While over-the-counter pain meds enabled me to get through the day, the antibiotics haven’t put a dent in my throat pain. I got the news that my thyroid is fine. Of course that’s good news, but that leaves me back not knowing what the heck is wrong. I’m very impatient with illness.
I did get outside to check the mail and saw lemon beebalm starting to bloom.
At least I didn’t miss horse stuff, since there was light rain most of the day. For that I’m grateful.
The flowers are now very happy.
I had many meetings today, but napped in between. Tomorrow is not quite as bad as that, and if I don’t feel better, I’ll go back to the doctor for an ENT appointment or something. Ugh.
Yes. I’ve been camping. I’m not sure if all this RV camping we’ve been doing the past decade or more counts as “camping” to some folks. I don’t blame them. We have heat and air conditioning, plus real mattresses on the bed. Still, if camping is about nature, fresh air, and learning, then, indeed, I’ve been camping!
Lee roughing it.
I love quiet times and hiking. I love birds, flowers, trees, and insects. And I love the interesting people I meet. I’m not fond of screaming and loud music, or of messing with the parks. But, people interact differently with nature and enjoy different camping activities. I’m fine with that. At least they’re getting out.
They may see these!
So I answered the question. I’m about done. Today I was pretty damned miserable with throat, ear, and neck pain. It’s so hard to swallow!
Me, miserable.
I did go see my health care provider like a good girl. I got a free ear wax cleaning so she could see my inflamed ears. TMI, no doubt. But it worked, and indeed I’m all inflamed and my throat looks extra bad. Strep test was negative, but when I told her I haven’t had my usual energy and have suddenly put on ten pounds, we agreed that my thyroid is acting up again.
I didn’t even get to see Fiona and all the new grass sprouting up where hay bales were.
So after three tries, the technician finally got enough blood out to test my thyroid numbers. I hope to hear back soon. In the meantime, I’m hoping the antibiotics have done their work by morning. I’m weary of this.
I love all these ball moss flowers in black and white.
Kathleen made a delicious dinner that was soft enough to swallow, which was a relief, because I was really hungry! And wow, I’m tired, thanks to waking myself up all night making wheezing and gagging noises. The curse of being a light sleeper is your snoring wakes YOU up.
I may have to sleep downstairs!
No doubt things will be better soon. My friend circle has a lot of harder challenges. Aging isn’t for sissies, but we keep plugging along!
My throat is still annoying and my nose is runny but I didn’t feel too awful today. I was able to go for a pretty good walk this morning and found some new wildflowers have popped up.
Roadside gaura (Oenothera suffulta) Cutleaf evening primrose (Oenothera laciniata)These are both in the primrose family
I also enjoyed lots of butterflies, even though our fields that are usually covered with a variety of flowers are heavy on the false dandelions.
Pipevine swallowtail Checkered whitePhaon crescentSad field
I enjoyed spotting interesting things on the roadside other than trash that I picked up. There were some bursts of color and hidden beauty.
The horses are searching for green grass, bless their hearts. It’s way early for the soil to start cracking, but it is.
But HA! The skeet shooters didn’t stop the bluebonnets from blooming when they mowed the field. Yay!
Most of the day I relaxed and crocheted (a whole row of the wool blanket!) while chatting with Kathleen. We told stories, watched weird television shows, and spent time talking to the horses. Both our husbands were off working (Lee is in a writing groove upstairs and hasn’t been coming down much), so we filled the afternoon with conversation. It was a pleasant and stress-free interval of hanging out and recuperating! The big thrill was getting into her car and visiting the latest KCC Construction project and enjoying a Dairy Queen treat. That’s the best we could do for excitement, but it was good enough and kept our spirits up.
I’m sure these ladies were jealous of our fun.
My hope is that I’ve built enough strength to get my paid and volunteer work done next week and Kathleen has enough strength for all her doctor visits. It may be a challenging week.
