Early September

The week began with Labor Day.  We celebrated with a cookout in our backyard and the Southerlands and Fred Olver joined us.  Weather was just perfect!  I let Larkin and Quinn (Lucy didn't come because she was fighting a cold) get some pumpkins from my very sincere patch.  They were kind of muddy so I brought a bucket and a rag out for Larkin to clean them.  After she did, she decided to use the rag and bucket and clean our cars!  She was also quite enamored with all the fallen acorns on our driveway and decided to collect them in a pile for the squirrels.  Noah has surpassed his dad in height!

As I was out in the pumpkin patch Monday night, I noticed that some of them were starting to rot so later in the week, I harvested many of them as well as the gourds.   I can cook down the pumpkins for the dogs but what am I going to do with all the gourds????

Tuesday was the first day of orchestra.  So great to be back!  And, we are doing Beethoven 7!

Wednesday I hauled a whole bunch of aluminum cans to recycling.  Thanks to a neighbor down the road, who shares his cans with me and who is a beer-aholic, I got $13!  Woot woot!  It was a Happy Hookers day and I donated a whole bunch of school food bags and wheelchair bags that I had sewn over the month.  That afternoon, I finished an oil painting that I had been commissioned to do.  Yes, I said commissioned.  Our ward had an art show day a month back and I displayed a painting I had done decades ago of the mittens at Monument Valley.  Someone in the ward asked if I would sell it and when I said "no", he asked if I would paint it again for him.  So, I did.  

Thursday Beckie came over for lunch.  And, then, I started feeling sick!  Aches, chills.  Oh, crud!  Thanks to acetaminophen, I was able to teach all the virtual lessons that I had scheduled for Thursdays.  Friday, I took a Covid test and happily it was negative.  And, it was starting to feel more like a cold as time passed.  Steve left around 2:30 for a young men campout and not only did he take the Element packed with all the gear, we also had to let the Bishop use our Soul since his Kia minivan was stolen and totaled the week earlier.  Yes, Kia theft has reached epic proportions here in Saint Louis thanks to the viral TikTok video on how to easily steal a Kia or Hyundai.  We have bought a Club to deter theft of our car.  Plus, because we have a key-less ignition, it is not susceptible but we still don't want stupid thieves to break our windows to discover this fact.  Bottom line, I was without a vehicle for about 24 hours but, being still a bit under the weather, that was just fine with me.  I made gluten-free pizza and watched Thor Love and Thunder AND Lightyear that evening.

Saturday, I felt good enough to help with weeding at the Carondelet Food Patch service project.  Below are photos of the folks who attended.  You won't know any of them.  The last photo is of the area that I worked on the whole time.  It was FULL of grass at the start.  

I worked pretty hard so I rested when I got home and started watching Moonfall.  Steve got home, we got our Kia back, and then it was time to drive to Ballwin to teach grandkids piano lessons.  The rest of the afternoon and evening, my body started to have gastric cramps that got worse and worse.  It was like I was in labor with waves of intense pain.  And, I was not able to relieve myself, even with a suppository.  I called the after-hours nurse and she advised me to go to the ER so, at 10:00 pm that is what Steve and I did.  It was FULL of people so mostly I waited.  An hour passed by and I finally saw a nurse who drew some blood and put in a line in my arm because she said it would most likely be for the contrast during the CAT scan.  Then, I went back to waiting.  Another hour passed and I finally got to the CAT scan with contrast.  Then, I went back to waiting, and waiting.  The numbers in the waiting room went down a little but not very quickly.  Steve slept sitting up most of the time.  I tried to sleep but I would get on my phone off and on to relieve the tedium of waiting and I finally saw in my email that I had a test result from my Mercy Health.  I clicked on it and read the CAT scan results.  Even I could tell that there was nothing abnormal so, four hours after arriving at the ER, I told the clerk that I was going to go home.   And, when I got in the house, my body finally said "time to go" so I did and I have felt better since.  But, Sunday I was pretty wiped out with no sleep and hardly any food inside.  I still managed to go to church meetings and choir practice but the rest of the day was mostly resting.  I have an adult cello student in the ward who had a similar situation quite recently and her doctor told her it was a post-Covid related situation!  Well....

So, there you have it.  I feel better today and I plan to have a healthy week.  Hope you do, too.