Sunday Funday

 There was another torrential storm on Friday.  No damage here, but it sure did bring a cool front, for which we are very grateful.

Yesterday, it was only 90 degrees.  In Mid-August!! Today's predicted high is 88!!

This morning, we got up and went out for our sunrise walk at a park up north of town.  It was 72 degrees.  Humid, but so refreshing.  The water was like glass, it was so pretty in the hazy sunrise.

Got home by 8, cooked a somewhat labor-intensive breakfast, ate, and everything was all done by 8:45am.

I LOVE days like this....because now the whole day is stretched out in front of us, and we can take our time about anything else that we want to do.

Dave still has all of his chores to do, because he has trouble motivating himself to just get them done.  He will do them today, though, and he can take his breaks to sit and stare at his computer, and still have time to do it all.

I did mine Friday night and yesterday morning, for the most part.  I like that feeling of accomplishment, AND of not having it hanging over my weekend!

This whole past week, we got up at dawn and went for a walk before coffee, breakfast, and showers.  Then, on my 9:30 morning break time, we went walking again.  

(The only day we skipped was Monday, because that's the day I have to go to the office, and it's really hot there by 9:30 because it's all concrete and buildings.  I did go out for a few minutes and walked around the block, but when I am not home, Dave tends to not move from his seat all day.)

Then, because it was so hot in the afternoons, we did indoor workouts.  

Well, I did... Dave got up and lifted his little dumb-bells for about 2 minutes (which is something, and something is better than nothing), while I did two sets with my hand weights, using different muscle groups, two sets of squats (unweighted, then weighted), two sets of posterior leg lifts, two sets of crunches, all twelve reps each, and then some exercise bands, yoga and stretching.  

It takes all of my 15 minute break, if I go fast, and let it get my heart rate up!

My left hip and hamstring are my newest pain (it's scaring me a little, and reminding me of last December), and it's really bad in the morning, and after sitting at my desk....but it seems to resolve after I get up and move around.  Getting up and moving around, though, it intense.

The shoulder is doing better now, thankfully...but that's how this works.  The pain travels, and the intensity of it waxes and wanes.  

It's so weird, and I am so sick of it, after years, but oh well.

In other news, the Delta variant of COVID is burning it's way through Oklahoma.  

The numbers just keep going up and up, and the stupid governor refuses to do anything about it.  He doesn't think it's worthy of a declaration of emergency.  If he would just DO THAT, the over-run hospitals would be able to get assistance....but he doesn't see a problem!

School started this past week, and OMG, the uproar about masks is mind boggling.  Children are DYING... and parents who don't believe this is real are beating up school personnel over mask orders in school districts.

What has become of this world??

Anyway, I can't do anything about that, so instead, I try to focus my energy on my own inner peace, and on trying to spread healing energy however I can.

It's kind of what I've always done anyway.

So, we are on household lock down, for the most part.  We never stopped wearing masks when going out to do errands, so nothing has changed for us, other than we are not going out and doing errands unless we absolutely have to, like last year.  

We had gone out to eat a couple of times since spring, but always masked, and sat outside whenever we could.  We met with friends a couple of times, but have stopped doing that, too.

I had my last pre scheduled massage yesterday, because I really needed it for this pain I am having, but we both wore KN95 masks during the appointment (I took mine off when I was face down, though, because I literally could not breathe).

I also had my yoga therapy appointment, and, again, we both wore KN95 masks, and mostly stayed distanced.  It's terribly uncomfortable, but we need to protect each other.

My sister got the last of the jaw wiring stuff taken out of her mouth on Friday.  

They unwired her about 2 weeks ago, I think, but they left the brackets in, just in case they had to close her up again.

Thankfully, that didn't happen, so the brackets came out Friday.  That took 14 novocaine shots and sedation... sounds like it was terrible....but not nearly as bad as when they put everything in while she was awake!!!

We are all SO HAPPY that this ordeal is OVER for her, but her sense of relief must be exponential.

My brother has to have another surgery to release an impinged nerve in his RIGHT arm this time, and his back surgeon wants to re-evaluate him, since he's having issues again, and his back first surgery was less than a year ago.

He did lose his kitty cat about three weeks ago, too.  She finally passed after 11 weeks of decline, during which he cared for her vigilantly. 

Our Frank is still acting weird, but not AS weird, so we have not called the vet again.  

Dave is going to see his psychiatrist soon, and we are hoping that a new medication, or a dosage change, will help him to overcome his gradual increase of depression, which is probably responsible for his ever increasing lack of motivation to do ANYTHING at all, and his pervasive negative attitude.

