Mummers Mass

The annual Mummers Mass is nearly upon us! Owing to my being under-the-weather, I'm leery of standing out in the cold with crowds at the Parade itself this year, so I'll have to get my in-person Mummers fix at Mass this season.

The other GP in my doc's office, by whom I've been treated in the past, saw my results and called me at home to discuss them. He wanted to be sure that I'm on iron pills, which I am, and have a followup appointment with a specialist, which I do. The blood I had drawn last week got similar results to the test that concerned the first GP. But both tests were taken prior to my getting the iron pill prescription. So we'll see what kinds of numbers I get after I've been medicated for a while.

I've had a Tired Day today. At least I know I don't have to feel guilty if I take a nap. I have good reason to go into need-a-nap mode, and it's got nothing to do with insomnia (which hasn't been much of an issue in the past few weeks).

Do please send thoughts and prayers to my in-laws' in-laws. Mark's sister's brother-in-law passed away unexpectedly on Christmas Eve. :( He was supposed to sing for a service on Christmas Eve night, but never arrived. His brother (not my brother-in-law, but another sibling) went to investigate and found him. I don't know any more details than that. We'll be going to the funeral on Wednesday morning. It's such a shame.

And to think I was aggravated over breaking a glass this afternoon. I never break things, and I happened to really like the pair of drinking glasses we used every day. I break things so rarely that I really got miffed when I cracked the glass. Needless to say, I've gotten my reminder that there are far more significant things to worry about than a drinking glass. Sigh.

Speaking of significant things, I have my specialist's appointment set for January 5. My doc had wanted me to go between Christmas and New Year, but the specialist he wants me to see is away during that week. Note to self: don't get sick during the freaking holiday season. I'm still a bit rattled to think that I came this-close to a hospital admission. Normally, problems show up in "mild" and "moderate" forms before we reach "severe", but the former two levels came and went undetected. The only reason I'm sitting in my living room right now, and not in a medical facility, is that the doc didn't want to see me spend Christmas as an inpatient, and in all honesty I didn't want to spend my holiday hospitalized, either. I do have my list of symptoms that, should any of them show up, I'm to head to the ER. So far, so good, knock on wood.

It's very enlightening to look back over the past few months and understand WHY I've been battling severe fatigue. I'd interpret a Mass and then come home and sleep for an entire afternoon. Or after a busy weekend, I'd be totally wiped on Monday and sleep a lot of the day. I blamed it on the bouts with insomnia, about which I've griped on my blog more than once, but apparently that wasn't the entire picture.

So I'm taking iron pills now and focusing on bolstering the meds with dietary changes like eating red meat, leafy greens, etc. Fortunately, I like the iron-rich healthy-food choices that are out there.

But the specialist appointment is to help figure out WHY things got so out-of-hand in the first place. That's what I'm not happy about... the underlying causes could be any of a wide range of reasons, some of which are easily fixed and some of which are extremely serious. Here's hoping it falls into the category of "easily fixed".

Oh, well. On a lighter note, the Nook that Mark got me for Christmas did, in fact, arrive in time for the holiday. So I loaded about 30 books onto it that I got several months ago from eReader.com, a B&N subsidiary whose books are compatible with the Nook. Then I used the Nook itself to order about 9 more books that I wanted from Barnes and Noble. So yeah, I'm having a grand time with this. :)

Hey, I don't want to land in a hospital any time soon, but if I do, at least I have reading material to spare. ;)

That's pretty much all the news that's fit to print. I hope everyone reading this had a wonderful Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Phil E. Phan! :-) And from me, of course.

Skate

Waah! The National Kidney Foundation's flatbed truck came and picked up Skate, aka The Wee Red Car. Part of me feels like crying because it was such a terrific little car for me for so many years. 18 years, in fact, but who's counting?

I do hope they sell Skate as a car, rather than for parts. I'd hate to see that happen. It's one of the reasons I opted for donation instead of selling to a service that I was almost positive would junk any car they got. At least with the donation, there's at least a slim chance they'll let the car live.

Bye, Skate, and thanks for a ton of great memories, many of which wouldn't exist if I hadn't had a car to take myself and friends to and from the event. I'll miss you.

Arenavision

They're showing "A Charlie Brown Christmas" on the Arenavision prior to pregame warmup. The weather outside, to coin a phrase, is frightful. It's a total snowfest. I suspect that people from farther-flung suburbs will give the game a miss. Driving the one mile we travel to games, all on plowed roads was challenge enough.

Thanks to JFM for sending me this Youtube link. I haven't watched it without laughing out loud. Enjoy this VERY clever rendition of Silent Monks "singing" Hallelujah. :D



On a more serious note, it's December 17 once again... I can't see this day's date without remembering that it's the anniversary of our dear friend Joan's passing. I can't believe it's been 14 years. We still love and miss you, Joan -- pray for us. I know you're Up There where we all want to be someday. We'll see you when we get there.

3-D Glasses

The "Holiday Show" at the Comcast Tower is in 3-D. They distributed amber-and-blue 3-D glasses.

Finale: Christmas Light Show

Finale: Christmas Light Show at Macy's.

