Just Another Manic Monday...

Now that I've given you all a classic '80s earworm, yes, it's Monday again.

I had several things to do today, and I got MOST of them done.  In spite of rain that reminded me at times of my mother-in-law's description of "rain like an inverted ocean."  Seriously.  High-speed wind shield wipers almost didn't cut it.  
The ducks love it.  Our resident neighborhood Mallards have been out there most of the day snuffling through the puddles and thoroughly enjoying themselves.
I am not so sure the broom plant or my roses are going to like all that moisture so much.  It's good for the area in general, though.  
Today was grocery shopping day.  Thankfully, I got my walk in early, before the rain started. I am also grateful that the rain let up long enough for me to get the groceries from the commissary to my car.  Once home, I pulled the car close enough to the garage to be able to unload in relative dryness. 
Voice lesson was a challenge.  Been a LONG time since I had a lesson, and a long time since I've practiced enough.  My throat was not happy with me. 
I also managed to get the kitchen cleaned up and the dishwasher dealt with this afternoon. 

There's still a load of towels to be folded in the dryer, but hey, they're not goin' anywhere...

Five more days of antibiotics, tomorrow's the last day of the steroids. 
Oh, yeah, I got stung by what we THINK was a wasp while in Austin almost two weeks ago.  The spot was almost completely gone, not even very red when we left Austin.  Last Tuesday morning, it was itchy, really swollen, and red.  Seems wasp stings do that sometimes - they have a delayed reaction.  So, off to the clinic I went, and the doc said I had a fever, so antibiotics, and a steroid pack for the swelling and irritation.  It is not swollen at all anymore, the mark is almost gone.  Just a little bump where the actual sting was, and it's not even red.   Downside has been that I have to keep food in my stomach, or it gets really painful.  Don't even want to SEE the scale until next week after I've had a chance to normalize the food/exercise ratio.  The clothes mostly still fit, so that's good...

Today was also my Mom's 91st birthday.  Had to call and wish her a happy birthday, and confess that though I had a card, and had indeed gotten it READY to mail, I had neglected to get it into the mailbox until this morning.  She laughed, and said that everybody's card seemed to be late this year.  She sounds good, and was having a great birthday.  Someone from her church brought her a little birthday cake, all decorated.  She says she'll probably take it to the dining room to share with the other residents who sit at her table. 

Days like this I usually prefer to spend curled up in my office with a book.  I only got to do that for a little while today.  I think I'll go do that some more before bedtime. 
Just checking in so that I don't get out of the habit of writing in this blog completely.

Further Reflections On My Trip and Return

One thing that amazed me is how many people ignore the view out the airplane window.  Do they fly so often that it now fails to amaze them?  I can understand if it is night time, or there are lots of clouds (though I enjoyed the cloud formations we flew above on Saturday morning), but on a clear, sunny day?  I'm glued to the window, watching the miniature world scroll by.  Farms, towns, factories, suburbs, vast stretches of apparently empty space.  It's all interesting to me.  I don't get to fly all that often, and the perspective gained by viewing our civilization from a distance can be heady stuff.  Our world really is pretty small, no matter how big it feels from down here.  What we do to the land matters, it shows up even from a distance. 

Though I like flying, and I like seeing new things, I don't like being away from my base of operations that much.  It unsettles me.  I guess I haven't found a good way to take it with me yet.  Ever since I got back, this song has been playing in my head, and refuses to be exorcised, no matter what.
Traveling Wilburys: Inside Out

The weeds in Alabama could probably rival the plants in Australia for vindictiveness and danger. Most of the vines I had to remove from in and on my mother's azalea hedges had HUGE thorns.  They are carnivorous, actively seeking the slight bit of bare skin between my long pruning gloves and my shirt sleeve.  I have multitudinous scratches and puncture wounds on my elbows.  I also ran afoul of the top of the chain link fence.  I was grateful over and over again for the tetanus shot I got shortly after the tornadoes.  At least I knew I was protected from disease.  Much antibiotic cream and cortisone cream have helped the scratches start to heal.  I also have bruises all over me.  Branches that argued with me, things that poked me through the sheet we used to transport our clippings to the curb, the abominable fence, my own pruners, these are the things that bruised me.  Stumps of old shrubs bruised my knees when I tried to kneel on them to reach the roots of some weeds. Also, I don't know if it is the bending and lifting I did while at Mom's or the vigorous workouts I've done since I got home, but my leg muscles are sore.  Something has worked them hard!

As hard as my sister and I worked every day, I still missed being really active.  I missed my walks and my elliptical time.  I listen to music and just move it when I am walking or using the elliptical.  Gets my blood pumping, and gets my heart rate up.  All that yard work was not aerobic.  Didn't benefit my heart or lungs much.  (In fact, being up close and personal with so much pollen was not so good for my allergies.  I am still living on antihistamines and eye drops.)
I also missed my regular clothes.  I had only yard work clothes at Mom's, except for the outfit I wore on the plane to and from.  None of my yard work clothes is the right size any more.  Most are about two sizes too big.  I felt really odd wearing those clothes every day.  (Although it was a bit of an ego boost, knowing how tight those clothes USED to be!)

REALLY missed my singing.  I just get lost in my songs and in the challenge of making my voice do what it needs to do to function properly.  Just couldn't do that at Mom's.  (Sister's snide comments didn't help, either.)  Voice lesson today was a challenge because I went so long without practice, and haven't really had time to practice much since I got home.  Once I found my groove, though, things went pretty well.

Since I got home, we have been OD-ing on the Pacific Rim Blu-Ray.  Lots of really neat extras on that set of discs, and we've been working our way through all of them.  I really love that movie.  It's just NEAT!!  (Added bonus, Ron Perlman is in it, and his daughter Blake  composed and performed a song for the closing credits .)

Matt framed our art posters that we bought at Dallas ComiCon Fan Days.  They look good in our hall.  Finally have art that really reflects our lifelong interests.

A Hellboy as an adolescent painting, and Gipsy Danger fighting a Kaiju by Devin Kraft of Cheshire Cat Art.  We met him at the con, and gave Ron Perlman a smaller print of the Hellboy painting as a token of our esteem.  (We thought it was cute.)






Here is a picture of a frog on the back wall of Mom's house.  May be a little blurry, it's zoomed in.

Here's the front of Mom's house after we got done taming the azaleas.


















When I got home, my Boot Campaign boots were waiting for me.  These boots are sold as a fundraiser for a program that gives aid to servicemen and women returning from overseas.  I bought them to support the cause, and to reward myself for a 30 pound weight loss since I started this effort in January.

Speaking of my weight loss, here are some before and after photos to give a little perspective on how much difference 30 pounds makes.

This is me at 168 pounds.

And this is me at 138 pounds.  BIG difference, eh?  Biggest difference is in how I feel and in the numbers on my health records.  BP lower, Cholesterol lower, everything looking good!









Guess that's about all for this outing.  I have wandered around in the wilderness long enough.  Hope you enjoyed the trip.