Oh what a week, ramblings of a very poor patient

Since I finally have a morning where I feel somewhat alive, I figured I needed to make the most of it and try to catch up on a few things just in case the dreaded lergy manages to rear its head again and knock me out again!

Have I only been sick, 6 days? It feels like forever! The dizziness, waves of nausea, throbbing aches all through my body, my head feeling like it wanted to exlode every time I coughed. Sleep and wakefulness alternating in short rotas, coughing fits that made me choke and gag, sweats and chills, listlessness and a general malaise of feeling sorry for myself.

Yet mine was a very "minor" case of upper respiratory, and thankfully, because of how "well" I take care of my body, I managed to avert it getting to my lungs and causing me greater issues. Trust me, I know I am well blessed, and extremely thankful to be so ... I feel so badly for those dealing with a worse case of this. My poor hubby, for instance, is still fighting off some aspects that were always far worse than mine. And he also takes good nutritional care of his body. Our doctor is always so pleased with us at how we (usually) stay free of these opportunistic ailments. I guess we were due for it then, so hopefully this is my worst for the next couple of years.

It totally messed up my work goals for the week. I have so much to catch up on over the next few days. I am so thankful for AVON's new social media center, as I'd already scheduled so many posts for throughout the week, so - even though I wasn't online - certain AVON posts popped up on my Facebook profile and business pages. Without that, my AVON identity would have shrivelled into silence these past 6 days.

On Tuesday, at my doctor visit, though, I received a silver lining to my cloud. I had lost a few more pounds, and broken another barrier, and am now 79lbs lighter than I was when I began. Of that, I  am well pleased!

Friday was the anniversary of a young friend's death. April 13th 1982, a C130 left Mildenhall AFB on what was colloquially called "the Turkey trot". The night before, we had bumped into our friend, DZ (Mark Dzierzak) as he was driving the crew van around the base and he swore us to silence that he was back, as he was goig to surprise his girlfriend (another friend of ours) with a marriage proposal. Sadly, that was the last time we would see him. The plane exploded in the air near Incirlik.

He was one of 9 crew members lost.

Apr 13 1982 74-1678 Turkey Capt Dean A Van Dam
Apr 13 1982 74-1678 Turkey 2 LT Robert J Babineau
Apr 13 1982 74-1678 Turkey 2 LT Mark L Kaspar
Apr 13 1982 74-1678 Turkey 2 LT Daniel Lee
Apr 13 1982 74-1678 Turkey 2 LT Frank M Savala Jr
Apr 13 1982  74-1678 Turkey TSGT William J Turk
Apr 13 1982  74-1678 Turkey SRA Pamela K Myers
Apr 13 1982  74-1678 Turkey A1C Mark A Dzierzak
Apr 13 1982  74-1678 Turkey A1C Edward A Sekula

I have made it out today, we went to do grocery shopping and I survived, LOL. Definitely been getting the run around with getting my phone replaced, that's for sure!

We picked up Chinese for lunch and hubby restocked my brochures in my rack, there in Mei Mei House. They forgot my steamed rice, so I saved on calories there! My taste buds are still not working properly though. I haven't really "tasted" any of the food I've eaten today. I guess I have to wait on that then.

Have a good afternoon, my friends!

Happy Friday!

Wow, it was a chilly one this morning! That's for sure. I'm glad the sun has come on out now. The day is supposed to get warmer, and I am definitely ready for it to do so.

Have some errands to run later, and maybe some #AVON deliveries, if my customers want me to stop on by. I'm hoping my hubby will be off work early enough for us to catch Hu Hot for a late lunch. I love that place, and it fits in well with my weight loss eating.

I hav to get some more books to read. I get pedalling on the elliptical, with my nose in a good book, and 10,15,20 minutes passes in a flash, it seems. I've always loved to read, so I accomplish quite a bit again now, whilst exercising. Seems like a pretty good combo to me! I've been going through some favourite authors again, Margaret Coel, James Patterson, and a few others. 

Have a wonderful Friday, and enjoy your weekend!

