Daily Update, October 3, 2023

    After breakfast, I called Uber, and a gal came. We had a nice talk as she took me over to Clinical Labs for a test my doctor wants before I see him Monday. I gave them the order from my cardiologist and told them who my doctor was. They tried for an hour to get him and called me over to ask if I wanted to try again, but nothing they did could get him to answer. After two hours, they took the blood for the cardiologist's tests, and made an appointment for Friday when I said that Next week was too late. They strongly recommended picking up the requisition paper before coming, but I don't know that I'll have time. Somehow, when there's no driver in the household, the simplest errands suddenly become far more complicated. {rueful smile}

   I got the same driver coming back, and she mentioned she drives her neighbor and some others without Uber; just calling direct. I got her number in my phone, so now I can also call Emily when I need to take Val to the vet. {Smile}

   I ate dinner with Mom and read to her before that. I started with scripture and thoughts about it. Then I continued reading Mom's niece's long family Christmas letter from 2019. Next, I showed her the covers and first few pages of _Visions of Scotland_, starting over from the beginning. She seemed to liek the pictures. Then, I read a story from _365 Bedtime Stories and Rhymes_. I finished with "Feeding Birds," from _366 Stories for Bedtime: A Tale for Every Day of the Year_. Mummy gives the narrator the job of shaking the tablecloth out outside, where the crumbs scatter for the birds. Leftovers follow, and the narrator watches from the window. The starlings are the greediest, each trying to get the best scraps. The robin gets the tiny crumbs, and stays out of the way of bigger birds, including the thrush, and the blackbird, who sings thank you afterwards from his favorite tree. {Smile}

   I did my head exercises and my arm swinging exercises while waiting for Uber to take me to Clinical Labs. Then at my usual time, I got my 8 1/2 minutes of salsa dancing warmup done. Then after a break, I did around 11 3/4 minutes of less structured salsa dancing. I'm not quite sure how much, because I stopped in the middle of the first piece to give Val some Karo syrup for hypoglycemia and backed up to compensate. That's around 20 1/4 minutes of salsa dancing; quite typical. {SMILE}

   I read articles and comics over lunch and hopped into City of Heroes quickly afterward. I found both Div and Perogies on and let them know I needed to clean myself up before playing, but I'd return. It took about an hour, like I expected, though I tried to make it quicker. I talked with them, and we got together. Perogies and I went into Div's base to admire the Halloween decorations he'd just added: an outside firepit with Jack 'o Lanterns amongst the seat around it. Then Div switched to the character he wanted to get the Trick or Treat rewards on, while Perogies and I stayed on our warshades. They're low level for Trick or Treating in this game, but we let Div lead, and did pretty well. We teamed and chatted for about an hour before Div simply had to rest. So, we said goodnight, and Perogies and I did a couple of missions on our warshades, continuing the arc Kitten and I started the other day. Then Perogies wanted to catch the later long, large group event, which he did on his warshade. I didn't feel comfortable with doing it on a mid-level character of a type I'm still learning to play, so I switched to the high-level character I'm currently concentrating on developing. We started late and ended just when I like to go read to Mom, but I did get started about on time. {Smile}

   After dinner, I hopped into City of Heroes: Homecoming again. Perogies was gone, but qworty was there. We chatted, and he admitted he was very disappointed in trick-or-treating in this game. Just having random monsters pop out random doors with random companions is not why he plays. I understand. I tried to show him a mission I've always gotten from trick-or-treating. He found that much more interesting. However, we joined with a fellow who needed understanding ears more than a mission. He joined us. played for a while, talked, and left before finishing the mission. Azurette came in and stated talking with me. After the other left, I invited her to join us. We finished the mission together, though Azurette came in too late to get one of the big rewards. She said she's got all month to get them, though. Then we ran a couple of regular missions. Azurette told us that the mission I always got from trick-or-treating in costume can be gotten from doing any other content in costume, too. I'll have to try that. I think qworty will, too. He's slightly warmer to trick-or-treating, but not a lot. Then we broke up so I could do my exercises. {Smile}