This is a brain dump.
Considering that the left and southwest part of the country is under a massive heat wave, the temperature is pretty amazing here – the high is supposed to be 77 F. I’m working on the front porch this morning. Soon I will be back in the office every day, so I’m enjoying the privilege of being able to do this most days until July 6. Last week and Monday we were at the lake, and I took vacation days this time. I needed a break from email and the computer, although it didn’t stop me from posting on Facebook and playing games on my Kindle. I have so many photos to edit and blog posts to write, but this morning while Sandy is at his water exercise class, I’m taking advantage of a light work day and the quiet to write a little catch-up.
There has been a loss – my friend Jess Usher, who got his MA and PhD in history at UNCG. He was working in south Georgia, so our friendship was virtual for the past few years. He was one of the only people who regularly whipped my ass at Words with Friends and now I am sad every time I open it. We played one or two turns a day, and when he missed a day, I worried. This time my worry was valid. He was a warrior for justice, especially for Latinx immigrants, and had a wicked sense of humor.
My anxiety level was sky high the week that I went to Elkin for the tapestry retreat, to the point that I was embarrassed. I thought I might have to go back on the anxiety meds. But after three days at the lake, I calmed down quite a bit.
Mainly I’m thinking about our trip to Ireland and Portugal. A misunderstanding caused me to suggest to Sandy that we spend the whole trip in Portugal, which he is eager to do. Now that the misunderstanding has been cleared up, I want to go back to the plan of leaving for Lisbon as soon as we land in Dublin, flying back to Dublin after a week, taking the train to Westport in western Ireland, then spending the remainder of our trip in an AirBNB apartment in Mulranny, a beach town near Achill Island. I know, based on how we both feel now, that we will be exhausted after a week in Portugal.
I haven’t gotten much exercise yet. I spent the week at the lake mostly sitting on my butt on the back porch. I did a little swimming one day. I decided to stop taking the meloxicam while I was there so I could be freer with my food and alcohol intake. Turned out that I didn’t drink much at all, but I did eat some good food. And some junk food. My appetite is pretty low these days, for some reason. Too lazy to fix food? I need to start walking every day. Yesterday I walked to work and boy, did my hips ache.
I have so many things that I need to do today/soon. Car inspection. Get someone to clean up our yard. Call a plumber. Go to the drugstore. Go to the grocery store. Laundry. Call for an eye appointment. I definitely have to do that because my eyesight is interfering with finishing the lake tapestry. Get my hair cut, because someone mistook me for a person who I dislike pretty intensely at Dunleath Porchfest a couple of weeks ago. As much as I wanted to deny it, the mirror told me that there was a resemblance. Weight loss and a change of wardrobe is required as well. It’s time for a change anyway.
The garden is lovely right now and the tomatoes are ripening, although the first couple of bigger ones had blossom end rot. I’ll need to add some epsom salts to the pots.
I will have a lake post and hopefully a post backdated to the Elkin retreat with lots of photos, but I just don’t have time to do the photo editing right now. There are about 200 photos to go through. Maybe tomorrow.
slowly she turned 