Feeling a little like fall

OK, I know it's only September 7th, and the flowers in my new planter are still blooming like mad, but it does feel different. A little cooler, a little darker. The weather is actually perfect -- low 80s during the day, mid 50s at night. I'm wearing sleeves again, but still only very light, thin t-shirts. It'll be a long time still until I switch from capri to long pants. But it feels different. Feels like summer is over.

It was a funny week, on account of having Monday and Tuesday off. Only three days of classes, and the first one was Wednesday, Super Late Start Day. This meant that we got wildly off schedule, and having to get up at 7 am on Thursday and Friday was a killer. I took my Mounjaro shot on Wednesday night, so I actually slept most of the day on Thursday and Friday (after getting the kids off to school, starting the laundry, etc.). I sure hope my doctor agrees to lower the dose when I see her on the 19th.

Speaking of Mounjaro, since it's now September, I should do a Mounjaro report.

• June 14, 2024: 254.6 (day I took my first shot)
•  
• Jan. 1, 2025: 228.8
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• July 1, 2025: 217.8
• August 1, 2025: 214.8 
• September 1, 2025: 210.8 

Look at that, down 4 pounds this month, almost a pound a week. That rate of loss should end soon, as I stop walking as often. You'd think I'd walk more as it gets cooler, but the problem is that I like to walk in the evenings, after dinner, and it's starting to get DARK in the evenings! Even 7:30 pm is now really too late to walk, and we often eat dinner around 7:00. What I do when it's already getting dark, I walk up and down residential streets, past people's houses, that is (instead of walking through the park and by the school). That feels a little safer. But mostly I prefer to walk when there's still a little daylight, and that gets harder and harder to find. I have to start walking BEFORE dinner, which means I run into people coming home from work, and the grocery store -- I don't know. It's less peaceful, somehow. So I start skipping days, and I don't lose weight, and eventually it starts snowing, and...

It's OK. Though I admit, looking at those numbers, 199 looks so close, so reachable! I used to think, back in the old days (25 years ago or so), that as long as I was under 200, I looked OK. You know, plump, but not obese. It's amazing to think that if I lost 11 more pounds, I might not look obese.

Oh well. I'd rather feel better, on a lower dose of Mounjaro. Even if I stop losing weight. Even if I gain some back. Seriously. It's not good to feel so tired and crummy all the time.

***

Since it was a weird short week, I didn't get too far on my plans to start writing and pruning again, nor my plans to clean the house (the book group rescheduled for September 17th, making that seem less urgent). 

However, I did a little. I worked on my novel one of the days, can't remember which one, and it felt good. This second novel in the series is a bit jumbled right now -- I can't figure out exactly what the mystery is -- but I still like it. I think I just need to keep going, and it'll sort itself out. Or, more likely, I'll figure out how to rearrange it once more of the pieces are in place. The first novel in the series, I figured out the whole mystery ahead of time, which made it easier to write.

I also worked on pruning -- I think maybe two days? Again, can't remember which ones (all that sleeping I did interfered with my memory of the week). Compost pickup was Saturday (delayed one day due to Labor Day), so I really wanted to fill the compost bin. And I did! I pulled a lot of weeds in the front yard, cut back the birch tree and some of the junipers, and cut back a whole lot of random plants that were spilling into the driveway and making it hard for Rocket Boy to park there. Now he should be able to move his car over by a foot or two.

And Rocket Boy went out on Saturday morning and did more. He dug up a lot of dandelions and the wild carrots, and even mowed the lawn. We hadn't mowed since June, I think, because the grass goes sort of dormant in the hot weather, doesn't grow much even if you water it. This should be the last mowing before it snows, probably.

I didn't do much housecleaning, but I did clear off one surface in the living room, uncovering a few things that had been missing. I'll try to do more this week. What I really need to do is vacuum, but sleeping most of Thursday and Friday interfered with that.

I think it was a good start! And I'll try to keep the momentum (such as it is) going. We don't currently have anything on the schedule this week, except for school and our yearly ABCD appointment on Saturday, so I'll try.

Maybe I'll even do something political. I just haven't been able to get myself to do anything recently, even write a letter -- it all seems so hopeless. Watching the PBS NewsHour has become really painful. But I must try. Somehow. 

***

Both cats had vet appointments this past week. Baby Kitty got his nails trimmed on Tuesday (about time -- I was covered with scratches), and Sillers went in for her yearly exam on Wednesday. They did bloodwork on her and everything was 100% normal, so that was good. We're doing something right. 

I told the vet about how she yells all the time, and he played me a YouTube video purporting to show what cats are thinking. One cat "talked" about being lonely at night after its owners went to bed, and how therefore "I sing the songs of my people," in other words, yowling. The vet said if it was a real problem we could put Sillers on Prozac. That made me laugh. I said we'd just work with it, although I have to admit it was tempting to think of solving all our cat problems with Prozac.

We didn't make it to the neighborhood Pancake Breakfast -- first time we've missed it in a while. We had a little altercation between the twins on Friday night, which made me so angry that when they didn't wake up in time on Saturday, I just let it go, let them sleep. Rocket Boy forgot about it, but when I mentioned it (around 10:45, and the breakfast ends at 11), he said "Oh! Do you want to still go?" I'm good, I told him. It's never that much fun, anyway. You pay $10 for one undercooked pancake and find somewhere sticky to sit and no one talks to you because you don't know anybody in the neighborhood (or anyone who goes to the Pancake Breakfast, anyway). Still, I'm sort of sad that we didn't go. Maybe next year. One of these years I'm going to volunteer to help, maybe the clean-up crew. I thought about it this year, but I wasn't sure I'd feel up to it. Stupid Mounjaro.

Now today, Sunday, I still feel pretty bad. Is this just Mounjaro? Is it still Covid? I have no idea. I feel like taking a nap, but maybe I should go read for a while instead. (Or read for a while and fall asleep while reading.) Rocket Boy went for a hike at Eldorado Springs -- I would have liked to join him, but I knew it wasn't a good idea. He'll have more fun without me dragging along behind. It's a lovely day for a hike, though. Oh well, another time.

Oh, I know something else I was going to write about. It's so birdy here, right now! Yesterday I went out in the backyard and turned on my Merlin app and it picked up 8 different birds! Robins, grackles, starlings, house sparrows, crows, a blue jay, a spotted towhee, and a white-breasted nuthatch scooting around the elm tree! I also saw a couple of magpies flying nearby, and there was a dove of some sort sitting quietly on a branch of the oak tree, and of course there were hummingbirds in the front yard. So, 11 kinds of birds on our property or near enough to see/hear, all at once. I'm not sure any of these birds were actually migrating (other than the hummingbirds), but it's migration season, so they might have been. It's just so lovely to think that all those birds were happy to be in our yard. 

Rocket Boy, after working on the weeds in the front yard, said, "I think we need to use chemicals," and I said, "No! No chemicals! I want our yard to be a happy place for birds and insects. Who cares if we have dandelions?" To be continued...

Have a birdy week!