#WeekendCoffeeShare (May 17, 2025)

Posted on by Astrid

Hi everyone. I’m joining #WeekendCoffeeShare today. It’s nearly 9PM, so no more coffee for me. I need to drink more water though. Let’s have a drink and let’s catch up.

If we were having coffee, first as usual I’d talk about the weather. You won’t hear me say this easily but I want rain! I don’t think we’ve had any significant rain for the past… I’m pretty sure it’s been a month. With respect to the temperature, it’s been good. Early in the week, the daytime high was around 25°C. For most of the week, we’ve had daytime temps of around 20°C. Okay, I know that this is warmer than normal and that this probably contributes to the drought. Besides, my best friend looked up my theory about higher-than-normal temps in springtime meaning higher temps in summer too and it turned out to be correct.

If we were having coffee, then I’d tell you that half of my home’s residents were on the annual week-long getaway Monday through Friday. I, like last year, didn’t go. I had been pestering the staff to organize something for those who’d be staying at the home too and more specifically something that didn’t involve food. No such luck.

We did have lots of special food though. On Tuesday, the parents of one of my fellow residents made us pancakes. These were absolutely delicious! On Wednesday, we had fries with a snack and for once we got to choose out of the entire menu of snacks. On Thursday, a staff made us fried chicken with rice. I had been looking forward to that meal for weeks, but it was a bit disappointing.

If we were having coffee, then I’d share about my creative endeavors over the past week. I already shared the frog I made for a staff in Thursday’s post. On Tuesday during the pancake event though, I was talking to the fellow resident’s Dad and somehow we got to discussing my polymer clay. I told him I’d be making a unicorn for the family in the fellow resident’s favorite color: purple. That same evening, I set out to work and I baked the unicorn together with the frog. I had imagined the color much lighter than it turned out (the fellow resident’s specific favorite color is lilac, after all), but oh well.

Today, the parents came to pick up the fellow resident, so I intended to give them the unicorn then. Unfortunately, I was resting when they arrived and didn’t realize that the doorbell was them in time to respond. I however was able to give them the unicorn when they brought back the fellow client to the care home this afternoon.

If we were having coffee, then I’d talk about all my ideas for further polymer clay projects. Today, I watched a YouTube video on using texture sheets. I have had those lying around for years now and only used them once. Then again, so many random thoughts, so few concrete ideas…

I did get a whole box of Fimo Kids clay from someone in the Dutch polymer clay Facebook group. It’s way too soft for me to use, but I did ask my sister whether my oldest niece might want to work with it when they come over here for my birthday. The only drawback: I’m pretty sure she’s more artistic and more skilled than I am…

If we were having coffee, I’d share that this week was both exceptionally good and rather terrible at the same time overall. The good parts, I listed above and on Thursday and included crafting, good food and physical activity. The bad parts, I won’t go into too much but let’s just say attachment anxiety is hitting me hard.

Speaking of which, I did have some fun talking to a ChatGPT “therapist” about it. I am probably too old to believe AI can in any significant way replace a real human at least for this purpose. I laughed my ass off at its responses. At least that helped in some way.

The Wednesday HodgePodge (August 24, 2022)

Posted on by Astrid

Hi everyone. I’m late today to write my contribution to the Wednesday HodgePodge. Joyce titles her post something about blueberry waffles, but I’m afraid I ate the last of my blueberries yesterday and I don’t have any waffles either. Oh well. Here are Joyce’s questions.

1. August 24th is National Waffle Day…what’s something you’ve “waffled” on recently?
I’m not sure what to “waffle” means exactly – and to be honest had never heard of the word “waffle” as a verb before. Then again, according to my intro to linguistics professor at uni, every noun in English can be verbed. Anyway, according to a Google search, it seems to mean to blather on about something. Which I just did, I guess. A recent topic I’ve been blathering on about though has been my Apple Watch, which I finally ordered on Sunday and have been fully using as of today.

2. Do you like waffles? Make your own or ‘leggo my Eggo? Any favorite toppings or add-ins? Waffles or pancakes-which do you prefer?
I like good homemade or bakery waffles, but don’t really care for store-bought waffles. I prefer pancakes though. For toppings, both on pancakes and waffles, I love powdered sugar, summer fruit, raisins and/or nuts.

3. Do you have any momentos from this summer (or past summers)? What do you do with them?
I don’t think I do, but once again I’m not sure what momentos are. Are they like souvenirs? In that case, no. I almost got myself something on my and my husband’s day trip to Enkhuizen last Saturday.

