29 July 2023
I really did not want to get out of bed this morning. I didn’t want to face the day. Ugh! I finally got my butt up around 8 am. Unusual for me, I didn’t want fruit for breakfast. Instead my childhood favorite, Raisin Bran. It was a mistake. After my cereal and my coffee, I had a nasty episode of diarrhea. Apparently the antibiotic was letting me know who was boss. Dr. Burgers offered no alternative so I’m stuck with it.
Adding to my misery this morning was 45 milliliters of blood from the drain and a puffiness or swelling over what was my left breast. It also seems the hematoma is a little larger this morning.
Saturdays are, of course, wash day and clean house day. I did the barest minimum of house cleaning. I also had a stack of tee shirts with blood stains that I had sprayed with Spray and Wash. Some came clean others will become rags. There’s always a need for some rags around my house. Either that or walk around the neighborhood with blood spots on my tee shirts.
CVS and Walgreens texted me my prescriptions were ready. I paid Walgreens online. I left the house close to 2 pm and even though I knew Walgreens closed the pharmacy for lunch 1:30-2, I forgot CVS did also. My thinking was to make a run to CVS, go to the pool store for chemicals, then hit Walgreens. Luckily, humans are an adaptive bunch.
After I found the drive through at CVS closed, I headed to the pool store. It’s been a while since I’ve been there but I’ve shopped the same pool store for the last 28 years. I pulled in and it was gone. Fortunately, they moved down the street from their old location. Ninety-three dollars later I pulled out of the parking lot with 3 bags of chemicals.
Next it was to Walgreens since it still wasn’t 2 pm. I figured by the time I made it to Walgreens, I’d be just in time for the drive through to be open. It was. She asked me for money. I told her I prepaid. She said check my email to look for the QR code. After much fumbling with my phone, I found the code. I feel badly I took so much time.
Since I was close to the Winn-Dixie shopping center, I decided to do my Sunday grocery shopping today. One hundred and two dollars later I leave Winn-Dixie and I pull in to Duncan Donuts. It was too convenient. It’s in the same shopping center. The drive through told me cash only. I pulled up to the window and handed over a $20 bill. He said the machine wouldn’t accept it. I asked what it would accept. Apparently another $20. Strange. Twelve donuts later I head to CVS to pick up the last of my prescriptions.
When they told me to eat more protein, I decided fried chicken counted. I’ve never had Winn-Dixie fried chicken before but it was OK. I still have plenty of left overs to boost my protein intake. It certainly isn’t as good as my home fried chicken.
For someone who didn’t want to get out of bed I accomplished a lot. Somewhat cleaned the house, washed two loads of clothes, purchased pool chemicals, and picked up two prescriptions and did Sunday shopping. It’ll take me a week to recover.
__________
This little beauty grows in the yard of a neighbor next to Flamingo Park. I think he must work for a plant nursery since he has some of the most unusual plants in his yard.
The flowers are monoecious, meaning the male and female reproductive structures are found in the same flower. What is showy about the flower is the stamens. There may be as many as 100 in this plant and they are whitish at the base but turn pink towards the tip. As you might guess from the common and scientific names, this plant is native to Suriname. Like the mimosa, it can grow tree size. The fruit is an elongated legume (think a flattened pea pod).
If you think this looks a bit like the bloom of a mimosa, you’d be spot on. It’s closely related to the mimosa (Albizia julibrissin). My grandfather planted two mimosas in the back yard and I thought their flowers were the most exotic I’d seen. My cousin Jimmie and I played on those trees year round but they were especially fun in the summer. Sadly, mimosa doesn’t do well in this semi-tropical climate.
Both mimosa and Surinamese Stickpea belong to the bean family Fabaceae. BNAP reports 154 genera in the U.S. It’s one of the largest families of plants on earth (third largest with 700 genera and 20,000 species) and, of course, contain many species important to humans as a food source. In my travels, I have photographed 45 genera and 81 species. If you would like to see photos of the family I’ve photographed, go to mylifeinplants.com.
Stay tuned!