Looking more like normal

Posted on January 19, 2026 | 2 comments

Monday morning, Day 4 after the PRRT treatment Terry did on Thursday at Stanford Medical. We obeyed all the precautions and are now getting back into our regular routine.

But first, all of the linens must be washed, and his clothes, kept separated for these four days, must be washed separately. Terry is moving all of his “daily living” artifacts back into their usual places after making his daily habitat in our bedroom for 4 days. The confinement was the hardest part, but he managed very well. And, best of all, he feels good.

The cats really had a hard time with that closed bedroom door. They have always been able to come and go as they wish. A few sleep with us, too, but not for the past four nights. I’ve had three cats with me, on the guest room bed, and another two lying on the dresser across from the bed.

I wanted to vacuum the house on Sunday, but I knew the cats were already traumatized with Terry’s “hiding away,” so decided I’d just wait and let Terry vacuum when he returned to his usual routine. One of the elderly cats walked around “talking” on Saturday, very disturbed about the situation. I had never seen her act like that. This morning she seems her more normal crotchety self.

If we are friends on Facebook you may seen my post about the coffee making. This morning Terry made the coffee again. That is really “back to normal.”

2 Comments

Posted in The world and my place in it

Although back home, not back to normal

Posted on January 17, 2026 | 8 comments

It is a very foggy Saturday morning here in the San Joaquin Valley. In our neighborhood there is no sound, whatsoever. No cars going down the street. No yard tools being used. No one out working on their cars. Nothing. Just silence. Of course, the fog is so thick that it’s a bit hard to see across the street, but I hear nothing. Eerie.

There has been discussion on Facebook about the Valley fog this week. It really hasn’t been this thick, this deep, or settling in so early and staying so late, for decades. Many of the younger generation are struggling with it.

Those of us raised here remember this kind of fog from our growing-up years. The 50s, 60s, and even into the 70s had this kind of tule fog. But, there has been a decline in the fog, so much so, that tree and vine growers could tell a difference with their crops. It was investigated, and sure enough, the fruit trees and the grape vines like the fog in the winter while they rest. I, personally, hate the fog and didn’t complain when there was less of it.

Fortunately, we didn’t have thick fog Thursday evening as we drove back from Stanford. Although we left Palo Alto at 2:40 p.m., the traffic on Hwy 101 was so heavy (I drove 5 mph in some places) that it took us 6 hours to make what can be as short a trip as 3 hours. We did make 3 stops for bathroom breaks and to switch drivers. I cannot drive at night, and by the time we left Gilroy, it was already sunset. If traffic had been normal, we would have been home by that time!

Terry is isolated in our bedroom suite and doing fine except for being in small quarters. He will be able to take a walk tomorrow. He feels fine, no aftereffects of this treatment. If you are on Facebook, then you have seen my posts about this. We are so grateful for how easy this was, except for the drive home. Three more such trips through July.

I think the hardest part is going to be the 3-day isolation. Our cats hate having the bedroom door closed and not being able to sleep on our bed. I’m sleeping in the guest room which has my childhood French Provincial 4-poster bed. The cats come in, but it’s not the same as having both of us in the bed. I’m the only one they can annoy!

8 Comments

Posted in The world and my place in it

Tagged , , ,

Repairs in the new year

Posted on January 7, 2026 | 10 comments

This first week of 2026 has been a whirlwind of activity around here. And, no, none of the activity had to do with Christmas decorations. I don’t do those any more. That would just add to my workload. You have to “un-decorate” and clean before you can put out decorations. And, you have to go get the decorations, the bulk of ours in our storage unit.

If you have cats like we do, there are just too many things for the cats to play with and destroy, so it works better to just keep things very simple. I took out our Christmas mugs that are stored in the cabinet in the garage. I can easily store the regular mugs there while the holiday mugs reside on the mug tree in the kitchen. I also have holiday linens–towels and napkins–that reside in the linen closet at the end of the hall. Again, pretty easy to replace twice a week when I launder the linens.

There are still Christmas cards lying around but most have been put away in my journal for the month. Next year, when I retrieve this year’s journal, I will be reminded of all the people who sent greetings. I did a Christmas letter this year in place of cards, and may do that again next year, depending on just how the year goes.

As for activity around here–whew. We are busy setting up our master bedroom and bath for Terry to be sequestered for three days after his next round of treatments. Also, getting things lined up to be gone for three days next week takes some extra effort. Our grandson has a band concert we will attend on Tuesday. We will spend time with family on Wednesday, and then off to Stanford early Thursday morning and back home right after the end of the procedure. Terry has a lot of appointments and video calls this week to make ready for the start of this new treatment.