Still feeling sick, but I was able to take care of animals and sit in the sun a bit. Kathleen and I took a slow walk this afternoon to just get out of the house. I didn’t get to go to marches with my friends, which I really regret. But my energy is awfully low.
This pretty Texas star was a surprise on my walk by the front pond today.
Right now I don’t want to drive anywhere, anyway, thanks to wars and such. Grumble.
Grumpy is a good word for me, because I’ve not been taking NyQuil or anything, so my snoring and loud breathing issues keep waking me up all night. I must have sounded awful last night, but I didn’t bother Lee with his earbuds on.
Tonight I have Chloraseptic for my throat and will sleep with my head raised. I’ve had enough of this irritating minor illness.
Wild berry! That’s exciting.
I need to do some writing and other things that require an alert mental state, so wish me the best! And I know there are many friends out there dealing with MUCH more serious concerns. They have my thoughts, and they help me remember to focus on what’s good in life, which there is plenty of.
Look at all the pollen on this bee!
For example, the chickens are back to laying in their usual nest box! Woo hoo! Plus I found a new plant!
This plant with cool seed pods is wild tantan (Desmanthus acuminatus), the second sighting on iNat in our county!
I have a virus or bad allergies since yesterday. Not horrible, but my throat hurts and I’m tired. I do seem to have one off symptom, though. I remember things in the wrong color. What?
Lee brought home a loaner vehicle while my car was getting serviced. It was very nice and looked very much like my car. More than once I referred to it as the black car. It was quite white. Just as white as my car (but sadly lacking the snazzy red interior).
My car, which looks like half the cars on the road today.
I also mentioned the pink book I was reading. I went to bed and saw the deer book and the next book on my nightstand. Both are green.
Yes, I’m reading a popular self-help book about a topic I’ve already been working on. This kind of book serves as a good reminder.
I do think the color thing has a non-viral source!
That’s all I have for you, friends. I took NyQuil, so the zzzzzz is calling.
I’ve been picking some fascinating books lately. The Great Shadow: A History of How Sickness Shapes What We Do, Think, and Buy, by Susan Wise Bauer, is most assuredly fascinating. I wish it was about twice as long, because I feel like she rushed through the past 30 years.
The book traces how humans view illness throughout recorded history. It turns out that those Ancient Greek philosophers had some notions that even today we can’t get rid of, like being in a place with bad air can make you sick (many people still think you can catch a cold by going out in bad weather).
The idea that every illness is particular to the sick person and must be cured by the doctor figuring out a specific cure for them lasted for centuries. It was a big deal when someone figured out that outside agents cause disease and that large numbers of people can have the same illness with the same cure.
I enjoyed learning how people found cures for illnesses before they knew about germs, bacteria, or viruses. Spoiler: it involved guesswork.
What surprised me was how many epidemics there have been that killed huge numbers of people. The plague was really bad, y’all (and there are three kinds!). These incurable diseases kept the population under control all by themselves! And international trade made diseases spread wider and faster. I’m relieved at least some of us lived.
Once we discovered bacteria and antibiotics it got interesting, because so many products were developed to keep our homes and businesses clean. Did you know Listerine was invented by a guy named Lister? You’ll learn the origins of many everyday objects like toilet paper, Kleenex, and sanitary napkins (Kotex).
Yep, if you can stomach the graphic descriptions of symptoms, you’ll be enthralled by The Great Shadow. My copy has already been passed along to my favorite medical editor, Anita, who’s recovering nicely.
We got more plants for the porch today, so I’ll really enjoy reading my next book out there!
And also the weather is annoying. The annual late February cold spell arrived right on time last night, which made for a chilly and windy day, even though it was nice and sunny. The birds were there, even a Roadrunner, so it wasn’t a total loss.
Roadrunner from the coast, but my photo!
