Hi y’all! I didn’t blog yesterday. We were at the hospital with my brother who had to have a procedure done. I didn’t get much walking in all at once. It was like there was no time for exercise, but later in the day we, Jeffrey and I, started going up and down the stairs until I was so tired I couldn’t go up them anymore. Jeffrey kept bugging me to start going back up them again but I did go up 3 flights(6 sections) of stairs several times and as I wore down I couldn’t do it more. I was able to go down successfully the rest of the night but not up. We actually ended up spending a good part of the evening going up and down stairs and all over the place when we were really tired and punchy. Total for the day yesterday was between 3 and 4 miles but that was over a course of 17 hours. We did walk for 17 minutes continuously and that was toward the evening, in the basement and as close as I could get to my daily walk time where we were at. I wanted to find the morgue. Why you ask? Well when we were at one of these hospitals several years ago, we got off the elevator to go to lunch or supper and the first thing we saw as the doors opened was the door to the morgue. I wasn’t for sure which hospital it was, but it wasn’t the one I was at yesterday. We went back upstairs and told them (the others with us) that we went walking and looking for the morgue. Didn’t phase them at all. They know how bizarre I am. Had I found it, I just would have thought that was interesting and it was that hospital that we found it in before.
On another note, not exercising in the morning like we always do really put my bones and joints in a bind. I sat too much, I could hear fat coagulating on my butt and arms (not really but you get it), my knees were hurting, my legs were locking up, my butt was hurting, my arm and chest muscles were hurting from too much usage from hauling stuff in and out that we needed. That was why Jeffrey and I decided that I needed to walk off the carbs I ate plus to get up and get moving to feel better. I never once thought that missing exercise would ever be something that I would be all sorts of bent out of shape (literally) over but it was. I am on the path to healthy and I will just have to always figure out how to work that in, or I will pay for it later. I wouldn’t trade my time at the hospital with him yesterday for anything, but I do need to remember to continue to take care of me in every circumstance. This is how we fall off the wagon. A little this is ok here, won’t do this so much there, and before you know it, we have backslid and I can’t do that. I left last night with a massive headache and still have it currently. It is down to a dull roar which is manageable but still annoying.
Eating at a hospital is another story totally. One thinks that when they go to the hospital that they should have options that would fit almost all diets, right? Well let me tell you, that doesn’t work that way. The only sugar-free thing they had was jello. Ok….and diet pop. That is another story in itself. The only thing that they had was low-fat. Umm, not necessarily at this point thanks. There was all sorts of stuff just running over with carbs. I had to just eat what I could and make do. I did however have the foresight to bring my own water and water flavors. I had no desire to spend a small fortune on water all day and that was a huge help. I also included some sugar-free sugar wafers and I am glad I did. I was just rather disappointed that there was nothing that would have really worked for me. I was asked why couldn’t I buy one of the breaded sandwiches, take it off the bun, and pull the breading off? My wallet says no. That would be a total waste of money considering in order to fully make one whole sandwich, I would had to have bought about 4 of them to pull the breading off from. And that just really sounds nasty anyway. Unbreading a cooked breaded sandwich. Ugh. I do know I sure miss cooking on days like that.
So the soda story….I was looking on the room information where it talked about the cafeteria hours and I read where the hospital had made the decision to help make people healthier. They were going to limit full sugar soft drinks that are available for purchase in the hospital. Normally this would have really just set me afire. After all my lifestyle changes, it didn’t bother me. I don’t drink diet soda (and obviously not full sugared soda) because the amount of sodium in it will cause you to retain water. In the vending rooms there was a big sign that said the hospital was going to try to help stamp out the two things or conditions that were impacting us health wise here in Indiana and that is obesity (I am but not so much now) and diabetes (where I am heading if I don’t get this together). Ok I get it. But, there was this problem too. At one time I decided that I wanted a cold water. Water is healthy, right? Well we had to walk all over the place to find one for Jeffrey after I lost the urge for one because we couldn’t find one. We found it, oddly enough, in our quest for the morgue. The ONLY ONE in the whole hospital I think was all the way in the basement, hidden from the majority. For a snack, when we went to the cafeteria, I had decided that I needed some tea. No sweet for me of course, but the unsweetened they had was wrong. It was just nasty. The lack of caffeine could explain my headache. They did have coffee but it was like drinking the nastiest bitter drink every. Meh. Been sucking the tea down today like I own the only box of tea bags in the world and I need to drink it before someone steals it. It has been helping.
Back to the reason for our trip yesterday–I just don’t think I am going to go into all that now about his procedure. I will soon but for now, just know that all will be well and God has this. It is a very scary thing but it will be ok.
