I’m still feeling worn out so I’ll just share some pretty and cute photos for the day and share weighty matters tomorrow. The cutest thing I saw today was this gorgeous new calf. It’s seal brown or gray.
Look at its little nose.
Its mama loves it a lot. It has a tiny Snow White buddy. I hope they stay in the pasture behind us for a while.
Bovine Beauty
I enjoyed the birds a lot, even the Loggerhead Shrikes, who are the current loud birds in the group. There was also a persistent Blue Grosbeak, so I’ve got that sound down now.
That’s the blurry grosbeak. Since my shrike photo didn’t come out, here’s an attractive grasshopper, the pine tree spur-throat.
The late summer flowers are ramping up. I’m just waiting for the asters. And my traveling trick worked: it’s not so hot now and it’s raining!
Amazing! Flying on a holiday I had two flights that left on time and arrived early. Even the shuttle to the airport was prompt and arrived early. The lines at security were quick and efficient. plus I enjoyed looking at cute prairie dogs on the way into Denver. They were leaping and bouncing around their little villages.
I saw a lot of this. Photo from Pexels
I have nothing to complain about except someone took my window seat and left me next to an unhappy baby from Denver to Dallas. That’s ok. Actually the mother’s extremely loud shushing noises were as annoying as the baby. The woman in front of the baby-mother pair noticeably startled more than once and kept looking back to see what was going on.
I just closed my eyes and dreamed of Texas skies.
In any case, Lee came and got me so I’m reunited with all the animals. I look forward to returning to my routine. I just hope my stamina comes back, because airporting exhausted me.
I have my Goldie to hug!
Here’s a little health note. The app on my phone just informed me that my resting heartbeat was up ten beats per minute for the last 13 days. Guess what that coincides with? Covid. hmm.
It looks like I am not going to have to deal with Covid too much longer. Today I was still a bit congested and had a delicate tummy. The Pedialyte seems to have helped a lot.
This little dude was spinning that pine cone like a top.
I did have enough energy to go outside and breathe some nice fresh mountain air. I walked really slowly and enjoyed the flowers, both wild and cultivated.
Flower selection
There were plenty of birds to see and hear, too. Plus I found where moose had slept, which was cool.
Mountain Chickadee Dark-eyed JuncoMoose habitat Noise poopWild area
Luckily, I found a few trails that weren’t full of people and were nice and quiet. One went gently up and up in an area I hadn’t walked before. I stopped often to look around and rest. the trail started narrow and got wider. It was so quiet.
A long and winding trail.
Soon enough I found the familiar service road that leads to the horse ranch and found my way back. I wasn’t even tired and was able to complete my work for the day!
Second-floor balcony at condo building.
I took lots of photos of the mountains so I could remember them after I go home. It’s so pretty and the weather has been so pleasant here. I’ve had a good time despite the illness.
I guess so many Texans come here that they need the sign?
Maybe I can do stuff the next couple of days. It sure felt good to have cheerful feelings after a long week.
I even had energy to do my nails very bright, Heat Wave.
Really. I’m tired of being tired, sick of being sick, and irritated at my gastrointestinal irritation.
Accurate representation of how I feel.
I envy people who get mild cases of Covid, that’s for sure. I do feel better in the sinus and coughing aspect, but the medications have made my digestion very sad and painful.
Bad virus, bad. Photo from Pexels.
Work was a struggle, but by gosh I did the meetings and fixed the documents I needed to fix. It’s a good distraction, really. And I can talk better, so meetings have been easier at least! If I’m better tomorrow I can get the bunch of new assignments I got started.
I’ll share some sunset views from my east-facing condo.
I’ll be better set up for healing, thanks to my friend Cathy, who didn’t get as sick as I did. She picked up helpful medicine and things that will soothe me, like bananas, yogurt, and Pedialyte. I’m sure grateful to have nearby friends!
Cathy sent me this sunset from her house (plus grand dog)
It’s been pleasant and quiet here in Breckenridge, other than lots of helicopters for a few hours. I couldn’t tell if they were construction copters or firefighters. I can’t believe I’ve rested for three whole days. I don’t think I’ve ever rested like this for so long before.
It can get better now. I’d be okay with that. But at least I’m safe and cozy with knitting and reading! And there are sunsets.
What daily habit do you do that improves your quality of life?
Hello from the Sick Ward known as my condo bedroom. It features knitting, reading material and used socks. I also have flavored water, cough drops, and chargers for my vital electric devices. Add the television and my world is complete.
Suna’s Sick World
How do you face an unpleasant illness and not sit around feeling sorry for yourself? You draw on your lifelong habits that keep you centered and focused (as much as possible — I’m human).
