Whew!

I escaped.  The elopement was abrupt and long lived.  Back at my cozy desk I put on my walking shoes and went to the MSU Food Truck that was across the bridge from the library.  I bought a BLT avocado sandwich on really good grilled bread.  Just came back from my afternoon constitutional.  The cottonwood trees are making their magic: white tufts floating across campus, nigh the whole darn environs.  I will walk home and get my requisite steps in today.  I will have my front yard mulched while I in the back yard will assemble my elevated garden bed.  Joe is bringing me enough topsoil to fill it up.  This weekend I would like to get some tomato plants and some more herbs...also some flowers for the planter for the patio.  I will speak to Joe about possibly roto-tilling the back yard.  Too many "volunteers", i.e., unbidden maple tree seedlings.  I should like to scatter wildflower seeds in the back.  If I am going to have weeds they might as well be of the flowering variety. 

I get a real hoot (ain't that an antiquated word) of the robins splashing in one of the many bird baths in the back yard.  They can really splash up a storm...Tonight, once the mulch is laid I will take a few pictures to post and send to Hyphen.  I can't tell if I am depressing her by reminding her of the summer she is missing (she loves her garden) or if I am providing relief from her dreary days of pain and rehab. 

And with that note I shall send a letter to a friend and be off for the day.  Later, my friends.  TGTINTT (Thank God there is no training tomorrow).  Time to begin the pack up and mosey on home. 

Just kill me

Training...just kill me...masters of the obvious and the heinous catalogers asking redundancies.  Just kill me now.  I am glad I don't have to come up this afternoon. 

Glorioski

I have dropped enough weight now that I have gone down two sizes in less than three months.  Walk, walk and putter.  My new mantra. 

My yard, hopefully, will be mulched today, weather permitting.  I'd like the front yard to look as nice as possible.  The side yard is doing fabulous and looks even better since I put the edging in.  WIth redwood mulch the front will look more finished.  I also hope to put in my raised bed today in the back yard and maybe get some more tomato plants and herbs to go along side the Hyphen Herbarium and Buddhist Retreat.  I would love to have the back yard roto-tilled and plant wildflowers.  Right now it is just weeds and volunteers from the maple tree in the back.

I am hoping to avoid the triple play I had last night when I got home.  Broken tree limb, thanks to Brad, shattered cobblestones going to he house, thanks again Brad, and Gonif's collection of fur balls all over the gray/grey chair.  Sounded like a few Valium to me so I did.  I called Brad to bitch and he was bitching right back about the stupid door he was supposed to have put on two days ago but has been left hanging, literally, on its hinges on the front of the house.  I was most upset about the damage to the tree.  Beautiful flowering pear tree, a limb torn right off and left to hang in the wind.  I was able to saw off the three foot section of limb but I was furious with Brad.  Two Valiums later I was still furious.  I am going to see if Joe the Yard Guy can trim what is left of the branch and make it look a little better.  I picked up the broken stones and I am just going to have to get small pavers to put down as a cut through for the front yard from the drive.  Damn, I am still upset about my poor tree.  Furious, I tell you, furious!

My guess is in spite of good intentions we won't see Sophie today.  Oh, she said she would come in after 11:00 but I truly doubt it.  Seems like her whole team is out with a case of anal glaucoma, i.e., I can't see my ass coming into work today.  Attitude, ladies, attitude.  Must be more positive.  Life is too short, and so am I, to have a piss poor attitude about life.  Oh, I know I have my moments too but I really try to make the best of it.  Take my poor brain out of the equation, a full frontal lobotomy, and I am good to go.  I do, in fact, love my work and my supervisor (who has left me in charge!) and it is not a chore coming in.  That said, I also like my summers with the three day weekends.  Walk, walk and putter.  A new mantra.

And, oh, yes, I am a big enough person

To acknowledge my mistakes.  Just not in the present tense, and believe you me the present is tense.  Or my presence is tense.  Whatever...Game on, Flipper, game on.

Flipper FitBit Fail

Now try saying that three times, real fast.  OK, so you can do that.  But, indeed, that is what happened.  Seems the life expectancy of a heavily used Fitbit is about four years.  Hers died over the weekend and that is why she dropped off my radar.  But at least this past long weekend I could proudly announce to the world that the Czarina was number 2.  And that's probably as close as I will come to besting the best.  So, I apologize now for not seeing for what it truly was, which was a systems failure.  Mea culpa.

