Rain! Glorious Rain!

It's raining! Well, ok, not at this EXACT moment, but it rained a significant amount yesterday, and the forecast today is for more.

I've never been a fan of rain. It depresses me. Or, at least it did in the past. Not really anymore. When I moved here, from there, I realized I'd have more sunny days than ever before possible in my life. I also saw abundant evidence that the rain was needed by the animals (and us humans), as here we are very drought prone. This year has been one of the driest on record, and we're at record lows in the water levels. Our water comes all the day down from mainland, Florida. Through tiny pipes. We have rain barrels on every gutter (4 at last count) and wish I had more gutters just so I could have more barrels.

Yesterday even though it was raining, the Key deer were out. Lapping the water off plants, drinking out of ponds & puddles created by the rain, and out of any trough or device that could collect water. My rain barrels are full, spilling over. As I ran down the rainy street, I saw snakes slithering, birds who seemed to be dancing in the air, and tons of land crabs. I think the crabs are flooded out of some of their hidey holes, there were some big ones I saw crossing the street.

This rain does not depress me. Its making me happy. Happy the plants will enjoy new growth so the animals will have fresh, desperately needed, food. Happy the reservoirs are filling up even if its only just a bit. Happy to see the animals get a break from the heat, and happy because I'm going to see rainbows (yes, rainbows. remember them?)

Rain, glorious rain. We've got a rainy day. The animal kingdom and I are celebrating.

Paying the Piper

I hate the proverbial piper. He's no fun. I'm paying him today for my antics of yesterday.

This happy vegan got sunburn.

I haven't had a sunburn in ages, and certainly not since I've moved here. No, I'm "smarter" than that, plus the words of my dermatologist (usually) ring loudly in my ears when I'm going outside.

I played yesterday on my rooftop sanctuary. Frosty beverages. Teeny clothes. Music and sunshine. I had my sunscreen, but I got carried away. Obviously. By the time last night rolled around, there was no consoling me, and there is still no consolation now. Every twist and turn is painful. The one saving grace is that I didn't burn areas that are particular "no fly" zones, especially my face. At least I have that one little victory at the moment.

I've got to pull myself together (literally.... with Spandex) and head out to the gym. This is my punishment indeed. I'm paying that mean old piper. The next day or so will hopefully be burned into my mind as well.... don't play in the sun without SPF 3million. That, or a suit of armour.

Feel my pain?

I Confess

You know I had a l-o-n-g list of things to do today, you knew it, I knew it. I still know it. I have a confession to make.

I chucked it all today to make way for fun.

I couldn't help myself, it was a force beyond my control.

When I woke up, I had chores, cooking, baking and another round for my virtual 5k on tap. I did the morning chores, all according to plan. Somewhere afterwards, I derailed. The 5k bit the dust today (its ok, I shaved just seconds below 4 minutes off my time yesterday, I'm submitting it, so there), and all other chores have fallen by the wayside. Is it the sunshine? The perfect sky? The REALLY bad runners tan? What caused this lapse in my usual responsible self? I don't know, and it doesn't really matter. Before I knew it, I found myself on my rooftop sanctuary, in teeny clothes, with frosty beverages & an iPod. My cabana boy (aka Mr. Happy Vegan) has kept the drinks flowing, and I have done things worshipping the sun gods today that would make my dermatologist's toes curl.

All in the name of a good time.

I don't care, I needed this. Behind the scenes here we're dealing with lots of stuff; paperwork, schedules, plans, and the continued failings of the Gulf Coast Claims Recovery Fund with BP issues. Awful, just awful. Why should I let another perfect day pass? I shouldn't, that's what I decided.

Friends are in town for a short while visiting from my old stomping grounds, and we hope to see them tonight. Included in that will be some laughs, a few drinks (you know I'm not designated driver, right??!!), and so forth.

I have to go. I've got at least 45 minutes of prime skin damaging time left on my roof, and I just finished lunch. Afterwards, I'll have just enough time to clean myself up and dress for dinner & drinks.

Carpe Diem.

Success!

I did as planned yesterday... took control of clutter, purged more things, did lots of laundry, and began to reorganize my life behind the scenes here. I feel pretty good about this.

