Turning the Page

It's suddenly Fall here.  I've done a fair amount of walking and taken a couple of bike rides these past 10 days or so..  Outside of being careful what I lift, I'm doing fine.  I've driven my car, gone shopping for groceries (with TJ to help carry stuff) and cooked a couple of meals.  I'm going to declare this latest episode to be over.  What's left isn't really fodder for the blog, in any case.

The Girl texted me this photo of pumpkin cereal.  She does not approve.  I have to agree.

These flowers are growing along the road into our neighborhood, and I don't remember seeing them in previous years.  This year they are all over.

Today's ride was short -- the weather service has a beach hazard statement out for our area.  That means wind, as a rule.

It's been nice to be in touch through the blog again, so there may well be more posts here.  It's my favorite time of year to be outside, and I like taking photos and putting them on the blog. Thanks for reading!

Breathe

This is a where I had my post surgical check up this morning.  (Breathe.)  Everything is healing up nicely, she says, and I can resume "almost" all normal activities. (No heavy lifting.)  Naturally, on a cool and breezy early fall day, I decided to see how biking felt after the events of the last week.  Hard to get more normal than that, right?  I do have a fading yellow bruise from my collar bone to my rib cage which makes deep breathing interesting, but that was described as typical and temporary.

My friend and neighbor, maker of soup and chicken pot pie, quickly announced her intention to go with me on the bike ride. She couldn't let me go alone, she said. Ummmm. Okay.

If you continue on down this road, you get to a No Trespassing sign with a picture of a bulldog on it. We heeded that sign and turned around, ending the ride with about a dozen miles. Plenty enough for this day.  I am tired, and napped after biking, but it felt pretty good to just be me for a while this afternoon.

Solstice? No -- Equinox

Did I mention brain fog?  It's been a real thing recently for me.  The first day of fall showed up here today, another trip around the sun.  Walking was highly recommended to me for this week -- no one ever recommends chocolate.  Or pie.

I have been reading some Mick Herron books this week to pass the time.  I finished up The Last Voice You Hear and have moved on to Why We Die.   Fortunately, the titles were not predictive.  The Oxford Series, decent enough stories.  Sunrise 7:32 am, Sunset 7:41 pm.  Close enough.

Evenings of the Brain

OSLO and The Girl make a tremendous team, I must -- and should -- say.  If "growing old is not for sissies" is true and we know for sure it is, then it's wise to accept some help when it's offered.  And so we did.  Here's the supper they brought me (in bed) last night -- broccoli cheese soup, Goldfish and Powerade Zero. 

I am home, I'm comfortable and I plan to walk at least a bit outside today.  Another day of full time caregiving from OSLO and  The Girl, which I think is a good thing -- their youthful, positive energy is part of what they bring with them.  Now if the brain fog would just lift a bit....

Ain't Got Time to Oil the Hinges

This old blog.  It's been used both as a way to keep up with the day to day stuff of family life and as a way to record family events.  For primarily that first thing, I'm planning to resurrect this blog for a while.

Yesterday.  A bike ride to the PSPS was on the list of things I wanted to do "before" and it was a near perfect day for it.  Things have changed there but it's still mostly the same.  A metaphor for life?

North on Lakeshore to the cutoff where Jim and Kelsey crashed, back to the house on 168th.  Road work on Lakeshore is finished, with a bike lane on either side of the road from Riley north to Grand Haven.  The bike path on 168th is being re-done and requires riding in the road on chip and seal, but the path did need repaving.

It was my fifth bike ride in seven days, two of them were with L and G and involved essentially riding to lunch and back.  Shorter rides, but fun.  We rode through Waukazoo Woods on one of those rides, and though the fall colors have yet to show themselves, it's still a pretty place.  5 rides, 60 miles.  Enough to stay strong (a relative term) but not enough to wear myself out.

In other news -- there is a good plan in place here for next week, at least that's how it looks now.  OSLO and The Girl have committed Monday and Tuesday to caregiving.  OSLO will be with me Monday, and The Girl will stay with her grandfather.  I will be home Monday night, OSLO will stay through Tuesday.  Totally Jammin' will be here Thursday afternoon and Friday.  We also have home health aids coming every afternoon all week for two hours.  Family and friends are on stand-by if I feel we need more help than this-- but we really should not.  In truth it feels like overkill.  So for now, we are all doing fine.