It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood today! This is the time of year you gotta LOVE living in Arizona. Current temperature is in the low 60’s (I thought warmer but the WX service site says 63ºF) Skies are flawless topaz blue. Lawns and other flora are actually green, thanks to the uncharacteristic recent rains. How long it’ll last I don’t know, but I’ll take it while I can get it.
And I feel reasonably good physically, no small improvement. The knee is still stiff: that’s a fact of life for the rest of my life. I am, however, breathing easier these days. The doctor checked me out again last weekend and concurred with what I’d already figured out: that the lung inflammation wasn’t solely a part of the bronchitis. He’s decided I probably have a form of athsma. That being the case, he prescribed an ongoing dose of that particular medicine and it has made a massive difference. That chronic cough I’ve had my whole life? It’s eased up considerably, if not fully gone.
I’m going back to my oregano oil though, which should clear it up fully again.
I started taking 5-HTP to help with the weight loss. I definitely have to lose the weight and do NOT want to take prescription meds for that. Even an herbal blend isn’t without risk, though prescription side effects tend to be nastier in general. 5-HTP has a few known potential side effects and I’ll be keeping an eye out for them, just in case. So far I haven’t had any contraindications. 5-HTP is also an antidepressant, only without the extreme incapacity Paxil carried few years back. (With the bare minimal dose Paxil messed me UP; I literally passed out while riding a bicycle, and was only taking 5mg/day of the stuff. Thank God it was a bike instead of while I was driving a car!)
Doubtful my current good mood is thanks to the 5-HTP, because I’ve only started taking it this week. Still, it’s encouraging to know there ARE alternatives to the high-risk pharmaceuticals out there to battle chronic depression. I wish to God I’d known about the alternatives several years ago.
G is working his way through a HoneyDo list, though a lot of the tasks were self-inflicted. Now that youngest kid has moved out we’re finally getting that spare bedroom converted to an office. And FINALLY, as part of the deal, repainting the ancient, much-battered low bookcase I got a Freecycle right after I moved into this apartment. Now I am not a stupid woman, but for this project G out-thought me on several points and I have to give him credit.
Did I mention this sucker is LONG? It’s 7.5 feet long, which makes it too long to maneuver through the hallway and under doors. There isn’t room in the hallway to angle it into the rooms and it’s too tall to carry standing up. Daughters and I had a hell of a time getting it moved where I wanted it, which is why it has been plunked up against a wall and never touched since.
G, however, actually has a pretty good sense of logic. He pulled off the window screens, fed it out through the window in one room and carried it onto the porch for sanding; then once sanded, he fed it through the window on the second room. Despite being humongously long, the bookcase is not at all heavy. G did it all himself except for a little guiding on my part. He did all the sanding and is now painting it in the paint color on which we both agreed. Thank goodness when it comes to decorating we’re in perfect agreement. We wanted something neutral but NOT the same as the wall color. G had long bragged that he was a good painter, too. He’s proving it at the moment, and I have to give him credit there, too. I can paint and do an okay job. What he’s painting is a perfectly smooth finish, though, which is a lot better than anything I could accomplish.
Breakfast this morning was oatmeal muffins, also from scratch. (I keep a good supply of scratch, buy it in bulk. It does come in handy now and then!) Dinner is in the crock pot and smelling too damned good for my own good. Dinner tonight will include roast beast, real mashed potatoes & beast gravy, green beans, and apple pie for dessert. Yum! Went to the doctor’s office for a scheduled bone scan, picked up one of G’s prescriptions, and now I’m camped out in front of the computer. Later today we’re planning to pick up a lamp we found on Craigslist and I’m taking Reno to the dog park now. I am going to take along the Nikon and see if I can come back with some respectable pictures. Otherwise, I think we’re in for a blissfully calm, quiet day.
I can most assuredly handle that!!!
If you have a minute, kindly go help out Yankee Chick. She’s gotten herself a new iPhone and is agonizing over what to name it. Suggestions invited!