That's about it from Dragons' Roost.  Wishing you a healthy, easy week!

Thunder and rain

 When the storms started at 5:30 this morning, I turned off the alarm that had been set for 6:30.

No early morning hike for us today.  It's still dark and rainy, with lovely thunder.  

We have to have lights on in the house right now (at 9:30 am) because it's so very dark outside.

It may clear out later, but now we also can't mow the lawn today, as we had planned.

This has been a very unusual summer for central Oklahoma....and, while I am grateful that we have not had many 100 degree days, it makes me worry about what we are in for as the seasons change.

Last fall and winter's catastrophic weather events are still VERY fresh.

This is especially true when I am out of the house, anywhere in the area...and see all of the trees that broke off at the tops from the inch-thick ice in October, and all of  the crepe myrtles and shrubs that died from the never-before-seen-here arctic cold in February. 

I definitely have PTSD regarding power outages, too.  Any time the lights flicker, I feel deep anxiety.  Living without power or water pressure for two full weeks was a nightmare. 

Anyway, yesterday was a very productive day at Dragons' Roost.  We got up and grocery shopped early, and were happy to find very few people were out and about yet.  By "early," I mean we left the house at 9 am and were done, and home, by 10:30.

The Covid numbers in Oklahoma are skyrocketing, and I wanted to do the shopping in person one last time, before we go back to relying on the shopping service.  I wanted to stock up on some things that were on sale.  

Our shopping service never seems to find the things that are on sale, and I also think they substitute items un-necessarily in order to "fluff up" the check-out amount.

It's comforting to know that Costco and Target have reinstated their mask requirements....we still have to go there about once a month or so.

We have a large package of KN95 masks, the ones that are supposed to be the most effective, and will wear only those going forward.

It's a month until our trip to Illinois, and we went ahead and booked our rooms for the road up and back.

My brother in law has canceled the big gathering we were going to have, and we all feel very good about that.  

We can have a small gathering with my family (everyone is fully vaccinated), and I can see my friends one on one, hopefully outdoors, since we won't be booked solid going to museums, restaurants, ball games, etc, due to Covid.

This trip is all about seeing people we love.  We HAD hoped to get Dave to the Art Institute for his first time, but that's probably not a good idea.

And, now that the Cubs team has been gutted, we have no interest in even thinking about the ridiculously high cost of bleacher tickets, not to mention how stupid it would be to sit in a crowd of yelling fans.

Once the storms move out today, we will be dealing with high 90s, and an intense heat index due to the humidity level. The dew point will be in the 70s after all of this rain.

The next several days will be get up and walk at sunrise if we want to get outside at all.  It will be too hot the rest of the day.

Wishing anyone reading this a good week.

TOTALLY forgot

 It's Tuesday... LOL...I forgot to post my weekly Sunday blog because we did a little get-away.

On Saturday night, we stayed at a real BnB with a full breakfast, and then went hiking at Roman Nose State Park early in the morning.

The BnB was booked through Air BnB, but was not a private residence, like many of them are.

It was a really cool, old hotel, which was restored starting in the 1990s.  It has guest rooms upstairs, with a full restaurant down stairs. It even had a ghost!

It's in the closest town to the park, which is about an hour from home.

SO... our weekend was busy, but also very nice. Just the right balance.

My next tattoo is happening this coming Wednesday.  I would not normally be doing this, but I have the money now, and I have wanted these for a looong time.  

Summer time is the best time to get tattoos so that they can be uncovered to heal.

Okay, off to work! Have a good rest of the week. 

New Sunday routine?

 We set an alarm and went out to hike at the park where we often see deer this morning.

We had hoped that getting there by 8 am, there wouldn't be many people there yet.

We were wrong.

Maybe next week, we will aim to get to wherever we decide to go by 7.

Had a nice morning walk, though, and then tried to go out for breakfast, thinking, once again, that there wouldn't be many people out yet by 9 am.

Wrong again.  Every place we checked was packed.  Not an option to be in a crowded restaurant where no one is wearing masks, and also not an option to wait an hour and a half to be seated.

Fast food drive through did the trick, but it was disappointing.

Doing this was Dave's idea, since we missed our hike last week, and he wanted to get back on track.

This pleases me no end.  

With the intense summer heat upon us, the earlier we go, the better, and hopefully, we will have better luck next time if we go earlier.

Covid numbers in Oklahoma are skyrocketing.  The statewide positive test rate was 18% as of Friday.

Not much is going on in our lives this week.

