26 July 2024
I feel great! The only way to describe it is exhilarating! I haven’t feel this good in 1 1/2 years. I have no idea why other than the trip did me more good than I thought – or the antidepressant is just now kicking in. Regardless of the answer, I’ll take it.
I managed 1.3 miles on the route this morning and could have gone further. Tomorrow’s walk is longer so I ‘ll find out if that is true.
On the way back, I passed an autograph tree (Claudia rosea). I’ve shown a picture of this plant before when it was in bloom but this one had fruit.
Clusia is native to the Caribbean and Florida and the Bahamas. It’s called autograph tree because if you “write” on the leaves, your writing will stay on the leaf until the leaf drops and decomposes. The leaves stay on for a very long time. It develops into a tree but some people train them into hedges.
When the fruit ripens (it’s poisonous!) the capsule opens and birds often eat the seeds and further distribute the plant. When the seeds germinate, it behaves similar to the strangler fig until it gets established.
As you can see, the capsule is very woody. This one has dried up but when it was open, you can image what it would look like – a sunburst.
I did have one unfortunate surprise this morning. There was a great deal of blood in my stool. I texted my oncologist and he wanted to know if it was black or red and I told him red. I asked if it was possible the ferrous sulfate he wanted me to take to bring up my iron levels was the cause. I haven’t had another response from him yet. This is a side effect of ferrous sulfate that you are to immediately contact a physician. I’ll find out more tomorrow.
I felt energetic and got to the Friday chores. The first thing was to rake leaves since it had been two weeks between ratings. I had a bumper crop.
I admit to having to rest several times and make Gatorade breaks but I got them into the yard waste bin eventually.
Next it was cleaning the pool filter, watering the plants, washing down the pool deck and patio. After all that, I was a sweaty mess and jumped into the pool to cool off. The water temperature was a balmy 86°F. I had a quick outdoor shower and an indoor shave and headed to Walgreens to pick up 4 prescriptions.
I gave Judith and Chris a call to see if I could drop off some chocolate from the trip and I got a yes. It was really good to visit with them. Judith is having significant eye trouble and Chris is hale and hearty and playing golf again. We, of course, talked medical conditions like our grandparents used to bore us with.
It’s good to be home. It’s good to visit with friends. It was even good to go to Walgreens where the staff recognize me and wave at me. Life is good.
Stay tuned!
