Even though she looks like a little pipsqueak. Welcome to the Only Child Diaries Podcast. I'm your host, Tracy Wallace. Have you ever felt like you didn't receive the how-to brochure on life? That you didn't get enough guidance about major life issues? So did I. You don't have to be an only child to feel this way. In my podcast, we'll explore some of the best ways to better navigate adulthood while doing so with humor and life. Welcome everyone to the Only Child Diaries Podcast. Happy New Year! Today I'm gonna talk about, well, rain and more rain. Yes, we've had a lot of rain here in Los Angeles. And if you saw the Rose Parade, which was on New Year's Day, you know that it was pretty soggy. It rained for the first time in 20 years on New Year's Day here. And actually, if they had just timed the parade later in that day, it would have at least been dry. But it was in the morning when it was still raining. Still, we've had a lot of rain. And it's teased us because it sort of will stop and almost think about drying parts out of at least the concrete or the cement. And then it starts raining again. My front yard Christmas decorations have really suffered. When it gets too wet, everything shuts off. And so when it starts to dry out a little bit, I'm able to restart the circuit and the lights come on again, and it's all festive and pretty. And then it starts raining again. And if it rains too heavy, it shuts everything down. Like it did last night again. And then it's just super dark out there. I do have solar lights, but since there's not a lot of sun, they don't last very long after sunset. So that's pretty sad. My garden, I'm sure all the plants are happy if they're not threading water. I can see their little roots floating in the dirt. But I'm sure everything is going to be very healthy once the rain stops. But also the weeds. There's always weeds, as we know, and this year I'm sure the weeds will be very prolific. Well, so far in the new year, my husband has started to get sick as if we needed another challenge. He's got some sort of a cough or congestion, and that's wonderful. And so my plan is to not get sick myself. I'm not really sure how he did this since he doesn't go out very much, but we did go out for dinner on Christmas Day, which was a treat, and then we went out again on New Year's Eve. So he wasn't around a lot of people. Yes, it was kind of cold, but um other than that, the visiting nurse came in, but she had a mask on. So unless I brought something back to him, or the dog or cat, well, the dog carried something in, the cat doesn't go out, then I would assume that it had something to do with going to the restaurant. I I don't know. It's pretty disappointing because this coming week is supposed to be his first outpatient physical therapy appointment, and we'll probably have to reschedule that. Anyway, so it's a new year, and I think I've told you before, if you're a regular listener, you might remember that I would often dream or fantasize about taking long walks. And taking long walks for me would be kind of challenging because my knees are good now that they've been replaced or partially replaced, but my feet have bothered me sometimes, and also my back. There's there's always my back, so my knees are good, and I found these socks that are um, I guess they're compression socks, although they don't feel like compression socks, and they have copper in them, and they have been absolutely wonderful. My feet feel so much better with these socks, and I'll put a link in the show notes in case anybody's interested in them. Um, they have been wonderful for me and have greatly relieved any kind of foot pain that I've had, but my back continues to be an issue for me. But my my neighbors were walking the dog every day to help us out, um, especially when Bill needed a lot more support in the house. And they went away for Christmas and New Year's, and they were gone. Um, they just got back, but I think they were gone for 10 days. So every day the dog would look at me, and I was bound and determined to take her myself, right? And to carry on this tradition because she does have a lot of energy, she does need a lot of exercise, and with the rain, she couldn't necessarily get that in the yard. So we went on our walks, and there's one day I went a mile and a half, and there's one day this past weekend I went almost two miles in the canyon. Now we got really wet because it wasn't really raining that hard when we left, and I thought it might actually stop, but instead it got worse. And uh I should have known because nobody else was out walking. We got to the park and it was really coming down heavy. Um, and we found we found some shelter at the park. There was no one else at the park, and the park is about maybe three-tenths of a mile from our house. And so we waited until it sort of subsided, and we kept on going. This is the day we went almost two miles, and we we kept on going, and then and it was pretty good, but then it started again. And uh, well, we both got pretty wet. It it would stop and start and stop and start, and I was hoping to be under trees, which we were some of the time, but some of the trees have well lost their leaves, or lost some of their leaves because it's fall, right? It's winter, well, it's winter now. So that didn't work out so well for me. So by the time we got back, we were both completely drenched, and I had to change her sweater, her little clothes, wipe off her little feet. Um, but it's funny because Brownie will not want to go outside in the backyard if it's wet, if it's raining, she doesn't want to get wet. But if I put the leash on her, she would she would probably swim through an ocean just to go out if she has a leash on. So go figure uh the logic there. I I don't know. So she did not mind at all. She kept shaking, trying to get the water off of her. But uh other than that, we did pretty good. So I think in terms of my back, the walking has helped me to feel stronger and to maybe to loosen up my back. And I know I have arthritis. Um, so it's been good for me, and I don't want to just fall back into the assumption that my neighbors are always going to take her because it's better for me if I walk myself, right? The more I walk, the better I will be, and the healthier I will be. Now, I did do a research study um here locally where I saw uh a thing