A Productive Morning

Having older doggies can be a bit of a challenge sometimes, they get opportune ailments as well as the chronic ones, and tend to get picky with their food. Of our 4, 2 are 14 and 2 are 12, and we run the gamut of all the issues.  This morning has been a doggie care morning.

With the beginning of Spring, Princess (also known as Boo and Boo Bear, along with Boofalicious) always gets ear mites.  She's the only one. The past few days, since noticing her shaking her head (an an examination showing why!) I have been swabbing her ears with a cotton pad soaked in ear mite treatment. She just shakes drops out when I try to get them in, this way I am cleaning out the gunk and coating her ear with the treatment ... and at least it stays in!

She is a ham for the camera, that's for sure!

Mr Max (aka Maximum Overdrive when he was younger, and the MacDaddy) suffers a bit with his hips now and has some meds from the vet to keep him pain free. He and I have had "the talk" and I've told him, I'm not going to put him to sleep just because he's real slow getting up or has a stiff hip ... since I suffer the same and wouldn't want somone else deciding to kill me because of it. He'll let me know when it's time.

He gets an irritation and loses his fur on the base of his tail, so this morning he (and the others) got sprayed with a Skin So Soft mixture that usually soothes his and stops the others from getting the same.

Miss Angel has gone from a very haughty youngster who used to go do the caner walks with her daddy every year, to a silly lovey-dovey old lady BUT still obstinate and wilfull as ever. Her "other" names being Brat and She-Who-No-Longer-Obeys tell you something about that.

Proud as punch and Queen of her domain. She was about 4 when this was taken.

Lapping up the attention from my friend's daughter, and just look at that cheesy smile!

Mystery, our "wild dog puppy" that we think was autistic, is the healthiest of the bunch. She seems to have a very strong immune system, which is good, as any vet visit requires sedation in order to transport her.

So, I wormed them all and made them a nice big pot of macaroni cheese with ground beef and mixed veggies, which - thankfully - they do all eat, and they are now outside in the sunshine.

Have a great day everyone!

Life

It's been a fairly good month so far, despite the usual ups and downs that life happens to throw in from time to time. just to stop me from getting too complacent, I think.

My health seems mainly to be on an even keel. I am recovering, however, from pulling a muscle (I think) and that's sore and has curtailed some newer exercising that I'd wanted to incorporate into my daily activities. No worries though, it's just a postponement for now.

I was emptying my chest freezer, in order to defrost and reorganize it, and bent in for the umpteenth time ... and something on the right sided, beneath my diaphragm, went SNAP! and I yowled in pain. I could barely catch my breath. I couldn't believe I had done that to myself!

That night, I slept (almost sitting up) on the couch, with pillows all around, supporting that side. I had found that I got stuck on the bed and couldn't turn or get up so had needed to find another way to rest and sleep.

My exercising has been improving, I pedal on my elliptical multiple imes a day now, and read my books as I do so. 10 or 15 minutes passs quite quickly when I'm engrossed in a tale. Unfortunately, I seem to have gained more of an appetite, so I am not looking forward to going to ssee my doctor at the end of the mont. Methinks the scale might not be as friendly as it has been over the past year.

My grandson got married at the beginning of the month. He's in the Army, up n KY. His wife remains down here for a while, until base housing becomes available for them. I remember those days. I was married 4 days and my husband had to leave, and base housing opened up 7 months later. I only saw him a couple of times inbetween.

With the Spring weather making an appearance, hubby and I have been trying to work on the front yard. Now that I have my rollator and am ggetting around better, I have been going outside and sitting sawing tree branches. He fells the big branch, then I sit and saw it into reasonable size pieces that he can load on the trailer, to haul away. He's been taking them down the field, and lining the fence with them. We occasionally have coyotes in the field next to ours, so we are hoping the brush will make it more difficult for them to come onto our property. We don't have livestock any more, but my dogs are older now as is our one solitary chicken, and I don't want to run he risk of anything happening to them.

I've been quite proud of myself, being useful again! It felt good!

