Hey Sweetie,
Was woken up in the middle of the night with the sound of a horse munching outside my window, looked out to discover Frost was wandering around. A couple of times when someone else has put him away they’ve forgotten to put up the fence, but I’ve always caught it in time to pen him in, though Jeff did it yesterday and he doesn’t usually forget, but evidently he did last night. Rosie woke me up barking a couple of times, no doubt because Frost wasn’t supposed to be out there, but I left it until I got up in the morning before putting Frost away. No worries, he deserves to be out and about a bit more than he has been. Left around noon to pick up some rust neutralizing stuff at Ace Hardware in Tequesta that Karl had recommended, then stopped for fuel, a quick stop at Publix for some veggies to munch on, then another day of PT for my shoulder. I’m beginning to believe that it might just be possible to finally get it back where it belongs, my therapist, Allie, seems to know exactly what she’s doing, so fingers crossed, eventually it will get back to normal, after ten long years of not being right. We’ll see, it’s still early days, but I’m hopeful. Got home by 5:00, did the chores fairly early (Jeff’s been making a good effort lately to feed earlier, thank goodness), and then settled down for the evening. Guess that’s all the news that’s fit to print! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Babe,
A good night sleep started the day off right, getting my chores done in short order. I made some phone calls, one of which was to the clinic where I’ll be getting my physical therapy, to see if I can start up my shoulder sessions while I wait for my knee surgery, the other to the auto repair place to set up an appointment for them to inspect the suspension on the truck just to see if I need new shocks (which I’m sure I do since we’ve never changed them), or maybe a new leaf under the bed, just to make sure I don’t have any problems on the road, considering how over-weighted I am (the trailer, that is!). I set both appointments for tomorrow, then I got a call back from the clinic to ask if I wanted to come in today, and since I figured the sooner the better, I said yes! When I got there in the afternoon, I was thrilled to get the sense that this girl really knew her stuff, she listened carefully, took copious notes, then physically seemed to pinpoint exactly where my problem is, so I’m hoping that by the end of this, my shoulder will FINALLY, after ten years, get back into place! She’s also the one I’ll be working with on my recovery from knee surgery, so I’m really glad for that, too. Afterwards, I stopped at Home Depot to pick up a few supplies for some upcoming repairs I want to make. There’s a rusty hole forming in the roof of the small trailer, and a few other rust spots starting to bleed through the paint, so I sprayed it this morning with some rust neutralizer, then bought some spray paint and sandpaper so I can finish off those sections. I’m going to find a piece of scrap metal and JB weld it over the hole to keep it from leaking any more. Fortunately it’s in the tack room section and not the back area where all the hay is being stored, but it will only get worse if I don’t fix it now. I also bought a new screen for the door to the trailer, Lola’s been running roughshod over it for the past few weeks and there are a lot of holes in the old one, so that’s another chore I’ll try to do this weekend or at least before my knee surgery. I’ve made three more appointments for physical therapy before then, I’m really optimistic that this is going to work, at last! I hope I won’t be disappointed again! Anyway, finally settled down for the evening, off to bed soon! Cheers, my love! Good night!

Hi Sweetie,
After a long drive to Weston just west of Ft. Lauderdale this morning, and hours of prepping and waiting, and what seemed like just two or three minutes into my cardiac cath procedure, the doctor declared the stress test was wrong and that there’s nothing wrong with my heart. No excessive plaque or buildup, nothing that impinges on my progress towards knee surgery. That’s especially good news, because I was told for the first time that if they HAD had to put in a stint, it would have delayed my knee surgery by SIX MONTH!! That would have been a disaster! Glad it was a good report, but sorry this has all delayed my knee surgery by almost three weeks. Sigh… Stopped at Turtle Tavern on the way back, as it was peirogi night, got back by 5:30 just as James was in the process of feeding the horses. Jeff and I finished it off, then I settled down for the night. Guess some progress was made, good to have a medical baseline for myself, now I only have my knee surgery to look forward to! Can’t wait! No shower tonight because of the wrist bandage, so now I’m off to bed. Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hey Sweetie,
A pretty decent night sleep, another lazy, do-nothing day! Can’t wait until my knee is fixed, I feel like everything is on hold, and it’s hard to get up any energy to do anything in that state of mind. I thought I might ride today, but it was very breezy, and I’m not a big fan of that. Plus, I’m still worried it might exacerbate my knee problem, so I’ve been holding off. I probably should have gone, but just couldn’t get myself up for it. I’m just not used to all this laziness! Or all this time to even BE lazy! But next week is likely to be a bit busier, hopefully it will provide some stimulation to get me going. Finished a series of books that I was reading, watched a few Heartlands, now it’s time for shower and bed. Good night, my love!