Frank continues to return to more normal behaviors, but we are still keeping the litter box in the living room until he goes back and forth to the laundry room freely and without any sign of trepidation.

Had my shot and port flush this past week, all went fine.  The new nurse was the only one there, and she did a great job this time. Phew!

My sister got the wires taken out of her mouth on Friday.  They are leaving the brackets, though, for another month... in case they have to wire her shut again.

Please pray that this does not happen.

I'm working on completing the last lesson in the year long course I have been taking.

I look forward to finding out what it will mean to me as my life progresses.

Have a good week!

Here we go again? I hope not....

 This past week found my pain levels going up and up.  

The hormone blocker is starting to cause issues, I am afraid.  It's been okay for the past 6 months, but now, I am starting to have issues, just like with all of the other ones.

I've talked about these problems in this blog for years, now.  The joint and tendon pain caused by this type of medication can sometimes be utterly debilitating.  It forced me to retire as a massage therapist.

This medication that I am currently on was actually the first one we ever tried, and we stopped it back then because my finger joints started to lock.

We switched back to this one in January, after running the gambit of every other possible drug over the years, including the one where I had to get two large needles in my butt every month, and the one that injected a pellet deep into my belly fat. 

The gambit also included several months of tamoxifen when I was temporarily cancer free. The tamoxifen caused me NO side effects, but it also allowed the cancer to come back.

Then, when the IV chemo failed in January of last year, we started this chemo pill/hormone blocker routine I am on now, and by December of last year, I was unable to walk due to leg tendon pain, as you may recall.

You may also recall the cortisone shots in my thumbs and wrists, and the nights with 30 leg cramps and no sleep at all, over the years.

Anyway, this time, it's my right shoulder again.  Only this time, it's worse than ever before, and for no reason at all.  It's not like I played tennis or something.  The left one is starting to hurt a bit, too.

SO, fortunately, I am a former massage therapist, a practitioner of yoga, and of myofascial release techniques.

I've been working on the shoulder myself all week, and then, yesterday, I got a massage, and I can now raise my arm to dress myself, wash my hair, and get dishes down out of the cabinet, etc....but it was nearly a week of being unable to move the arm at all.

In addition, my right thigh tendon is starting to act up as well, and I am getting glimmers of memory from last winter when, eventually, I could not walk.

Just going to try to stay ahead of the pain with self-care and body awareness....but it if continues to flare up like this, we may have to come up with a new plan.

Last summer, Doc mentioned another alternative chemo-like pill that doesn't require the hormone blocker partner.  

He also said I needed to decide if I wanted more QUALITY of survival, or QUANTITY of survival.

Yeah.

In other news, Frank is acting more like himself, but is still not willing to go through the kitchen into the laundry room, so we still have a litter box in the living room.

Every day, though one of his normal behaviors returns.  He now goes into the bathroom with me, and if I manage to get in there without him, me meows outside the door.  He had not done that for 2 weeks...so I am happy to see that back again.

Hoping that, with time, he will fully be himself again. 

We were going to go to the woods this morning, but Dave isn't into it.. so his idea that we should go every week lasted exactly one week.

Sigh.

We do have a lot we need to do around the house today, though, so I guess it's okay.

The new COVID numbers in Oklahoma spiked this past week, and I emailed my supervisor with my concerns.

Why is it that I was being forced to sit with another person in my area... a person who IS NOT VACCINATED... when everyone else on all of the rotation days, was sitting alone?  Couldn't she sit somewhere else, where there is a vacant desk, to protect us BOTH? 

Did they FORGET that I have, and always will have, a compromised immune system??

I worded it differently, of course, and my reward was that I get to go to the office on Mondays, starting tomorrow, and I will be there completely alone.

This pleases me no end.

In the meantime, Okies continue to refuse to wear masks, or get the vaccine, and our positive test rate was the highest in the country as of yesterday.

Dave and I have started using the grocery delivery service again, and only go out if we can be relatively isolated. 

I am off to shower and get breakfast going.   Have a good week!

Sunday, beautiful Sunday

 There was a big storm front that moved through here last night, and this morning, we woke up to 70 degrees and beautiful sunshine.

We are going out to walk at the park where we see the deer all the time, while it's still early.  Then, a trip to Costco, a stop at the pharmacy, and then treating ourselves to a visit to another local brewery.

Dave has decided that we need to get out in nature every weekend... I guess it had to be his idea, HAHA!

We'll see how long it lasts...

I'd go by myself, but it's not necessarily safe these days.

I can't remember if I blogged about our cat Frank getting sick.  

He's only a year and a half old, and we lost a kitty who was that age before, so it was a scary time for all of us.

