Sunday, July 20, 2008

Doctor's report

I'm going to live after all.

All my test results are back. Blood sugar - fine. Thyroid - fine. Liver - fine. Kidneys - fine. Blood count - fine. Cholesterol - fine. So the diagnosis right now is "the patient has a history of anxiety and depression, coupled with a large amount of immediate stressors."

I'm now on a little happy pill for anxiety, and it seems to be making a difference. There are still things I worry about, but they don't take on world-ending proportions like they did a few weeks ago.

I'm also making a point to sleep when tired, and that hasn't been a problem with my schedule lately. Simply put, most days I'm exhausted. She gave me something to help me sleep, but I've only had to use it once.

Now if Mike and I could just get on track, life would be just about perfect.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Was that the couch calling me?

I'm not really sure I can improve much on the silence right now.

It's almost noon and I'm still in my jammies. And I'm seriously thinking of heading to the couch for a movie. My luck, someone will drop in unexpectly. I just don't feel like being productive.

Yesterday, we started ripping apart our back yard. Mike brought home a mini-excavator from work. We He ripped out the sidewalk. We He stripped off a spot by the back door to be graveled for me to park. We He stripped off another section of grass weeds, which will be styled with walking stones and gravel. We He broke up the old sidewalk to create the walking stones. And we he sculpted the excess dirt into a mound where I can put future plantings.

Truly, our yard looks like shit. Well, not where we're making improvements, but everywhere else. The grass has never grown nicely since the day we moved in. We have no idea what the previous tenants did to it, other than completely neglect it. We've watered. We've fertilized. And still the weeds are all that really grow. The only reason I keep putting water on it is to try to save the trees. All of which somehow managed to survive the neglect from past years. Well, except the willow-type specimen that we had to take out last summer.

And with costs for everything going up, up, UP, eliminating some of the grass in favor of lower maintenance plants should benefit us in the long run. Getting there, however, will take a couple summers.

Somehow during all the work, I managed to get a nice sunburn. Nice, except that it looks like a patchwork quilt on my legs. Don't know how I managed that. White here, red there. It's attractive, I'm sure. And jeans are out for today.

And after a long and sweaty day of work, I was awake with the birds this morning. Just like clockwork, my eyes popped open at 7:00 am. I have fond memories of the days I could sleep in without even trying.

Hmmm, the rest of the crowd isn't moving too fast either. Maybe I'll trade my jammies for shorts and a tee and join them in front of the TV. I think I hear the couch calling my name.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Heat, Holidays, and Clear Lack of Knowing the Requirements

It's been hot. Damn hot. I'm not sure where the weather-type people take their official readings at, but obviously it's not anywhere near where we real people live. Maybe they're in the cooler at the nearest Maverick or Oasis. Obviously they are not in my truck with me, or they would know it has in fact reached 100 nearly everyday this week. Really. It has. My baby would not lie to me. Even Max, Mike's clearly devoted, diesel-sucking diva is honest enough to report 100+. Even though she's a chronic liar about his driving history. Her allegiance clearly runs to testosterone. (i.e. - she's not about to rat him out for violations of any sort.)

So, in fine family tradition, I received one of Mike's "for you...but secretly for me" gifts last Monday. He splurged and picked up a window AC unit for upstairs. Not that we don't enjoy bathing in the 90+ sauna that is our upstairs getaway. But really, sweat is not sexy on every level. It's actually been bearable up there, though that poor little machine chugs non-stop in an attempt to keep the heat at bay. At least it cools enough at night to shut it off and open windows. There is a decided sigh of coolant relief when I hit that off button.

Obviously, today is the holiday. The calendar says it is so. That means our little town has it's annual 4th of July parade as part of our Sagebrush Days celebration. I don't mind a good parade. I especially enjoy raiding the bag of candy the kid collects from passing floats. I just have one major parade-related gripe. How the hell can you call it a parade without including a marching band?? It's required! Read your official book of parade protocol. It's in there. I promise you. Without the marching band, it's almost not worth going.