05/09/2020 Saturday

Trugreen came and did our first lawn treatment in the AM, and it snowed in the afternoon ! We are expecting lake effect squalls all day today. I'm afraid my trellis climbers won't survive, even though they are under plastic and covered by a flannel blanket. Temperatures 24-30 at night, and they have started to climb the two trellises, so I couldn't move them in. Luckily, no veggies in yet.

DD, your vine on fence saga is something. We have chain link fence on three sides of our house. One side is on the property line, by mutual agreement of former owners. The back length is two yards from the property line, along a wooded buffer. The other shared side is about a yard and a half in from the property line, due to large trees where the fence should have gone. We have issues with the neighbor on the property line side because his lot is higher than ours and when he drains his ice hockey rink and inground pool & pool cover, the water ends up pooling on our lawn. I think I previously mentioned that there is no pipe or stabilizer wire woven through the bottom of the chain link, which is 2-6" off the ground in many places. Atlas loved to push into that loose fence, and belly crawl to freedom (and his friend Cooper) in a FLASH. Though we never leave them in the yard when we are not here and his recall is good, last year we installed 8' lengths of 2 X 4s painted black (to match the fence) along the bottom of the perimeter to stabilize the bottom, using drilled holes and zip ties. The neighbors haven't complained about the aesthetics, and Atlas hasn't been in the inground pool or knocked over a child with an exuberant greeting.

Hope all of the mothers out there have a fabulous Mother's Day.

Weight: 136.8
Veggies/Fruits: 8
Macronutrients: Cals - 1,420, Carbs - 140, Fats - 37, Proteins - 104, Fiber - 26
Fitbit Recorded Sleep: 7?57?
Exercise: 8,309 steps and 20? weeding

Outside in the pre-dawn, the whippoorwills are going crazy. They're so cheerful-sounding this time of year as they look for and hope for love. And aren't we all looking and hoping for love!

I'm feeling better this morning following yesterday's nap and last night's good rest, although I am still very stiff when I get up. My weight is steadily dropping, thanks to eating lots of nutritious foods. However, I can tell I've lost lots of muscle post-op during the lockdown due to not attending a regular yoga class that challenges me. I'm so grateful classes will begin again soon. I realize it'll take a couple of months of classes, regular workouts and a more active lifestyle to get back to where I was before all this happened.

I so hope my county continues its weeks-long trend of no new COVID cases. The opening-up process is going to be ... interesting. Yesterday I was reading some online blogs and articles about mask selfies and pandemic fashion, and I cruised multiple images of masks now available for sale by crafters, the high street, and haute couture. It's so weird to imagine that wearing a mask will become de rigueur in many situations for the next year or two.

However, in this neck of the woods, as expected, there's a lot of online chatter on the lines of "We destroyed our economy for this?!" and "We're losing our liberties and civil rights!" In other words, many people have no concept of how lucky they were. I don't ignore the fact that lockdown had and will have a significant economic cost. I also worry / wonder whether people wearing masks could become targets of aggression. But enough of that for now.

Sun's coming up now. It's going to be a beautiful day. I'm heading out to weed while the shadows are still long, since I've been given strict instructions not to go outside without a hat and 50 SPF sunscreen.

Sending everyone hopes for a lovely weekend, whatever your weather's like. Liz, I'm thinking about you and your SIL enjoying this last weekend in Florida before you return to your other life. Soak it up! And happy felicitations and celebrations to all you mothers and those of you who had a mother. :)

I decided to make Saturdays my weigh in day. Way way back they were my WW weigh in day. And I needed some oomph.

And some oomph I surely got!

When I weighed Monday, it was 165.8, which prompted me to set out to do this. Although I know it was quite a bit over my usual weigh-in (around 162).

Today I weighed 157.6! 8.2 down. Now I know most of that is water weight/fluctuations. But it sure is nice to be on the good side of a fluctuation for once!!!

Yesterday I wasn't sure I could stick to it! And my calories were over--around 1350--but I still think I did pretty good. DH wanted pizza for dinner and I was having this "oh no, I should just throw in the towel" feeling. But you know what? I ate one slice and was satisfied! (Plus I had a few shrimp ****tail). This is where VSG still makes the difference for me, even 10 years out.

