Month: July 2023

11 July 2023

Well, I’m 1-1 for today as of this writing: one solid poop, one liquid poop. I’ll take it.

Nancy and Michel picked me up at 11 this morning and we headed to Mustard Seed Bistro for lunch. They advertise themselves as serving European style dishes. Over the years, I’ve eaten there three or four times and it’s always been excellent. Nancy had a ceviche shrimp salad, Michel had a turkey salad and I had the taco special.

What the bistro is really known for is their cupcakes. They are outlandish. They are regular size cupcakes but they are decorated to the nth degree. If you go to their Instagram page at @mustardseedbistro you can see the cupcakes. The menu changes daily. They really are a little bit of heaven.

Service was excellent even though it did take a little while for the food to come out. The photo above makes you think that it’s not busy but by the time we left all the tables were taken and there was a short line inside waiting for tables. There were four outside tables that sat empty. Hmmm!

It seems to me that years ago they also offered gourmet gift baskets. When I was union president, I often used them to send to faculty who were ill or had a death in the family. The baskets were extraordinary. Most of our union dues went to support the National Education Association and the statewide organization but we got a percentage of our dues back to our chapter based on our membership. Since our college had one of the highest memberships in the state, we got a decent sum back to service our members. Believe me when I tell you a gift basket to the family of a deceased faculty member or to a faculty member in the hospital did a world of good.

It was hard on me as the president because I often had to represent the union and faculty senate at the funerals. Almost always, the grieving family were amazed that I showed up to offer condolences on behalf of the union and senate. The college never could figure out why we had such high union membership in comparison to other colleges and universities in the state. I spent too much time at funerals and I no longer attend those nor weddings. I still go see people in hospitals though.

I was pleased to beat Nancy and Michel to the bill and treat them. They too often treat me for lunch or dinner and I was just pleased to see them before my surgery.

After they dropped me off, I headed to the local Publix (ugh!) and stocked up on Lean Cuisine-type meals for the few days after surgery when I doubt I’ll be up to cooking anything. This was at the suggestion of my walking buddy Chris. I thought it an excellent idea.

South Florida is under another heat alert. The feels-like temperature is 103°F. The dew point is 76°F which means that is the temperature which it would need to fall to to reach 100% humidity. The air temp right now is 94° and that’s why it feels like 103°F even though the relative humidity is at 56%.

The plant of the day is Ixora coccinea also known as simply Ixora or Jungle Flame. It’s native to southern India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka according to Wikipedia and is probably the most common ornamental plant in south Florida yards. It grows as a small shrub and its evergreen so you get nice foliage all year and it pretty much blooms all year in my environment. It also has medicinal properties.

When I moved down here, it was one of the first plants I ran into which I had no idea as to what it was. I knew it was a member of the coffee family (Rubiaceae) – it had four petals with tubular flowers and opposite leaves. You’ll hear the genus pronounced two different ways: IX oh rah and ih ZOR ah. My old botany professor said to put the accent on the third from the last syllable when trying to pronounce latinized terms so I go with IX or rah.

I’ve probably mentioned before that when I started my coursework in botany at Ole Miss, Dr. Pullen required us to learn the characteristics of about 75-100 plant families. Rubiaceae was one of those and I couldn’t understand why that family was included because you didn’t often run into a plant in Mississippi in that family (at least not like some other families). When I moved to south Florida I understood. The place is lousy with plants in that family both in different species and the number found in that species. They are everywhere down here. It took about 50 years but that little nugget of information paid off in the long run. Later, I found out he grew up in south Florida. Mystery solved!

Biota of North America (BNAP) reports 11 genera with 23 species of Rubiaceae in Mississippi where I did most of my collecting and 29 genera and 56 species in Florida. That’s a big difference in the number of species. Thirty-nine total species are recorded in the U.S. with most of the extra genera in Louisiana, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California so you can see a trend towards warmer, subtropical climates for this family.

One and a half days until surgery.

Stay tuned!

10 July 2023

To steal from the Marine Corps mantra, once a botanist, always a botanist. I managed a 1.5 mile walk this morning and was struck by how much is in bloom and in fruit in the neighborhood. There really isn’t anything like a change of seasons in south Florida. It’s like the insulated sippy cup I bought while on a trip to Texas and New Mexico with my cousin Jo that had “Four Seasons of Texas: Almost Summer, Summer, Still Summer, Christmas” in text on the cup.