Flipper fled

So, I was "friends" with this person named Flipper on Fitbit.  I was always number three to her and her husband's two and one respectively.  Today I was out for my morning walk and checked my mileage on my iPhone and guess what? Flipper has left the building.  So I was teasing her about besting her Saturday and Sunday.  So I taunted her.  Seemed to have be a good natured competition.  I guess not  as she has removed me as one of her friends.  Granted I am competitive but not to the point of unfriending them just for besting me.

Well, will it or won't it rain today?  It is sure blowing up a storm, but the sun is out and the humidity is down.  I need to know should I water the flowers in today.  Also, I might like to take another walk but won't as I am not sure if and when it will rain.

I had a big surprise this morning.  I leave a light on in the living room and lo and behold the light and the wall and ceiling by the light were covered with gnats.  So when I went on my errands this morning I stopped at my new home away from home, Ace Hardware, and picked up a fruit fly tap.  And a straw hat (just for good measure).  Thanks to the hat and the trap the gnats are gone.  Don't know how they got in, unless it was a hatching in the house from something I brought in.  Oh, bother.  It's always something.

I have been fighting  headaches all weekend.  I think it is the weird weather.  It is just a changing so fast.  Yesterday was better than today. I was able to lay a row of edging in the rose garden and take three long walks.  Today I just went out twice, once for errands and the other to get my Fitbit count in before the expected rain came.  And now I am waiting for that rain and my head is pounding. Not exactly the way you want to spend your three day weekend.

Next Monday I start my summer schedule of Mondays off.  Having a high school friend over for a ladies' luncheon.  I am hoping my former supervisor will come another Monday but so far she has not responded to my email.

And that's the way it is....pffft

This is how it all began

Well, the cataloging/authority module is down again, as it was almost a year ago when I started this blog.  In that year's time much has changed, especially me.  New house, a new outlook and a little less of me.  On the negative side Hyphen has been sidelined for as much as a year.  Aunt Martha's obit still resides in my inbox, as if it were the last contact I have with the Taylor side of the family.  I only hear from my Aunt Marilyn on a regular basis, but she is from my father's side of the family.  The Taylors, AKA Siskinovich, was my mother's side of the family.  Mother was first generation American, slightly one hundred years removed from Mother Russia.  My dad's parents were first generation, my dad's father's father emigrating from what was then Prussia.  True to his nationality his dad was very Prussian in demeanor.  His mother was of Polish extraction but was born to naturalized parents in Philadelphia.  His dad's family always looked down on Celia, my grandmother, because she was Polish and his family felt he had married beneath him.  At least  he married within the faith.  Irvin, my grandfather, was a tiny tyrant, who made a rug out of his deceased pet dog out of love of the dog.  He terrorized the next dog they had, forcing him into a life that was limited to the outside and the kitchen.  And, literally, Irvin was a tiny tyrant.  Just under five foot four inches tall.  He desperately wanted to join the fight in WWI but was constantly rejected because of his height.  I have the full correspondence he had with the War Department about his height.  Towards the end of the conflict they let him into the Army as a secretary stateside.  Still he had his chance to serve.

The Taylors, all great aunts and uncles, were more fun and outgoing, probably because there were so many of them.  I remember Fridays my grandmother Dorothy would make Sabbath dinner for the unmarried brothers and sisters, of which there were five of the nine.  Laughter would ring out and card games won and lost late into the evening.  My Aunt Sally would put me to bed on Fridays when I was young and she, without fail, fell asleep before I did.  I was closer to the Taylors than I was to even my parents.  We lived with my mom's mother, who was more like a mother to me than my mother.  I used to slip into Dorothy's room whenever I couldn't sleep, which was often, and slide into the unoccupied twin bed and listen to her radio all night, Mike Whorf on WJR, slipping back into my room before my dad would get up.  The parents did not approve of my close relationship with Dorothy.  But that is a story for another day.  I think my dad approved but my mother was jealous of the relationship but she only had herself to blame, which is another reason I continue to go to and through therapy.  A never ending journey to self.  Alas and alack the last of the original Taylors, Aunt Martha, passed a December 2013.  And soon thereafter the Soul Sucker exited my life; her and her blue fuxing Jeep that she wouldn't drive to Detroit for a funeral.  2013 was also the year of the big ice storm and big it was.  Things didn't get back to normal around her until recently.  No, really!