First, I’m probably harping on this, but my meditation practice helps me focus and stay calm. Twenty minutes or so in the mornings has always done a lot of good. I like to do it outdoors when possible. Here I’ve been sitting on the balcony. The fresh air feels good flowing in and out as I breathe.
The other habit I have has taken longer to become second nature is to see the good in whatever situation comes up. There’s always something good, though my go-to reaction to challenges is to jump to the worst-case scenario. Just ask my family.
Thus, pausing to find the benefits of where I am right now, was hard to learn. This inconvenient and potentially dangerous illness in “the elderly” (me) has been a good test.
So what’s good about getting Covid on your condo time?
I’m away from Lee, who has a harder time than I do with respiratory illnesses.
I have a beautiful view out my windows.
There’s food in the fridge.
If I need anything, my friend Ken seems like he could help (so far not too sick).
It’s easy to avoid people in this building. I can use the stairs, or could until today. Not breathing well enough.
I can speak again! Some symptoms are improving!
I have enough reading and knitting material that I’m not bored.
I can still work, with breaks.
I got sick early enough that I should be okay to go home.
The fine view.
So, as Monty Python said, “Always look on the bright side of life.”
Sing along! Photo from Pexels.
(Note: there are always sad, hard, and difficult times. Then I just try to find small moments of comfort.)
What was the last thing you searched for online? Why were you looking for it?
An easy one! The last thing I looked for was the tele-health service for my insurance. I rarely use such things, so I can’t remember their names.
Look at the eyes on this aspen tree.
Once I found it, I already had a login, so it was easy to get in queue and talk online to someone. I’ve done it twice now, and was very happy to give a $20 copay. Certainly, it was better than trying to get to an ER or urgent care in an unfamiliar location.
Yay, flowers. I can’t smell very well but I can see colors.
I don’t have many nature stories today. I only went on one short walk, where I didn’t run into anyone. It was nice to breathe fresh air. I also sat on the balcony some.
Yay, Walden’s Potter wasp.
Much of the day I worked, but I fell asleep twice. The Paxlovid is helping, but it sure leaves a weird iron taste in your mouth. It also gave me strange dreams like where I kept finding really cool animals and birds, but couldn’t make my phone take pictures (because it needed film, lol). I remember the cutest bats with round smiling faces, and teeny tiny hummingbirds swarming around. Wherever I was had lots of wildlife! Thanks, brain.
Yay. Arctic Blue.
I did get checked on by various friends and family members, so I didn’t feel lonely. I’m hoping my Covid symptoms are much better tomorrow. Lots of work is ahead and I’d sorta like to have some fun!
I’m no longer a Covid virgin. I guess I got it on the plane. Everyone I hung out with last week got it, too, but probably from a different source. Fun times in the Rockies!
I’d taken two tests before, because I was trying to protect Kathy. They were negative. But today I felt so awful that I picked up more tests. When I started to feel like I was going downhill, I took another test. Boom. Positive. I feel so bad for exposing my friend!
Very pissed off.
I immediately got back on Telemedicine and talked to a nurse practitioner who prescribed Paxlovid and cough suppressant. The lovely driver here took me to the pharmacy and waited for me. I was so glad to have the good masks I keep in my computer bag available. I sat in the back of the van!
My gosh that’s the fanciest medication I ever had.
The day wasn’t all bad. I got to watch a Pine Siskin feeding for quite a while, and I got to talk to both my stepsister and brother. Even though I sounded like a lifelong smoker, I talked! Luckily my brother and I texted, and that took my mind off my sinuses and chest.
These are good seeds.
Blah. I’m not going to be much fun for a few days. I don’t like being sick and I’m pissed off that I let myself get infected. Grr.
Isn’t this flower beautiful? Yellow Dalsify
Also, it rained and cooled off a bit at home. Woohoo! And I’m here, so not making Lee sick.
Tell us about the last thing you got excited about.
This has never happened to me. I don’t get sick often, but after sneezing and blowing my nose all day yesterday and thinking I had allergies, I realized I was actually ill during the night when I got that “feeling” you get when a virus has attacked. Argh. Being sick all alone away from home is pretty awful!
Wish I could bee (fly) well.
So rather than a nice hike, I took the condo van to the grocery store/drug store and got allergy tablets, cold/flu medicine and a Covid test. Plus fruit. That’s good for you. Thankfully, the Covid test was negative. I’ll do another one tomorrow.
Yay. Negative.
I managed to work on a project, then dragged myself to the French bakery, because I was feeling sorry for myself. I got big ole croissants.
This almond croissant was huge.
After napping, the DayQuil kicked in, and I went for a gentle, slow walk down some minor ski paths.
