0633 – missed the crack of dawn. This is more like the wedge of dawn.
The Twilight Zone
I went to yoga today. Twelve years ago when I started taking this class with the same teacher, the class was too easy for me. But, it was at a good time of day. And the price was right. I paid more money for a couple of suitably hard classes as well. Time passed, and I moved away from the little studio with the hard classes. But, I kept up with the cheap and easy class. More time passed. And now the easy class is too hard for me. However, I will keep going to the class as long as I can. I don’t seem to be going quietly into the good night.
For some unknown reason, this orchid has deployed a couple of summer flower stalks.
Usually, my orchids bloom from late December to May or June. And they all bloomed great and on schedule this year. But this one, the oldest one, put out two late summer bloom stalks. Not sure why.
OK. Somebody, explain. How the hell did I get to be 80 years old? It surely wasn’t in my game plan. And you know what’s scary? There are people around here who are 20 years older than I am. The idea of eating asylum food for another 20 years is terrifying. I doubt that extreme nonagenarian is in my future. That’s a good thing.
Well, I must have completely recovered from my trip to Japan. Those jackrabbits that inhabit my boots have been jumping around. And when I look back on my trip to Japan, I am glad I made the journey.
I am thinking about gentler journeys. Maybe take the train to the west coast before leaving for Kona. Maybe cruise up to Canada. But, this one will take luck, because I want to go on a ship that is officially “FULL”. And there’s the week in Hawai’i going off on an adventure with the zookeeper kids. First thing you know it will be time to leave Hawai’i and maybe another train trip across country?
From my regular walking route.
These rental electric scooters. I think, if you rent a scooter in Arlington it stops working when you leave Arlington and cross into Fairfax. So, we get a lot of scooters piled up. Maybe I am wrong about scooters crossing the county line. I only rented one scooter in my life. It was great fun but it didn’t seem like a super good idea for an old woman.
In Japan, there are instructions everywhere. And people seem to follow instructions.
About the only thing that happened around here today is my 3 windows got washed on the outside. It’s up to me to do the insides. I think the insides are clean enough! Does that surprise anyone?
Nothing going on today. So, let’s have a photo from August 2014. That was Carlton’s last summer. We were doing the Warren Zevon Enjoy Every Sandwich thing.
american goldfinchThe garden box has been a bust this year. Except for Ray the Rosemary and the sage plant that lives under Ray.
We are pleased to share that this week we conducted focus groups with Hord Coplan Macht (HCM) and 60 of your fellow residents as part of our ongoing revisioning and redesign of Goodwin House Bailey’s Crossroads. HCM is a renowned firm specializing in architecture, landscape, interior design, and planning, and they are helping guide this transformative project. Your input will play a crucial role in shaping the future of our community, ensuring it meets the needs and aspirations of all residents.
To that end, HCM has provided us with a creative and engaging exercise, and we would love your participation. We invite you to imagine your future self living at GHBC and write a letter about what excites you most about our community. Consider what surprises and delights you as we embark on this transformative journey together.
What can you imagine seeing at GHBC that would surprise and delight you?
I am supposed to write them a letter and tell them what would surprise and delight me? And this will be creative and engaging?
Well, young and clueless management: I imagine my future self slowly dying on the nursing floor. And what would surprise and delight me would be if I just died while taking a nap in my own bed. Like Carlton did.
And. Note to Google. This is not a universally good idea.
If I have no pulse: Do Not Resuscitate. Don’t even think about it.
Telephone Bird Photography – always interesting – never good.
A dear friend called saying that he was going to have to stage an intervention with his father and stepmother. They planned to “age-in-place”. Now kids from both husband and wife’s families have to try to sort things out. At great expense and effort. Aging-in-place is not a plan. It’s a wish. And it can become a nightmare.
Gratitude
The Asylum. I am not too fond of it here but, I have done all that I can to be responsible for myself when I become unable to be responsible for myself.
Enough lounging about. I need to do some work on my orchids. I think some repotting is in order. And that might require ordering some supplies. Best make a plan.
Nice sky this morning. And another really nice summer day.
Gratitude
Grateful for back to back nice days in August.
Went to in-person yoga today. And, there was a person in my class wearing a red Trump hat. That hat did nothing for my serenity. And, I wondered if maybe the person had a pistol tucked into their yoga pants. Trump people have no business coming to *my* yoga class.
I have used Uber 3 times in the last 2 days. I remind myself that the average cost of car ownership in Virginia is about $1,500 per month. I can take a lot of Uber trips for $1,500.
I am all good today. My doctor looked at everything from yesterday’s visit to Urgent Care. I must take my blood pressure twice a day and that’s it. I have no idea what happened to me. Old age? Too little sleep? Too much travel? Maybe a 72 hour panic attack?
Gratitude
Grateful that I feel heaps better today.
And. The trip to the dentist was a non-event. The Boy Dentist decided that nothing needed to be done with my tooth that “might last 2 days or maybe it will last 2 years” right now. I didn’t even scold him for not saying that 5 months ago when he first decided that there was something wrong with that tooth and I should come in for an evaluation. I just said “Gee Thanks” and left. I didn’t even get charged.
It was a wonderful day weatherwise so I bussed back to The Asylum. Ubered to the dentist.
Waiting for the Uber. Checking out the elephant ears.
Last night was not good. (Well, I didn’t die. So maybe it was OK after all).
Notes from the Old Bat Cave on a Saturday Night.
It’s about midnight. Maybe an hour and a half ago I woke up with a racing heart, instead of its normal 60 beats per minute. It was zooming along at 80. Now that’s not normal. For me
I haven’t been feeling great for maybe a couple of months, but definitely, since Thursday I’ve just had this feeling that death is on my doorstep.
So is it time to call the nurse? Is it time to call 911? An intelligent person would have done one of those two things.
My heart rate isn’t high enough to justify going to the ED on a Saturday night. My blood pressure was just barely below ED levels. So what did I do?
1. I packed up my purse for a trip to the ED just in case. Phone charger. Medical power of attorney. Advance directive. Comb. Earbuds. 2. Hopefully I’ll be smart enough to pick up the phone and the iPad if I do have to go to the ED. 3. I changed out of a ratty t-shirt and put on bra, panties and a real t-shirt—another just-in-case move. 4. Got back in bed with some chamomile tea. 5. Then I decided maybe I should braid my hair. Seemed like a good idea so I did it. 6. So here I am all ready to die. 7. Heart rate back down to about 75 BPM. 8. So, what if this is it? What if I don’t make the bell tomorrow morning.? I think everything is pretty much in order. I have entirely too much origami paper. And I’d be embarrassed if anyone discovered how many trashy books I have on my Kindle and how many trashy audiobooks I own. 9. I don’t have any good connections in the cardio medical community. 10. I may take myself to the ED tomorrow morning just to get checked out. I’m almost certain if I called our Asylum nurse they would probably call an ambulance and stuff me in it and that’s just not going to happen. Well, maybe I should say I don’t want that to happen. I’d rather take Uber
At breakfast, my friends stage an intervention and cart me off to Urgent Care.
A fine way to spend Sunday morning. Thanks, Betty and Carol!
Happy that they made me go. I passed the EKG. The EKG was what I really wanted. My blood pressure was back to my “normal” normal.
I have declared myself FINE. And, I plan on going to the dentist tomorrow morning as planned.
OK, I have been home for a week now. It’s time for this jet lag shit to be over. Yesterday, I could barely stay awake. Today, I did awake pretty good until about 1PM.
Gratitude
Grateful to have gotten 2 miles walking in today.
The rain seems to be over for now. Summertime.
Birthday gathering tonight. There will be cake.