One of the things I also did yesterday was my first official 5k. I don't know why 5k's are so popular. People seem to travel far & wide for them, but it's only 3.1 miles. This is something I do almost every day. Admittedly, I typically do not run with a time in mind, and I also tend to toss in a fair amount of strength training in on the run. But, my trainer at the gym told me about something called a virtual 5k to raise money for diabetes. Lots of the people I know at the gym are runners. They travel all over going to destination runs, including half marathons, whole marathons, 5ks and a few other wonderful events. That is just not for me. Between the issue of having to leave here (almost impossible due to work obligations) and the fact that those events are almost always starting early in the morning even locally (again not do-able due to work obligations), I just never joined in any of those reindeer games. However, a virtual 5k? All I had to do was register, pay my entrance fee (a donation towards diabetes research), and run 5k sometime over 3 designated days. After the run, you submit your time. Easy enough, and I decided why not.

So, I ran.

I didn't get out there until almost noon yesterday, the heat was incredible, and my last half mile was one of constant bargaining ("If I make it to that next mail box running, I can walk after that." When I made it to the mail box, I would re-bargain "you can run a little more, just to that tree... ok?" You see what I mean by bargaining, right?) I turned in a time I'm not too ashamed of, including a 10 minute first mile (wow, that's stellar for me) but there was no way I could keep up that pace. No way. With every breath I took, the air felt too heavy, my body wouldn't cooperate. I finished in 39 minutes. The 2nd mile was slower than the first, and that third mile was even slower than the second. But, I thought I could do better. So, plans are to time myself on today's run, and tomorrow's too. I will submit the best time. At least, that's the plan. I know if circumstances don't allow me to get back out today or tomorrow, I did participate, I will submit my time. I'm satisfied.

I've got a list of things to do today as long as my left arm (which is longer than my right arm, so there), and I better get cracking. I have a nagging feeling that I should be trying a new recipe or two today, but no, I'm shoving those evil time-eating thoughts aside. I'm going to concentrate on continuing the re-claiming of my life, getting rid of more "stuff," and spending some quality time with the kitties. That, and hopefully another timed 5k..... can't hurt, might help, right? Have a great day all!

Stuff

Woe is me. Minimal sleep last night, boo hiss.

Yesterday, despite the fatigue and pain, I made my way through chores, cooking, baking and so forth. Ditched the running, just to be on the safe side, but went to boot camp. Did ok. Got home, made a little salad, and went to bed. Somewhere between channel surfing and dozing, it happened. Pink Moon used my neck as a springboard. I practically saw stars. Pink was no better off either, as my reaction sent that little anxiety riddled feline into a panic. It was quite a while before I saw her again last night. I didn't really care about her anxiety for a change, as the after effects from the incident stayed with me through the night, and into the morning. Thus began last night's "sleep."

Typically things move a little slower down here in the summer. Not lately though. Demands on my time, as well as Mr. Happy Vegan's time, are unusually heavy lately. I've decided to put most of any new experimenting in the kitchen on hiatus, just for a little while. Something's gotta give. Even though I have 2 brand spanking new vegan cookbooks (which in less than 1 week I've managed to try 4 new recipes from), today I set them aside. Had to do it.

I'm planning on getting my life back in order. Chaos is the order of the day in the laundry room, and my dining room table. I'm not alone with these issues, am I? Mail comes in, I sort it, yet piles of paper accumulate on my dining room table. I have an office, yet there is all this paper. Both of us in-patient happy vegans here are victims of the paper monster. Shifting things from "here" to over "there." How come? We do so much of the work on line to save paper, yet poof the piles are there. Yikes.

Then there's my personal laundry. That stuff is always secondary when running a B&B. The inn laundry must take priority, so days lapse before I get a crack at the machines here..... socks & running clothes ooze out my closet, so many, how is that possible?

I can't take it, all this disorder. Tomorrow is another busy day, but I'm going to take back order in my own home. This is not a complicated task, but why do I have such trouble getting it done? Once I get like this, nothing can really save me except getting inside the nitty gritty of closests and drawers and performing another purge of objects. That's on the list tomorrow.... getting rid of "stuff."

I'll feel better this time tomorrow night. I'm sitting here right now imagining all the wonderful piles I'll have of stuff, all labeled for different destinations. Some things go to the animal shelter, some things go to the wildlife rescue, some things go to Habitat for Humanity, and other things will go to the Salvation Army Family Store. Ahh, the beautiful piles of things going away. I feel better already.