Then there is the matter of eating. Gosh, meal prep can be a big drain on one’s energies. Our microwave has been out of commission since Christmas. I’ve had to rethink all of my meal prep from original prepping to reheating the leftovers. We have managed just fine, no one is starving. I just have to think ahead and allow time for doing prep in the oven and on the cooktop. Also, that means more pots, pans, dishes. The dishwasher, which, Thank God, is working quite well, gets run three times a day. Having an appliance go down sure makes one appreciate the other appliances that keep running very well.

Speaking of repairs, Terry bought a new sink faucet for our master bathroom. The old one, original to the house built 50 years ago, had developed a leak that could no longer be fixed. He found, though, that he was unable or unwilling to pull out one of the pipe fittings for the replacement so called our plumber. He remembered a similar situation when he replaced the hall bath faucet 15 years ago.

The replacement 15 years ago cost $60 for the faucet and $130 for the plumber. This time around, $70 for the faucet and $600 for the plumber who was here over three hours. He also did a replacement of a drain due to a leak he discovered, but WOW. That was an expensive fix. I can remember when you could renovate a whole bathroom for $600. Life is not only more hectic, it’s more expensive.

10 Comments

Posted in The world and my place in it

Tagged , , ,

Let’s see what 2026 brings us

Posted on January 1, 2026 | 7 comments

2026 started off, here, with bangs, lots of bangs, and I don’t mean the kind that hang down in your eyes!

Fireworks seem to be the rage in this community. Fourth of July, Super Bowl, World Series, New Year. All occasions to light up the dynamite and create big explosions.

I was awakened at midnight to such nonsense. Around 2 a.m. the music started, although muted, I knew someone close by was having a party. And, it was pouring rain. The indoor cats were all twitchy. They are still upset this morning. Two have thrown up in the hour and a half that I have been up.

The GE repairman came yesterday. The microwave stopped working just as we returned from Stanford a couple of weeks ago. The microwave that is only 1 year and 3 months old. We have had a few microwaves over the 45 years we have lived here, and they usually last around 10 years. I was flabbergasted to have this one stop so soon. The part has to be ordered, and although it will arrive next week, the repairman had no appointments available until January 12, the day BEFORE we head to the Bay Area. Cutting it close. He said he would call us if anything changed.

In late 2024 our dryer was the problem. Out of commission for almost two weeks. Fortunately we were home the whole time and I could wash small loads and hang the items to dry on a rack I have for items that cannot go in the dryer. I made do. The microwave has been much more of an inconvenience as we use it multiple times a day and I have almost forgotten how to prepare meals without it. I get an item ready to reheat or to warm, and then realize there is no place to put it and have to “repackage” it for reheating in the oven or on the cooktop.

It is pouring rain on the first day of 2026. We are way over our normal rainfall for this time, and if it continues in the new year as it has for the past two months, we will break records for rainfall.

Thank you, dear Readers, for your solicitous kind remarks to my last two posts. Life. It’s not always a straight, neat path. The road gets bumpy and the detours can aggravate. But, for me, as for most of you, the road continues as does our journey.

7 Comments

Posted in The world and my place in it

Tagged , , ,

How do you spend the day after Christmas?

Posted on December 26, 2025 | 10 comments

Our “day after” has always been pretty quiet, except for a couple in history. And even when sorrow might hit the day after, it was still a quiet day.

My mother died on early Christmas morning, 2000. The care facility called to tell me she had passed away. Our daughter was visiting from seminary. She and Terry took off to see his mother. I stayed home and dismantled the Christmas tree and put away all the decorations, anything that looked like Christmas, stored away. Later my sister and brother and I would convene to make plans, and by New Years, our mother had been buried.

I received a call in 2011 that a very dear friend had passed away the night before, while hospitalized for heart failure. It was not a big surprise, but, even to this day, it hurts. It was now up to me and another friend to close out our friend’s home, make all the arrangements for her possessions to be taken away or shipped away. We did our best to have it done by the first of the new year. Christmas was in the rearview mirror.

In 2018 I came home from our Christmas church service to hear a message on our answering machine from my nephew’s wife. It could only mean one thing, as this woman NEVER called me, my sister must be gone. And, that was exactly it. Gone very quickly. Just as she would have wanted. This time my nephew and his wife stepped in and took care of all the arrangements.

This year the day after Christmas has been used to plan and prepare for the next step in Terry’s neuroendocrine tumor treatment–radiology. I have the hotel reservations made. I have the dates set with our critter/house sitter. We ordered items for Terry to use while he is sequestered. I have made a list of things to move to storage and items to rearrange in the house.

Much of what happens in the house must be in place when we leave for our grandson’s band concert in mid-January. After the concert Terry will head to Stanford for the treatment, and upon completion, right back home, secluded for three days. That first recuperation will give us a feel for what the next three, spread over six months, will look like. We won’t be done until the middle of summer. Feels a bit strange, setting things up the day after Christmas for something that will take us all the way into the middle of 2026.

