My Tireless Retirement - Week 73

 

Hello, hello my friends!  We were super blessed with some rain and much cooler temperatures last week for which I’m extremely grateful for.  I especially enjoyed the reprieve from watering everything and worrying about my plants and flowers dying by inches as they baked in the hot sun.  We haven’t had a good rain in a couple of months.

 

The donation pile does not include the kitty 😉
Although, there are days......  😂 

I took a brief break from my BIG project to take care of a few things on my “to-do” list.  Now that school is back in session, it began the week prior to last, I wanted to get the donations I’d gathered throughout the summer over to the high school for their student pantry.

 

Instruments and an overstuffed bag of goodies for the student pantry

I also contacted my oldest daughter’s junior high band teacher as well as the new orchestra teacher to see if they could use an extra clarinet and a viola.  They were thrilled!  I headed over and got those dropped off and it really made my heart happy.

 

I did some more decluttering and reorganized my bedroom closet adding a couple more items to my donation bag.  On the way to the two schools last week I dropped off my glass recycling at the grocery store collection bin and dropped off my latest pile of donations at the thrift store.  It was really nice to get these things out of my house and on to someone else and be able to check these tasks off the list.

 

Amen!

As much as I love the idea of a neighborhood giving page on Facebook I had to pull out of mine.  It has become much more of an asking page than a giving page and the things people were asking for just blew my mind.  One gal was asking to borrow a car so she wouldn’t be inconvenienced while she loaned out hers.  Huh???  And my other big irritation is when people throw out their “single parent” status as the reason they are asking.  There was quite a bit of that.  As a single parent for 37 years I never used that as an excuse for anything, ever.  Well, except for maybe, why I was tired.  LOL.

 

Last week I was the victim of a random act of kindness.  I got cucumber bombed by one of my neighbors who anonymously hung a bag full on my front doorknob.  There was also a summer squash in there.  I was thrilled with my little bounty of fresh homegrown produce.  I most likely will ferment or pickle the cucumbers since I doubt I can eat that many before they go bad.

 

I'm doing alright! 😁

Thursday was my annual trip to the cardiologist and then over to the lab for the usual blood work.  I’m still waiting on the results from my lab work, but the cardiologist appointment went well.  Once again, I was told that I’m as good as I’ll ever get (okay, if you say so), stick with that Mediterranean diet (nope), but reduce my sodium for blood pressure reasons (even though my blood pressure is perfect) and stay active (definitely!).  I refuse to be frustrated with these things as I often feel that I am diagnosed and treated for the general population rather than as an individual.  By the way I am rushed through an appointment (in and out in only ten minutes) confirms to me that I’m not really an individual just part of the herd.  Regardless, I’m good to go until next year and my prescriptions have been renewed.

 

I’m not really complaining.  I’ve been in the medical field pretty much my entire adult life so I do have a pretty solid understanding of these things.  Our current medical profession is grossly understaffed and overworked.  Plus, I do believe we our best advocates and it is important do our own research.  I make my health related decisions based on what I know, and what I know works best for me, to the very best of my ability.  That is all any of us can really do.

 

I'm still on a mission!

I’m getting down off my soapbox now.  I hope you all enjoyed your week.  Any of you still decluttering?  I’d love to know how things are going for you.  Take care!  And stay healthy!