It gets a little confusing for someone who grew up in Mississippi for most of their life when trees down here shed their leaves in the spring or summer and oranges, lemons, and grapefruit taste best in the “winter” months. It was particularly confusing to me since most of my botanical training was lower coastal plain of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the Delta region, and the foothills of the Appalachians of northeast Mississippi. My expertise did not extend into subtropical Florida and I was totally lost botanically when I moved down here (and pretty much still am).

If you read my blog about the mango that hangs over into my yard, you know it’s in leaf drop now and all the mangoes are off the tree by the middle of June. On my walk this morning there was a mango in the prime for its fruit. Different varieties of the mango produce mature fruit at different times. We are still in the height of mango season in July from other varieties.

What struck me about the vegetation here is what exotic flowers and fruits we have.

My former neighbor Frank planted his yard with lots of exotic trees. One such tree is still there, the sapodilla tree also known as chicle.

It’s native to southern Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. The ripe fruit is said to have a sweet, malt-like flavor. Like the unripe persimmon, the unripened fruit is astringent and puckers the mouth.

Wikipedia says the compounds extracted from leaves show anti-diabetic, antioxidant and cholesterol lowering effects in lab animals. Maybe I need to steal some fruit from the tree!

The leaves and stems of the fruit and the trunk of the tree secrete a white latex called chicle which is used in the commercial making chewing gum. You get the latex for commercial uses like you do natural latex rubber from rubber trees.

My Mississippi history teacher, Mr. J.C. Johnson, used to tell me about sweet gum trees (Liquidambar styraciflua) in the southern U.S. He said as a boy they would gash a sweet gum tree to get the sap and use it like chewing gum. They would pass it around so everyone got a chew and if you were the last one, it would crumble in your mouth after too many chews. I suspect they also all came down with colds at the same time.

I tried chewing some sap one time and I think it’s a guaranteed way to pull fillings out of you teeth. I don’t recommend it. Think of the stickiest candy you can think of and double that for sweet gum sap.

So, since once a botanist… I’ll probably start introducing blog readers to some of the neighborhood plants every day. If botany is not your thing, simply skip over that part.

No diarrhea last night. My appetite is better. I still can’t eat anything like a full meal but it’s better than it was. Even though you are not supposed to eat fresh fruit with diarrhea, I crave it this time of the year. Besides, watermelon helps rehydrate you. There is so much contradictory in medicine – like don’t eat fresh fruit with diarrhea but stay hydrated. Thursday is fast approaching and I need to get a few things done before I go under the knife/scapel.

Stay tuned!

8 July 2023

What a great day! No diarrhea, got the washing done and the house semi-cleaned and had a late lunch with Jim, Holley and Marilyn.

Marilyn is Holley’s Mom. I first met her on a trip to Shark Valley in the Everglades with Marilyn, Loyd, Jim, Holley, Judith and Chris. I brought chocolate chip cookies and I think I earned a friend with Loyd over those. Marilyn is a treat. Sadly, Loyd passed this year and Marilyn was down to visit Holley and Jim and I hoped I would get a chance to see her again.

I’ve been in touch with her over the years with my blog and Facebook. Interestingly, many of my friends on Facebook have become friends with Marilyn. Birds of a feather…. She told me today she doesn’t know how to “Friend” someone on Facebook but when someone sends her a “Friend Request” she accepts. That means a lot of my friends love her posts. I think that’s great!

Today, we went for a late lunch at the Boatyard (formerly Bimini Boatyard).

It was a little hot out on the patio but later a rainstorm came through and cooled everything off. Holley treated everyone and I think she tried to get me drunk. I had a Bloody Mary and after all said and done insisted to the waiter to bring me an Espresso Martini. Let’s just say I was feeling no pain at the end of the meal.

I can understand where Holley gets her joie de vivre. Marilyn is witty, fun, and full of life. She is planning to come down to Fort Lauderdale for her second knee surgery and stay with Jim and Holley during the recovery. I look forward to more time with her. I’ve already gotten Jim and Holley to plan to take her on the Jungle Queen when she comes back down. The Jungle Queen docks a block from my house even though it starts on Fort Lauderdale Beach.