10 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , ,

It’s beginning to look like 2026

Posted on December 23, 2025 | 7 comments

There are but nine days left of 2025. And one of the nine is TODAY. A Tuesday, the day the garbage cans are picked up.

It has been my responsibility for the past three months to get the cans to the curb. Oh, and I say cans, but they are really three large, tall rolling bins–compost/green material, recyclables, and household waste. Some weeks the contents in these bins is quite heavy, making them harder to maneuver, but I manage. I tell people, when I’m hefting heavy packages in stores and they ask if I need assistance, that I lift weights every morning just so I can do this kind of stuff.

I’ve also been the one to make the run to the cat food store for these three months. Again, lots of heavy lifting. Terry has done this for years, and he has a very precise method. I do not. My method is one I can manage. Again, lifting cases of cat food and 21 pound bags of litter. I’m thankful for the ability to do it.

We have to make some arrangements for the new year for Terry’s 3-day isolation periods after his next round of neuroendocrine tumor treatment with radioactive materials. That’s why I’m really looking at 2026 and what needs to be put in place. One of the reasons for such a quick schedule is that Terry is the perfect candidate for the procedure as well as being set up at home for the isolation. We have the bedrooms and bathrooms that allow for him to be isolated.

However, we realize that we need to outfit our bedroom with a small fridge, table, chair, small hotpot, disposable tableware. Some of my daily items will have to be moved to the guest room. I’m thinking I can move a tall chest into the guest room that will allow more space for Terry’s chair and table. Here’s the rub, though. It’s only a three-day period every other month. Do I really want things turned topsy-turvy for the next seven months, or do I undo and redo each time? I’m having some conversations with God about this.

Actually, I have lots of conversations with God, so that doesn’t look any different for 2026. This past year, with all the travel and new experiences, I have spent a lot of time talking to God about all the planning it took to make the year happen. And happen it did, and it happened very well.

We stay in a hotel, most times, when we are in the Bay Area, on the fourth floor, and we take the stairs except when leaving the hotel because our car is in the underground garage and there are stairs to that level. As I walk down the stairs, I pray, one word at a time, for all the many blessings God has sent down. When I walk up the stairs, I send up all my petitions for myself and the world around me. One of my prayers, going down and coming back up is thanksgiving for the ability to take the stairs, the ability to heft the cases of cat food and my suitcase.

So, one thing that will not change in 2026 is my daily exercise routine, both on the floor, and with my weights, and all the movement to keep me flexible. I will definitely need to be flexible in so many ways in 2026.

7 Comments

Posted in The world and my place in it

Tagged , , , ,

Trying to rush time…

Posted on December 19, 2025 | 7 comments

Because it’s the last day of school for my granddaughter, I had it in my head that it is also the last Friday of December. Until I sat down here to type a post, looked up at the calendar, and laughed at my goofy mistake. Why am I trying to rush the month, or the year? Time is going fast enough without me helping it along.

It has been a week since Terry’s last treatment at Stanford, and he is doing so much better than after the first round of chemoemboulation. Although this time the doctors sent him home with anti nausea and pain meds, he has only taken the anti nausea tablets. The fatigue is again overwhelming, but he is managing to get a few chores done as well as take care of his own personal needs.

The reports have come in and the doctors are very pleased with what they did and his body’s reactions. He has now heard from the radiology team and has four sessions set up to start that treatment (PRRT), beginning in January and ending in July. My next job is to set up hotel reservations.

Last week’s visit to Stanford Medical was again a dizzying experience. The place is huge. So many buildings, walkways, hallways, bridges, and all kinds of new construction going on. I remembered quite a bit of the landscape, though, from the previous stay, and found my way around pretty well.

I did have to ask for directions once, to get back to the underground parking where I had parked for the first time. Our usual lot was full when we arrived, and this underground lot is actually closer to where the discharge and pickup takes place, so it makes sense to park there.

It was after dark, though, when I had to find my way back and I was now in a different building from where we started. The doorman gave me excellent directions, and once I got on the path, I recognized landmarks (even in the dark).

I just read an article about how good it is for elderly people to stretch their comfort zone, and I chuckled. Yes, I have definitely stretched my comfort zone this entire year, and it looks like next year may just be more of the same. New sights, new sounds, new patterns…the brain forms new neural connections. It helps with cognitive flexibility and the ability to adapt and problem-solve. Okay, never too old to learn. And, I need to stop rushing time.

7 Comments

Posted in The world and my place in it

Tagged , ,

We can do hard things…

Posted on December 14, 2025 | 6 comments

…that’s been our mantra for the last few months.

I read a book with a similar title and was inspired by its thinking. There is an expression, God only gives you what he thinks you can handle. No. God gives you what he knows you have the capacity, through his spirit and guidance, to do. Easy stuff? Sometimes. Hard stuff? Yes. Hard for YOU any way. God is like that. Or, so I have figured out in my 73 years of life as I’ve seen God build capacity in me.

