Hello, again, online journal/blog. Sorry to have ignored you for so long. So many things have happened since my last post in September that I’m feeling like I need to create an update for myself. I see that my last post indicated that we were going to Virginia Beach for a mini-vacation, which we did. We had one good day, then Stephen got very sick and spent the rest of the time in bed with a high fever and abdominal pain. We have since realized that it was a gall bladder infection, as he had it several more times in the intervening months, then finally at the beginning of this month, the docs in the ER at Sentara Martha Jeff discovered it was another gall bladder infection and removed it.
In early December, Stephen had a total hip replacement of his left hip joint. There was much to do before and after the surgery, and I ended up being not only the chief nurse, but also the farmhand, the hostess for all the medical people coming in and friends who visited, the housekeeper and cook, and the innkeeper for guests at the Carriage House. It was pretty tiring. The week before Christmas I was finally able to organize my Christmas list and get the gift shopping done, get the tree with Lindsay’s help and by then, with Stephen’s as well, and we ended up having a wonderful holiday. Sherry, the housekeeper here at the estate and a good friend, says that Stephen has used up all his “pain in the ass passes” for the year. The recovery from the gall bladder surgery was almost immediate–really insignificant compared to the hip replacement.
I’m so happy to see spring here in our beautiful area. Unfortunately for me, the pollen is really high this year due to the mild winter, and there are more ticks in the fields and in the woods than ever. I’ve had three tick bites already and have found them in my bed where they’ve crawled off Obie and up onto the bed from where he sleeps on the floor. Yesterday I ordered some tick repellent that I can spray on my hiking boots, jeans, socks, hat and the sides of the mattress, I suppose, in the hope of keeping them at bay. The pollen is causing almost debilitating allergies this year–I have to keep everything closed up and the air conditioning on in the house to create a “safe space” for me to breathe. Sometimes I sneeze so much while in the woods with the dogs that they think something is wrong and come to check on me.
We went to the Belvedere again last week, following a wedding here on April 27. Like the car show, the activity here was intense from Thursday to Sunday that weekend, and the dogs and I were very confined, but we got along okay. This time, no one got sick at the beach and we had a nice time. We both did a lot of reading and I did a lot of balcony-sitting the first day, just watching the ocean and all the people going by. As I get older, I find I don’t enjoy the morning sun and glare on our east-facing beaches, so I tend to stay in or do something other than the beach in the mornings. This time we went down to sit by the water at about 4:30 each day. I took long walks in the edge of the surf each afternoon. The water was cool, but felt really wonderful once I’d taken a few steps. Each time, the tide was out, so I found some interesting pieces of shells–more than I usually find.
On the second day, I had a little more energy and we went up to Cape Henry and visited the old light house there. The weather was perfect and the views from the hill where the old light house is were wonderful. It is right at the point where the ocean turns into the Chesapeake Bay, so there are good views of freight traffic into the port as well as some amphibious craft on training runs from Fort Story. I found I couldn’t go up the stairs into the light house this time. Not because of the physical exercise but because I feel less steady, more prone to getting dizzy, and generally more timid about pushing limits these days.
We stopped for lunch with Linds in Richmond on the way back and ate at the Liberty Public House, which is just a block over from where he lives. Wonderful food and such fun to have a visit with Linds. He starts a new job on Monday working for the Virginia Lottery in the online gaming section–a startup for them. He will now be in one of the big office towers in the old part of downtown near the Capitol, so his commute will be about 10 minutes instead of 30 minutes.
I’ve dropped out of the book club now–it was too much trying to find everyone’s houses and get there on time and I didn’t enjoy the books. However, I’ve been reading a lot on my own. It’s a wonderful benefit of retirement, being able to just sit down and read for fun without feeling guilty! Some of my favorite titles have been A Man Called Ove and The Morville Hours. Recently I read View from Above, by astronaut Terry Virts. Initially, I had been attracted to the photos, which are amazing and beautiful, but I found his stories and his explanations of what it was like travelling to, living on, and returning from the International Space Station fascinating. I’m almost to the end of my Angela Thirkell collection (22 titles in all) for about the dozenth time in the past 30 years. While at the beach, I read Never Ask Permission, by Mary Buford Hitz, a memoir about the author’s mother, Elisabeth Scott Bocock of Richmond. This family owned the property on the mountain just west of us called Royal Orchard, their summer retreat, so there are links to our area and history which I enjoyed. Now I’m starting on two Susan Vreeland books I have from the library, Clara and Mr. Tiffany, and The Girl in Hyacinth Blue. Vreeland is the one who wrote the fictitious tale, Luncheon of the Boating Party, about the eponymous painting by Renoir, which I read several years ago. I’d forgotten about her, so was happy to be reminded and find some new titles at our library. It’s a pretty good gig, finding a painting or other art work you like, doing some research, then making up a story about how it came to be. I don’t have the imagination to do that, but can see how it would be fun to do.
Enough for now. There is still more to document, but I’ll save some for later.
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