Life

I try to be a positive person...but the month of June kinda sucked.

First I fell--standing up from the kitchen chair, suddenly I was free-falling, tried to grab the wall, and landed hard on both arthritic knees. Laid there hollering 'Damn, damn, damn!' for 10 minutes (should have had my 3-year-old granddaughter cover her ears) until I could move and my daughter helped me up. Had to go to urgent care the next day for my left foot which was massively swollen and my right thumb which I jammed trying to catch the wall. Fortunately nothing broken, just hurt like hell for 10 days. Ironically I had just completed 6 weeks of physical therapy to improve my balance and my therapist had been very pleased with my progress...

Then I found out I have to have rotator cuff surgery on my right shoulder. I hurt it throwing a ball back in March but my primary doctor dismissed it as just 'old age' type aches and pains. He finally agreed to give me a referral to an orthpedic specialist who asked 2 questions about my pain and said 'sounds like a rotator cuff tear.' Which the MRI verified. I really like this surgeon, though--he explained I could have the surgery now or wait a few years and have a complete shoulder replacement 'because you're only 68 which is too young to live in pain for 30 years.'

And then, last week I became one of the special 10% of people who get shingles even though they've been vaccinated. Based on coversations with other friends, I am lucky in that the vaccine meant I had a 'mild' case--instead of agonizing burning skin for 2 weeks I've only had a straight-pins-sticking-my-scalp/forehead feeling and it's definitely better after just a week. So I've been miserable but functional, not in serious pain.

Surgery won't happen till the end of August or beginning of September, so July better bring me lots of good things!

Just got back from a vacation!

As I've mentioned before, my 3 daughters and their families are scattered all over--the oldest is in Eugene OR, the middle one is in Heidelberg, Germany, and I now live with the youngest in Winston-Salem NC.

This past week we all converged in Kill Devil Hills in the Outer Banks of North Carolina and stayed at a rental house for a week--the first time we've been together in 2 years, and this time my ex (their dad) and his girlfriend were invited. (Not a problem--it was a mutually amicable divorce after 43 years.)

It was so much fun to see all the cousins--six of them ranging from 6 months to 11 years--interacting, but what was even more rewarding was watching how the kids were all comfortable with their various aunts and uncles, even though they haven't been in close contact with them. I think it was particularly delightful for me to see because I never had any cousins and my kids only had my sister's 2 kids as cousins and we didn't hang out too much. So seeing the ease with which the kids interacted with whichever adult was available was happy-making!

And a picture, of course! (Click on it to enlarge)

Far left: Evelyn, 7, (OR); Emma (the tall one!), 11 (Germany); in front of her is her sister Matilda, 5; behind me is Kira, 10, who is Evelyn's sister; and on my lap are Hazel, 2, and River, 6 months, with whom I live in North Carolina.

Rewatch of Supernatural 2022

Season 14

Prior to my rewatch, the main thing I remembered about season 14 was the Ma’lak box. Turns out there wasn’t a lot more to remember…
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Rewatch of Supernatural 2022

Season 12

I’m back to my Supernatural season reviews after 3 months off to move from Chicago to North Carolina and celebrate the holidays in my new home! And my New Year’s resolution is to finish my SPN rewatch before my daughter has her baby next month! So on to season 12…
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Rewatch of Supernatural 2022

Season 10

This is the season that has my all-time favorite episode of the entire series…
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Rewatch of Supernatural 2022

Season 8

So I went into season 8 with the foreknowledge that this is the season where Sam starts out very out-of-character by having not looked for Dean all year. But it’d been a long time since watching it, and I put on my rose-colored glasses determined to find the hints I’d missed that made it make sense.

Only to see that this is the season that committed character assassination on both brothers:
Sam—I found something I was missing
Dean—recites list of every mistake Sam ever made including ones he wasn’t responsible for, like being soulless
Sam—Well, then you’re better off without me
Dean—You just don’t realize what you want so I will make you want to be a hunter again by reciting the list of every mistake you ever made
Sam—Okay, I’ll do something really hard to fix it
Dean—recites list
Sam—You and the world are better off without me
Dean—Screw the world, I can’t live without my brother

It’s all written very ‘hit the viewers over the head because nuance is too subtle’ and it’s like the writers never watched the first 5 seasons at all.

At the end of the rewatch I realized I cared more about several of the guest stars than I did about Sam and Dean—in fact the only reason to watch this season again is to appreciate Kevin Tran and Benny and Garth and Charlie and Grandpa Winchester and Aaron, the kid with the golem, in their stand-alone episodes.

Sigh. So here are the individual episode thoughts. I apologize in advance for how snarky they are this time.
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Rewatch of Supernatural 2022

Season 6

General Observation—When you watch season 6 knowing the secrets behind the behavior of Sam and Cas the season really holds up. And once again we get to watch Dean suffer through feeling betrayed by his brother and best friend, angsting about the mega-monster problem, and finding out that family doesn’t mean the same thing to others…

To the episodes—

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Rewatch of Supernatural 2022

Season 4

General Observations—I remembered this season as the one where Sam and Dean’s relationship falls apart because they don’t communicate, and started this rewatch looking for the signs. Interestingly, it felt different than I remembered it.

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It's only been a year...

Have a new Sam and Dean story!

Title: The Drowned Church
Author: borgmama1of5
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: None
Word Count: 7000
Beta: sandymg
Summary: Another day, another ghost...another Winchester down...

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/41060106