Getting rid of "stuff" along with a little bit of sleep will go a long way. That's my plan. Keep your fingers crossed.

Cats Have Staff

Although its been probably years since I've slept well, the last few nights have been worse than usual. I'm blaming the cats. They've been especially rambunctious lately, especially at night. Using my body as a heliport in the middle of the night has become relatively common. The howling, running, and jumping at imaginary things seems to have amped up lately though. This behavior matters not in their world. Their food is still plentiful, their litter pans are cleaned, their toys are still scattered about, and things are as they should be in their world. They've got naps, sunny patches, catnip, and warm laps. Their antics however, do not insure a peaceful world in my reality though.

Two nights ago when I went to bed, I had to pick Lemon up and move him aside. He was sprawled across the entire bed, I'm not sure how a 14 pound cat can find a way to inhabit an entire king size bed, but he did. I moved him and plunked myself down. He became indignant, and plunked himself down on me, as I was now in "his" spot. In minutes, the rest of the crew arrived, and I found myself completely fenced in by felines. This included my pillow. I "slept" for hours as a contortionist. I paid for it the next morning. Pain.

The next night came and went, and it was pretty much a repeat of the same thing. But, now there was a cumulative effect from the sleeping contortions. So much so that when I got up yesterday, I found myself in pretty bad shape. By mid-afternoon yesterday (yup, my Solstice happy day) I could barely hold my head up. The slightest movement caused searing pain to shoot partly down my arm, partly down my back. What is this I wondered. It got worse.

Nothing worked. Ice, essential oils. massage, and finally a too high milligram dose of something I rarely take.... real medication. It didn't work either.

I went to bed last night in excruciating pain. Every movement on the bed, every paw print on the sheet caused that white hot pain. When I tell you that I have not slept, I MEAN that I have not slept.

When I dragged myself out of bed this morning, I found myself having difficulty doing the simplest of tasks. This eventually resulted in a kitchen mishap at way to early an hour, and me wondering aloud "is this what today will be like?"

I have decided I do not want today to be a washout... let's turn it around I affirmed.

I've been steamrolling through the pain to get my chores done, and then I'm going out to do some errands, visit some friends, do some shopping, and then see if by later tonight I can make it through a boot camp class. Mind over matter I've decided.

I'm not completely sure about this mind over matter philosophy for today. But, it sounded good, and as I look outside I see an unbelievably beautiful blue sky. I'm convinced I just cannot let today go by in a pain induced stupor.

It all boils down to the truth in the quote "dogs have owners, cats have staff." Indeed.

Summer Solstice!

In less than one hour's time, Summer Solstice will be here.

If you're new to the blog, let me explain that today is one of the most important and best days of the year in my world. Summer Solstice is when we honor the gods of the sun. The holiday is also known as Midsummer, and Litha. A day important enough that even Shakespeare centered his famed tale around the holiday.

Summer Solstice was important to me even before I was following the current path I'm on. If you're not new to the blog, then you may recall that the first day of Summer was one which my dad used to count down, beginning almost from the last day of Summer the year prior. Because I used to live in a colder climate where winters were actually wintry, the first day of Summer represented many different things to me. It represented vacations, sunshine, happiness, and fun times. Summer brought parties, friends, family and bbqs (tofu dogs anyone? YUM!)

Even though I now live where its summery year round, the first day of Summer is still magical. Its a day to be especially grateful (which I am). This is a day to celebrate, a day to party!

Through the Summer, I rejoice in the pictures my friends post on line sharing their summer vacations, the beach, the Jersey shore, and whatnot. I love hearing the stories of parties which happen over sultry Summer nights, and love the simple fact that my friends and family are basking in the glow of sunshine and heat, instead of scraping snow & ice from a driveway or car. I'm simply happier when those I love are happier. Summer makes that happen.

Today, being Summer Solstice, I made lemon raspberry muffins as part of our guests' breakfast at Deer Run. I like to make something sunny & lemony on the first day of Summer. Later today I have big plans to honor those rascally sun gods by sitting somewhere in my own sunny patch with a frosty beverage, and reflect on all the beauty there is surrounding me. My mind wanders constantly to my dad today, and all the good times we shared especially over the summertime months. This is an important day for me, but those seeds were sown decades ago in the shadow of my dad and his own little calendar countdown.

Happy Solstice. Happy Summer. Enjoy this day, and let's all have a great Summer!!