The weather here today has been pretty mild. Again it is hard to believe that this is Indiana in June. The a/c compressor hasn’t kicked on at all today and I have it set pretty low, because you know me, I smother no matter the temp. With headache and all, we resumed our normal walking today. 56 minutes and 2.11 miles. The honeysuckle sure smelled good today but under the smell of that was the smell of farmers, distributing smoldering, rotting poo all over the fields. Like I have said before, we are used to smells but man the honeysuckle took on a whole new perspective by the end of the walk!
Boy did I need that walk! It was good and cool and it felt good. Annie thought it was a bit cold but I liked it. By the way, she does a blog too and can be found at https://anniebanannieee.wordpress.com/. As we walked today, I told her about yesterday since she couldn’t go because of work and we talked about many things. One thing I relearned today is that Annie loves questions and the more I can conjure up the better she likes it. So I would ask her something and she would reply. And if I was slow on coming up with something she would ask me to ask her more!
One thing we noticed was that the road to my Mom’s house had been grated. This created a problem. Let me explain. Annie thought that walking on it would be harder on our feet, but I found that the gravel was quite spongy which was nice to walk on. That isn’t even the issue. Let me tell you about Leaf. As we walk. we of course are watching where we are walking. Living in the country does that to you. You look for holes, rocks, things to trip on, snakes, etc. All of these you want to avoid. If you don’t believe me, if you were raised in or live in the country, and you have a city friend, next time you get together, ask them to discreetly observe your behavior when you walk. I have had several people ask me why I walk with my head down. Obviously, number 1, I am so talented that I can trip on flat carpet but it is out of habit. I want to make sure I don’t step on something that will kill me or bite back. Ok, back to Leaf. When we first started walking, as a way to keep the walk fresh and amusing we would look at the things on the ground and name them or whatever. Y’all know how this is. I know every single person does this but I am not afraid to admit it. We all name things around us: places, objects, roads, turns in the road, animals, etc. We had Leaf. We would talk to Leaf or say hi every day, and Leaf was just there to encourage us to keep walking so we could see him. She put him under some rocks, originally as an experiment, to see if any animals or cars or whatever would disrupt the rocks. I will tell a story about that later too. Leaf was doing so very good until one day he had been strung out from under the rocks and ripped up. Oh my. Well we said a few words for Leaf, and nominated a beautiful yellow Maple leaf to be the new one, named Leaf 2.0. We put him a little further up the road under some rocks. This time we kept forgetting to say hi but yesterday, the road was grated, and took every single piece of Leaf 2.0’s existence away. We said a few words for Leaf 2.0 and tomorrow, we will nominate Leaf 3.0. Are we nuts, or just creative? I like to think we are nuttily creative. Here is a pic, and you can see how spongy the road is and you can see my footprints in the fresh dirt.
The animals I am referring to that would have upset Leaf are just deer and the like. Although recently, we have had some weirdness going on. Down the lane to my Mom’s we had something that sounded like it was throwing rocks at us, and another time it sounded like something was whistling at us. Another time Annie also heard someone talking and it wasn’t me or our headphones. We tend the think we have a bigfoot. And why not? We are in the middle of no where with thick forests. It could be! Does it scare us? Nah. Just as long as he/she poses for a pic…..
One thing I have said many times is that Annie and I talk about feelings and about friendships a lot. Odd we both would have these weird things happening at the same time. One thing we discussed today was first impressions and how we categorize people and if those opinions change. I think when we meet people that we like to categorize them, such as they look like a good friends, an enemy, a backstabber, someone who is awesome, a potential date, etc. These first impressions can actually change, once we get to know someone. I guess the point of the conversation was being wrong or having our opinion changed over time. Anyone else ever do this? And I guess too this goes beyond a first impression. It is more like a first categorization.
On our walk we saw one of the local farmers go in and out with their truck so we just hop on over to the side of the road out of the way. The second time we got off the road when we saw them we ran right smack into some pretty flowers on the side of the road. We took some pics. Not sure what they are but they look like daisies.
I really look forward to blogging every day. On days when I can’t, I feel that too just as bad as not doing the exercise. I hope to get more followers if for no other reason than to see what silliness I am up to today. It really helps me though and keeps me going. Also forgive my grammar and spelling mistakes. Remember, these are my thoughts and since I know the grammar rules, I am apt to break them. Ha! And, too, I think that leaving a bit of a mess up in gives it character. Makes it a bit rustic if you will. Yeah, only me, describing a blog as rustic. And rustic in terms of thoughts is I think priceless. Some of the best thoughts are unsophisticated.
I better stop for today. I have a missionary speaker at church tonight for my missionary presentation and that will be awesome. Have a great night!
–S
Poot's Notes 