I was inspired by Liz to clean my windows. We have a salt pool and our kitchen windows have never been touched and are grimey. For some reason this upset Rich. I think it just shows how he's way overcommitted himself. The executor duties are one thing. He needs to do that, he wants to do that. But he's really let his brother roll over him. HIs brother decided to buy rental properties here and expects Rich to rent them out. That's one thing, but Rich has been doing things like WRITING up the listing because he "already knows how to do it." I'm more of a "teach a man to fish" mindset. The straw for me was when his brother called to demand why we'd taken the listing down. Rich responded: because you've leased them. His brother: well I wanted to get a feel for the market. I cannot tell you how much that irked me. We have to small children, two big children, our own house, our own properties to manage, Rich's full time job, and he wants Rich to field calls just almost as a hobby? Um no. Wow didn't think I'd get into that vent here.

Rich has to go try and take care of some estate stuff today. I'm trying to look on the bright side but being locked inside with the girls today with no help was not exactly the weekend I wanted. Maybe I can turn it around have a nice walk with them. Maybe get Becca a snowcone. I need to start finding the positives. Plus I'm sure I'll eat more today so I need more activity.

I have no plan to eat on-track tomorrow. My only request of myself is that I don't eat into abandon.

Very, very impressive process and outcome, Bonnie! Congratulations.

And best wishes to your DH who must be a very kind person as he figures out where and how to maintain his own boundaries.

For those of us born and bred to be people-pleasers (I speak from vast personal experience!), those are lessons that seem to come hard to us and later in life. But come they will.

Great job, lady !! Hope Rich figures out and communicates his boundaries sooner rather than later !

Well that was a nice gift on the scale! You eat healthy for the most part and are busy all the time, so I think your body responds well when you cut down a bit.

DH does sound like he wants to help everyone and some people will take advantage of that without even realizing that they do that (including family). Tough line to draw, but DH may have to make it clear that his immediate family is first priority.

Weight 122.2, WW Bluepoints 9.

Wow, Diane. That weather is crazy! I did see on the news that there was snow north in NY, but who would have thought the weather would be like this on May 8-9? I guess Massachusetts is cold, but no snow. Tomorrow is supposed to rebound there but it will be a rainy Mother's Day for us.

The golf cart parade was fun for all. People had their chairs out in the driveway with many drinking their evening ****tails while viewing. Diane S, there was no alcohol involved for me since I am still new enough to driving it LOL. The cart in front of us was playing patriotic songs. I decorated our cart and had my phone connected to a speaker so we could do various horns (we ended up using one that sounded like a very large bell most of the time). Pictures below - the first cart in the line is ours with SIL in it and the other is a selfie of both of us.

DD called yesterday talking about the summer. You may recall that I usually go to our timeshare in Aruba in mid-June and DD was coming with me this year. She has been in touch with some people who she is friends with on FB who work at our resort and they think they are going back to work on June 1, which may or may not be the case. Aruba has essentially eradicated the virus by locking down 100%. They have had only one new case in over two weeks and it was in individual already in quarantine. Almost everyone who had it has recovered. But the economy there is essentially 100% supported by tourism with perhaps 80-90% of the tourists from the US. So the economy is dying out. They currently have the airport closed to incoming flights though 5/31, but obviously have to decide when to open and to what countries. What a difficult balance between health and economics! I don't think they will open to the US in June, but DD is being optimistic...

Today is laundry and more packing organization. SIL and I are hoping her DS and his fiancé announce the impending birth soon as it is driving us crazy not saying anything. But my nephew is the champion of silence (his fiancé not so much but they obviously have to agree on how to do this). I think they should just have a big family zoom and show a bun in an oven

Stay safe and healthy!

What a lovely parade! Thanks for sharing these pix.

Diane, here where we rarely get frost, I've heard it recommended at the rare times that we do to put Christmas lights (not the LED kind) on the plants and then cover.

Good news at Ferg's eye appointment! His eye pressure is normal on the drops so no eyeball needles! And his eye ulcer is not healed, but I opted to just continue the antibiotic drops for now as it doesn't seem to bother him and the doctor said he'd be in pain for about a week with the dremel procedure. No pain is my goal, so we're going to recheck in a month.

I had a nice text exchange with my friend/Pilates instructor and she sent me the link to join her Zoom classes. I think I should as gaining weight and atrophying is not working for me.

Ferg is staring at me and sighing, so he wants to walk. I'm off...