Appreciations 4.203 – brilliant walks

First-Lake-Walk-March10-2016first buds 3:11:16

Glorious walks the past couple days! Made my first trek down to the lake this year yesterday…and on my way, saw my first butterfly and my first bud. Brilliant!

I was out at a different time of the day and took completely different routes the past two days, but on both days I was walking past a pair of dogs as they howled with sirens in the distance. In all my years of walking in this neighborhood, that’s never happened before. Now…. two days in a row!

I love how protean the city is. My walk a few days ago was punctuated by quietness. Today’s walk was filled with all the sounds of the city – airplanes, cars, sirens, dogs, people talking, kids playing. So much hustle and bustle.

Thesauri – both the word and the item. I didn’t actually know the word protean before today…and now I do. 😉

Appreciations 4.195

IMG_4051It is interesting to me how quickly I adapt to some things and how slowly to others. When we have an unusually warm day amidst a bunch of cold days, I switch to warm weather thinking almost instantly and feel surprised when it’s cold the next day. But for things like having unpredictable energy levels… well, I don’t adapt so quickly! Even though it’s been almost 3 years since the onset of my heart failure, I still wake up every day assuming I’ll be full of energy! 🙂 Some days I am – and some days, not so much. My expectation that I’ll have tons of energy never really seems to change, though. I guess I kinda like that little optimist inside me who keeps thinking that. 😀

Meanwhile, I am incredibly grateful that I have a comfortable bed and a schedule that allows me to do as I did last night — get jammied up by 9 and climb into bed, ready for sleep before 10 — and stay there until 8:30 this morning. Very grateful for that!

I just re-read a bunch of entries from the old Caring Bridge page Pat and I set up (I was trying to remember – has it really been 3 years?!?) and am reminded again of how amazing you all are. When all that craziness happened all at once for us, you showed up with love and food and laughter and hugs and support in every imaginable way. I am so grateful to you all for being the most lovely friends a person could want. 💗

Looking forward to hanging out with Sammy today. It’s so nice to get to play with a dog now and then… but not have the responsibility of taking care of him all the time. 😉

Appreciations 4.83

Pretty pre-storm weather. I’m glad Sammy and I got our long walk in before the storm blew in!

Listening to the thunder and rain. Feels odd in November, but I like the sounds no matter when they happen. 🙂 Last year we had several inches of snow!

The funny contrast of hanging out with a dog all day and cats all evening. I kept thinking today that dogs should purr, too. When I told Sammy that, he just wiggled his eyebrows at me. I don’t know what that means in dog-talk! 😛

Warm sweaters and blankets and scarves, oh my. I like feeling cozy when it starts to get cold outside!

Appreciations 4.81

SammyFirst day of Sammy daycare week. What a sweet little pup. 🙂 It’s hard to believe it’s been more than 2 years since we said goodbye to Gracie. Kinda nice to have a dog around again. ❤

Gorgeous weather. Perfect for walking Sammy. 😀

Looking forward to another fun night of singing with the Earthtones. Yay!