Almost 2 weeks ago, Frank's behavior changed completely and suddenly.  After a normal Frank day, on a Tuesday evening, Frank became terrified of the kitchen.

He crouched on the dining room side of the threshold in the doorway leading into the kitchen, and stared, hackles up, pupils dilated, for hours.

It seemed that he saw a gang of poltergeists in there or something.  It was so weird.

He also stopped vocalizing (he's normally VERY talkative), playing, cuddling with his brother, etc, and took to hiding.  He also will not go into the bathroom, for some reason.

We gave it a day, and he was still acting really strange, so Dave took him to the vet.  In the meantime, we moved a litter box into the living room.

The vet palpated him, and said he seemed FINE... no intestinal blockage, no bladder issues (PHEW!), so he did a blood test.  The blood test shows inflammation somewhere in the body, and a couple of the other numbers indicated pancreatitis.

He explained that un-expelled hair in the stomach can cause a blockage of the pancreatic duct that empties into the stomach, and this can cause the pancreas to "back up," and become inflamed.  This can be quite painful, apparently.

SO, Frank was given an injection of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication, and a bag of sub-cutaneous fluids because he was dehydrated (We hadn't thought about the fact that the kitty water fountain is in the kitchen).

Since his visit to the vet, we've installed a second water fountain in the living room, and are keeping the litter box in here, too, because of his lingering fear of the kitchen.

Frank has gradually been improving, and yesterday, he even jumped up onto the top of the front door, using the covered litter box as a launch pad!  This was wonderful to see.

He's also been more vocal, playful, affectionate, and has ventured part way into the kitchen to eat for several days in a row.

He seems to be more comfortable going in there, without the enticement of food, if I am in there already. However, he will only go about as far as the stove.

My guess is that he became afraid of the kitchen because he probably had the onset of pain while eating in there, OR while back using the litter box.  That's all we can figure.

He still won't go THROUGH the kitchen to the laundry room, where the litter boxes are normally kept.  We're REALLY hoping he gets over this completely, and will go back there again eventually.  I don't like having litter all of the wood floors in the living room, and we don't have room for one in the bathroom, where he won't go anyway.

I miss him coming into the bathroom with  me. He and I had a routine when I would take my shower in the mornings.

The vet said nothing about dietary changes or anything, so we made that decision on our own.  All cats are getting hair ball remedy on the regular, and we are changing the dry food to a hair ball remedy formula.

Hopefully, this will help Frank to process hair more efficiently, and will keep this from happening to him again.

Okay, that's my report for this week!  Time to get OUTSIDE!

The sun is out!

 After several days of flooding rains, and witnessing the death of my garden because almost everything is rotting from too much rain, the sun finally came out yesterday.

We had one last deluge on Friday, bringing the rainfall total for OKC to 12 inches in 6 days.

Things started to dry out a little bit yesterday, and will do so more today. Our plan is to get out there and mow this afternoon, after the grass dries out a bit more.

It's supposed to be another beautiful day, with much lower humidity, and highs only in the mid 80s, which is cool for OKC in July!

I am hoping that my squash plants will recover, but I doubt it.  They dropped their baby squash already (stem end rot), and are dropping leaves now.

The only plant that's thriving is the volunteer cucumber.

We will also go to a city park today and take a walk where there are trees, because I am going stir crazy from nature deprivation.  Dave promised to take me out to hike last weekend, but it never happened, and the weather was iffy anyway.

It's been many weeks since I got my nature fix, and I am "shriveling up."

Then, since our offices both have tomorrow off, we are going to take a day trip so I can REALLY be in nature at one of the state or national parks here in Oklahoma.  

It's supposed to be another spectacular day, so off we shall go!

Our 4th of July celebration will be low key, as Dave is not a fan, and no one has invited us to celebrate with them.  That never happens here, anyway, so there was no expectation.

My family will be doing it up right, as always, but we are not there, which is just as well, because my sister is still recovering from her broken jaw, and my brother is recovering from elbow and hand surgery.

Their celebration will also be somewhat low key this year, but at least they will be together.

My tattoo has almost completely healed, and it didn't itch much at all.  It is definitely the simplest one I have ever gotten, just being an outline, for the most part. 

That being said, we got into out hot tub last night, and it was glorious!  I was conscious of the new tatt, though, and tried to leave that shoulder out of the soaking process for most of the time.

Dave has committed to making breakfast today, and I need to go get in the shower so I am ready to go for my hike.

Happy Independence Day to my readers in the US!  (like I have an international audience for these posts, HAHAHAH!)