Flowers On Friday

Sylvia dropped by this afternoon with some cheery flowers! Thanks, Syl!

Otto and I went on our walk today. It's mild but is sunshine too much to ask for? Sunshine would have been nice. So far we haven't had any sun on our walks. We did what has become our "usual route". This time I remembered the step counter and we logged about 5100 steps which is about 2.5 miles. or 4 km. Good! We saw the strangest thing today. We saw a young man pulling a big cart of what looked like bunches of broken wood and behind it was tied one of those kidmobiles that pull behind bicycles. It was filled with stuff. There was more stuff attached but I was too stunned to remember and by the time I saw him he was right beside us so I didn't get my camera out in time. He was going down the bridge with a bunch of traffic behind him. What on earth was going on? All I could guess was that it might be a homeless person moving his "stuff" to a new location.

And this. What in the heck is this supposed to be? It's some kind of sculpture made of sweaters, snow and water. I'm not getting it, though. I must not have enough imagination. Is it supposed to look like something?

This morning ... TADA ... Otto and I started working on those dang Christmas decoration boxes! But you know how it goes ... or maybe you don't ... CHAOS BEFORE ORDER! So we went from one tidy pile in Luke's bedroom to a whole big mess in every room upstairs. That's because our upstairs storage room has become such a disaster that it has to be cleared out and organized before the Christmas decorations can be put away. I made good headway this morning, though, and I still have a long way to go. I would love to have it done before Kevin gets home but that's not going to happen. In fact, he's going to have to help me with some of it. In the end, it will be so much better. And those decorations will be tucked away! This is the before photo when the boxes were mostly neatly piled in Luke's room.

I had a bit of trouble sleeping last night. That's unusual for me. Typically I sleep well and so two nights of bad sleep in three days makes me wonder if it isn't the Tamoxifen. I need to read the list of side effects again because I don't remember that being one.

Limbs - same old. Very old. With some doorknobs, I need to use two hands to turn them. I never had to think about it before but I have trouble now opening our front door unless I use two hands.

One more week at home before I head back to the office! As I said, it's both scary and exciting! In fact, I was really dreading it for a while but I realize now that the reason I dreaded it was because my brain was still not functioning very well. I easily became overwhelmed by activity and information while I was going through all of this and it was only a week or so ago, after I almost literally "felt" the air and sun creep back into my brain, that I have felt more confident of being able to manage at work. It was like somebody suddenly swept the cobwebs out of my skull and opened some windows. I didn't even realize how crippled my brain had been until it suddenly felt better. It's hard to explain. I liken it a bit to going through life not knowing you badly need glasses and then getting them and having it open up a whole new world of clarity that you didn't realize you were missing out on. Just because my brain is now a little stronger and capable doesn't mean my memory has returned to before cancer treatment levels. In fact, once I get back to work I think I'll realize even more how bad my memory has become. It really surprises me now the things I will suddenly forget or not quite be able to nail down in my memory ... things that I wouldn't have lost before. My memory wasn't firing on all cylinders before all of this but it's now significantly worse and I can never anticipate what I'll forget because it will be things I can't believe aren't right there which makes it all the more embarrassing. How does one prep for that? You might be offended to know how often I've forgotten your last names and have even hesitated over some first names! It shocks me! I understand that it's part of "chemo brain" and that it should improve over the next year. Let's hope so. It's embarrassing sometimes!

It's the weekend. Time to forget about the things I can't do and focus on the things I can do. Such as deal with that disaster I've created upstairs. YIKES!!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! It's SUPERBOWL time if you're looking for an excuse for a party!!

Flowers On Friday