He attacks the shower nozzle. Okay so really this is just Apache having a bath, but he looks ferocious doing it eh? I could tell by his behavior the day mom passed away and the first couple days after, he knew something was different. It took quite a bit a time before he said Grandma and of course she wasn’t here to answer back. I think he was a bit confused, but he seems to be carrying on like normal now.
So today was quite a productive day. My sore back is proof enough of that. Actually pretty much everything hurts right now.
I started out the day by going to the gym. No, I am not sore from a extra hard workout or anything. Truth be told, I haven’t really worked out since mom passed. I have done a little bit here and there, but it feels like a feat just getting to the gym. Most gym days I have to push myself to go. Still just doesn’t feel right without my parents there.
After the gym, I went out to lunch with a couple of the folks from the gym. Mom got the group hooked on Souplantation, so that is where we decided to have lunch. It is actually a pretty good place to eat. Fill up on greens and soup, not a bad meal if you stay away from the fattening stuff which of course I didn’t. I had ceasar salad and then I also made my own salad out of the vast array of colorful goodies. A drop or three of some ranch dressing and that was course number one. I couldn’t decide which soup to have so I tried both the cream of mushroom and the lobster bisque. Of course I had to toss in a slice of cornbread with honey whipped butter before deciding I was full and skipped the soft serve ice cream that my dining mates had.
After lunch I had an appointment with my grief counselor. We actually spent very little time talking about me or my mother and more about friends and family members. It was a good session. I didn’t really feel sad this time, which was a nice change. Everyone goes about this grief business in their own way, but for me the counseling really seems to help. I can talk about things with her that I might not otherwise openly express. Not that there is anything bad, but rather just that I don’t feel really comfortable talking about some of the things I feel right now. At least not with my mouth. My fingers seems to be more likely to spill my thoughts.
Later in the afternoon I took care of some paperwork. There were a few medical bills that I needed to get straightened out. Fortunately it turned out that none of the bills I was inquiring about needed to be paid. In one instance, the very helpful billing person said that he was just going to zero out the account. There was only one bill that is going to present a hassle. That one I show as being paid, but they don’t have any record of the check so I have to send them information on the check and we will see where that goes. Fortunately, so far, there hasn’t been much of a hassle dealing with outstanding bills.
By early evening I figured I hadn’t accomplished enough and that my back was feeling much too good, so I headed out front to take care of the much neglected yard. I trimmed the bushes and weeded the flower beds. Chopped the society garlic down to a nub and trimmed back the begonias. I really hate that society garlic. Mom has several of them around the front and back yards. The smell makes me gag when I get near them and you cannot get that smell off you regardless how many times you try to wash it off. As soon as I figure out what plants to put in their place, they are coming out for good. Really pretty flowers on them, but cannot take caring for them anymore. The asparagus ferns are gonna get ripped out as well. We already have too many bushes that have thorns I don’t need to ugly, prickly ferns around as well. I need to figure out what to do with the roses. They are always so sickly looking. A while back I wanted to take them down to basically nothing, get rid of a lot of the branches and let them try again, but mom did not want me to do that. We have several varieties and none of them seem to want to look all that great. I mean, the flowers they do have are very nice, but the bushes themselves just look ratty.
Anyway, an hour bent over pulling weeds and trimming plants was enough to leave me popping some Aleve and wishing I had a gardener! I still have a LOT of work to do in the backyard. I will probably just chip away at it for the next couple of weeks.
All in all, it was a good day. Now I am ready to catch some zzzz’s!