Sunshine!

We mowed the back yard again on Thursday, after my treatment and before dinner, because the forecast called for rain on Friday.

It rained for 5 hours on Friday.

I mowed the back yard again yesterday.

Dave will mow the front today (it grows a little less quickly, as it is a different kind of grass).

The sun is out, and it's only 70 this morning, so the windows are open.

We sure are happy about all of the rain, and about the cooler than normal temps for August!!

It's just been a lot of work to keep up with all of the lush growth.

Well, our trip to Missouri (9 hours one way) for the eclipse was fun, but the eclipse itself was sort of a bust.

We could see perfectly at first (our hosts got the approved glasses for everyone way in advance, as this gathering had been in planning for over a year).

Then, approaching totality, a huge bank of thick clouds rolled in, and completely blocked our view of the sky.

The birds stopped singing, the bats came out, and it got as dark as midnight, but we couldn't see totality.

Then, the MINUTE the sun started to peek out from behind the moon, the clouds cleared away.

We could see the tiny sliver of light, which looked like a scythe.  It was really cool, but at the same time, disappointing.

It also rained during the darkness, which was interesting.

Even though we couldn't see the few minutes of totality, when the heavenly bodies were in perfect alignment from our place on one of them, it was still pretty cool, and powerful to think about what our ancestors might have done with an experience like that before they understood the science of it.

It was fun to be with friends new and old, to play games and eat and drink and relax.  OH, and with so many tech heads in the house, they figured out a way for us to watch Game of Thrones, too! 

The very best part, though, was a three day work week!

In other news, I saw my oncologist on Thursday, and told him about the return of the tendon pain.

As a result we are trying the last option for hormone blocking medication.  I started on the new med that night, thanks to a sample bottle from the nurse.

Hopefully, it will be the one that works with my chemistry.  If it doesn't help, then I am stuck with sometimes debilitating pain in my wrists, hip, ankle, knee.... (it travels).  But I will just keep moving through the pain as best I can, as I have been doing.

Doc also gave me permission to actually TRY to lose weight.  I only need to lose 8-10 pounds, but I really want it gone.  I hate how my body looks in the mirror, and I hate that my clothes don't fit right.  This is a common side effect of the hormone blocking medication.

I have no choice but to take this medication for 7-10 years, so I need to adapt so that I don't gain 50 pounds like many patients do.

I remember when my sister was on Tamoxifen, she gained weight, too.

First step is to, once again, curtail alcohol consumption.  

Second step is to increase resistance exercises.  More hand weights, push ups, and therapy bands, as well as increasing the resistance level on my elliptical at intervals.

The diet is already pretty clean most of the time, so there's not much I can do there.

I also already get about 45 minutes of cardio exercise every day, so there's not much I can do there, either, aside from maybe using the elliptical when we watch baseball games or tv / movies.

That's QUITE do-able.

I think laying off the cocktails during the week will help a LOT.  It had started to when we decided to stop drinking before, but that decision didn't hold, after all of the stress this spring.

Dave tends to drinks heavily, and he inspires me to drink (I enjoy it, and I don't want to miss out), so it's a bad situation. 

Stress and worry also make us want to drink, but we need to find other ways to handle our stress.  How about exercise?

This time, it was HIS decision to NOT go to the liquor store on our weekly errand trip. That's very good news.

The only way it will work is to not have any in the house.  

We both have multiple health reasons to NOT drink,  but it has become such a habit, and a part of who we are, that it is clearly more of a challenge than we were prepared for.

We can do it, though. We have done it before, and it was wonderful.

In other news, Dave's hospital bill came, and his car needs a repair, so there goes our "trip fund" for Wales.

No more planning a trip overseas for next spring, because now we have to completely start over saving up the money for it.

Bills don't care that one of us is a cancer patient, who would like to LIVE her life before it's over!

So.  Shit.

It might still happen later next year (especially if we put all of the money we aren't spending on booze into the trip fund!), but it definitely will NOT be in the spring as we had been planning.

I am off to make a hearty breakfast, and then the front yard will get mowed.

It should be a pretty relaxed day today, with a Cubs game this afternoon, and the season finale of "Game of Thrones" tonight.

Have a good Sunday!