Washed Up

This basket was washed up on Aarons Beach a few weeks ago.  These always remind me of picking daffodils as a child.  We'd go through the fields picking up the bunches and placing them in these baskets--which were then submerged in metal buckets of water in the dark, cool barn before the flowers were packed up and shipped off in large cardboard boxes to commercial markets.

Most people around here associate them with fresh seafood, too.

Unrelated to anything thus far, my surgery took longer than I anticipated to recover from. I was expecting to trot back in to work on Monday after a follow-up visit with the surgeon, but he actually wanted me out another whole week. I was lethargic and just generally weak.  No appetite, no strength, nothing.  Nada. Since this is the busy season at work, and we're already short-staffed as it is,  however, I chose to ignore the surgeon's advice compromise and have been going in to work half days.  I race home early and take two-hour naps.

But finally today I'm feeling a little stronger. And I'm eating a little bit.

If I can survive next week, which is our absolute busiest at work, the following week I'll be on a much-anticipated vacation.

I can't wait.

I hope all is well in your world.

More from Aarons Beach

Here are some more shots taken from Aarons Beach.

I'm pleased to report I barely made it, they tried to kill me!  survived gall bladder surgery.  In spite of what I'd heard and read, recovery wasn't exactly swift and easy.  I'm supposed to return to work today, but I'm still taking pain medication which makes me tired, and I can barely eat anything.  So we'll see.

While I was incapacitated, July arrived.  We're now in the seventh month of this year.

Time continues to fly by whether I'm half dead from surgery an active participant or not.

Scenes from Aarons Beach

In spite of all outward appearances, this blogger blog is still alive, although barely. Last week my internet was down for a few days, but it wasn't as if I had any pictures to share anyway. Since then, however, I made a trip down to Aarons Beach one evening and snapped these and several others I'll post later in the week.

Speaking of later in the week, I apologize in advance for whatever more-inane-than usual gibberish may find its way to this blog the next time I post.  More than likely I will be under the influence of heavy-duty pain medication from the surgery I'm having on Tuesday. Although I am looking forward to some mandated bed rest and any excuse not to have to drive 100 miles a day to and from work, I can't say I'm looking forward to the surgery itself.

Assuming everything goes as it should, though, all of this will soon be behind me, and I can get back to life without fear of a gall bladder attack.  And I'll return to complaining about other things, such as my commute and the weeds that are taking over my yard and the ants that are so rampant in my house they are drafting up an eviction notice they intend to serve me any day now.

Have a great week.

Heron

Wednesday evening, after a day filled with non-stop This and That and Then Some, I gave myself permission to sit down on the back deck for a minute or twenty as the sun was going down.

On the neighbor-across-the-creek's dock post, after a day filled with fishing, wading, preening, squawking, and his own version of This and That and Then Some, a heron was doing the same thing.

Giving himself permission to just sit.

And be.

Friends from my office visited me in Mathews recently and confirmed that just sitting and being in my back yard is all that's needed to reduce blood pressure.

(I didn't need a reminder, it's just nice to hear from new people.)

Of course Regular Life insists on sucking every bit of everything right out of me reminding me that it can't be all about sitting and staring for even twenty minutes! all the time.

I found out this week that I'll need to have my stupid gall bladder removed  some minor surgery soon, potentially during one of my busiest times at work.

Whatever.

The heron reminds me it's important to stop and sit sometimes.

And just be.