Nothing but beauty (and few loud vehicles)
It made me feel a bit better, but after that, I could do nothing but easy blogging and staring at Cesar Milan, who needs to come over and make our dogs calm and quiet.
Yes, there was a donkey on Cesar Milan.
Okay, I’ve gone far enough down the post to tell you the last thing that made me excited. It was Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. Even Anderson Cooper said it was the best speech he ever heard.
The only picture I took was Oprah.
I was very excited by certain messages I heard at that convention. I liked that speakers encouraged us to all listen to each other, and that Harris promised to be President for all Americans. That was refreshing. There was some pointed comments, but there wasn’t name-calling, meanness, or blatant lying (I’m aware that both sides exaggerate).
We shall see what happens. In the meantime, remember our wild friends.
So yeah, I got excited and feel slightly less despondent about the future.
What strategies do you use to maintain your health and well-being?
I’ll tell you about one health and well-being strategy I use: if my day was too draining to blog about, I’ll put off answering the prompt. So, I started this yesterday and stopped. I realized I was having anxiety issues big time.
I don’t think I realized it as the work day was going on, but when I stopped working, I got those familiar chest pains that usually don’t happen anymore thanks to my daily medication. It’s some kind of PTSD-like response to my day. My boss was laid off and I was the last to know, thanks to Microsoft Teams suddenly insisting on my password that I forgot. That kind of stuff happens in large corporations of course. I’ve been through it with Lee, at the same company.
Noooo, not Lee!
But my “stress memory” didn’t handle it as well as my intellectual brain did. I went right back to when I was at my previous employer and the boss I considered a mentor and friend got laid off (victim of a power struggle). I’d really liked my job there, for the most part, but things immediately went downhill until I realized I, too, was in the middle of a power struggle I could not win.
My nice job became prickly, just like these beautiful flowers will become those giant burs.
The last straw was when they made someone who worked for me my boss, and a week after telling me I was the strongest member of the team, he turned around and gave me one of “those” little chats about what a poor worker I was. I was so confused I kept asking, “What?” The very lucky thing was that I’d been getting all sorts of calls and emails about another position doing the parts of my job I really liked without the management politics. I took it. It’s a great job.
Happy worker, generated by AI – it is not me
And here I am having chest pains again. Now, I know that my position for next year has passed all the approvals needed, and I’ll get to work only 32 hours, which I find great. More time for camping and horses! But, not knowing where our team is going and all that would make anyone a little uncomfortable. I need to just take it day by day and be positive.
I’m a happy worker bee.
Could you tell my emotions to pay attention to my logical side? I guess that’s really my job. And that’s one thing I do to keep my well-being under control. I keep telling myself everything is OK until I believe it. It’s worked for eliminating negative self-talk, so maybe it will work with getting triggered when a bad experience could be construed to be happening again.
I need a new perspective, like this picture of the front pond from the side I usually don’t see.
At least maintaining my health is easier. I now exercise enough because it’s become a habit (hooray for my Apple Watch). I can’t believe it, but I feel bad if I’m not active. Needing to care for the animals sorta forces me to burn some calories, and the horse lessons are good for both my body and my mind. I’m really feeling good about all that!
I comfort her; she comforts me. It all works out. (It thundered again today, so Goldie begged me to go upstairs and hang out with her.)
Oh yes. I’m traveling in the future. It’s what I promised myself to do while I still can.
Here I am, traveling down the county road in the rain. Does that count?
But first I need to enjoy the present. Indeed, I enjoyed today very much. Who doesn’t enjoy a July day in Texas when it rains and doesn’t get above 90°? I admit to sitting on the porch and watching the rain after work. That felt great.
Porch view. Wet.
Other than muddy horses I have no complaints at all. They are pretty happy with the grass not being so straw-like, too.
So green!
And the dogs had fun outside. Carlton decided grass runners I’d pulled up were toys and tossed them around gleefully. Unfortunately Alfred decided the extra-dead armadillo was a toy and rolled in it. Oh that smells bad. The armadillo carcass is now unavailable to dogs.
Enjoy a happy live armadillo who lives nowhere near me. Source: free WordPress photo library
As for travel, we have camping trips, two condo stays, and a cabin rental coming up, in addition to the Master Naturalist conference. I’ll share more information as the trips take place.
And I’ll have to cancel some if we don’t have caretakers for the ranch. That (and security) is why I don’t share travel plans here. Things tend to change with no warning around here with so many folks in fragile health and such!
Harvey would prefer I stayed put.
All is well. I’m just going to enjoy each day as much as I can without counting on any future plans coming to fruition until it’s time to go! That’s being flexible and embracing change, all right. Right?
The Hermits' Rest 