My husband and I are in good health other than for the occasional unpleasant although not life-threatening situations. Back last year I went for my annual eye exam and even though I didn’t know it, a retina issue was lurking in my right eye. For all intents, there was a “bubble” that could develop into something very bad. I went through two months of waiting to see if it might resolve, then agreeing to a series of treatments that yes, included injections. No more needs to be said about that, but it did work. I was finally able to go back to my regular doc and my new glasses with an updated prescription will be in within a couple of weeks.

Apparently, this is the time for body parts to wear out. Friday evening of Labor Day weekend, my lower bridge came out. There was no pain, but a fair amount of inconvenience and I had to find a new dentist. Mine had retired and in procrastinating, I no doubt would have had the problem detected before this happened. Anyway, I did get an appointment and it was not the best news, but better than it might have been. I started the procedure Tuesday and it will be a multi-phase plan that will conclude with a partial removable denture. Not my preference, but the best of three options. Also not without some degree of pain and a great deal of inconvenience. Ah well, it could indeed be much worse.

And now on to the less pleasant which is having to start a multi-stage dental procedure due to one of my teeth breaking which caused my lower bridge to come out. I have terrible teeth thanks to my mother and I went through some really bad problems a number of years ago. It has been a while, but something like this was likely to happen at some point. My dentist retired and I procrastinated finding one. The new one was recommended by a friend and I like his approach. We discussed options and even though I’m not thrilled, a partial denture (the removable kind) is the most practical solution. Sigh! And of course insurance covers barely one-third the cost. We begin on Tuesday and if there are no complications, I hope we’re done by the end of October although it might go into November because there has to be a “healing gap” on one stage. Guess I’ll have to read up on how to take care of dentures once those are fitted in. Allegedly, if I follow proper care, this should last me 20 years or so.

Shifting to fun aspects, Hubby decided to go a different way than our usual lamb ossubucco Saturday and did a southwestern take, still using the Instapot. This included charring some peppers and chilies as well as changing the spices. It was excellent. Oh, speaking of seasoning, he also finally decided to use the window sill over the sink for herbs. The basil, oregano, and cilantro are doing well. We do have room to maybe put one more and will see what he decides. Ah yes, and my adjustment to the new coffeemaker is pretty well complete. I’ve modified the sequence in how I do it because I have to pull the machine forward in order to clear the upper cabinet to open the top to add water and the coffee. I had to do the same with the other one, but this is wider so when I do, the space between the coffeemaker and toaster oven is tighter. We keep the coffee beans in a ceramic canister and have the grinder, both of which I have to also pull forward. In one of those, “Gee, dummy,,,” moments, if I measure the beans into the grinder, then push the canister back into its spot, I have room to make this work better. There are times when a simple change to a routine really does make a difference.

We did go back to the Cove to Rusty’s Seafood for dinner and while we would have been okay sitting outside, the weather was still looking tricky and we opted for inside. The only drawback was it was a place where the AC was cranked up to an uncomfortable amount. I had worn long sleeves and I still had to give in when Hubby offered to go get a rain jacket. That made it tolerable. The other part of the solution was to have a cup of gumbo for appetizer. It was good; not great. I finally had my grilled lobster as my post-birthday dinner and Hubby did the grilled grouper with a mango salsa. It was dessert night, too, and the white chocolate cheesecake was delicious.

We did make it home without rain and traffic was moderate. The trip is right at four hours the way Hubby drives.

We did have some business to attend to that took longer than expected and I had put some packs of nuts and a Kind bar in my purse just in case. We were scheduled for the 1:00 bus tour at the Space Center. It looked like maybe rain and then we decided not to bring the umbrellas. We didn’t get very wet as the hardest part of the rain came while we were in the bus. The two-hour tour was some behind-the-scenes places and Hubby got a lot of great photos.

The packet of nuts did come in handy and we went to dinner a bit early. This time is was to Grills, another in the row of restaurants. A good band was playing on the deck and having been in and out of rain all day we opted for inside. It would have been okay as it turned out. We shared a terrific bacon wrapped shrimp and shared a salad. Hubby went with cobia in some kind of sauce and I had a second appetizer of a fried shrimp in a Thai chili sauce. Good stuff.

We are in Cape Canaveral for a few days. This is one of those pitches for the Holiday Inn Vacation Club which we probably won’t sign up for. Our experience with these type arrangements in the past haven’t worked well for us. My sister, however, has been with Marriott for decades and loves it. Anyway, we’re here because there is supposed to be a telescope launch in the morning and this spot is one of the places to see the launch.Hubby is out now scouting the best spot. We will also go to the Space Center tomorrow for the afternoon bus tour. It’s been a long time since we were here and I imagine lots of things have been added. Since the only other time we came for a launch Mother Nature did not cooperate. Keeping fingers crossed for this time.