The first time I did the Jungle Queen was when my friend Reid came down to visit me and his cousin. Since then I take most visitors on it. Archie and Tanis enjoyed the trip even though only a block from the house.

It’s a fake paddle wheeler that travels the New River from Fort Lauderdale Beach to my neighborhood (around 4 miles as the crow flies). They claim it’s a trip to an “exotic” island (not) and they provide a dinner of BBQ ribs and chicken – all you can eat. After dinner, they do an entertainment segment outside in an amphitheater and then on the way back they do a sing-along.

What’s fun is to pass all these very expensive homes along the New River on the way to the “island” and all these people in the homes make a point of waving at you on the way to the island.

You pass under several draw bridges along the route and you find out, tongue-in-cheek, that every bridge tender is named Johnson. The company that runs the Jungle Queen has an agreement with the Florida Department of Transportation that the bridge always goes up before the Jungle Queen gets there, so you never have to wait for the drawbridge to go up.

So, next time you are in Fort Lauderdale, let me know and I’ll get us tickets to the Jungle Queen. If you don’t want to do the sing-along, we can walk back to my house – it’s only a block.

Tonight I get to watch the last episode of “Endeavor” on PBS.

Stay tuned!

7 July 2023

It’s mango leaf drop time. Seasons are a little confusing in subtropical south Florida. A lot of tropical trees like the mango shed their leaves either in spring or summer. It’s high season for leaf drop in mangoes.

This is less than a week of leaf drop on the west side of m house.

Leaf drop will go on like this for another week or two. New leaves begin to replace the fallen almost immediately. Sometime in late February or early March, flower buds appear (and drop off) and May and June are the height of mango harvest on this particular tree. Some mangoes in the neighborhood are just now getting ripe. By July, all the mangoes on my tree have fallen. I don’t miss the thumps in the night as they hit the ground, the garbage cans, or the awning over the back patio. Nor the iguanas feeding on them.

Mangoes are messy trees for three times a year but the taste of fresh mangoes is worth the mess.

Friday is clean the pool filter day and check pool chemicals. I actually felt up to it today. Add in the raking of sweeping and then killing weeds and grass on the patio and front walk, it was a productive morning. All was accomplished before the heat warning took effect at 11 am.

I had two prescriptions to pick up at Walgreens: Flomax and Lomotil. I like this particular Walgreens on SR 84. There was only one person in front of me at the pick up window. The clerk was courteous, spoke clearly and enunciated well, and everything was handled with alacrity. I also picked up two boxes of Imodium AD (Walgreen’s brand) and paid up front with the cashier who did exactly the same at the pharmacy rep. What a difference from the madhouse at CVS on Davie Blvd. near me.

I was also looking for lime GatorAde. They didn’t have the size I wanted so I stopped at Winn-Dixie on SR84 before returning home. Still didn’t have exactly what I wanted but I did pick up some acceptable size bottles. I also did my Sunday shopping and picked up some fruit and some munchies. Since that first chemo, I have learned to eat what I can when I can and cholesterol and sugar be damned. I’m still losing weight, so I figure eat what tastes good right now. Still won’t go back to regular toothpaste. The last attempt was a disaster in my mouth. Baking soda it is until the foreseeable future.

One thing I picked up at Winn-Dixie was a gallon (the size of the container makes me think it’s much less than a gallon) of peaches and cream ice cream. I guess the peaches I bought the other day and talking about peach ice cream was too much. I’m sure it isn’t anything like the home made version, but it seems appropriate for summer time.

Today makes the second day in a row we’ve had thunderstorms with heavy lightning but no rain. Both times it has come from the south and it sounds like it’s going to overwhelm us but then stops just short. It reminds me of the time I lived just east of US1 in Hollywood and the rain from the west stopped on the middle of the line of US1. West of the middle of the line was wet and east of the middle of the line was dry.

Tomorrow is wash day and clean house. Might as well get this done because I won’t be doing much of that after the surgery.

Stay tuned!

4 July 2023

Happy Fourth! People are certainly celebrating in the neighborhood. For the last three days and nights. Usually it tapers off after 9 pm but the fireworks were going strong at midnight and all the way to 2 am. I’m guessing here but I suspect it’s not kids but the adults doing the fireworks.

