Tuesday

Well the morning started with of course Chester crowing but with temp's in the 70's, yikes that is warm for over night lows which seem like temps for the hot summer months. After my quiet moments of reflection, thankfulness and thoughts for those who need uplifted and care concerns I had a bowl of oatmeal with fruit before pedalling out on my bike to the rec for a couple hours of pickle ball. Our group of good players are dwindling fast as we lost another one who heads off to Europe for a couple weeks and of course I'm leaving in about 10 days so we won't see him until November.

After my pickle ball workout which had me with a very wet shirt I headed home to work in the yard until lunch time. I mowed and edged  then pulled out the tomato plants that were finished. I noticed a little nematode damage to a couple but mostly where I had planted marigolds along side the plant the roots looked normal. I'm sure glad of that as I was about ready to give up on growing tomato's in Florida in my back yard. The grass in the back yard has really filled in this past 6 months and compared to the dirt hill from last year its marvelous. I took a couple bales of hay I had laying around and broke it up to help mulch the garden for next fall for when I start my winter garden when we return from the cabin.Hopefully this will help with holding the earthworms in the soil.

Amy and the kiddos came for lunch then we headed out into the back yard under the oak tree. Sam and Ava found some glass snake eggs that had been under the hay bales and she wanted to take them to school to show her classmates. I don't think the teacher would approve of them so we put them under some boards to preserve them. Sam was playing with rolly poly's and just generally playing in the dirt as he is a mud puppy. After they left for their naps around 2 we got ready to head out to the heart doctors visit.

 We met her cardiologist and its turns out she is an oriental women in her late 30's or there about. Nancy was hoping for that type of person as it seems they are very knowledgeable and very studious. Dr King is very personable and very interested in what you say as well. She described what the echo cardiogram shown as not normal and its doesn't seem to be a big issue at this time but because she is on hypertension medicine the heart does a few things to compensate and one is it get a little stiff and thicker. She scheduled Nancy for a stress test on Monday and then from that she can better regulate her blood pressure medicine as well as tell why she is having these chest fluttering. I still think its because of the anxiety of leaving for the mountains as this occurs every year as we make plans to leave and then with all the stress associated with the passing of her dad in January and now with having to care for her mother who doesn't drive and the fact we won't see our grand babies as often as we would like really puts added stress on your body. The doctor was very interested in that as well as and indicated that Nancy still has a strong heart and its functioning normally except for the high blood pressure which isn't that bad.

I had picked some collards and kale to take to our friends the Payne's who live near the doctors office so we stopped by afterwards and visited them. He is living with only about 25% of his heart functioning but has made a remarkable recovery and is now back home and walking on his own. He is in his 80's and has had several major attacks as well as congestive heart failure. He was thrilled to receive the greens and attributes that kind of food to his longevity.

Well we had a lite supper of tacos with lots of fresh tomato, lettuce, onion and all the other stuff like cheese, sour cream and hot sauce and of course ground meat which probably was the best for you especially if you have hypertension, oh well it was lite and yummy. After the cleanup I headed out to water by hand until dark then settled in to watch the Rays lose to the Yanks in a close game, probably one we should have won at the end. The Flyers were eliminated by the Devils in the NHL. LATER