So that is a little bit more background, scenery for you to chew.  Dang, it is loud in here today as the software has malfunctioned and everyone is chattering away instead of blogging, like good little clerks.  Ten minutes more and I can haul ass out of here. 

Flipper

Still ahead of the old gal by 6,000 steps.  But, mind you, I am not competitive...

Gracious good morning

And damn it's cold. Not too unusual this time of year, really, but, Damn! It's cold.  I am glad I haven't planted my annuals yet.  This weekend, however, the deed will get done,   Moss roses to go in my rose bed, which is in need of some weeding again.

My patio and path were installed yesterday, another cool day.  Good day for Joe to put the patio in.  Looks great.  My shady grass is perking up in the front yard and I have my evening primrose set to arrive next week, along with some ornamental grasses.  Bought a pair of hedge trimmers yesterday prior to having dinner with friends,  so I can clean up the yard this long weekend and have it look fabulous for the next cookout.  Some colleagues are coming in a few weeks for a cookout.  Additionally, I am having a old girl friend from high school (my gosh, that is old) come in June for a "ladies' lunch" of  a spring frittata and fruit salad.  Starting  in June I will have Mondays off so I can go to therapy after a afternoon of puttering, fussing and doing what I love to do.  Also I will have my former boss over for another luncheon as she missed th opening day party.

I wrote a new "tune" this morning,  I hesitate to call it a song in its nascent state and given  my compositional skills seems similar yet not the same as an earlier compost, as it were, entitled Winging It.  Still it is pretty as an instrumental and it helps me to practice a tremolo on the mandolin.  This week I teach a few guitar lessons and catch up with students I have neglected during the move.  See how much they can recall.  And that will be a prelude to a long weekend.

And good news.  I'm number three amongst my friends on FitBit.  I managed to put in over 21,000 steps yesterday and wiped the floor Flipper.  That will be short lived.  But, YAHOO anyway.

Music lessons

I swear my mandolin teacher has more patience and wherewithal than Job.  I really suck at times and the sad thing is I know when I screw up and know the mistakes I am and can make and I still make them.  I know I should basically pick down up but I'll get into a down down and know it and make adjustments halfway through which throws my left hand off and I stop playing the notes as written.  Fifty years with the guitar and I can handle that...but I am not taking guitar lessons.  I don't know why I wanted to learn the mandolin.  At one point I thought I could teach myself.  After all it is a stringed instrument.  So I ordered one and had no clue how to sting or tune it.  So lessons were in order.  I still have Marshall Music string all my instruments  but especially the mandolin as it doesn't have a fixed bridge, much like a violin but not much like a guitar. So anyway I suck. Practice and more practice, even as my hands grow more arthritic.

Therapy...well, I know the Bird wants me to do EMDR with her but I don't fully buy into it.  We had a good talk session yesterday as I did a trauma recital of my youth and adulthood.  Nothing resolved itself but much to work on.  God, I miss Hyphen.  Her liberal use of expletives made for good therapy.  I know not if she will practice again, unlike me who practices daily, but I would go back to her. We were working on so much and were at a pivotal point when she was hurt.  Now I have to bring the Bird up to speed and go through the same crap all over again, while feeling like she'd rather I be more compliant with her use of EMDR.

Well on to other things.  Tonight I take my evening walk at 5:30 or so and go meet friends for dinner. It's still light enough at 8:00 that I can walk my circuit home.  Maybe even stop at Kroger.  It's light until after 9:00 at night.  But soon, in about a month, we will devolve into shorter days and nights in a descent into Fall.  I actually prefer the winter solstice to the summer as it means the days start getting longer again.  A minute here and there but more light every day.  The summer solstice brings summer but also the turn around point of the year.  Once my birthday hits it's a downward slippery slope into autumn.

More later.  Or not...

News Flash(es)!

I weighed in at 146.6 today and Brody's Mom shall henceforth be known Ruth Goldberg.  Both Yahoos!!!

Thunderstorms

Yup, we has them.  Or had them.  My big, really big, cat Yankel is terrified of storms. In the condo he had to hide in th bathroom between the wall and the toilet.  Tonight I found him scrunched up in the kitchen, mewling like a little girl.  He's fine now but he was a clinging vine moments ago.  I am getting ready to go to bed and I want to make sure he has calmed down enough not to be a problem tonight.

