After a little prodding, decided to start posting again.   

The last couple of months were highlighted (for me) by the surgical removal of kidney stones – one of which measured 9 mm – which I guess is a substantial stone/boulder.   It was accompanied by a UTI so my system was screwed up for sure.  I ended up in the emergency room and then a urology surgical center.   After a few days recovery at home, things got back to normal quickly and all’s been well since.  The stone was of the Oxylate variety which is supposedly controlled by diet.   They gave me a list of what’s ok and not ok to consume.  The surprises on the list were green leafy veggie’s of the kind listed as super foods on all the dietary blogs.  Also blueberries which I buy in yearly quantities and have with cereal almost every day.  The big surprised was Draft beer.  Bottled beer ok (so I assume canned beer also ok).  Most of the beer I consume is while waiting for Nancy at her Bridge club and it’s always a draft, craft beer.   So I either have to get used to an occasional stone event or drop kale from my diet.  I don’t see any other place to cut.   One doc recommended I drink lemonade since that somehow interferes with the stone formation so I’ve done that.   I also dropped cranberry juice since it was on the bad list.   Interestingly some doc’s recommend cranberry juice for urological problems.  I tried avoiding draft beer for a few weeks and it just didn’t work for me.

After my hiatus from the blog, but unhooked from that, Tom gave me his old fitbit machine so I could keep track of how many steps I walk.   I kind of thought it would be up there but have been surprised to learn that I accumulate about 9000 steps a day half the time and 7000 on the other days.   I walk quite a bit on the days Nancy is playing bridge but even on the other days, I manage to accumulate more than I ever suspected just walking from the house to the garden, to the lake, to the mail box etc.   It also says that my heart rate is fine – which I never doubted.   I do think it’s screwed up when it comes to judging my sleeping.   I sleep just fine but the monitor has a different opinion.   Must be a tech problem. 

I’ve mentioned Nancy’s bridge club a couple of times.   It’s in Palm Coast, about 45 minutes from the lake, and Nancy plays for a few hours on Tuesday’s and Thursdays.   It’s a sanctioned game with typically 16-18 tables.   About a third of the players are life masters and most of the others are striving to achieve that level – so it’s a serious game.    Nancy is significantly handicapped  with her eyes and I think the fact that she  finishes in the top 4 consistently with an occasional first place blows them away.  It’s ok to be beaten by another life master but by someone who is legally blind………… While she’s playing, I either do a power walk at one of Palm Coast’s trails, go surf fishing, do some light grocery shopping, and/or visit the library – particularly on a rainy day.

The garden is basically done.   Not much can handle the heat, including the farmer.   I have a few bell pepper plants still producing but nothing else.   I normally use this time to thoroughly weed and unload the compost piles onto the main garden for the fall season.  About all I can handle is a couple of hours a day but that works just fine for me.   I’ll start thinking about the fall plantings and organizing my seeds late August.   Oh, the other thing I’m doing in the garden is digging up the new (renegade) tomato plants that spring up from last season’s dropped tomatoes.  I’ll have a dozen or so of those plants going by the end of July and they should produce mostly cherry tomatoes by October – if they survive.