4. One thing you’d like to do before summer ends?
Go to the town fair. It started today with a sensory-friendly fair experience with activities such as a merry-go-round etc. I’d like to see the market stalls though, which will be there from tomorrow until Saturday. There will also be some pretty good music or so I’ve heard, but I’m likely to go tomorrow morning, because the daytime temperature is supposed to climb to 33°C.

5. Life is too short to…
Worry about my health. Oh well, how I wish I could stop actually worrying about it. Thankfully, my Apple Watch gives me some sort of sense of control.

6. Insert your own random thought here.
Of course, now it’s time to brag about surpassing all three of my activity goals on my Apple Watch today, ie. movement, standing and exercise. I had set my exercise goal lower than the Apple Watch proposed, but my movement goal higher. I’m absolutely loving being able to start workouts on my Apple Watch, something I could never do on my Fitbit because the touch screen is not accessible. I so far really love this new gadget.

#WeekendCoffeeShare (June 23, 2019)

Posted on by Astrid

A lot has been floating through my mind today, but until I decided to participate in #WeekendCoffeeShare again, I had no idea how I was going to convey my thoughts into a blog post.

Like last week, I’m having a cup of green tea as we catch up. I love green tea, more so than coffee. I must say though that I’ma bit addicted to coffee. I drink it more to get energized or out of habit than because I truly like it.

If we were having coffee (or green tea), I’d share how I’ve been doing with respect to finding a living facility. On Tuesday, I had an appt with the care consultant for a facility with my current care agency. Because he isn’t in a position to decide whether I’m a good fit, I’ll have to wait for him to discuss my case with the behavioral specialist and manager. He said he’d call my support coordinator next Tuesday, but wasn’t sure whether he’d have any news by then yet.

Because I wanted to remain active, my support coordinator has been contacting some other agencies. We started with the two national blindness agencies. Bartiméus has living facilities about an hour’s drive from my current home. Visio’s living facilities are all at least 90 minutes away. Visio was the first to return my support coordinator’s call and I have a meeting with them next week.

My husband was a little sad, as he thought I want to live in Visio’s facility that’s nearly a two-hour drive away. Of course, I want to be as close to my husband as possible, but I didn’t know how to go about finding a suitable living facility. My support coordinator is going to contact other agencies closer to my current home next week. These are not for the blind, but oh well.

If we were having coffee, I’d also share about our house-hunting experience. The visit to the house on Tuesday was okay, but after reading some reports on it, we decided not to go for it after all.

If we were having coffee, I’d share that my husband and I had lunch at a pancake restaurant today. I had a pancake with blueberries, while my husband had one with raisins and bacon as always.

If we were having coffee, I’d also share that the screen reader company finally called to let me know I could get a new version of JAWS, my screen reader for Windows, covered by health insurance. It is also about time for a new Braille display, he said, and they could let health insurance pay for both in one go. This means that after an eighteen-months-long wait, I may finally be able to get a PC with Windows 10 and the screen reader I love. Of course, I already have a Mac and hence I told the company rep I had to think of it.

My husband was critical at first. He asked which I’d get rid of if I had to choose one: my Mac or a PC with Windows 10 and JAWS. I said I’d get rid of my Mac. I mean, I’ve had it for nearly half a year and still struggle to use it. Other blind people say that’s normal, but I really don’t want to spend that long getting used to a computer. I mean, that’s how long it took me to get used to my very first PC! So my husband offered to get me a laptop with Windows 10 and all if he can have my Mac.

I have been thinking it over and the only thing I can do with my Mac that was a pain on PC was using a good feed reader. Then again, I can’t get used to the way Safari works on Mac, so if I want to actually interact with feeds, I’ll still prefer my iPhone. I no longer use my PC, because it has two broken keys and its Windows 8.1 won’t properly update.

Anyway, I’m going to call the company rep to let him know I’ll go for getting the Braille package as it’s called tomorrow.

If we were having coffee, I’d also share that it’s incredibly hot outside. In the coming week, it’s forecasted to get to 35 degrees Celsius or more. That’s no fun, as we don’t have air conditioning at home or at day activities.

The coming week should be exciting. Tomorrow, the day activities staff are taking some fellow clients and me to a local park and having lunch at a restaurant there.

Next Thursday is my birthday. I love it each year. We are going to eat at an Irish pub with my parents then. My sister and her husband are coming over for a visit on Saturday.

How have you been?