New Year’s Coffee Date

 

Image from Pixabay

It’s time again to have a cup of our favorite hot beverage and enjoy a little heart-to-heart. After all of the recent holiday celebrations, I am looking forward to a quiet, relaxed cup with some friends.

I am linking up with Coco from Running With Perseverance and Deborah from Confessions of a Mother Runner for their Ultimate Coffee Date. Pull up a comfortable chair, pour yourself a cup, and let’s chat about all topics – running and otherwise.

Image from Pixabay

If we were having coffee, I would tell you about a recent incident in which I was a supporting character. My usually quiet, conservative husband Bill was the star of this story.

Two of our grandsons slept over at our house one night shortly before Christmas. We went out for a family breakfast the following morning, then, completely worn out, went home to take a nap.

I was awakened from a deep sleep with Bill’s contorted face six inches from mine. He was doubled over in pain.

After a brief, panicky conversation, we decided he needed to go to the nearest hospital emergency room, stat.

On our run the day before, Bill had complained about some mild lower back pain, but it did not affect his run and he quickly forgot about it. Now the pain was back with a vengeance.

Our middle son was home, so he hopped in the car with us. I drove; Bill was in the front seat. “Don’t hit all the potholes!” he cried as each bump increased his discomfort, “Drive faster!”

I frantically tried to follow his instructions, while gliding through four-way stop signs, hoping not to see flashing lights from a police car in my rear-view mirror.

At the hospital, he was given medication for pain and nausea and the immediate crisis subsided. It was determined that he had a kidney stone, or “crystal” as our grandchildren now refer to it. It’s not (quite) as big as the one in the picture above, but to Bill, it sure felt like it.

After receiving some instructions from the emergency room physician, we returned home to relax, or so I thought.

Bill had other ideas. Our running club was meeting that evening for a Christmas light-viewing run, followed by dinner at a local pizza joint. He insisted he was fine to go. “You have a kidney stone!” I protested. “I’m fine“, he assured me.

We compromised. Rather than running an unknown route through the city, we did familiar loops in the lighted park. I ran with Bill’s phone stuffed into my glove, ready to call for help at the slightest hint of pain. We were able to meet our friends for pizza after our pain-free run.

The update is that the kidney stone remains with Bill as I write this. He is not in pain but has the specter of pain hanging over his head and appointments with specialists on his calendar.

If we were having coffee, I would attempt to give a little technical assistance (for those bloggers who need it). In response to a recent post I wrote about blogging, several readers mentioned they do not know how to link comments they leave on others’ posts to their own webpage.

Linking comments to your webpage helps immensely if the blogger you are commenting to likes to respond to your comments, then visit your website to comment on one of your recent posts (like me). It makes it easier for people to find your blog.

This process will probably only work if your platform is WordPress.

Here goes:

• First, click on your avatar in the upper right-hand corner of your blog’s home page.

• This will open your profile. From here you can add and delete websites that should be included in your Gravatar profile. You want only current blogging sites and social media sites to be included here.

• Next, click on “Account Settings” under the “Profile” sidebar. Here you can type in the correct web address for your current blog site.

 

I hope this helps. Please contact me if you have trouble figuring it out.

Finally, if we were having coffee, I would report on the success of the recent sewing project I mentioned in an earlier post.

As I said before, I am not a crafty person, but I did manage to make six microwaveable rice bag heating pads, which I gave to family and friends for Christmas presents.

It was a lot of fun making them and giving them away. I loved the way they turned out, so I may have to look for more opportunities to use my trusty sewing machine.

Thanks for stopping by for coffee and conversation. I hope to see you again next month for our regular coffee date. What’s new in your corner of the world?

 

You can find the places I link up here.