Walking on Sunshine

It's a lovely clear, cold day after a lovely, warm, overcast week.  After 81 degrees yesterday, we're slated for 32 tonight.  An Ohio friend expressed surprise about a 50 degree drop in such a short time.  I wanted to say, you obviously haven't been to Texas, but I didn't.

The Good Stuff:

• I got leaves raked and bagged, the alley hedge trimmed, debris raked and bagged from under that hedge, and I got half the front hedge cut way back to begin training the regrowth.  I still need to shape the remains of that hedge and rake the leaves and debris out of it, but that will have to wait until next month.  I also need to do the other half of the front hedge -- apparently the stuff on the left is jasmine, but it's gotten very woody.  This is what I started with (I'd already trimmed the Nandina before I remember to take a picture):

This is as far as I got last week (needs to be raked and and some training done):

 

This is what I have left to do in addition to raking out the other side and shaping:

  

• I completed morning pages, read Stuart MacBride's Blind Eye (I love Stuart's work), and logged in Lose It! (several hours of yard work each day credits me with burning a lot of calories, even though I didn't notice it on the scale)
• Rossie handled the transition to and from San Antonio very well.  She hid for a couple of days, but I expected that.  Then she came out and was seen throughout the house, in the garden window, and playing with toys.  She let both of us pet her in the garden window a couple of times.  She's still hiding now that we're back in Central Texas, but I expect that.  The drive is stressful for them.

The Not So Good Stuff:

• I found exactly the cat carriers I wanted on Overstock.com for less than on Amazon, ordered them, and they arrived exactly when Overstock said they would.  Two of the three were broken. I'm now going through the process of getting replacements, partially complicated by me not having worked with Overstock.com before and confusing the matter by not understanding their system.  They appear to be making things right, in spite of my confusing the issue.
• A classmate from high school died yesterday.  She had an elective surgery in mid-December, during the initial recovery "walking around," she complained of not being able to breathe, got back to her bed, laid down, and her heart stopped.  After some minutes, they got her heart beating again, but she was brain dead (outside of being non-responsive, this was not immediately obvious; the family was in limbo for about a week). At the end of February, her husband (also from our high school, but a year ahead of our class) took her off life support and brought her home to spend her last days with family in peace.  Yesterday she passed over.  While it's a sad situation, I'm going in for my pre-op appointments this week, so I'm a little sensitive to her plight and how it could also be mine.  I don't think it will be, but it's a stark reminder that there is nothing routine about any surgery, just like there is nothing "routine" about space travel.
• I accomplished nothing on Cat Eyes except for a realization that I need to recast Fantusie's mom as a "struggler" instead of a "loser," so I have some clean up to do on the beginning of the story.

The Week Ahead: 

• Track, read, do morning pages, and exercise
• Pre-op appointments on Monday and Thursday.  Hope all goes well.  I hope I'll get a clear understanding of which method my doctor uses for this procedure and verify it's the right thing to do
• Do all the preparatory work for setting up the yard sale, because I may not feel like moving around, lifting, and arranging next week after my procedure
• Do yard work here -- mow and trim the house, mow the store, and finish the crape myrtle trimming and training
• Try to do some prep work for the A-Z Blogging Challenge.  Yes, I'd hoped to have posts already written and scheduled.  Silly me.  That has gotten away from me.