Monday, July 19, 2021

Giving Liz a break today!

It's warm here, but overcast with smoke all the way from Oregon. Very orangey glow to the light that my CA friends know well.

We went on a boat ride yesterday, which was fun. I did a little more weeding in my veggie garden.

Last night I was woken up by two foxes hunting chipmunks on and under my deck. What a ruckus! Running around, jumping on all the furniture... it was neat to watch so close. As cute as chipmunks are, we are overrun this year, so a thinning of the herd is not the worst thing.

Not much else happening here. Food continues to be a struggle I need to control. I've also been mulling taking a road trip to TX to experience it in the summer just to be fully informed should that be where I choose.

Take care everybody!

Chipmunk ceased to be cute to me a long time ago, so bring on the fox! I think our owl has moved on because the rodents in the backyard are increasing. Whereas the squirrels can't climb up my greased shepherds hook, the chipmunk can jump about 10 feet, so they've been jumping onto one of my bird feeders and finally broke it. Cheeky little beggars.

After months and months of futility, tracking, pep talks, and nothing to show for it, the scale has been my friend this last week. My lower carb eating resulted in a 4 pound loss for the week. Since last July, I haven't been able to lose even two pounds, and in fact gained. Now here I am, eating bacon and taking tomaxofin and the scale moves. I can't predict whether these 4 pounds will stay lost, or that I will keep losing, or that I can adhere successfully to lower carb going forward. I can only feel pleased for this day, and hold some hope. I'd forgotten what it felt like to get on the scale and see losses. It was nice.

We had a great time at our friend's house last evening. Today I'm going to visit my parents and bring them lunch.

It continues to be hot and sunny here. There is talk of water rationing, something we rarely have to consider in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Our yard is shady, so our grass can survive watering restrictions. We've only watered twice this year, and we had to go buy a sprinkler to do it, it had been so long since we watered we couldn't find ours.

Cecily, whatever you would discover about a Texas summer (hot and humid in the south, hot and dry in the north), you'd still have Michigan, right? I dearly love a road trip, sounds fun to me.

You are right, I would always have summer in MI! I feel like seeing it at what for me would be its "worst" (heat/humidity) would give me the full picture of what I would be taking on.

I'm jealous of your scale movement! Mostly because I know that my crappy-carb intake is high and I know it can't be if I want to succeed at this...

Happened to pop over to the regular VSG board. It's clearly close to "dead". Kind of sad considering what a vibrant, active board it used to be.

Weight continues is downward crawl. The one thing about this approach is that it takes little effort on my part to manage. However, I'm aware that this approach will most likely not get me to a weight that is acceptable to me.

Construction continues.... They are now working two jobs so all I can do is hope that when I get back from the Oregon show circuit the work is complete and done. Fingers crossed.

Today's excitement came in the form of the painter coming to remove the acoustical (popcorn) ceiling in the master. I would have left it, but a corner of it started to come loose and the hole just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. A proper ceiling will be nice. I am not a fan of the popcorn look. Of course, thinking the construction outside would be done by now, I scheduled the painter to come back.... LOL!

Ron gets stressed when we have things like this going on. He got really crabby with me while we were moving things out of the bedroom and was unnecessarily har**** was interesting that even after I told him I was upset by his words I still fled to the fridge. I stood there for a moment, but realized I wasn't hungry at all. I was actually more NOT HUNGRY - stomach tight and icky feeling from the stress - than hungry. So I sat down and just took some time to calm myself and sit with my feelings. I'm calling that a win!

We leave on Wednesday for Oregon. Hope we have a good time and are not negatively affected by the fires. I think we will be west of most of the smoke.

When we bought our house, a ceiling without popcorn texture was considered not finished. It is everywhere here in the Midwest. New builds no longer use it, but I don't know how all the other homes will ever be free of it.

I think you should visit in Florida too !

So scary that the fires are getting bad again already this year. And the Covid cases are increasing. I got some insight into why some people aren't getting the vaccine after talking to DD's birthmom this weekend when she said she didn't think she "needed" it. A bit of an eye-opener but at least she says she might do it after our discussion.

My friend who had the heart attack this weekend is improving. Slowly. Clearly the doctors didn't expect him to survive the night but he is doing okay right now. More to go through but all his friends and family are encouraged and there is hope. DS visited him today and felt much better afterwards. DS is probably driving the wife to their home in New Hampshire on Thursday for a medical procedure and to get more clothes. All our group has been on the phone and having meals together for support. A lot like it was when DH was failing: we are family. DD said that her Dad wasn't ready to be joined yet.

So Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell have been in our little town all weekend visiting many of the places we frequent. So cool! They look and act like regular people.

Food has been mixed... My BP med is causing me to have rather extreme peripheral edema which I am NOT happy with. I am afraid to weigh.

Have a safe and healthy Monday night!

Greetings Tous le monde

A sunny cool day here in northern cal.

We had the plumber come out, at my insistence, to fix the toilet geyser. Paid weekend rates. DH acts like the plumber is a rock star!! He put up flood lights in both bathrooms! Seriously?? They guy was pleasant but today it seems the toilet is still not right. Seems to run a long time. I want to call the place back to have them fix it but DH ... well ...

Hey my sweet peas are up and blooming. Well one pot of them is. The other is dead. Same plants same everything. Go figure.

DD you are doing great to lose 4 lbs while taking that med. Not easy. Good for you. I am convinced that low carb is the way to do - more important than calories. My thighs consist of two loaves of bread and 10 pounds of potatoes each.

No orange sky here yet but it could happen. Oregon is only 60 miles away.

Be careful Peps on your trip and avoid the fires. I assume your route is all planned to do so.

We are having good sales at our touristy gallery but that could all change if the fires close one of the few roads that comes to this remote place.

I finally made an appointment to cut off my two foot long hair! I am reluctant to go to a walk in place due to covid concerns so I found a salon that is careful. Listening to the young plumber guy that was here - I don't think he was vaccinated though he did wear a mask. I wanted to scream at him that he is an idiot but avoided that.

Take care all. Diane S

The vaccination rate here is pretty good, at least in the metro area. My county was 91% for people 65 and over when they were opening it to other age groups. Today my husband says he resents he took a chance on a vaccine that, is in essence, protecting people who won't get vaccinated. But as we like to say, whatja gonna do? I am comfortable with being vaccinated when I hear that almost no vaccinated people have died from Covid.(A few have). In my parents community in Florida, people are continuing to die from Covid. The pastors of their evangelical church (Nazarine, you don't get much more conservative evangelical than that), are urging people to get vaccinated. They have appointment sign ups on Sunday in the vestible. And still they won't. I am so sad that these really nice people are dying for no good reason.

Kurt and Goldie at the restaurant Mike and I went to for date night last week: