Monday, June 16, 2014

ON THE TWELFTH DAY OF WALKING, MY TRUE LOVE SAID TO ME...

Twelve birds a chirping, eleven crows a cawing, ten bunnies hopping, nine fish a jumping, eight birds a chirping, seven hummers humming, six heron flying, five dogs barking, four floating rafts, three ducks quack, two eagles soar, and retirees move to Chame soon!

Lame I know, but this is what I was singing while floating in the lake today.  Making up songs to pass the time.  The water was warm, only slightly refreshing, and after about two hours, we called it a day.

Five gorgeous weekends have passed, and now the heat wave begins today.  We have been so lucky to have rain during the week (quite stormy), and by the time Saturday rolls around, the temperatures are reasonably normal for this time of year (low to mid-eighties), and the air is dry.  Not sure why I care that the weekends are pleasant since I can float and enjoy the day any day of the week!  However, I have been waiting and waiting for just a little bit of morning rain.  This would prevent another morning walk.  Okay, I admit it.  I do love getting back to the house after a four mile walk feeling a great accomplishment. The end of the walk is so gratifying!  Ray and I were saying to each other the other day (maybe this was day eight of walking) that we like the feeling of doing right for ourselves.  Taking the time, but more so having the time to do the things we want to do.  We even started doing some exercises for our core.  Many years ago I worked with a dentist (for sixteen years) that owned several Gold's Gyms.  When he started talking about "our core, and strengthening the core", I thought "yep, another ploy to get people into the gym".  But it makes sense.  Once this feels good, the back doesn't seem to ache as much (or it could be that I haven't been hunched over patients for over two weeks).  Thank goodness we can laugh at each other while doing these "core" exercise.  But I have been waiting for the skies to be dark at seven am, the rain to be falling and to just roll over in bed and keep sleeping.  It's not happening.  The storms start late in the day when it does rain, and I don't want to put off a walk when the temperatures have increased.  And I can't use rain as my excuse.

 It was a gorgeous Saturday this past weekend to go to an old neighbor's house for their daughters graduation party.  We also toured our home that we just sold in April, and we are so happy with what the new homeowners have done with the place (we were living there when many changes were being made, but it was nice to see it complete).  And then we met our beautiful girl for an early Father's Day lunch.  So great to catch up with her again face to face!  Great conversation and a wonderful meal!  I forgot to take pictures, but I will get them soon enough!

While biding our time waiting for traffic on I-95 South to clear a bit, we went to a Nissan dealership to look at a few different SUV's.  In Panama, we will look at cars in Panama City and also La Chorrera (Nissan dealership here).  We wanted to compare the XTerra here which is the XTrail there, and also the Pathfinder.  Meanwhile, Ray has been in contact with someone in Panama City selling a used XTrail.  If the car is available in six weeks, we will check it out.  Keep options open.  And we now have an appointment at the Embassy to start the procedure for our driver's license.  Luis will be ready to pick us up at the hotel the Wednesday of the week we arrive in Panama, and he will walk us through it all.

Father's Day was another blue-skied, warm and sunny day.  We started our morning with that walk, of course, and then we finished cutting some tree limbs in the yard.  Ray and I had cut many limbs down already this past week that were hovering over the roof of the shed (that pretty much only holds our rafts for floating and kayak supplies) and the house.  Since the lake house roomies were here, while one was cleaning a bit on the inside of the house, the other helped us with the trees.  It was all going along so well.  Until the last tree, and we needed the very tall ladder.  And Ray went to pull at the branch he had just cut with his two dollar saw.  He lost his balance and his footing high up on the ladder.  The roommate that was holding the ladder tried to break his fall (? we think), I had my back turned and was staying away from falling branches at the ready to move them to the burn pile, and down came Ray.  He landed on some soft dirt but right on his back he went perhaps hitting the roommates right wrist.  We iced her wrist.  She floated for the day.  She had a broken wrist last fall when she fell, and this one didn't seem to be as painful.  We hoped for a severe sprain or perhaps a hairline fracture.  Nope, her arm is broken.  In a hard cast.  I think Ray and I will play it safe and just float.  And go to movies.  No more yard work for us for a while!  I need him to be whole for Panama.

No comments:

Post a Comment