Saturday, June 13, 2020

Reach and grasp





Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?

Robert Browning, Andrea del Sarto, 1855

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Yesterday I simply could not get it together. I had so much fence work to do. I tried hard, and even got a couple of hours worth of work done, but my heart and body simply weren't in it.

I stopped off in a north-south draw on the Cederburg pasture to procrastinate videographically...



I took a lot of still images too. I've been watching this depression-era tricycle decompose for decades now. I suspect it'll continue to decompose long after I'm returned to dust.









What is it about sunlight and rusting metal?





New Mexican locust blooming.


Finished with the draw, I found fresh procrastination...



And even more!



On to work (ish) !



Presto-changeo!



So I did get a (very) little work done.

I had a bit of puzzlement going on in my mind though. I wanted to get cracking and make work happen. But I couldn't muster up the oomph or even the burning desire.

I got home and checked my blood pressure. I'm on steroids again and they tend to drive my b/p up, so the doc had me try taking HCTZ (a water pill) when I'm on the roids.

My post-work/procrastination blood pressure was 80/40.

Yikes!  And there's your problem.

Felt much more better today with a normal b/p and plenty of work to accomplish.

There was still procrastination...



Plenty of procrastination...



But there was also work...



I'm getting a good shirt-off suntan. I'm still way too fat for it to look good or even acceptable in public, but it's much better than it was a few months ago.

And in a strange twist, after being on permahold with medical records yesterday I actually received the records in the mail today. YGTBSM!

I also continued to watch a loved one flail against the demon rum. I hate that. All I can do is trust God, pray, and love unconditionally. It's a helpless feeling but also represents spiritual growth. Sigh. And blessed.

Be well and embrace the blessings of liberty.






8 comments:

  1. BP 80 over 40? That sounds like a real good excuse to be sorta lethargic. Dehydrated?

    Great to see actual progress on the fence, and especially that you have the PHD on the Bobcat. I had nightmares about some crippled geezer out there planting RR ties with one of the old hand operated diggers. Made my back hurt, it did.

    Sorry about the lack of progress by the victim of demon rum, but they control that, not you or I or anyone else. I'll throw a few prayers that way, but that's about the best we can do. Nasty stuff, for a lot of people, and I don't think they comprehend that they are suffering, or how it impacts those who love them.

    Up by the cow-scratcher trees- looks like two parallel dark lines sorta like railroad tracks. What the heck is that all about?
    JB

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wasn't dehydrated but I was hypotensive and pretty low energy.

      The fencing rig(s) are working great. It's a bit of a pain to get everything on site but once that was done it's going gangbusters. I do like setting brace posts entirely by hand -- it's a great challenge and takes a lot of physical work. Which is all great for one or two or three, but not for 20. :-)

      Thanks for the prayers. There is a solution that works and she knows what it is but she's got to do her part, which looks undoable from her perspective. If she gets familiar with the hopelessness of her situation she will probably have the motivation to do the work. If not, well, it doesn't look good. But there are no guarantees in this life, so we'll see. Where there's life there's hope.

      Those dark lines are the edges of the weed barrier fabric the trees were planted into. It should have held up better with a 20 year guarantee. They were planted in 1985...

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting John!

      Delete
  2. Demon rum. Always seems to have one or more family members (+extended)in it's grip. "All I can do is trust God, pray, and love unconditionally". Roger that.

    Finally get to see my primary care doc in eight days. My blood pressure has been as low as 80 and only a high of 118 with my pulse pressure seldom more than 35. Think it may be time to cut back on the Lisinopril. When the BP is below 100 my butt is dragging.

    As I've teased you before, fixing fence is one of the glamorous cowboy occupations.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, it's glamorous!

      Hope you get your b/p and meds sorted out. It gets tricky when you lose weight and begin to get fit; the meds are pretty powerful.

      Thanks for the thoughts on the demon rum situation. It's a train wreck at the moment. We'll see what happens. It's a helpless feeling but that's life.

      Thanks for stopping by cand commenting WSF!

      Delete
  3. My Cardiologist told me to STOP taking my "water pill" (Furosemide, aka "Lasix") because it was making my BP drop that low.

    And when my BP is that low, I can barely get out of bed, let alone get anything done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mine really "worked!"

      Only took the one dose and it nearly laid me out. Yikes!

      Getting in some significant physical labor seems to do a better hob of controlling the steroid induced hypertension, at least in my case and so far.

      Adventures in ageing!

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting drjim!

      Delete
  4. That trike is worth restoring! Glad the cluster*** with the medical records is over! Stay safe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, it probably is. As things stand it's on display in our 6,000 acre EJE Ranch Museum. Hopefully after covid passes, if we don't all die, which will will, but if, then we'll be able to open back up and let people see the trike! ;-)

      The medical record thing worked out surprisingly well. What a deal!

      I'm really enjoying "The Rift" by the way.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

      Delete