I started feeling like my lymph nodes were swollen last night, and it’s still going on. I’ve taken it easy all day, just crocheting and watching more of the Great Courses series on the Middle Ages. I got past weapons of war and into cathedral construction, which made me happy. It’s fascinating how they put them together. Yes, my life has gotten that thrilling.
Boy do I know how those arches stay up now. Photo from Pexels.
Then, since we finished The Closer (great series, satisfying ending), Lee and I started a show with more modern cell phones, The Diplomat. Lee liked it perhaps too much and we got halfway through all the episodes today. I like the scenery, lots of lovely English interiors.
I finally have come up with a hypothesis for why my immune system is on overdrive. Carolyn and I did a lot of playing around with cedar pollen yesterday, making the male plants “smoke.” Even though they were Eastern Red Cedars, not Ashe Junipers, all that pollen may have inflamed me. Oh well, it was fun.
All that yellow on the green tree is pollen.
Note that the tree is Juniperusvirginiana, which hints both that it might cause some allergies and that you could make gin out of the berries (on female trees).
Last year’s berries.
Let’s hope I’m better tomorrow, since there’s stuff going on at work that I have to be ready for.
That’s been the highlight of the past few days. I’ve taken some early spring flowers and recognizable birds.
You can tell this is a Great Blue Heron!
I’ve just not felt very emotionally connected these days. That makes it hard to blog. I’m just blanking my mind out and gliding through each day. I enjoy the birds, the poultry, the horses, and the changing weather.
It’s looking practically spring-like.
It’s all fine. I’m just taking a break from the intensity. Voting means that I don’t have to listen to all the campaigning and can throw the daily collection of post cards from this Schwertner guy who keeps repeating the reasons I didn’t vote for him.
True sign of spring. The first anemone.
I did have some fun, sorta, when I helped Kathleen do some kitchen reorganizing and watched our manly men remove our old washer and dryer. Tomorrow the new ones show up. Dry clothing will be awfully nice.
I will need to do some cleaning first. Luckily, water spewed all over the place, thanks to an unhappy connection. Cleaned the floor!
Tomorrow I get to go hang out with some friends in nature. Yay. I’ll get to take more close-ups of late-winter new growth.
HenbitDandelion Field of henbitWeird moth I found on our house.
Plus I will keep crocheting. It’s probably why I’m so zoned out.
Two colors of the solid squares for my blanket. Don’t worry, temperature blanket is moving along on schedule.
My mental state will head back up. It always does. In the meantime I’ll enjoy my numbness.
I noticed last night that I was feeling “antsy” when I was watching Deep Space Nine with no project in my hands. I’d finished the red hat and both days of February in the other project. I realized I was using the rhythmic knitting and crochet stitches to self regulate. I guess that’s what I’ve done my whole life, with all my lifetime of anxiety. At least my compulsion occasionally results in something useful (or yet another partial project).
I use this fine afghan stitch coaster daily. Crafts CAN be useful!
Not to worry. I recently got inspired and bought the yarn to make what I think will be a pretty blanket, in a very pleasing wool. I’m so tired of acrylic, though it’s the best choice for the temperature blankets.
I got it on crochet.com
There are two different types of squares in the blanket, and they are joined with the white (undyed) yarn while doing the final round. I think it will be a lot of fun, and I’ll enjoy the pretty colors.
My first squares and three of the tonal colors.
I also got a good supply of red wool worsted for more hats, too. I hope to make some for friends. This will ensure, as they used to say, “no idle hands” (title of a book about the history of knitting).
Fresh, red wool worsted
I ordered these before I found some really good red yarn in my stash (with moth damage on one skein).
More red yarn.
I’ve always turned to the colors and textures to distract myself. I made soooo many socks in the mid 2000s when my beloved job was going down into the chaotic toilet. And when my mom was dying and my relationship falling apart, I made giant, complicated fair isle and Aran sweaters. It helped.
Inadvertent photo of my emotional state. Muddled.
And hey! I can do handwork AND hang out with birds! Win.
The Hermits' Rest 