On Saturday, sitting bedside with Terry at Stanford Medical, with his nurse giving directions for home care, I made that declaration, “We can do hard things.”

“Yes you can,” was her reply. We had already spent awhile chatting with her. As you may have figured out, if you’ve been reading here for very long, I get involved in conversations with everyone I come in contact with. I’m curious. I want to know about people. As for this nurse, we had her backstory and she had some of ours. She lives in the San Joaquin Valley, in a town we know well. She knows Fresno well. She works, per diem, on weekends at Stanford, commuting from that Valley town while her husband holds down the fort.

If you live anywhere near a university hospital, it’s probably just like Stanford. I highly recommend the health care they can provide. The employees are all the best, the smartest, the super heroes. Like this Saturday morning nurse, they are paid very well and they do amazing work. We have seen this with each of the people with whom we have been in contact at Stanford.

So, when hearing what to expect and to do after we got home, and how we had experienced this all two months ago, I made the comment, “we can do hard things.”

“Yes you can,” said the nurse because we had filled her in on so much of what we do. “You are the kind of patients we like. We know you will take care of the work we have done.”

6 Comments

Posted in The world and my place in it

Tagged , , ,

Wrapping up the year in a warm blanket

Posted on December 6, 2025 | 8 comments

It’s been a busy week just keeping up with daily chores and errands and staying warm. Our California sunshine is gone for these early winter months. Maybe after the new year we will see the sun. Right now we have cold, gray, fog. Day after day. Highs of 46(F) degrees if it’s a good day. Nights are about 40(F) degrees. So, not much difference. We await a storm to come in and blow it away.

Friday turned super busy. After running all the errands, I came home to learn that Stanford had called with Terry’s next tumor treatment and it will be next Friday. Because of plans we have in January, and the the doctors’ schedules, they had that date avaiIable for him.

I immediately scheduled a hotel room for us and even changed a reservation we have in January to see our grandson play in his school band concert. I decided we needed to stay an extra night for that trip. I have realized how precious time is and how we cannot rush around like we once did.

All of these dates, of course, had to be verified with our super-duper house/critter sitter. We could do none of this if not for Kirby and her magic. She was quite positive in her quick reply so we are set for next week and even January. Who knows, though, what the world will throw us in those weeks. It’s been a bit of a roller coaster this year. With the addition of the three days next week, Kirby with have spent 39 days with our cats and house in 2025.

We have begun to receive Christmas cards. Not many, but a few, and I always respond to those who send us cards. I have never been a fan of the Christmas letter, and yet I sure enjoy most of those that we get. This year, because it was so monumental, I decided to do our own Christmas letter for the first time. It’s written, decorated, and copied. Now to get envelopes addressed and into the mail before we head out of town. I have a list of things to do before the end of the year, it grows each day, and I am overly optimistic I will get it all done.

8 Comments

Posted in The world and my place in it

Tagged , , , , ,

It’s been another week…

Posted on November 15, 2025 | 10 comments

…in the life of the Zodys!

It’s been a really good week, too. Terry is four weeks out from his procedure at Stanford and is back to his old self.

On Monday he changed the sheets on our bed which I had helped him with the week before. Our mattress fits very tightly into the bedframe and it takes some strength to lift it. He did it.

On Tuesday, knowing we had a major storm coming through, Terry cleaned the rain gutters and downspouts. Then he took his car for the free carwash they offer to all veterans on Veteran’s Day.

On Wednesday he went to the cat food store (PetSmart) for the weekly pickup. I had been doing this the previous three weeks. It is a herculean effort. He also emptied and refilled the litter boxes. Another chore I had been performing.

On Thursday we went out to a late lunch because Terry had a personnel meeting at church at 5:30.

While I was across town on Friday at a friend’s church loading food boxes for the monthly food distribution, Terry vacuumed the whole house. He had done that the week before, but it took him two days. This week, all done in one.

We are quite pleased with ourselves around here! That food distribution work was the first time for me. I have always sent money for this endeavor because I never felt I was strong/energetic enough to do the heavy lifting, but my friend LindaJean, who I saw at LadiesWhoLunch on Monday, said she was short on help for this week and could any of us help. Two of the group usually volunteer or volunteer their husband, but both were out of commission. I got the details of the work involved and said I would give it a try. The best part, it’s early morning when I am at my best.

For 90 minutes or so I loaded cans of USDA surplus food into plastic bags. I stopped now and then to retrieve and open more bags. I kept moving, and my hands worked well, and my sciatica never said a word! As a matter of fact, I think the movement of loading the cans and sliding/gliding down the assembly line really was therapeutic. I recommend anyone with sciatica give this volunteer activity a try.

A good week in the books!

10 Comments

Posted in The world and my place in it

Tagged , ,