I went to the plant sale at MSU on Saturday and bought more plants for the yard.  Tonight I planted seeds for evening primrose, carnations, dill and tomatoes. Hopefully they sprout soon.  I have a nice planter in the front yard and I think the evening primrose and carnations will look good in it. Today I went to the art fair and bought a dragonfly lawn piece.  It looks good. I still have to put out the front fountain.  This week the yard guy is putting in the patio.  I will move the fire pit and the Adirondack chairs to it and prepare for a summer of fires and mosquitoes.

So the financial guy told me to get a Fitbit.  Now I am not saying I am competitive, but I am competitive. I can average over 20,000 steps a day, over eight miles and  still be in fourth place.  No matter how much I put in I always come in third or fourth.  It's not fair. I walk my ass off, literally.  I have no tush.  But the gut Is still in place. Now I have lost over ten pounds since I moved, but I have to get going, obsessively racking up the mileage.    Tomorrow is weigh in day.  I am hoping for 147.  This is the lightest I have been in years.  But the gut, the round tummy, has to go

Well, it grows late, the thundering has ceased and I am putting myself to bed.

More of Hyphen

I received the more formal snail mail yesterday from Hyphen and got more details of the accident.  Apparently the cab shot a red light which caused the accident.  Sounds like a nice lawsuit and a lifetime of care, should she need it.  While we were originally told there was no head injury, Hyphen said there  some evidence of TBI and while she is doing well that may slow her return to practice.

Speaking of practice I had a nice talk with The Bird regarding the continuation of her use of EMDR.  We are not going to pursue that option, going instead for more traditional talk therapy.  I feel better about that option.  And while I had looked at other psychologists I have decided to stick with her.

Tonight we, that is Brody's Former Mom (Brody has moved to Mexico), Sophie and me are going to have Indian food for dinner and then head out to a concert given my mandolin teacher.  It will be a concert of Baroque music.  Should be a pleasant evening.  We were to have a fire pit experience but as the  weather is calling for rain and Brody's Former Mom (BFM) and I are going to a plant sale at 8:00  a.m the next day she will want to get to bed early.  The art fair starts tomorrow and we are going to that as well.  Sunday I will do my usual hike to Krogers and Panera's  and back home for a pleasant breakfast.  I may go back to the art fair and see if there is anything I can't live without.

The sky is lightening, in spite of the rain.  I may cut some lilacs for Sophie. Head out to putter. And start getting my steps in.  Did over 20,000 steps yesterday.  Over six miles.  I was busy,

And hopefully Fred and Ethel Duck come back today.

Joy of joys and miracle of miracles redux

I received an email yesterday from Hyphen, in her recuperating mode from a rehab facility.  I was privy to the extent of her injuries, which were/are considerable and she said some things about her progress and her will and desire to return to practice, albeit in as long as a year.  But her progress, to date has been remarkable.  She is one determined lady to get back to some semblance of a normal life and return home to her loved ones and her garden.  And. Dear readers, I felt special that I was contacted by her, mayhap her first email outside of her family.  And I thought "maybe I will resume with her after a year's time".  The Bird may be the temporary word.

I think in regards to the Bird I may have to go back and have more talk therapy and less of the EMDR, which seems like hippie magic to me.  I just don't get it, like I just don't get meditation.  My mind wanders and not always to a happy place.  EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is similar to meditation, in or om a sense, in that you learn where your safe place is emotionally and how to get back to it when you are stressed or processing a stressful situation (trauma for example).  I suspect Hyphen will do some of this for herself, given the traumatic nature of her injuries and the extent.  But for me the jury is out on the efficacy of the treatment.  I may ask (insist) that The Bird and I do more trauma work for me (yes, I have endured many a trauma) in a talk therapy situation rather than EMDR, which, to be honest, I have been less than honest with her about its impact, or lack thereof on me.  Maybe down the road I can use some aspects of it but really it is like teaching vegan dietary rules to a cannibal, I being that cannibal.  My safe space is my new home and even when I am happy the negative thoughts creep in.  For example. I was in my happy space, rubbing the Gonif Cat's tummy when I thought "in time, baby, I may have to put you to sleep".  Where that came from and why, in a happy place the thought crept in, is beyond my scope of comprehension.  I guess I am a glass half full girl, or maybe an empty glass is more apropos.  Of what? Who knows.

So these are my morning musings.  Fred and Ethel, the ducks I christened earlier this week, seem to be nesting on south side of the library grounds.  I will take corn to feed them when I go for my morning constitutional at 10:00.  As opposed to my evening constitutional at 6:30.  Maybe a nice night for a walk to Jersey Giant to get a submarine sandwich that Gonif likes so much.  Either than or grill tonight and make a chicken breast for the Gonif Cat on the grill as I also cook my steak.  It's a win-win situation whatever.

Did ya miss me?

No cable, no phone, no internet...a triple play of my own last night.  Took a sleeping pill and went to bed as soon as it was dark enough to calm my fevered brow, which was actually not fevered. Well, maybe a little over the lack of necessary technology.

I see the sky is ligthening.  Summer is a coming in.   The rhododendrons are losing their flowers and I am afraid the photo of me and Sans Souci will have to wait a year.  Or until I get my hair cut today...

Short day at work...early lunch with the girls and then I have therapy.  Finally a much needed haircut.  I will need to put some plants in today and then the final rose bushes will come tomorrow and hopefully the rain holds off until I have planted them. Then a nice soaking rain would be loverly.  I was going out to Williamston on Tuesday to get some perennials for my yard but now I have to stay at work until 5:00 for training.  Yippee.  In reality I need not any more perennials but I must visit with a friend.  Wednesday next I am busy as well.  Oh, goodness...anyway the training.  I hope The Magic Plastic Tuna will retire before the new cataloging utility is put in place July 1.  Be nice. I've seen it happen with the Soul Sucker.  It could happen...I am just saying.

Well, I seem to be very tired from my ordeals of yesterday.  Off to get another Coke.  Must...Have...CAFEEINE!!!

The No Motion Light Rag (up tempo for the little mfs)

No raccoons last night (that I am aware of).  I moved the bird feeder of delight and neither can s/he get up the pole nor  can s/he be seen trying to work his/her magic on a squirrel proof bird feeder.  Then filled up the feeders for the assorted finches and nuthatches, sparrows and robins.

Quite the night.  I was at Mrs.  Shankland's house across the street until almost dark. That lady can sure talk.  Soph called once when I was out working in the yard and left a voice mail that can only be described as pitiful.  Then I had a very late supper and went  to bed. I know...not good.  Today is another Union presentation as well as my therapeutic reflexology session.  Then a walk to further relax.  Tonight , weather permitting I shall grill sausages and peppers. I  have some lovely tomatoes, too. Maybe head on over to Panera's and get a baguette. 

Better than even money today Soph will not be in.  Why,  oh Lord, why?  Why do I even bother.  My backup plan today is for Deby to pick me up after work.  Once Sophie gets/give herself permission to have a migraine and gets a shot she can be gone for up to three days.  Every month.  Like clockwork. 

MyChronic Migraines...Gotta love them.

What??? AGAIN!

Well, Sophie called my home phone at 11:30 a.m. to tell me, once again, she had a migraine and had gotten a shot and would call me later tonight; that I shouldn't call as she might be asleep, or merely resting.  I guess those Botox shots she gets for MyChronic Migraines isn't doing her a hell of a lot of good.  Also, she didn't even attempt to phone me at work; called my home phone...WTF!  She knew I was at work.  My educated guess is yes, indeed, she will be out the rest of the week.  If she isn't I will be very surprised and will do something unnerving to myself.

Don't be surprised, Soph, if I am out in the yard with my arthritic hands digging holes for the plants that are coming today.  I am just saying...

I am busy today, Ain't I?

Well, the Magic Plastic Tuna has been clearing her throat this morning, all morning, every few seconds, or so it seems.  Maybe received a bad batch of ganja.  Or a pollen attack.  But...I am about ready to inflict some serious trauma to her.  The incessant throat clearing would not be so bod, in and of itself, were it not for the fact that it is followed by a little high pitched sigh and even my music can't cover up the sound, no matter how loud I play my iPod.  Ahem, sigh, ahem, sigh...over and over again.  Some days it is not this bad but today is just an exceptional day.

Okay, so maybe I am in a little discomfort from the arthritis in my hands, which making it difficult to type.  My hands feel like they are on fire.  I have a call into the rheumatologist as the burning is new.  Maybe the Prednisone will alleviate the discomfort and I will turn into a charming young lady.  Oh who am I foolin?  I hurt and I am going to be a bitch today.  I am not always a bitch.  Just kidding, go fux yourself!

