Monday, July 1, 2024

July 1 is here! The next 2 months are the busiest on Cape Cod. Strategies for going out to eat for meals, what roads to use, and timing of movements must be put in place to cope with traffic. The usual common courtesy of letting cars out from side streets onto busy streets becomes more important but much more rare. Yesterday we took a left onto the main road my neighborhood empties onto and the car we went in front of was apparently speeding as we had plenty of room but he/she ended up on our tail and blasted the horn when we turned off. Interestingly there was a car in front of us so there was only a gain of one car length. Sigh...

All junk work is complete. I also went through some boxes with mementos yesterday and pared them down to fit into one existing box. I need to keep doing that with some drawers in preparation for when we actually move but it is not necessary before we put the house on the market. Today we are going to try to get rid of as many items designated for donation as possible and DS is making another trip to the storage unit with his excess stuff. Maybe we will arrange furniture in the screen porch and maybe I will clean the outdoor shower (which I'd like to be able to use before we leave the house anyway).

Tonight we are going out to DH's area of Cape Cod to have dinner with his children and granddaughter who are at the house for July 4th week. We are dropping books into a collection box on the way.

The higher dose of Tirzepatide (7.5) which I started Thursday seems to be working well. I was hardly hungry yesterday and could barely eat the one leftover meatball (large) for dinner. I am trying to be as protein-rich as possible at each meal, including using protein drinks as my coffee creamer. The only side-effects I have noticed along the way are a bit of constipation some days, but since I used to have the opposite it is actually a benefit for me.

Time to get motivated. Have a megalopsychy Monday!

Cape Cod has a lot in common with Sedona!

I find my updates harder to write here as there is a lot of nothing going on, but it is very relaxing here. I find myself so relaxed I yawn constantly, nap, and sleep like the dead!

I've been pondering redoing my bathroom here. Both bathrooms are really bland with cheap materials and my shower floor tile cracked making it more important to get that redone than to just live with what I have. Then talking to my folks, they suggested doing both bathrooms at once given all the trades people would already be here for one bathroom (tile, plumber, electrician, etc). But I've been debating whether to just redo my bathroom in the existing footprint or should I put a door in from my bedroom to make it an en suite... I think the right answer is to call an architect to get it right. And if I just did one bathroom, then the other one would stand out as the really ugly one and we can't have that!

I'm out of coffee, so a store trip is in order. I'll get some veggies for dinner too. I think we'll have salmon.

And I have a lot of cardboard to take to recycling (no curbside recycling here). So that's my other thing to do today.

I was up 0.8 today. And our neighbor brought over fresh cinnamon roll dough last night to rise and bake today. I passed. I could have eaten it, but there is a reason I usually gain 10 pounds over the summer here and I don't need that! The neighbor has MS and is on a really restrictive diet to keep those symptoms at bay so she can't eat sweets, but she's a baker. And her husband doesn't eat sugar either. Why do we have to be her outlet?? She also brought chocolate chip cookies and vanilla biscotti on Thursday. Food pusher!

Anyway, off to get dressed and attack the day. Take care!

I think both bathrooms and getting an architect to see if you can improve flow makes perfect sense.

Having the luxury of an architect's services- score and do it!

I feel your neighbor's desire to be baking just for the joy of baking, but withstanding the temptation offered all summer long is just too much.

Perhaps her generosity can be redirected toward folks who are a service to the community. Thinking the local librarian or law enforcement, maybe a delivery to the night nurses station. There are scads of under appreciated public servants needing a bit of thank you via a yummy treat.

I bet the hoards of tourists (of which I am one) can be annoying! I can't wait until retirement when we can travel outside of high season and explore places without the hoards and the stress it creates on the communities. Between the unprecedented heat waves, and the crush of tourists, I don't think I would venture to places like Italy, France, Germany etc in the summer anymore.

Food pushers: I've know several thin, very disciplined eaters, who were voracious food pushers. I've wondered if it's their way of living vicariously. They're urging you to eat what they wish to eat. And maybe they don't mind if others around them aren't as thin.

Overcast this morning. Sun will burn it off soon I hope.

We can mostly work around the tourists and let's face it, I'm here summer only too. It is the lack of courtesy on the roads that bugs me because off-season everyone is pretty good about letting cars out (unlike other places in Massachusetts like Boston). But that goes away mostly in the summer. All our roads are 2 lanes with one lane in each direction other than a portion of route 6 which runs along the middle (not close to my part of the Cape). So it isn't as if you get a big gain by squeezing someone out.

I thought it ironic that the summer break being a huge time off fell, unfortunately, during my least favorite season! I know the historical rationale in back of the placement on the calendar, but--Shoot, what about any other 3 months!

Yes, indeedy, it is good to be retired.

I have a cousin that teaches in Arizona. They have year round school with just more/longer breaks

Okay, Liz, you are definitely expanding my vocabulary! Megalopsychia! Dang! had to look that one up, too! The greatness of soul, to be worthy of great things.... Thank you, Aristotle!

I did a little happy dance upon seeing my scale output today! I'm in the next decade down! Whoo hoo.... I am close to the next goal... only 4.5 pounds to go. Then I shall have to make a new goal. I'm not sure what that will be.

I got an answer form orderly meds. The concentration of the new med was doubled. So my original 50 units for 5mg was in a concentration of 20 mg of medicine in 2 ml of liquid. So I took 5 units which equalled 5 mg of med. This new dose is 40 mg of med in 20 ml of liquid. So a 50 unit dose is now equal to 10 mg of medicine. At least I don't have to inject 100 units! That is a blessing! I will start the new dose on Thursday.

We are in for a massive heat wave this week. Last night on the news it was predicted to be 111 degrees here on Wednesday. Looking at my weather app, it looks to be only about 106. Time will tell!

Time to get a few things done before it gets too hot here.

My latest is from Empower pharmacy (Hallandale doesn't ship to MI). The 10mg is 120 units!!! Kill me now. That's going to be two 60 unit shots...