DAY photos this morning. Personally, I think she’s making great strides with her selfie photography skills. She’s wearing one of her new summer-y ties, which she sneakily ordered on my Amazon account without my knowledge or permission. (Note to self: change Amazon account password.) I chose to pair my houndstooth floppy Bow Tie o’ the Day with this flowery shirt to achieve some middling clash. This bow tie goes with anything. Or nothing. Either way, it’s a key piece of my collection.