The Most Wonderful Woman in the World and I have been laid up for several days due to a particularly debilitating Spring cold.
I have to say if you’re going to be sick, it’s pretty nice to be sick together. Usually only one of us is ill at any given time and that brings lots of nastiness. First, the healthy one wants to go out and do things, but the one who’s ill just wants to lie around the house. Of course this does provide an opportunity for the healthy spouse to serve the one who’s ill, and there is great value (and fun; and brownie points) in that. Second, when only one spouse is ill, both have to be careful about contact, and that precludes a lot of wonderful bonding, such as hand holding and kissing. It’s never good to give those up.
When you are both ill, however, you get all sorts of benefits you’d otherwise not have. Each spouse feels true deep empathy and sympathy for the other. Nothing beats first-hand experience. You get to sit around the living room and watch movies together for hours on end, and neither of you feels the slightest inclination to do anything else. When both are ill, it is not necessary to avoid contact either. Hand holding, kissing , and even sharing glasses and spoons is completely fine. Seriously, you have to love that.
Being ill did put a damper on exercise for the last few days. Feeling a lot better this morning, I ventured out. Only a few things caught my eye while walking this morning. Many of them didn’t make very interesting photos. For example there was the deer carcass near the creek at the bottom of the big hill along my usual route. I’m pretty confident that most people reading this would not want to see the shot I took of that. I did find it interesting however, because it had a green rope tied around its neck. I’ve seen a lot of dead deer, but seeing one with a rope around its neck was a first. It isn’t hunting season, so I really have no idea what that was about.
Here are three pictures that, while not worthy of a gallery, are nonetheless more presentable than a rotting deer carcass.
This Pampas Grass grows along the road in front of the home of one of our neighbors. I am always drawn to Pampas Grass. I’m not exactly sure why. Something about the way light makes it look I guess. Even so, I have never yet made the image of Pampas Grass that I see in my mind every time I shoot the stuff, so I keep practicing.
Near the creek in the valley there is a utility pole that today had early morning sun all over it. I love it when sun gets on stuff like that, so I took this picture.
Normally it’s April before we begin seeing leaves on anything around here. One of the first things to leaf out is is always the Honeysuckle. Here we are in the middle of March–a month that is usually still pretty certain about it’s place in winter–and we have Honeysuckle leafing nicely. I even saw brambles with greening buds on them this morning. Here’s a little example of the Honeysuckle.
After looking at these pictures you might be inclined to wonder whether my walking has any actual value. While these pictures might lead you to wonder, let me assure you that there is great value in walking. So far I have lost 29 pounds since beginning my (nearly) daily walks back around Thanksgiving. When I began it was all I could do to go up and down the two big hills along my route. In fact they initially seemed so daunting that I had to work up the nerve even to try. I’m happy to report that I can now go up and down the two of them without huffing and puffing at all. For a long time I was experiencing minor knee pain on the hills. Now I seem to have taken enough pressure off my knees that the pain is a thing of the past. I have a long way to go, to be sure, but I feel great about the progress I have made so far.
More soon.