TGIF

Everyday I wake up to smoky skies and a blood red sunrise.  I've ordered special breathing masks to wear on my walks with the dogs, but they haven't arrived yet.  Authorities are saying that these fires are bound to rage on for weeks to come.  Everyone who is my neighbor is a high risk person -- being that high-risk includes just being over 65 years of age.  We're sticking close to home and limiting our time out of doors.

Tomorrow, however, we drive 2 hours into the mountains to meet up with my daughter and her family.  They are camping with friends and drove in from Colorado.  Just a day visit, as they are headed home, but I am so happy that I'm going to be able to hold my grand babies for a few hours.  I miss them all the time.  I miss my daughter.  Thank goodness for the telephone and video phone apps so we can talk whenever we want.  Because, yeah, I miss the hell out of them.

In two weeks I'm going into the hospital for an outpatient procedure to look into my heart.  Sounds weird, huh?  People do it all the time.  It's called an Angiogram and I'm doing it because my stress test shows a small blockage.  It might be responsible for my heart's strange electrical activity, or it may not.  Once they get in there, they may decide to put in a stent to open up the area.  I've had a similar procedure done, decades ago, when the doc thought maybe I had a brain aneurysm.  The lead up to the exam was much worse than the procedure itself.  It doesn't hurt to have a catheter roaming around your arteries.  And they numb the area where they insert it (groin).  And you're in a nice little fog of anesthesia.

A little unnerving but I'm treating myself to facials, pedicures and hair cut/color.  Pampering myself is making me very happy.  I didn't used to thrill to this kind of thing, but the older I become the more I enjoy the indulgence.   It centers me and calms me.  Makes me feel a little more youthful. 

Which, of course, helps me feel healthy, even though I'm not 100 percent.  I've lived with Type I Diabetes since my mid-thirties, and asthma all my life.  I've had health challenges aplenty.  Physical and mental. I've overcome them all, or at least learned how to live with them.  I've learned that taking good care of myself is essential.

And sometimes, I fall off the wagon and am not so good at taking care of myself.  Doesn't this happen to us all?  Then, you have this clarity, usually brought on by something critical, like my heart, that snaps you out of your apathy.  Thank goodness for a strong sense of survival.  That's what I've got.

I want many years ahead of love, laughter, crude jokes and bad language.  Many more musical concerts to experience, books to read, movies to watch, meals to enjoy.  Dreams to dream.  Walks with the dogs, holding hands with my hubs.  There's just so much to do.

Don't you feel it?