Welcome to my coffee shop in the cyber neighborhood!


The Chronicles of Nani On Video

I am overcoming my inability to type with my ability to talk (and talk and talk and talk) I'll be posting a video every week on my YouTube channel. I'll be posting those videos here too along with an occasional regular blog in the mix. (As long as my hands are up to doing the extra typing.)

You'll be able to watch the videos here, but I encourage you to stop by my channel at YouTube once I'm up and running to follow me and get my numbers started!


Welcome to my coffee shop in Cyber Space
Try the latte with a slice of black forest cake!


Contact Nani at
chroniclesofnani@gmail.com

Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Vacation Time Woes

David and I were supposed to leave on our June vacation Saturday morning but we are still in Toledo. There are lots of issues from a rainy forecast to a 911 call, or two.

The really rainy forecast means the natural light won’t be good for train photographs, there is a higher possibility minor league games would be rained out or delayed and my barometric body will ache more! That’s not such a matter because after a couple of failed attempts at getting in the shower last weekend. One of the EMTs was there for both the call where the transfer chair broke and I needed help transferring to my manual wheelchair Friday night and then on Sunday when I actually belly flopped in the hallway getting up that last step. He mentioned an Aunt with knee problems that mimic the hyperextension and foot drop I have and commented that our stairs and bathroom setup was dangerous. After Sunday he also suggested that we should give up the thought of me being upstairs at all. He’s right, but the shower is upstairs!

My dad started the plan to turn the extra room off our kitchen, that we use for mostly storage now, into an accessible bathroom with a roll-in shower in March. That’s still a couplafew months in the future and it’s not my intention to wait that long for a shower!! We went to a local hotel with a good roll-in for a night and I got a good shower, but I really had to admit that the hotel bed lacked the back support for a decent night’s sleep and I dreaded the thought of folding into the car all week.

So here’s the deal: The bad weather means David got to go play in a couple of poker tournaments at the local casino. That’s something he’s wanted to do and he figured out that it was about even cost to traveling for a day (except that traveling doesn’t have a chance of winning the money back!) I’m staying home this trip and I moved my appointment at The Ability Center up. I hope they can steer me in the right direction for a hospital or nursing facility that will do an assisted shower on an appointment basis until our renovated bathroom is done. I’m also seeing about a home health aide to help me with some things while David is at work, including using that shower when it’s done. David will be going on at least the last half of our vacation because the time and place choice was to attend our niece’s high school graduation. Emma’s been legally my niece for 6-12 years but David’s niece her entire life! Even if I can't go, he needs to. I feel bad that I won’t be able to go. I’ve been to Tori’s and Rina’s ceremony in 2012 and Ben’s in 2013 and I was really looking forward to being at Emma’s too.

Looking ahead, we’ve stepped up looking at used vans for a second car. Something I can drive the power chair into the passenger’s side and not have to climb in the car to travel would help beyond telling! If the upgrades my therapist wants on my chair happen, combining it with a van will make traveling comfortable again. Keeping my fingers crossed!


When I haven’t been waiting for paramedics and crying in frustration in the past couple of weeks I’ve been working on my scrapping and reading goals. I’m close to finished with “Chasing The Scream” which is nonfiction about the war on drugs history and future. It’s a great book that really makes you think. I’ll be doing my book review soon as I’m close to the end of a fairly long book and I’ll give some of my thoughts in that review. After such a serious read, look for my next book to be a fiction thriller again.

Last month was a banner month for my page-a-day scrap goal! I’m ahead again this month too. I’ve been a little creativity-taxed the past couple days, so I used templates for three layouts Saturday and one Sunday morning.


I’ve done some more Art Journaling, my scrap poetry and therapy.

Credits: I’m Your Biggest Fan by Seatrout Scraps, 
Hope Floats by Pixelily Designs, inspired by the song Hero by Loma Vista

Credits: Twilight by Red Dog Designs, Distressed by Created by Jill Designs, 
Alpha from Secret Agent by Just For Fun Designs

Remember the therapy pages are to get the negativity OUT of me and into pixels! It’s not like I’m going to cut off my ear or anything.

And with that comment my mother is looking down at me and I can hear the heavenly echoes telling me Andy Warhol’s work is "an inspired stock boy." :) We always had a fun running argument about the quality of Van Gogh vs Warhol.


Here’s a recent one that’s not so dark! It was for the template challenge at Gotta Pixel:

Credits: Kitty Love by Kristmess Designs, challenge template by Lindsay Jane

And here are this year’s crocuses that I scrapped Sunday morning:

Credits: Signs of Spring Monthly Mix by Gingerbread Ladies, 
“Selfie” hop template by Dear Friends Designs


I didn’t use a template for this one a while back, but I ended up creating a template based on it!

Credits: I’m Your Biggest Fan by Seatrout Scraps, 
Template by Digitalegacies Designs

Of course, if I made a template, there is a freebie!

http://www.mediafire.com/download/5f0dfkquc84e3g8/Digitalegacies_June15_template.zip
Click image to go to download



Monday, September 8, 2014

It's Gonna Be A Great Week

Good Monday! A little variety is a good thing now and then. Saturday morning David left on just over a week’s vacation. I didn't. Yesterday Kelly arrived with her bags for a long stay. Oh nothing is wrong, this was all quite planned this way.

First thing’s first Happy Birthday to Carla! Our middle child is 6 years old today! Okay, we don’t know the exact day but she was born in September in 2008. We gave her the 8th because that was Carl Yastrzemski’s number and she was named for him.

An important part of chapter one of the book I haven't written yet, The Proper Care And Feeding Of Your Caregiver, is making sure the caregiver gets the rest they need. To borrow a tern from my most beloved book of all think, the seven habits of highly effective people, make sure your caregiver, sharpens the saw, or get pre breaks to relax and rejuvenate. When your caregiver is your spouse, that means that sometimes travel needs to be that spouse and his/her friends without you. Of course in my case at least it means I need a babysitter while my spouse is gone. That's where the ever important best friend comes into play!

This week David is chasing trains. Sometimes he's meeting up with other railfans sometimes solo, and calling me to say goodnight and tell me how the trains were today. Yes, he reports that he misses me, but he needs some time to not worry about wheelchairs at break stops or accessible rooms at hotels. It also helps me receive a little stress relief knowing he’s getting that time to recharge. The “sharpen the saw” concept is that if a saw isn't sharpened, renewed, it does at do its job well anymore, it doesn't saw wood. If a Hum an doesn't rest and renew they don't work as well either.

Kelly is officially my PCA, personal care assistant, right now. She's helping with pretty much everything this week. Yesterday we were on the bus at 1 headed to Books, Baked Goods, Crafts and Fun at Paws and Whiskers, the annual open house. We came home with some books, sweets and silent auction winnings as we left a nice donation for the cats! It was a decent haul more than I could have brought home alone. Groceries will be interesting this week as I’ll likely have more bags than usual there too. Of course groceries will have to be from the froo-froo Kroger this week. Gotta have that girl time at Starbucks you know!

We really took no photos yesterday as day one together was talking, lots of buffs who needed to catchup talking. I see much. coffee and talking today too! Although we can talk about rocket science over coffee, it wasn't required to predict that part of our day,