It’s a beautiful fall Florida morning. It’s 75° outside, there is a nice stiff breeze blowing, and the sun is bright, at least for now.

I am so happy to be sitting outside this morning, sipping my 2^nd cup of coffee, feeling the breeze lift the hair off my neck. I got my trees trimmed the other day. A young kid (about 25 maybe) knocked on my door and offered to trim my palms up into what they call the “hurricane” cut. This means they cut off all the dead stuff and sculpt it so the palm fronds are from 10 to 2 . I am particularly happy about this because the rats nest in the tops of unkept palm trees and jump onto the roof to get in the house. Now I know there are no nests up there, and no holes for them to get into in the roof, because I had all those blocked a few weeks ago. He also trimmed the banyan tree so it was not laying on the roof, and the neighbors live oak tree, which was also reaching out and laying on the roof and swept it off. He dragged all the brush to the street, into 2 huge piles, and cleaned up all the rest of the refuse from cutting. And he charged me $200 for all of it! My yard looks so much better with all that deadwood off of it.

Yesterday one of my good friends came over for the afternoon, and we sat outside enjoying the dry, breezy air with a few beers for her, and one glass of wine for me. I hadn’t seen her in months…6 or 7 months. Dan came over to see her too, because he really likes her too, and the three of us spent the afternoon laughing, basically. It felt good. There has not been enough laughter in our lives (Dan’s and mine). Dan brought crab cakes with him, and he and I had them for dinner, with remoulade sauce I made. So good. It’s our new favorite food. Even though I’ve had crab cakes many times, these, store made and frozen, are SO good.

Last night I decided to try not taking a hydrocodone. I only have 8 or 9 left, not enough to see me through until I go to the pain management dr. Instead, I took an Ambien, and a gabapentin (for nerve pain, but not narcotic). I struggled to get to sleep for probably a little over an hour. I kept thinking about something Dan had said, a suggestion that I was taking the hydrocodone more because I was afraid of that excruciating pain coming back, than that I really needed it. I thought, he’s probably right. And, the last few nights I’ve woken anyway with hip pain and had to go get an ice pack, even though I’d taken the opiate. So I thought, lets just try it.

I had a bad case of restless legs when I went to bed, which I think is a by-product of the nerves in my leg healing. I had quite a few hits off my vape, indica marijuana, which helps a ton with restless legs and helps me get to sleep. Finally I fell into a deep sleep for 7 or 8 hours. I guess I can use that protocol, Ambien and gabapentin, unless I am in pain when I go to bed. But yesterday was a good day, not much pain (maybe from all that laughing?). And I had nowhere I had to go today, so I figured if I can’t sleep, I can nap today. I did wake up in a bit more pain than usual, but not terrible. Now I’m out here on the deck, with an ice pack, and water, and coffee, and feeling pretty decent.

As I said, I didn’t have much pain yesterday, so I got some stuff done around the house. Like vacuumed the kitchen and living room, and swiffered the kitchen floor, ran the dishwasher and unloaded it, and did a load of laundry. Now I just need someone to help me change my sheets on my bed. I’ll see if Dan is coming down here, or I can ask my neighbors to help me. I can make the bed, but I can’t lift the mattress to tuck anything in without hurting myself.

Tomorrow I go back to PT, and I’m expecting it not to hurt me as much as in the past. He is mostly doing stretching exercises to lengthen the leg muscles, which I understand shortened considerably from me sitting with a pillow under my knee for so many months. He also puts me on the stationary bike, which I could only do about 20 rotations of the pedals last time, before my left thigh was burning. Maybe I’ll get up to 30 this time.

I feel like I’m making good progress with the healing. I am glad to find I can get to sleep without the opiod. And get through much of the day without too much pain. I kinda felt bad that as soon as Dan and I finished the crab cakes, I told him I needed to lay down on the couch, but I was exhausted. Cleaning up the house and then having company for a few hours just wore me out. Dan went home shortly after I situated myself on the couch. If he didn’t have such sleep issues of his own, that he’s working to resolve, I would feel bad that he didn’t want to stay. But honestly, I was so tired, I went to bed at about 9:15, and I’m guessing I fell asleep around 10:30. It’s all good.

I am so looking forward to this election being over. I pray that Biden wins and that DT with all his idiocy limps off into the woods with all his crazy making. Or off to another country, as he keeps threatening, lol. Like Yeah, Mr. Prez….promise us that we won’t see you anymore, and make that the one promise that you keep. Meanwhile, FL COVID #’s are going up again, over 4000 new cases for the last 2 days. We had gotten down to under 2000 for a couple days (which is not good, but way better than the numbers we were pulling in July as he opened the state back up) but since then it’s been climbing back up. 45 says if he loses FL he’s going to “fire” our governor (who is a big tRump surrogate). So many of us are hoping would he keep that promise too, if he could. Which of course, he can’t.

Life is good, at the moment. I am very blessed in so many ways. My healing is going well, it seems to me. Beginning to actually feel happy again….when I can walk around the block, and change my own sheets,x lol, I will truly have crossed that bridge to Happyland.

Love and light, everyone.