A "sad" post about Sophie

No, nothing has happened to good old Soph.  It's just that I won't be around for lunches the rest of the week.  So, she seems to have developed an illness that precludes her from coming in today, and, my guess, the rest of the week as I won't be around.  Seems she gets sick a lot more when I am not available.  You know, Soph, you can take vacation time.  You don't have to call in sick when I suspect the illness is nothing more than "anal glaucoma".  Someone might put your absences together with the times I am not around and make the connection.  I know, new month (six days into the new month?  Really?) and you have new sick time, but stop making yourself sick just to have the time off.  I don't doubt you may have gotten a headache, but the good news is with a little planning and some good attention to detail and you could actually take a vacation day and enjoy an lovely spring day off without the burden of illness. 

I hope this doesn't sound to snarky, but as Ms. Kim and I were walking up to the library I said to her (no shit) "I bet Sophie won't be in today" and sure enough I get to my desk and there is a little red light indicating a phone message and, to be honest, once I saw the phone number it was from I deleted the message before listening to it.  There, Soph, the truth is out.  I don't listen to your messages when you call in.  Especially when I know ahead of time you are probably not going to be in today, and most likely the rest of the week.  Really, a five day weekend???

And what do I have to do today.  Well, I went to bed at 11:00 p.m. and got up at 4:18 a.m. to the dulcet tones of the raccoon at the squirrel proof bird feeder.  Got ready for work and practiced music for forty five minutes.  Got to work just before 6:00 and wrote down this song...no, that's James Taylor.  I will walk to the pharmacy and get  my precious Prednisone.  Additionally, I will walk to my Area Rep training for my Union at noon.  Back again about 1:15 and will finish up my day with a walk home.  Then the work in the yard starts.  About 7:30 tonight I will clean up and light the grill for a lovely steak supper.  Bed again at 11:00.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  Tomorrow, another union luncheon...a session on social media in the work place.  Friday a lunch with the girls to be followed by therapy (head shrinking) and a hair cut (more head shrinking).  And news is, Soph, I won't be around Monday for lunch either, as I have another meeting with the Union as part of my training.  What'cha gonna do? (who ya gonna call?...Ghostbusters?). 

Okay, this has been the morning whine list.  Drink at your own peril.

The Authority Czarina (there, that hasn't been said enough lately)...

The motion sensing light out back...

As a newbie to ranch style home living it concerned me when late at night or very early in the a. Of m.  I would awaken to find mt backyard flooded with light.  What or who could it be I wondered.  Surely it is not some personage creeping in my yard.  Well, this morning I found a rather large raccoon nibbling at a squirrel proof bird feeder that it had apparently learned how to make it his own.  I rapped on the window and it waddled off, or rather sauntered, not a care in the world, the Einstein of critters.  So that is what has been setting the light off.  I knew I had raccoons from the frequent raids on the city issued garbage dumpsters, which prompted the use of bungee cords on said dumpster.  But who knew?  Who knew a raccoon could be in a squirrel proof bird feeder and had eaten quite a bit of seed before scampering off...and the light is still blazing.  No new raccoon at the bird feeder.  Who would have thought instead of the sparrows, finches and chickadees  I would be getting the late night crowd of raccoons, post pub crawl, coming to the feeder for a pre-bedtime snack at my feeder, the Denny's of all bird feeders.  Or maybe it is the Theio's of  East Lansing to my neighbors The Green Door. Anyways, it is rocking out back to the sultry rhythms of a spring night.

And, as it approaches dawn, the sky coming to life ever so gradually, I must prepare to leave for a day of unions lunches and walks to the pharmacy to get the Prednisone I was hoping the rheumatologist would prescribe.  My hands ache and it is a real feat in the morning to turn the alarm clock off with a hand that has multiple fingers asleep and tingly.  I did practice the mandolin this morning.  It is getting better every day but my hands just ache.  And actually when it is  most swollen is it burns with pain.  I sure hope that the Prednisone does its magic. And soon.

More goodies arrive from Wayside Gardens today.  A yellow lilac bush.  Did I mention that the backyard is lousy with lilacs?  It is, but not a yellow one.  Well, now it will have a new one along the north fence line.  Anemones coming for the Hyphen' tribute garden to join the herbs.  But I will definitely move the bird feeder away from the house and hopefully out of reach of the raccoons.  And out of reach of the herbs and anemones.

Brightening still the day is coming to life, and slumbering raccoons, all tucked in their beds, which hopefully is not in my garage.  They probably have a hammock at my youthful neighbors.

And so,it goes...