Waiting for the Christmas Light Show

Waiting for the Macy's Christmas Light Show to begin. It's nice to see the Magic Tree has been restored to the display. It was MIA for a few years.

Vehicle fun

We went to the notary public today to get a bit more of the car-donation paperwork done. Fun Facts: my 1989 car, whose name is Skate, currently has 41767 miles on its odometer. When I bought it in 1991, it had 14082 miles on it.

This is what comes of commuting via SEPTA for all but about 2 years' worth of owning the car. I drove to the Norristown temp assignment for 3 months and to the Cherry Hill temp assignment for 18 months. (Well, I drove to the Park-n-Ride at Pattison Avenue for 6 months, but since that was a 2-mile round trip, it doesn't really count for much mileage.) That's IT. Every other job or temp assignment I've ever had, I've used public transportation to commute to. That's a LOT of wear-and-tear that my car was spared over the years. Heck, it's probably a big reason why the car survived this long.

So if you want to save yourself money and preserve your car, take public transit to commute whenever possible. Your wallet will thank you, your car will thank you, and the environment will thank you.

I have a whole lot more miles on the current car, whose name is Grape. But the same care-and-feeding regimen that kept Skate working for all these years will surely benefit Grape, as well.

I sure will miss the Wee Red Car, though. We have a lot of years and day trips behind us. Good times, for sure. :-)

I just had a MAJOR Blast From The Past!

It started when Joe sent me a text message asking if I remember the surname of our late friend Joan's niece.

I drew a complete blank. I've never been good with names, and this is a person whom I haven't seen since Joan's funeral in 1995.

However, Gabey Queen of Search Engines took over. I knew the name of a song she wrote, and of the artist who recorded said song. One internet search later, I came up with THIS PAGE, which included a photograph so I was absolutely positive that I had found the right person. However, it still only listed her last initial, not her full surname. Not to worry... a link on that page leads to a filmography and there, down at the bottom of the page, were her first and LAST name. I called Joe back with the info and emailed him the link to the page.

I send a virtual tip of the cap to her for having been involved in the films and albums she's been a part of. I still miss her Aunt Joan terribly, as does all our group of friends.

In other news, the new (to us) car is back from repair. OY, that was a sock to the wallet when all was said and done. We're not telling my father-in-law about the repair bill. He'd hit the ceiling, since as far as he knew the car was in good repair when he sold it to us. We're arranging to donate my old car to charity. We've sent out the preliminary email to the National Kidney Foundation and gotten the automated response. So we will be able to take care of doing that as promptly as possible. The goal here is not to pay insurance on THREE vehicles; we have until December 30 to sell or donate my old car in order to avoid the insuring-three-cars situation.

So that's all the news that's fit to print these days. And I'm still reeling in amazement that I was able to find Joan's niece online within two minutes of embarking on a search for her surname. What in heck did we do before the internet?

On Saturday night, Karla and I went to see Joe in the second, and final, night of his concert with the Chorus. He sang during the first half, and was the narrator, "Bernard", during the second half. He did a fantastic job, as well I should know since I was his first "script girl" when he started rehearsing the part. Hey, by the end of that rehearsal session, I had that part of Beaker doing 9 Ladies Dancing down cold. ("Mee mee mee mee mee!") :D

In any event. Joe had a lot more than that down cold by the time the concert rolled around, and we all really enjoyed it.

But MAN. If you want to talk about "down cold", you could take a look at our local weather. The temperature has plummeted over the past few days, and Karla and I got sleeted on while we waited for the church to start admitting concert-goers. BRRRRR. Freaking weather. Someone needs to tell Mother Nature that it's still only autumn.

I had a pleasant surprise on Thursday, when I heard from the reporter who covers the Phantoms in Glens Falls. He was interested in writing a story about Philly fans who have continued to follow the team even after it left for Adirondack. We arranged a time for a phone interview, and you can read the resulting article HERE.

The article was written for the Post-Star to coincide with the Phantoms' homecoming game in Philly on Friday night. We had a huge crowd at the Wach Center (13,127, to be exact) and it was great to see a lot of fans I got to know over the years. The only thing missing was a win, as Our Heroes lost in OT.

Anyway, I just realized that it's pushing 1 AM. No wonder I'm ready to doze off as I sit here. Good night (well, morning).

Phil E. Phan

Phil E. Phan has a new jersey, as befits his status as the ultimate Philly Sports Fan. :-)

Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone

.

My dad saw our new (to us) car at the shop, which is near my parents' house. He gave it the thumbs-up. :-)

My cousin Tony is in the ER even as I type. He was supposed to have his gall bladder out in early January 2010, but it looks like the surgery might have to be sooner than that. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise, as he's been feeling horrid for weeks. With luck, if he has to have the surgery now, it will translate into feeling better when the holidays come around. As it was, the original schedule would have left him to deal with dreadful gall bladder symptoms through Christmas and New Year's Day. Phooey on THAT.

On a side note, I'm typing this post with my new cell phone. My old one was on its last legs, with buttons that barely functioned and a memory leak that made the phone freeze up several times daily. I have a lot to get used to with this phone, as it's very different in design from its predecessor. Practice will, I'm sure, make perfect.