Ho Hum

It's been a rough month. I've really been feeling worse than my usual lousy. My 'normal' lousy is incredible fatigue, sore muscles and joints, foggy brain, poor concentration, depression, no enthusiasm for much of anything.  In the past month or so, I've had all that but the fatigue has been worse and I've been really nauseous, dizzy and have had abdominal pain. And because I've been feeling worse physically, the depression has worsened some. The only upside was the nausea helped me lose 14 pounds - and that's always a nice surprise!

So, after some convincing from my family and friends I finally went to the doctor, got a load of tests done and nothing serious, just needed a medication change. I'm on the road to feeling better. In the meantime, I still have a few lingering symptoms, so I'm trying to find ways to entertain myself without using much energy, wearing out my sluggish brain cells, spending money by on-line shopping and staying out of the heat we've been having off and on. It's not easy! It's like trying to keep a toddler happy when she misses her mommy and needs a nap!

Here are some ways I found to break the monotony:

1.  I sat in the backyard at dusk and waited for the neighborhood rat to come. I counted how many times he ran the length of the fence in a half hour.  I tried to tell if it's the same rat as the night before. Due to my poor memory, I could never remember, so it was a like new game every night! I pretended it was my brain-teaser exercise of the day.

2.  I tried to teach the dog to speak. Any one of them. I did care who learned. It didn't work, but they enjoyed the extra treats. I realized I'm not a very good dog trainer. But I sure know how to 'treat' them right.

3.  I tried to identify a new 'beetle' type bug in my yard that seems to like my hot tub. I thought it might be a  Eastern fivespined ips, Ips grandicollis - but those are only 1/16" long and they tend to live in Florida. My specimen is 1/2" long, so the search continues.

4.  I spread catnip around and watched the cats have a field day. They had a great time rolling in it, drooling, battling over territorial rights, watching each other writhe in ecstasy while they waited for their next turn.  Now that was great fun for all of us.
                                                                           

                                                                             


Simple little things, but it broke the monotony of the endless boredom and took my mind off how crappy I feel.  I'm glad I still have enough brain power (most days) to pull myself out of whatever ditch I find myself in. I'm pretty good at maintaining a positive outlook and a decent sense of humor even one the worst days. I'm lucky in many ways. And one of these days I'll feel well enough to get back to painting that door blue. Again.