Hi Babe,
Despite all the rest yesterday, I had another good night sleep last night. Other than going to Publix to pick up a few things and down to the CVS to get a quick covid test in anticipation of my heart procedure on Tuesday, I spent the day pretty much doing the same lazy things as yesterday. I considered going for a ride but there was a cool breeze after a cold front came through last night, so instead I read most of the day, took another afternoon nap, watched more Heartlands in the evening, now I’m ready for shower and bed. Not sure why I don’t have a lot of get up and go, but it’s not because I feel ill or anything, I just feel like taking a break or something. Anyway, it will be getting busy in the next few weeks, so I guess it won’t hurt to make a few deposits in the sleep bank! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hey Darlin’,
Even after having a good night sleep, I felt tired today, and ended up doing virtually nothing but read all day. It was a bit too warm outside, then some storms came through, so I ended up staying in the trailer all day, even going back to bed in the afternoon because I kept falling asleep in my chair. Not sure what’s up with that, but I figured it was best to just go with it. Had an equally quiet evening, so it’s off to bed soon. Good night, sweetie! Love you!

Hey Sweetheart,
Had a good night sleep, now that things have settled down a bit. I managed to make a morning appointment for a lab test, something about checking for how thin my blood is, though considering I’m not taking any medications it should be pretty normal. I stopped at a couple of auto repair places to see about inspecting the suspension on the truck, maybe putting airbags in. One guy couldn’t look at it until next week, another one not until tomorrow. As I was coming up the drive, Jeff was talking to his neighbor Mike, who’s a pretty good mechanic himself, and he told me that he’s had problems with airbags, a lot of things can go wrong with them, and suggested maybe just shocks (since I’m pretty sure they’ve never been replaced) and many another leaf spring just for extra capacity. I hadn’t thought of that, but that makes a lot more sense to me, not to mention will be a lot less expensive. I need to find a truck specialist for it, though, that’s my next project when I have a chance. Jeff FINALLY got around to getting some chemicals and new filters for the pool, so this morning it was actually looking really nice, and it’s been such a hot couple of days the pool temp is up to 80, so I decided to take the afternoon off and just float around for awhile. Brother Glenn and wife Dena joined me for quite a while, got some nice sun, and wore Lola out with lots of fetching and swimming. Jeff had a service call, so James and I fed the horses, got that done in short order, then settled down for the evening. Ready for my shower, reading and bed, so good night, babe! Love you!

Hey Babe,
Well, after days of running around trying to put everything in order for my surgery tomorrow, today I had disappointing news. I went up to Stuart for the second half of my stress test, which was simply to get a “resting” reading to compare to yesterday’s stress reading, and in the process, they discovered what they think is a blocked or partially blocked artery to my heart. That meant my cardiac doctor wouldn’t give clearance for the the surgery, so that had to be postponed. Unfortunately, they tried to get it rescheduled for next week, but the operating rooms are all fully booked, so it will now be at least two weeks until I can get my knee fixed, unless there’s a cancellation and they can fit me in next week. In the meantime, I have to undergo a cardiac cath, or angiogram, where they send a camera to my heart and try to clear out any plaque building with one of those balloon deals, or worst case, put in a stint. This was the procedure they did to you when we think they put in too much dye that eventually caused your kidney failure. I’m sure they’ve improved that protocol since then, but you can bet I’m going to ask about it! Unfortunately, that’s not scheduled until Tuesday, and in the meantime, I have to have another blood test done to check the thinness of my blood, and a THIRD covid test on Saturday. The only silver lining in all this may be that this will be considered an underlying condition and I might be able to get the covid vaccine earlier, which means I might be able to get back on the union insurance quicker. Fingers crossed! I guess it’s a good thing this was caught early, though, I just wish it didn’t mean delaying my knee surgery, it’s just getting more painful every day. Anyway, after spending most of my afternoon on the phone trying to resolve all of this, I finally settled down for the evening. Had my shower, now I’m off to bed, late! And certainly a lot later than if I had get up at 4:00 in the morning! Good night, darlin’! Love you!