Not sure where we’re going for dinner tonight. I looked up different places and was going to make reservations. Then I realized it looks like there is kind of a “restaurant grouping” which is not unusual. I think we’ll go to the area and make a decision after we look around. Of course, being a Saturday, all the really good places might be crowded, but I think we can take a chance.

They were crowded. The Cove must have 8 restaurants; most seafood with upstairs views of the water. We missed the parking lot for the first one we were going to and it was easy for the second one – Fishlips believe it or not. Multiple good things on the menu. I did lobster bisque and then crab cakes. Not really Lump, but basically no filler and pan fried, not deep fried so all was good. Hubby had jerk mahi with mango salsa. Friendly staff and we’ll going back to the “row”. It’s only a six-minute drive and all those choices.

The way it works is the button for Pod is to the left and Carafe to the right. They can both operate simultaneously as long as everything else is properly set up. So, if the water level in the reservoir for the Pod side is too low, or the old pod is still in, it won’t engage. Okay, got that. Also, even though you can adjust the brew amount for a smaller serving, I like my mugs for coffee. Ah, most of them aren’t quite big enough and thus some spillover. Solution? I have this absurdly-sized mug I never used (and was going to give away). It however, if perfect to brew the pod and pour the right amount into my mugs. Next, the carafe side. Once the pod side is working, it takes right at the same amount of time as I need to rinse the carafe, fill that side with water, grind the beans and get those into the basket. The pod side finishes dripping my first mug and I press “On” for the carafe side. I’d rather not admit how many days it took me to work this all out and I certainly did not express my frustration to Hubby. After all, end results are what counts.

So he orders a basic Kenmore pot and when it comes in, there is a delay getting it out of the box due to our extra busy schedule. In the process of taking it out, I realize our previous miscommunication. It is not that he wanted the $1,000 maker; he did want the dual mode for brewing a pot or a pod. We had in fact once discussed it and I had forgotten. I told him to stop, go ahead and order what he wanted. If our cleaning lady didn’t have someone she could give the pot to, I would put it in the next Pickup Please, an organization that takes household items and clothes. When our cleaning lady came the following week I explained and as it turns out, her coffeepot had died and she hadn’t replaced it yet. A win-win.

Okay, Sunday Hubby finally had time to unbox and set up the new Cuisinart dual-mode coffeemaker and I had cleverly picked up a box of pods. Yesterday, I brewed my mug using the pod side while I put water in the carafe side and ground the beans. The timing works out perfectly and I had my first mug of fresh coffee as the other began to brew. For anyone new to the blog, I am usually up around 5:00 and put the coffee on. We usually have one mug left in the carafe at the end of the morning so I have been re-heating that for my first of the day. Nothing against, but now having truly fresh as the first is extra nice.

Slight gap and an absolute flood of things, many of which seem to be generated with AI. A few are easily identifiable as scams; others not so much. As I said to my husband, if I had only 10% of these offers as new readers, I would be happy. Anyway, late among them is having me set up on Substack for the Chris Green books. I have never ventured into Substack although Hubby has a few he follows and a couple he even subscribes to. It is a site initially developed for writers and seems to have expanded beyond into other aspects.

The way this will work is the individual running the campaign will do twice-weekly serialization of Deadly Doubloons, then False Front over a period of some weeks to get me established. She will develop chapter summations rather than word-for-word (kind of like the old Readers Digest Condensed Books).  The idea is to bring in readers who want a good sense of my books which will hopefully lead to a new audience. While that is the ideal outcome, I have such a large body of work, if nothing else, it gives me a new platform to share portions of my work once I get into the pattern. We’ll see how this goes.

I am not very good with these things and anticipate frustration if I try. On the other hand, it won’t take long for me to find out. I am hoping the current efforts I am engaged in taking up so much of my time will settle down by mid-August. I can state with a high degree of certainty I will not use AI for my writing. For routine tasks might be a different story, especially when it comes to things like reading insurance policies. It would be nice to have a summation of critical points. The sheer volume of “insurance speak” is what keeps most of us from knowing what a policy actually entails. Then there are the many files I should be clearing out of my computer. This is another mind-numbing effort I tackle only occasionally and don’t usually make such progress before I stop again. We’ll see how this goes.