Nope. Don't Need These. Yay!

The Boswellia gave me nosebleeds!

I haven't needed the Omeprazole for months. It took over a month to wean myself off of it. My doctor had prescribed it a few years ago for Gerd, and I just kept taking it. Any time I tried to stop, the heartburn came raging back.

Eventually, after giving up most carbs, the heartburn lessened enough for me to try getting off of it. I used Famotidine as my crutch, and was finally able to eliminate that. The only time I need to take one is after I eat butter late in the day.

 

I just happen to have a lot of them. Oh well....

We Spent The Day In Ripon

The drive isn't difficult, but it's 40 miles from where we are now, that's 80 miles round trip for hubby when he starts work next month. We decided to make a fact-finding mission to check out apartments, the grocery store, etc. 

The downtown area is very walkable and has tons of local businesses. It is charming. It has not fallen into decay like some other cities we have visited, such as Stevens Point and Sheboygan, where the downtown businesses left and the storefronts are filled with tattoo shops and arcades. 

Ripon is charming, friendly and happy. It's easy to drive around in, no crazy expressways. They have hills! That makes me extremely happy. There is a hospital in town, plus every other service we might need. The grocery store is Hy-Vee. It's pretty good. The prices are almost the same as Walmart. There is no Walmart, which I imagine is part of the reason the town is so vibrant. The Walmart and Aldi stores in Fond Du Lac are only about 20 miles to the east, making them an easy once a month stock-up trip.

What we need is an apartment. Our fact-finding mission came up short. There are apartments there, but with a wait list, or nothing available, or just for seniors, or income restricted, or too cheap (dumpy), and one "maybe". We hope to be able to find something by October. We will be paying for two apartments until the end of the year. We could break the lease, but we would still need to pay the rent here until it had a new tenant. Because of the stupid walk-in whirlpool tub in the bathroom, this place stood vacant for a year until we came along. We took it because we couldn't find anything else in January.

This is the only picture I took, maybe because I was too busy taking notes.

Very similar to where we live now. The only available apartment was downstairs, like we have now. It had not been cleaned. There was dust everywhere. The older gentleman who showed us around is also the maintenance man. What I noticed is that the upper apartments have that extra big window in the living room. The apartment building we are in now also has the extra window upstairs. 

For some reason only some new apartments have the extra window, many are built with a big storage area there instead. In any case, none of the new apartments have any vacancies. One has a wait list into next year. Another doesn't use a wait list, after applying and getting approved, one must call, text or email and ask if there is a vacancy coming up. It's first come, first serve, and there are over 100 applicants waiting to jump in.

Anyway, back to the apartment above. It has mini blinds (that open upward instead of murder blinds like here.) The area seems quiet, although there is a soccer field across the street. Other than the soccer field, there are just fields and tree-covered hills in the distance. Might be peaceful, except when they have a soccer game. The school year could be a mess of lights, noise and traffic. Below is a screen shot of the street side.

There are a few apartments downtown, upstairs in those ornate, historical buildings. I only found one listing, and all of the apartments are studio or one bedroom, nice but tiny, and no balcony.

We really need to find something by October.

Job Offer Accepted!!

 We are moving to Ripon as soon as we can, maybe not till fall because of our lease! Hubby got a good paying job there!!

The Cute Town of Ripon

We found a cute town, friendly people and really great coffee. Not sure how to pronounce Ripon.

Flowers everywhere!

The tin ceiling in the coffee shop. They also have great coffee! 

Drug store, Radio Shack and Ben Franklin signs. 

Actual Radio Shack items! I thought they were out of business

We stopped by Wild Rose to fill up jugs of spring water.  Although many people drink it, I only use it for my plants. We got 9 gallons this time.

Writing From My Phone

I didn't know I could. I've been quiet lately. Alot going on. The floods in Texas saddened me. We have financial troubles. Not ready to elaborate. Random thoughts.....we are impressed by the abundant roadside native flowers blooming all over the Fox Cities. De Pere....blooming butterfly gardens on the riverfront. Appleton.....roadside ditches overflowing with native flowers. Neenah....even more flowers. I will end with some pictures, since I'm on my phone it will be easy to add them. These are from a nature retention pond in Neenah.

 

Odds and Ends

 It's been awhile, so I'll try to catch up.

I'm feeling fine, no more problems. I finished the antibiotics today, no bad effects.

We are having lovely weather, since the oppressive heat moved out. We had three days of tortuous heat and humidity. Streets were buckling and cars blowing tires. Insane! We stayed home. My annuals did not like the heat. My Johnny-Jump-Ups have gone to seed.

We have 5 months to decide where to move. Our lease ends the last day of December, so we will need to have a new apartment rented before then.

We have a new favorite place, Waupaca Chain O' Lakes, about an hour west of us. It was a sunny, breezy day when we arrived at Hartman Creek State Park. The pines were fragrant in the warm sunshine. The water sparkled, and I wanted to deep breathe all of it in and never leave. We took a walk around the lake and thankfully did not catch any ticks.

I am not going to write about the complete idiotic orange moron in the White House whose stupidity is putting our nation in harm's way.

Hubby bought me an African Violet. The flowers are deep red. I had to remove them because I found signs of thrips on the flowers. No damage to the leaves. I treated with a systemic. It's a no-name. It will grow more flowers.

We took a drive to Wild Rose and filled up 7 gallon jugs of spring water. Since it's not tested we have decided not to drink it, but it's wonderful for my plants!

I need to repot my orchids. One has bloomed continuously for nearly a year. The others have not bloomed at all. They need to do something other than occupy my limited space.

I think this is about all the news for now.

 

Well That Was Weird

 I woke up in the middle of the night feeling nauseous. I got up to pee and thought, should I go back to bed? I felt weak. No, I should go to the living room and tell hubby, who was up watching TV. I grabbed my meters, glucose and ketone, and sat down at the table, or rather collapsed. Numbers were fine. 

"Get my blood pressure cuff," I told hubby, who was already hovering over me with concern.

By now my head was on the table. 

48 over 35, pulse 57.

"I'm calling an ambulance," hubby said. He lifted me to couch and got me dressed (a shirt and loose pants over my jammies, and socks. 

The ambulance guys came. Hubby said the police came, too. Gotta call the whole gang!

They took my vitals, and by then my blood pressure was high. Go figure.

They transported me to the hospital, through town, on bumpy roads. Well, the highway is closed at night for construction. Hubby followed.

IV, blood tests, EKG, Cat scan of lower abdomen, urine sample. 

I have a UTI infection. The hospital concocted a mix of antibiotics to shoot into my IV and called in a script of antibiotics to my pharmacy. After the doctor checked in with us I was discharged and we went home. I think we were there about 3 hours.

My tests at the hospital were in range. Cat scan showed all is good in there, yay! I'm not sure if I was dehydrated, but they gave me two IV bags of saline.

I don't know why my blood pressure drops so low, but it's rare, only maybe once a year. It happened in Hartford, but I waited for hubby to come home from work. I was told not to do that, just call an ambulance. That time I was dehydrated and had a UTI.

I have a follow-up on June 30th at the clinic. I plan to discuss all this with my provider.

Anyway, I'm feeling good, antibiotics are working, and surprisingly easy to take.