Deer at the dump

Posted on June 24, 2019 by flowerjovia

MacGyver and I spent the last 4 days in Nokomis. Despite the fact that we have worked every single time we’ve gone down for like the last 2 months at least, there are still so many things to do.

Luckily, we are able to find the pleasure among the chores. Case in point, these guys we saw at the dump while dropping off a load of tree debris.

Look close, those are turkeys

MacGyver spotted the turkeys, but I spotted these:

Um, DEER!

And I’m not gonna lie, we did manage to go to a few estate sales and garage sales on Friday and Saturday morning. And on Saturday we actually headed down to Casey Key to check out the bait situation.

There wasn’t a lot of decent sized bait around but the shelling was ah-mazing. We heard later there were whale sharks near the jetty but we didn’t see them.

Fortunately MacGyver and I have been able to remove a large portion of the tree but we still have some left. It will have to wait til another day.

Sometime on Saturday evening I started to have some stomach pains and I still have them so I called my doctor this morning to see if I could get an appointment. I told them I had stomach pains and that they had gotten a bit worse over a few days and that I had even been so fatigued that I slept until 9AM on Sunday, which NEVER happens. I told them I’d like an appointment as soon as possible and they said sure, at 10AM, on August 20^th!

So I told them why I was calling again and explained that the pain was getting much worse and lasting longer and they said, ‘if it gets too bad you’d could always go to the ER’, and she followed it up with, ‘of course if it turns out not to be an emergency, your insurance may not pay for the visit.’

So I asked exactly how I could determine whether or not it was an emergency without consulting a doctor at which point she suggested I use the teledoc feature, all I needed to do was to sign up and then schedule, but they could probably get me an appointment within a few weeks.

It’s so exasperating dealing with these people. I’d almost rather be in pain. I finally decided that when and if the pain becomes constant or too much to deal with, I’ll just head to the emergency room. In the meantime, they have me scheduled for that August appointment and I’m on the waiting list in case some one cancels. I feel so special.

Since I wasn’t feeling well I didn’t run or lift at all on Saturday or Sunday but I did manage to walk 5 miles this morning and lift a little so maybe it’s getting better…we’ll see.

How was your weekend?

Did you do anything fun?

WAIT, I’m completely unarmed, literally

Posted on May 28, 2019 by flowerjovia

Anybody else out there feel like this,

I think I have a three day weekend hangover, is that a thing?

Yeah, the struggle is too real. Anyhow, how was your weekend? We had a pretty busy one. In case I didn’t mention it and I probably didn’t, we were in Nokomis. I actually ran a few miles and walked a heck of a lot because you know, the heat, it’s almost unbearable. Speaking of which, on Saturday while I was struggled to run a few miles on the Legacy Trail, these two passed me.

They were so fast it was hard to get a good pic but that was two Amish women on roller blades and they whizzed right by me at a breakneck speed. I don’t know exactly how fast that is, but if I went that fast on rollerblades, I’d break my neck so it was that fast. And in case you couldn’t tell, they were in long dresses. Seriously.

On Saturday MacGyver was working on a project for his parents so I hit up some garage sales and then went to pick up my mother in law so we could continue shopping. You may not know this but I love to shop. I even went back out after dropping off my mother in law and doing a quick check on the dogs. I think I finished up around 6:30 in the evening but only because I got hungry. Hunger always wins.

The next day MacGyver went to work on his project again and I felt sort of guilty that he was working in the hot sun….okay actually, I spent too much money the day before so shopping was not an option. I decided instead to mow the lawn, run the weed eater and then weed and mulch.

But first, I cleaned our fountain. I think I did something wrong though because two days later it still looks like this,

Too much soap perhaps?

I also planned on washing the dogs. I managed to get Hank washed but I didn’t make it to Boomer because while I was pulling a limb out of our humongous dead oak tree, I inadvertently pulled down a wasp nest.

One of them got inside my glove and stung the crap out of me. It swelled up so bad that tiny little blood vessels in my skin burst. It looked a lot worse than it actually felt. It just itched tremendously however I still managed to make it to dinner with my in laws and some friends because, I’m a trooper.

The next day MacGyver and I decided we needed to tackle the dead tree before heading to my in laws for the holiday and I mean, what better way to treat that sore arm, right?

MacGyver climbed up on a ladder and used a pole saw to cut the huge branches and then used the chain saw to cut them into manageable pieces. My job was to stack all of the big logs and put all the smaller ones on a trailer to haul off later. I raked up all the smaller pieces and we burned all of them in the firepit.

We were able to take out about a quarter of the tree before 1PM and it went really smooth until I dropped one of the logs and it landed on my right hand. The left one was still swollen from the bee sting and looked like this,

Check out little Hank photo bombing like a champ

And then I managed to drop a log on the other arm, so now the right arm looked like this,

Again, it looks way worse than it actually was. I still managed to make it to my in laws for afternoon and we had a beautiful day. My arms just look a little like chopped meat but my lawn looks great and we’re almost completely prepared for hurricane season so there’s that.

We’re back in Clearwater and I’m working this morning and typing is sort of a challenge when both of your arms are hard to move. Thankfully, I love a good challenge. And hey, you don’t need arms to run, so I’m good.

How was your weekend? What did you do for Memorial Day? Ever been stung by a bee?

The great Mother’s Day Flood of 2019

Posted on May 13, 2019 by flowerjovia

I hope that all of you moms out there had a fabulous Mother’s Day. I wasn’t able to spend mine with the kid because he doesn’t have any available time off right now and I couldn’t fly to Columbus so we had to settle for some facetime. I sure do miss him but we chat at least 3 or 4 times a week. MacGyver was a total sweetie and brought me these:

We had also acquired a washer earlier in the week, it’s a long story so don’t ask but anyway, MacGyver went and bought all kinds of hoses and things to hook it up so that I could have two washers because let’s face it, it’s sort of my dream.

Anyway, it took a few hours to get everything all hooked up and to re-organize the laundry area so that we could accommodate two washers but we got it done. Just 10 minutes later I was washing the comforter off the bed. And just 15 minutes later I went to check on it and my laundry area and spare bathroom looked like this:

And then it took about 4 more hours to clean it all up and move the washer back to the garage for repairs. So, that was fun. I’m still holding out for two washers, that dream will never die.

So, let’s talk a little about last week, shall we?

Even though I am mostly walking with an occasional jog here and there, I still managed to walk over 30 miles last week. Thirty.

Yeah, I was pretty happy with it. Also I lifted weights 4 days last week so basically, I’m a full on fitness fanatic now and you should totally follow me on Instagram. Kidding, but speaking of Instagram, if you don’t follow me, then you probably missed my post of Charlie’s mating dance.

I’ll share it with you here so you don’t feel totally left out.Cute, isn’t he?

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Flower Jovia (@upandhumming) on May 13, 2019 at 6:35am PDT

And just because I haven’t posted a picture of him in like a hot minute, here’s a good one of Coo Coo Ka Choo on top of one of his ‘houses’ that he loves.

I totally meant to update last Friday but I was swamped with work and didn’t have the chance. Anyway, I was dying to show you some of my favorite things, including my new entry rug. The UPS guy and the Postman both cracked up when they saw it.