about it and I responded, and it was a blood test for um a kind of cholesterol that doctors, they said doctors don't usually test for. Um I think it was LPA. And I was kind of interested, it said it would gauge your risk for a heart attack, which is something you know I'm interested in. And so when I went to uh do the labs, I could schedule them, whatever. When I went to do the labs, they asked me if I wanted to do the blood test for signs of early Alzheimer's. So I said, sure. I mean, who wouldn't want to do that? And apparently there's people that don't want to know, but I would want to know. So I just got the results of my um tests the last couple of days, and I am not at a greater risk for Alzheimer's or early Alzheimer's. They I'm not sure. Somebody was asking me, well, how do they know? And I'm, well, I, you know, I don't understand the science behind it, but I'm willing to go with it. So um they said that that doesn't mean that you won't get it, and that doesn't mean that you wouldn't get other kinds of dementia, which I totally understand, but at least, you know, the answer wasn't yes, you're at great risk for early Alzheimer's. I'll take it, right? Um and so the other markers for my kidneys, my liver, my cholesterol, which I already know um my bad cholesterol is elevated. Um, they also did the A1C, which uh anybody that has any kind of knowledge about diabetes, or if you have a family member or loved one that's diabetic, you know an A1C is the three-month average of your blood glucose. And so the range, the good range of an A1C goes up to 5.6, and I was 5.7. So, you know, it could be better. It could be a lot worse, too. Um, I know I've been kind of on that precipice of borderline, right? And and all the more reason to get more exercise. And I'm trying to eat better, but I I have to admit that has very been very challenging for me. And the holidays are just um not the best time to try to eat better, right? Um, but also just been stressed out about Bill's situation, so just not doing good in that. So I figure if I can at least walk every day, then maybe that somehow makes up for it. I I don't know, but it's something that I can do, and I do enjoy it, and it just makes me feel better and it makes me feel stronger, and it makes my dog happy. And sometimes I feel like if I was out and somebody tried to approach me and had ill intentions towards me, I think, well, I have this little 14-pound chihuahua mix, and what is she gonna do? Like, I used to have bigger dogs, and I used to feel more secure having a big dog, right? Well, we ran into our mailman on our walks, and she just does not like it if he gets close to us, right? And she starts feeling threatened and she starts barking. So I figure if somebody ever tried to do something to me, this little fluff ball, 14 pounds of terror, would would most likely um fight fight for me, right? So brownie is brownie is really a piece of work. Sometimes I feel like if she was a person or a child, she'd be like she'd have attention deficit disorder, or she'd have ADHD, or she'd be categorized as hyperactive because she she'd have a hard time concentrating. But as a dog, she just has a lot of energy, and sometimes I think she's not focused on us that much, but there's a story about when Bill um when Bill was at the hospital, um we came back. Uh I brought him home from the second hospital stay, and I didn't know how it was gonna go to um to you know get him in the house, right? So it was raining that day too. That was in November, it was raining, and so I asked our neighbors if they could keep her in their house with their dogs um while I went to go get him and then getting him in the house, right? Because I didn't want her to run out or anything. Or maybe it was the time when we had to bring him home with medical transport. Anyway, there was this time when um when I know we were both out and it was raining, and anyway, so they had her, and they are um three houses up and kind of around this this curve, and so you can't see our house from their house. And it's and it's a sizable distance. I mean, I would say it's at least 150 feet through trees, through bushes, through hedges, through fences, right? And so we had pulled up, and I was gonna text John and say, Well, we just we just drove in the driveway, and I looked at my phone, and John had texted me and said, Let me know when you get home. And I thought, well, that's ironic, right? That's that's timing, right? And so he told me later that right before he texted me, he knew that we were home because Brownie had jumped off their sofa and run to the door. And so they figured that we were home. And and I was kind of surprised because I didn't know how she she couldn't possibly have heard us. I mean, through the walls of the house, the traffic, my car doesn't make any noise, really. It you know, it doesn't backfire or any anything like that. So anyway, she's obviously very tuned into us and obviously knows when we're in the area, and so animals are just very uh they can be very intuitive and they're very connected to you even when you don't realize that they are. So even though she looks like a little pipsqueak, and I have all these sweaters for her that are very uh comical or cute, cutesy, right? She could be a killer. I know that. I know that about her. So anyway, um, so that's my my f my first podcast of the New Year's. I'm gonna go out and see if it's raining now so I can take her for her walk. I have to say that carefully. We have to start spelling that word W A L K because just like the word cookie, um she really gets to know it. And there's a certain time every day when she's like she knows that it's time to go, and she just runs to the door no matter what. She knows where her leash is, and that's it. There's no there's no hiding the fact that she knows what time it is. So uh next week, well, we'll tackle another topic together. I hope you'll join me. If you like this episode, please follow the Only Child Diaries Podcast on Apple Podcasts or other platforms you might listen on. And consider rating Only Child Diaries and writing a review. It helps others to find us. Please share it with a friend you think might like it as well. Visit my Instagram page, Only Child Diaries, or Facebook, Only Child Diaries Podcast. Thanks for listening. I'm Tracy Wallace, and these are the Only Child Diaries.