Brain Muddle

4:38 AM Up at o’dark hundred because I’m still a little on European time. Gracie approves because she gets fed even earlier. I am drinking tea again today, rather than coffee. I haven’t become a tea drinker by choice. Before we left, I efficiently used up all our coffee beans. Then I rescheduled the delivery of bird-friendly coffee and messed up the dates. Yesterday, we managed to forget to add coffee to the grocery list and didn’t think to buy any while we were there. Three’s a charm? I’d blame the last on jet lag, but the second was more likely to old age. Arrg.

However, I am giving myself kudos for figuring out how to put my photos in a grid on blog pages. (See previous post as an example.) I certainly don’t know the coding language, or even which one it is, but I remember enough to be able to read the HTML version. Eventually I may make pretty edges and more complicated layouts, but this is good enough for now.

We worked hard yesterday, getting all of our trip clothing washed. Only ones not folded and put away are some woolens drying on a rack in the guest bedroom. Grant is also in the guest bedroom, his gift to me, because he came home with a prolifically runny nose and was coughing away. He seemed better last night.

His foot, on the other hand, is not. He dropped our big, heavy suitcase on it when he offloaded the truck, having one of the wheels hit right in the middle of his foot. In the best of times, Grant’s feet and legs are swollen from bad circulation. Now it looks even worse. If not a lot better when he gets up this morning, I’m taking him to a walk-in, or maybe hobble-in clinic. But first, we are driving to Lakeland to meet up with Kristina and family for lunch.

11:00 AM First to arrive at Bonnet Springs Park, we carried our lunch and chairs to the picnic area next to the playground. Grant’s foot is really sore. No walking for him today. I made a 4:00 appointment at the Advent walk-in clinic in Ocoee. 

Lovely seeing everyone. Peg and Robert wanted to know all about our cruise since they are considering one next year. (I just looked: most are about sold out. I’m amazed how far in the future people plan.) Peg is already signed up for 2 cruises in Alaska, a European tour, and a North Eastern USA cruise. She has taken the “you go, girl” to heart.

Lunch in Lakeland
Another Panther’s Fan

6:00 PM Thank goodness after a X-ray, the physician assistant determined Grant’s foot is only contused, not broken. He was outfitted with a pressure shoe and told to ice, ice, ice and take Tylenol. It should get better in maybe 7-10 days. No particular restrictions, so I can nag him to ride the stationary bike we moved to the porch. The clinic staff was kind and efficient. I assume there will be a follow-up survey where I can sing their praises.

I suggested pizza for dinner, but he felt good enough to stand up and make the turkey and lentil stew he’d planned. Cookies for desert while I watched TV, and Grant snored.

 We are lucky people.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Month of Garden Club

Image
April seemed to be all garden club, all the time. I started with the zone leader’ walkthrough for Spring Fever on Friday, the 5th, then 2 whole days of that event. Whew. April 11th was the Windermere Garden Club’s monthly meeting, a field trip to Southern Hill Farm, a you-pick and wholesale blueberry farm. We were inspire to add blueberries to our garden. Friday, April 12th, I was the speaker at Bloom and Grow’s monthly luncheon, touting the value of becoming a citizen scientist, specifically, downloading the iNaturalist app and participating in the City Nature Challenge 2024: Orange County. I was pleased with my talk, the first one I’ve given in person in 5 years. I still attend EarlyBird Toastmasters, but we’ve been on Zoom since early 2020. Before that, we’d moved to Key Biscayne for a year, and I didn’t drive up to Fort Lauderdale often. On the 21st, we toured Jeanne’s almost-all native, completely grassless yard, a B&G social with the mandatory wine and lovely appetizers and d...
Read more

Relief

Image
I have been wild and exhausted with anxiety. Grant’s passport was stuck in limbo at the US passport agency, and there didn’t seem to be any way to break it loose. We had applied for renewal of our passports back in October, using a new online process: create an account at MyTravel.gov, fill in the form, upload a headshot from our iPhone, and pay $130 by credit card. Easy peasy. I finished mine October 15th, and got an email notification the next day my application had been received. Grant could not create an account at MyTravel.gov. I’m still not clear why, but after several days of his being very frustrated by numerous attempts to use his normal email address, he just couldn’t seem to make it work. I suggested a different email address. I ended up creating it for him using my address at Yahoo. Not really a big deal, except I don’t use that one much, and I can’t remember the password. Fortunately, I have it open on my cellphone, so I could check for any emails that came in.  On Oct...
Read more

Mindfulness

Image
Potato Vines   Using my preferred technique of closing the barn door after the horse has bolted, I’ve gotten back to my ab workout now that I pulled my lower back while weeding. One would think that by the time one were 70, one would know that to keep one’s back from hurting, one’s abs need continual strength training, but one would be wrong. Two days of drugs and rest got me through the worst part, but not the frustration and embarrassment. Now, two weeks later, I’m in the habit of daily early morning ab exercise. What has made it easy is RPM, or Rise, Pee, Meditate. A benefit of our continued no-contact world is being able to attend the mindfulness-based stress reduction program presented by a couple from our former congregation. They had offered it previously but my schedule didn’t fit their timetable. Now...my schedule is more flexible. In addition to attending 8 weekly meetings and an all-day workshop, they ask us to meditate daily and listen to their guided body scans. ...
Read more