Pardon me, was I missing?

Apparently I haven't been blogging. You may have noticed this. I did not. Because of the blogging in my head thing, I guess.

Where have I been? Busy with things. I got the bedroom painted and one coat of trim on done in there.

And then ... The Grand Lunar got sick. He's had a bad sore throat -- so bad he couldn't eat much and couldn't even drink much. He went to the doctor because, honestly, who has sore throats that bad that last more than a day or two? But the doctor said it was "just a cold" -- slim consolation when it won't go away. Although now, a full week-plus later, it seems to be getting a little better.

But the doctor also said his blood pressure was too high. We've been skirting that issue, made some half-hearted (or short lived) efforts in the past, but mostly living in denial. Apparently blood pressure doesn't respond well to denial. Go figure. So we've gone back again to the healthy eating, focusing on some exercise, and reading about health and stuff. In addition to Dr. McDougall's "The McDougall Program for a Healthy Heart", I've been reading a book called "The Salt Solution" which I found at our local library when they didn't have another book I wanted. I also requesitioned one that I might buy if I like it, not specifically for hypertension but reportedly containing good McDougall-like heart healthy recipes, "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease" by Caldwell B. Esselstyn. The good news is that hypertension - in nearly all cases - can be controlled by diet and exercise and lifestyle choices. The harder news is that our tastes and habits need to change. But the benefits are more than just lower blood pressure, but also moving towards a healthy body weight, protection against heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, kidney disease, and more.

So this "just a cold" has, in some ways, blown into a much bigger thing, but I think it'll be good, in the long run, getting us back on track.

In other news, our house is being painted. At the very end of the CollegePro season, so they're a little short staffed. I'm trying not to be nervous that they'll all quit and go back to school leaving things half done. But so far the change is nice. Here's a sneak preview of the house when they had just started a section on the front. Note, too, my lovely hibiscus in bloom.

I could actually show you more -- they finished the first coat on the front of the house today -- but I want to wait until they're done with the white trim and both coats of blue.

Whatcha think?

I like it.

**note** apparently my captchas have gone missing. The Grand Lunar is going to upgrade my blog software ... stay tuned and feel free to email me in the meantime ...