Feeling Fine

It is sunny and gorgeous here today.  It is supposed to reach 80 degrees today and maybe 85 tomorrow.  We had a huge thunderstorm last night that was cool with lots of rain, but by this morning, it had all cleared. I love going to bed while a thunderstorm rages.  If it’s not dangerous, the thunder and lightning actually soothe me to sleep.  I

Bob and I are going to a wake/viewing tonight.  The patriarch of the family that owns the gas station on the corner died last week. He had been very ill but seemed to be on the mend and was actually getting ready to leave for work when he died.  The family seems shell-shocked.  His viewing is tonight and the funeral tomorrow morning.  Bob might go to the funeral but I am not since it’s being held while I’m at work.  Bob found out over the weekend that he might even be distantly related to this family.  They didn’t think the news was as great as Bob thought when he first found out, but then again, they are dealing with the death of their patriarch.

Speaking of gas stations, gas was up to $3.09 yesterday.  It’s back down to $2.99 today which probably pisses off everyone who had to stop for gas last night.  However, it has gotten me to think we might do better to fly to Seattle this September for my cousin’s wedding.  I snooped about online this afternoon and saw that we can book a roundtrip, non-stop flight from here for under $300 each.  Or we can include one layover in Dallas for about $250.  I don’t like layovers when traveling with Bob though so it’s probably worth it to go straight through for the extra $25 each.  We would fly out on Tuesday after Labor Day, rent a car and drive to the coast for a couple of days, come back and see Seattle and then leave Monday after the wedding.  The largest cost will most likely be renting a handicapped accessible vehicle.  I wrote a bunch of places in Seattle that rent accessible vans to get prices but we would be lucky to get one for around $500 for the week.  I wish there was a way we could swap cars with another family while we were there, but the logistics of that would have to fall into place miraculously. We could bring the manual chair, which is what we did when we traveled to Florida, but it’s really hard on Bob to rely on that and me for transportation.  We had been excited about traveling west by car and seeing stuff along the way, but my vacation time was shortened by my surgery recouping and Bob was more excited about seeing the Pacific Coast than by anything else we might see along the way.

I think I am going to get all my flowers for planting this weekend. It is the official planting time for our zone and I can’t wait.  This is going to be a nice weather weekend and the flowers at the garden center have been calling my name.  Bob got me a hanging pot of pretty purple flowers that is good for shade.  I want to get one more and then hang them from our living room balcony.  We have a lot of birds eating from a feeder on that side, but no other real natural beauty. Not that buntings, sparrows, and finches aren’t beautiful, but they don’t really stay and hang out.  They eat and run and are gone in a flash.

I feel so much better today.  My right shoulder finally stopped hurting.  I ended up calling the nurse line yesterday and was told it is normal and to keep on the pain with pain reliever.  I took 4 ibuprofen before lunch and that’s all for today.  So far, so good.  My belly button is kind of achy but not unbearably so.  The thing that is driving me most bonkers is the popping in my ears and my drippy, drippy nose.  I’m thinking I have been bit by the allergy bug.  I have not other cold symptoms except for the popping and dripping so I might try some OTC allergy meds to see if that helps at all.  The only downside there is I would then have to forgo my evening glass of wine.  Still, some things are worth pursuing even at the cost of a good glass of Riesling.