Lessons resume

I had my first mandolin lesson of the year last night and basically I am learning anew and on the right path this time.  My hands, especially my picking hand, is swollen from arthritis and beating up on walls from my crazier days.  Good thing I see the rheumatologist today, eh?  I will do most things short of taking a biologic, like Humira.  That is my last resort.  I am hoping I get on a short term of Prednisone, either a shot or pills, to get the swelling down.   I have a long list of dos and don'ts for the mandolin, which seems to go out the window when I pick up my guitar.  But, unlike last week, I can finger pick some on the guitar.  Really need to warm up first and maybe it would be better to begin with the guitar. Who knows?

The Magic Plastic Tuna totally ignores me now.  Looks right through me.  Oh, well.  At least I didn't sleep with the ridiculous, emaciated and self important Shelver Extraordinaire.  That is going to be my retort to she if she verbally assaults me again...it's in my back pocket. 

Sophie is beginning a walking program and I am so proud of her.  It's not easy to get physically active once you have been so sedimentary.  A new pair of shoes and both she and Ethel Nussbaum are new women.  Yesterday Soph and I walked a tad and I showed her a few stretches I found useful.  Then, as it was a glorious spring day out, we sat on the patio of the library and chatted while enjoying the weather. 

They, whoever they are, have promised us rain for the last several days and yet it hasn't rained enough for my roses.  I still go home and soak them every night while I take my evening constitutional.  Today I will get home late because of the rheumatology appointment.  Late walk and a late supper of steak on the grill and some roasted corn.  Gonif should like the steak.  He now is turning his nose up at rotisserie chicken but loves chicken from the grill.  Having been cooped up in a third floor condo for almost nineteen years I do so enjoy having a deck and a porch.  I grill almost every night.  The backyard is lousy with lilacs and I am putting another one in.  The patio blocks are in and Joe will lay them this week.  And the Adirondack chairs and table come this week.  By the 15th, when we go see my mandolin teacher in concert, we just might come home and have a fire in the fire pit and drink fake beer.  Yepper, sit around the fire and enjoy the spring night.  It is light out almost until 9:00.  Have I mentioned this is my very favorite time of year?  I do pretty good from December to June, as the days get progressively longer, but less so July through December as the days are getting shorter, even if in July it is light out until 10, it is shrinking every day.  That's my take on it.

So, rheumatologist today, walk when I get home, if it is not raining and although there is rain in the forecast I don't believe it for a minute.

To all the Pseudo-Hyphens (and you know who you are)

I worked in the yard again yesterday.  Aside from getting some bugs in my right eye, which is now a tad swollen, I had four full hours of pulling ivy and wild strawberry plants, planting yet another rose bush, setting up the trellis and planting the herbs in the plot by the deck so I have easy access from the kitchen and dubbed that area the Hyphen Garden.  Seven herb plants and, to be added, an anemone plant to twirl about the trellis.  I planted some more perennials, mostly coral bells and lenten roses.  Also discovered I have a fairly large population of Hostas coming up.  Intermixed them with the new coral bells.  I still have some perennials coming to put up against the south side of the house, to which I will add a border of moss roses.  Two more rose bushes coming, both hybrid teas, which will flank the other five bushes.  I  laid out a soaker hose for the rose bushes and tethered it to the ground.  And I was ever so clever as I ordered a faucet splinter, so I don't have to keep swapping hoses out between the soaker and the regular hose.  I know I will be pulling ivy and wild strawberry trailer and roots the rest of my days.  But it looks so much better with that stuff gone.  I will lay in some Preen to keep the weeds at abeyance, and feed the plants that I have put in.  The last of the outside improvements will be a small patio to the left of the deck because the soil there is not even fit for the birds.  Best to have my snow and yard guy do the patio and then next year I can lay in some good top soil behind the garage and toss in handfuls of wildflowers.  I have two nice Adirondack chairs coming for the patio and a small table.  The fire pit, a housewarming gift from Sophie and her family, will go on the patio and all summer we can have fires and sing-a-longs.  Speaking of sing-a-longs, got out the mandolin and practiced this morning and later picked up my trusty Martin guitar and played that for another half hour.  Hands are still stiff, but a great deal of that could be coming from all the yard work.  Last, but certainly not least, I planted two pots of yellow and orange pansies and a pot of shamrocks in a color called Zinfandel.  The Buddha cat sits on the front porch.  All in all the place looks great.  Today, for a treat, I will have some foot reflexology and then go for a stress busting walk.  Burger on the grill and watch baseball.

Happy May Day...