Almost everything about Word in my new computer (an HP) is modified and I can’t easily access all the things I like to. Also, I now had to get a Microsoft i.d. and password in order to be able to save a Word file because, horrors, someone else might want to save something that’s mine. Oh, help.

My new passwords are all variations of shit (it’s my only consolation) – as in morebullshit, supershit, etc. Also, I had three password files and only one of them was transferred. So I am painstakingly updating passwords as time wears on and I get on a site I haven’t used in a while.
I was on the phone with Apple a week or more ago and thought I had solved my iPod problems. Yes, the tech helped me find my data, but I didn’t test the sync with him, assuming it was going to work. Wrong. When I try it, it lies to me, it says “syncing Tealstar’s iPod,” the process lasts about 10 seconds (a giveaway) and when I check my device, there is no new stuff on it. So I have a lot of old stuff on it that I have been going back to, some of it dating to 2011. I'll have to call them again but have to wait until I am "up" for it since I am always tired these days.

I’ve been in techie Hell anyway because my gtf (go-to-friend), Nadine, has been preoccupied with her ailing husband, who is almost 90, and is losing sight and hearing. Although he can read lips, he can’t see to do that anymore. I don’t see an upside to what is going on with them. I ran into her at the market and we had a nice tete-a-tete between the Wheaties and the spices. My heart goes out to her. I been there. I can invite them to dinner – but Mickey, her husband, is very depressed because he can’t participate as well as he used to so he might not want to come.

I miss seeing her and Nadine was the catalyst to our ladies’ lunches that were so much fun. She has withdrawn from the social scene and manages only to find time to go to the health club so that she doesn’t fall apart. So, since I have been sorely missing my friends, I did make a lunch date with Tonie, German born, an artist, lots of fun. That will come up in a week or so. Just before, I’ll call Nadine to see if, just maybe, she can come too.
Meanwhile, I have to find another way to solve my tech problems. Nadine helped me with the iPod to start, and she set up my Kindle for me. Recently I bought a clock-radio with a docking station for devices and I haven’t yet been able to set it up. I’ll have to try again. Maybe techie genius will strike me.

As for my energy level, I wait too long to get out of the house – it’s my new rhythm, so to speak, and in the hot season, that is not wise. I tried to walk yesterday around 3, and I thought I had stepped into Hades. Moreover the humidity was major. So I gave up on it and drowned my sorrows by watching that pawn shop thing that Ed likes. Jeez, I’d never take anything to those guys.

It’s hot again today. I may try to get into the pool. I have been avoiding it. There was also a bug infestation – lots of dead tiny stuff floating on top of the water. They have been mostly sucked up by the pool pump and I skimmed as well (that is truly exhausting). I bought a floating loop that I can hang on to while I flap my legs. It has been so long since I did any swimming and I have been so tired that I am not going to try for a major effort to start.

Meanwhile, I am taking green coffee extract pills. They are supposed to help metabolize fat. Since my routine has been so compromised, I thought I’d try something to help me along. I am about 8 pounds over my norm. No one notices. But I don’t like it.

I was doing really well until two days ago – so it goes. Up for a while, and then my supplements seem to stop working.

Did I mention I went back to Moffitt for a gyno check-up? Doctor here in Cape Coral said “take it all out”. Ed said no way, we’re going to Tampa. That doctor said, “unnecessary”. We’ll watch it (ovarian cyst) and make a decision, if one needs to be made, in 3 months. A lot of doctors are cut happy, it would seem.

And, of course, on the way north, we get to stop at the Ellenton mall where Saks has a discount store that Ed loves. He bought an expensive sports jacket marked way down and is happy as a clam. The stuff they have for women is atrocious. Their shoes are over the top – 4 inch stiletto heels, lots of rhinestones and glitter. The clothes, too, don’t look as if they ever spent time in the real Saks store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. Lots of buttons and bows, flounces and mindless cutaway angles. Out of all that, maybe here and there a nice neat shell that I would buy in a minute if I were still going to business. Wish I were.

xx, Teal