Hi Darlin’,
Felt like Groundhog Day, starting out with a repeat of yesterday. Woke up long before the crack of dawn, headed straight up to the hospital for my stress test, which went really well as far as I could tell. I remember watching you go through one of these pharmaceutical ones and feeling like you were going to die, but I hardly had any reaction at all, so I’m hoping that means everything is fine. There’s a second part to it tomorrow that they make most people take, with rare exception, so I’m guessing I’ll be back again tomorrow, though not until 11:00, thank goodness! I didn’t think I was going to get out of here until 12:30, that’s what my appointment schedule said, but we were finished by 9:30, and that included me going to the cafeteria and getting some breakfast in between! I took my second covid test early, they were happy to get me done, and by the end of the day, that came back negative, too. I had some time to kill before my next appointment so I stopped at TJ Maxx to pick up a few more pairs of those leggings that I use for riding pants, my other ones are starting to get a big worn out, with some holes from brambles and threads starting to unravel. Their dressing rooms were closed, but they have a generous return policy if I don’t like them, but they seem like they’re pretty much the same. I’ll try them on before I head back up tomorrow in case I need to bring them back. I got to my next appointment, started with an x-ray, then seeing a Nurse Practitioner and finally, more than an hour after my appointment start time, finally saw the doctor. This time I stressed that it’s my scapula more than my shoulder that’s the problem, but in the end all they prescribed was physical therapy, so in addition to my knee I’ll be doing PT on my shoulder area as well. Not convinced that will work, but I’ll try anything at this point. Hope the insurance company understands that all that PT will be for two different things. Finally finished up there, then drove over to Ranch Feed to stock up on feed and hay, then lost a bale on the freeway on my way back to Jupiter. I saw it go, so I pulled over and backed up to where it was, and everyone was doing a good job of avoiding it. Then, just as I got out of the truck, someone in a small car crashed right into it, spreading hay everywhere! I thought they would stop but they didn’t, which surprised me because it looked like sections of something were falling off the car as it went. I think they’ll discover a lot more damage than they think once they pull over, but maybe not, I don’t know. So that was a waste of $10, wasn’t going to dodge traffic just to pick up a few flakes of hay. I was only on the freeway because I had to go to the Walmart to pick up all the prescriptions I’m going to need after the surgery. I had forgotten all about it, but they called me to remind me today, so I stopped there and got everything.. Finally got home after 4:00, stored the rest of the hay under the gooseneck, so with two full batches, now, I should be good for nearly a month. I’m going to move the feed bins into the back of the Logan trailer tomorrow so I don’t have to climb up the ramp to feed, and neither will James if he’s feeding, both of us would have trouble navigation that incline. At 5:00 James was ready to feed the critters, so we got that done in short order, and I finally settled down for the evening. Not surprising, I’m feeling pretty tired today after two early mornings, so I’m off to bed, and hoping I’ll be able to sleep better and longer now that everything seems to be on track for the knee surgery on Thursday. It will really be a relief to get that fixed, it’s really been bothering me lately, and it’s clearly not going to get better on it’s own. I hope the same is true for my shoulder, it would be great if I can get myself in really good shape before the maladies of old age start to set in. At least now I have a baseline for a lot of my vitals, which will be good going into the future. Anyway, time for shower and bed. Good night, sweetie! Love you!