Well, that's all the catch up for now. Have an awesome day, my friends .

I love Margaret Coel's books

They are such a good read. Father John and Vicky Holden make for 2 interesting people, and the things they get caught up in just keep you guessing until the end. Added to which, the entwined Arapaho history and scenic descriptions really set the scene and are interesting.

I love a good read. Always have. She draws me in and I end up pedalling longer on my elliptical because I ma caught up in her characters and the storyline.

Odd to think that had I not seen (and bought) one of her titles in the local Dollar Tree, I might have remained ignorant of her writings. Now, I'm going through all her titles courtesy of the local library, whose shelf of her works shows the popularity of them. It's smashing.

My trip to Academy Sports on Sunday was not quite what I expected. The rower model that I went to try (because the site said they had it in store) wasn't there, and of the 2 they had on show, one was higher than the other (and I was able, with support, to get both down to it and up again). On the downside, it's more expensive, so I can't justify stealing that much from our tax refund to get it, so I'm going to steal $200 an then save $200 from my AVON to get it. It is  a nice machine.

Once I get it, I am hoping it will exercise the muscles that I'm not exercising now, LOL.

Just got dinner out ready for later, going to do hubby a steak and mushrooms with croquette potatoes, and for me ... chicken biryani with saffron rice.

Waiting on my #AVON delivery to arrive and managed to get all my doggies in ... even Angel ... she who no longer obeys. My UPS driver will come in if  she's out there but it's easier just to let him have a clear route to the front porch from the gate without a 4-legged fiend dogging him every step of the way.

Well, going to go pedal some more. Have a great day!

A good week health-wise

Health-wise I am having a good week. 

My activity levels are good, but hubby is going to take apart my elliptical this weekend and grease it well, as I guess the constant daily use is getting to it - it now squeaks wildly when I pedal forward and clunks loudly when I try doing backwards, both of which are very off-putting and have actually started to limit me getting on it as the noise is so bad. 

My walking is becoming less stiff and painful though, always a good thing, although I still do not trust walking without my walker or some object for support as without it, I totter.

I think my goal in the next few weeks is to attempt to do the PT exercises that I used to do for back pain, I have tried before and it's been a no go, but I think my body is beginning to work with me again.My bed is quite firm, and very comfortable, so if I can get my body to cooperate, that would be a nice little exercise session for me.

I'm hoping that I may be able to steal $300 out of our tax refund, to get a rowing machine from Academy. I used to love being on a rower. We'll have to mount it on blocks as there's no way I could make it down to the height they are usually, LOL. If I could get my body to start rowing, that would make a change from biking on the elliptical and use more muscles although I would have to do it slowly so  as not to raise my heart rate wildly.

So with my eating and exercising, I'm excited to see what my weight is next time I go to the doctor, at the end of March.

A lovely Valentine's Day

Today has been a pretty nice day. It was cooler than yesterday but still not cold enough to need heat during the day. 

The dogs enjoyed being out more than they had during our rainy days earlier this week. I'd cooked them macaroni cheese and beef so they were well-fed and happy, too.

Hubby got me a white hyacinth in a vase, and I popped it in the living room and its scent just wafts in the air. For now, I'm leaving it in the glass vase, but when it dies and goes back to being "just a bulb", I will replant it in a pot.

I cooked him a nice Kansas City Strip steak for dinner with potato croquettes and veggies, with ganache for dessert. He works hard, and I try to show my appreciation. 

Exercise-wise, I did a total of 35 minutes pedalling on the elliptical. I think the machine is tired of my using it, hubby has to oil it for me this weekend as it has started squeaking and clunking as I pedal. It gets pretty noisy some of the time so I am looking forward to him getting it sorted for me.

I am hoping to get a rowing machine out of our tax money, but will have to set it up on blocks as there's no way I can make it down to the level they are usually at! 

Now ending the day watching "The Amazing Race". We love this show. The places that the teams go are so interesting. Last week's location was a safari in Africa and it was awesome, with all the wildlife around.

Hope your day was as enjoyable.