I managed a walk this morning along Riverland Road. It was shady for most of the walk and at 7:30 am, it wasn’t unbearably hot. I’d like to think I’m building up my stamina but I was glad when I turned around and headed back to the house.

John and Joel came over around 6 pm and I grilled hot dogs, toasted the buns and had a myriad of fixings: sauerkraut, chili, onions, sweet relish, mustard, ketchup and mayo. John made an excellent Cole slaw and he brought cut up watermelon. Joel brought a strawberry New York style cheesecake for dessert.

I chased them all home around 8 pm. I needed to make a blog entry and I’m tired. Actually, Joel needed to pick up Keith at the airport around 9:45 tonight and he needed to go home and tend to their dogs. I love pets but they are certainly limiting.

Tomorrow is my appointment (3:30 pm) with my primary to see what’s up with my urine sample and whether he will clear me or not for surgery. I’ll also head to the opticians to see what I can do about my glasses. They were closed the day before the fourth and tomorrow will be the first time they are open since the weekend. How often do we get a four day weekend?

Tonight will be a noisy one.

Stay tuned!

2 July 2023

Yay! It’s the third day without diarrhea! Time to celebrate. That is until I got a second notice from the Holy Cross app that said I had a new lab result. The bacteria found in my urine was a Gram positive cocci. That’s a broad category that include Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Enterococcus, and a mishmash of other genera. It’s apparently becoming more common in older adults, during pregnancy and otherwise people susceptible to urinary tract infections. Well, I’m not pregnant. I definitely fit into the category of older adults and seemingly, someone more susceptible to UTI’s. Usually, UTI’s are the result of Gram negative bacteria. Trust me to be different.

My concern is this will change my surgery date. I suspect my GP will give me an antibiotic but it’s anyones’ guess as to whether he will sign off on the surgery. I’ll find out on the 5th. Tomorrow is my meeting with the new hematologist/oncologist.

I did my morning walk for the first time in quite a while. It was hot but not overwhelming and I didn’t do my usual route. I cut it short a couple of tenths of a mile but didn’t want to push it. I’m still trying to build my stamina.

Speaking of stamina, shopping at Publix isn’t a pleasure. (Their motto is “Where shopping is a pleasure.”) I was getting hot dogs and buns and other sundry items for the fourth. Everything went well until I went to pay. Publix had one express line open and two regular checkouts up and running and other than that, it was self-checkout. People were lined three and four deep at all of them. They could have opened four or five more lanes but didn’t. I got into a regular checkout lane but reluctantly went to a self checkout lane when one opened up.

After I loaded the back of the jeep, a jar of sweet relish rolled around in the basket and I realized I hadn’t paid for it. Back to the self checkout. It startled me that an 8 oz jar of sweet relish was $3.63. I knew groceries were more expensive but didn’t realize some of the items had gotten so high.

In addition to hot dogs and buns, I bought a few cans of chili and some sauerkraut to go with the dogs. John is bringing a watermelon and Cole slaw but I saw a melon that looked pretty good and purchased a seedless. It was only $4.99 – reasonable for a melon these days.

I enjoy watermelons in the summer – if ripe – and use it as a means of hydration. I picked up that little tip in the late 80’s when I would run the track oval at Florida State University for cardio. I seemed to always end my run about the same time the cross country team would finish their efforts. I saw them eating watermelon after each run and picked up on the habit. Trust me, I no longer run but I kept the watermelon idea for hydration.

For the third time, when I went to put on my glasses, they came apart in my hands. There’s some design flaw with these. The arms don’t fold inward. When you put them in a case or pouch, you have to bend the arms inward to fit. That apparently puts too much stress on the connection to the bridge.

Inside the envelope is a small washer that pops off. The glasses are still under warranty but it’s getting old to take them back and have them repaired. I think I’ll ask for another pair that doesn’t have this design flaw. Again, it’s the hassle of taking them in every time and with the surgery coming up, I don’t want to have to deal with it again.

I haven’t quite gotten around to cleaning the house yet. Maybe later this afternoon. Maybe tomorrow before my 1:30 appointment. Maybe Tuesday before everyone comes over for the fourth….

Stay tuned!