Wednesday, August 25, 2021

 August 25, 2021


This past week has been another hot one. I continue to stay inside most of the time, and I make no apologies for that. As it is, the humidity still gets to me—or maybe, as my daughter suggests, it’s the barometric pressure. Whatever it is that does it, my arthritis continues to ache relentlessly. That’s just situation normal for me. Those who know me are used to my saying, “it’s only pain”, and that isn’t me making light of it. That’s me being grateful that it is, after all, only pain.

I did indulge myself and had one of the two lobsters that my second daughter brought back for me from Nova Scotia. I made a salad with lettuce, lobster, tomatoes, and avocado, and with feta cheese crumbled on top. I posted a picture of it on my FB wall and noted that there was no dressing in the recipe for the salad, nor any mention of one. I truly didn’t miss one because that bowl contained some interesting flavors, all of which I enjoyed.

Of course, having bought the feta specifically for that salad, I had to then have large “Greek” salad a couple of days later. That, too, was very good.

One of my great-grandchildren had expressed an interest in trying the lobster and the avocado, and it was just good timing that the day I prepared that salad was a day he’d be here for a bit. He liked the lobster, but not the avocado. I told him I was proud of him for being willing to try something new. He’s going to be seven next month, so that was something I believed deserved to be praised.

My daughter claims lobster has no flavor, but I find it very tasty. The meat that didn’t make it into the salad and that wasn’t set aside for brave great-grandchildren, did make it into a pan of melted butter with garlic, and that was yummy, too. I plan to wait a couple of weeks and then try my hand at making a lobster bisque. That is a soup I will almost always order if I see it on a menu, but one that I’ve never tried to make.

Like my oldest great-grandson, I, too, like to try new things—at least the making of them, and I figure at my age that has to count for something, too.

I checked the weather forecast for the upcoming week last night, because I was hoping to see cooler and dryer days approaching. Instead, that chart claims that today is the first of five wet days that we’ll be gifted out of the next seven. Now, the last day of August, at the moment, is looking to be the first day that will “feel like” less than 90 degrees, Fahrenheit in quite some time. Looking ahead is all well and good, but I guess I really shouldn’t do that. The weather forecasts often change, based on updated information. It would be the height of either stupidity or arrogance not to change the forecast as the information it’s based on changes.  (However, a quick check this morning showed no change.)

That’s kind of like the science involved in understanding the novel coronavirus we’ve been living with for the last eighteen months. I don’t think it’s rocket science to understand that when more is learned about the nature of a brand new never before seen virus, then how we deal with said virus could very well need to change. The more the scientists learn, the more they know, and we all adapt accordingly. Like I said, not rocket science at all, but that’s just my opinion.

A lot of people have been making this situation a lot more complicated than it needs to be.

Our “freedom” day was July 6 – the day when we reached the two week point after our second vaccination. And while I thought that I might have no problem going out to a restaurant, that still hasn’t happened. I’ve gone to the grocery story, and to the community lab for my blood work, all things that I have done throughout.

But I did one other thing I haven’t done for a very long time, and likely wouldn’t have, except my husband gave me a present for my birthday. He gave me a gift certificate for a pedicure at my happy place, the spa here in town. I knew that the young woman who would give me the pedi had been vaccinated, and we did keep our masks on the entire time. But first, we had a nice, very satisfying hug. Before the pandemic, I was a regular, you see, and I have used the same esthetician for several years. We were both very close to tears. It touched my heart, to have been missed.

This was my first “normal” outing, and I wasn’t at all nervous. There were a few differences, besides keeping the masks on. But those small differences didn’t diminish my pleasure with the experience. A part of the procedure I usually get includes having my feet soaking in very warm paraffin wax for about fifteen minutes. There are those who claim the practice has many good benefits, and those who say that’s all just nonsense.

I say, the very warm wax feels wonderful on my poor arthritic ankles, and that, my friends, is good enough for me.

 

Love,

Morgan

http://www.morganashbury.com

http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury

 

 


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