This new med has some unpleasant side effects, which I won’t go into in detail!  I barely slept all night, and feel like a zombie.  I’m still anxious about things I have little control over, like getting myself to appointments, and not becoming dependent, but also too groggy to motivate, or operate machinery.

This morning I managed to water the garden, give the spinach a haircut and sort it, and pick peas, but that’s about it so far.  Sometimes I forget it’s OK to observe Shabbat (in this case Shavuot as well) and give it a rest.  I feel like I always have to be accomplishing something, or I’m just taking up space.

This must be one of those two paths diverging moments in a life.  Part of you feels like resigning yourself to reality and fatalism; the other part wants to resist and fight to retain your self-worth and purpose.  One half is anxious and fearful of new challenges, the other knows it’s essential to embrace them in order to keep living.  Some people just give up and die inside at this point.  Others refuse to give in.  I’m trying to be the latter, but some days it’s harder than others.

Or maybe it’s just the meds talking!  I haven’t reached the side effect of suicide yet, so that’s something!

Vegetating does have its appeal sometimes, though.  Here’s an illustration:

Happy Shavuot, the festival of cheesecake, probably the most interesting feature of this holiday.

I spent all morning at my new PCP, partly just ironing out some initial business issues with the insurance, but also getting my first routine exam here.  I was able to get a prescription for my anxiety and depression, and just need to set up some other preventive appointments.  The side effects from this new med are…interesting.  A polite term for weird!

When I was finally done with the doctor and then the pharmacy–some unfinished business there, too–I drove to Avdi’s to catch up on Shabbat (also, as it happens, Shavuot) preps.  I arrived at the same time Kashti got home from his final day of middle school.  I baked challah as usual, and made an Italian dinner featuring lots of fresh herbs and lettuces from the garden.  Avdi’s friend Amy, whose birthday it was, joined us for dinner and, you guessed it, birthday cheesecake.  I enjoyed getting to know her.  And eating cheesecake.

Here are some random shots around the house and yard.  Now I’m going to bed.

Avdi got back safely last night.  K. uncharacteristically went to bed very early, still not feeling well.

In the morning, Avdi gave him a COVID test, fortunately negative.  K. surprised me by opting to go to school.  Soon after, I drove to my apartment, but not before doing my morning garden rounds, eyed the whole time by the big rabbit mowing the lawn.  He didn’t even get out of the way!  Look at those beady eyes.  Something unnatural about rabbits.

(Actually, all the birds and critters here are starting to get used to me, and hang around.  Of course I always talk to them.)

Now I’m just catching up on apt. stuff.  Tomorrow I’ll drive myself (!) to my first PCP doctor visit in STL, just down the road, then back to Avdi’s to do Shabbat preps, etc, etc.  Probably spend the night.

I made sure to take some photos at Avdi’s before I drove here, so I’d have something to show.

Here’s the early morning veg garden, and my pot of okra seedlings:

Here’s some basil blooming, and some of the masses of native milkweed that grow like weeds here:

Here’s the jungle “zen trail”,  and some very happy prickly pear cactus getting ready to bloom:

And lots of natives and perennials/annuals blooming:

Not much exciting at my apt, although my hydroponic herbs are outgrowing their space again and need to be potted.  Sometimes I feel like my apt is like an artificial domed terraforming station in space, and Avdi’s is like visiting earth if you’ve never been before.  (“Don’t look up!”)  It’s why I can relate to Prax in The Expanse.  All he wanted to do was raise his kid and manage the hydroponics on Ganymede station, until it all got shattered.  His life was changed forever, having to adapt to a harsh new reality, but he came out stronger in the end, with the help of new friends.

Well, herbs to pot, puttering to do…

I still haven’t run out of jobs on my list!  K went back to school (reluctantly), and I got busy.  I took out the trash and recycle, did some laundry, finished cleaning up the garage fridge and replaced some drinks in it to chill, put some frozen leftover beef curry in the slow cooker, and other misc. chores.

Then I took Jess’s car on some errands–got some beer and sodas for A&K, and other household items on their list, filled the tank, and stopped by my apartment–I feel like a stranger there!  I watered my plants, dropped off and picked up some items, and then drove back to Avdi’s.

I finally remembered to eat something, then did a few more chores, and headed outside to water the veg garden, and harvested a colander-full of snow and snap peas.  Percy got his big salad–no two alike!  There’s a lot more to do out there, but I think I’m winding down for now.  I definitely earned my tall icy drink.

Yesterday evening, this large chipmunk was just chilling on the back patio for quite a while.  Not eating or moving, just meditating!  Lots of them make their homes in the patio raised beds, and they’re very tame, for chipmunks.  You can sit out there at the table and throw nuts at them, and they’ll come out and eat while you watch.

I saw my first large mushroom on the “zen trail”.  If you squint, you can imagine you’re in an actual woods.

The garden (including the veg garden) is transitioning into serious summer jungle mode.  My work is cut out for me–call it job security!  I’m very impressed with how exuberantly things grow here.  All except for my tomato and pepper seedlings, which didn’t thrive, for some reason.  Some of the older ones in the ground are just starting to grow larger.  On the other hand, I’m pleased to see the cucs, melons, and squash that I had to replant after the varmint invasion are finally doing well.

Gardening is always a learning process.  Notes: next year (assuming I make it that long!) I need to make wider paths and plant less of most veggies!  I went a little crazy with radishes, peas, spinach, and carrots.  Though I’m very gratified by how well–almost too well– all the various assorted greens and lettuces are doing.  It’s hard to keep up with!  Not a bad problem to have.  Nothing a herd of hungry Gkids can’t solve.

K still feels a little sick, but he brought home his impressive middle school diploma.  Cheers, to a job well done.

Today K. wasn’t feeling well, and stayed home from school.  I spent the day working my way down my jobs list.

I remade A’s bed ( a project in itself), refilled the kitchen freezer from the other one, got some dinner going in the slow cooker and rice cooker, cleaned out and stored J&C’s downstairs bathroom drawer stuff, took the compost and some trash out, and that was just the indoor stuff!  Then it was on to gardening.

I turned off the last of the seedling grow-lights and heat pads downstairs, and took the flat of tomatoes and peppers outside.  I planted the peppers in the veg garden, and another basil plant in the herbs.  I potted some rooted tradescantia cuttings.  I did some tomato plant maintenance, and some weeding.  I thinned out a lot of plants taking over the perennial herb area.  I watered the veg garden.  I picked greens for Percy.

And…I even had time to take some photos.  Dinner is stuffed cabbage (chicken, rice, veggies), homegrown lettuces, and basmati rice.  And a refreshing icy drink for me!  I think I earned it.

One thing about Avdi’s, I always get a lot done, since there’s always lots to do!

Today I did laundry, watered the garden, mowed the rabbits I mean lawn, transferred the food back into the kitchen fridge, prepared dinner (frozen leftover Hawaiian-style chicken with rice and fresh salad from the garden), and got ready in case K. wanted to go to his graduation ceremony.  He definitely did not want to.  That was his choice and OK.  He only has a few more days to go until summer vacation.  He may have to go to PA for the summer while the kids move here, but he hopes he can stay here.  I’m “not” a biased GM, but secretly I hope he gets his preference!

You know I’m busy when I don’t have time to take many redundant flower photos!  Here are some views post-mow.  (“No rabbits were harmed.”)  Tomorrow’s list is just as long!

How do you tell I spent almost two days at my apartment?  No blahgposts because nothing to say!  Unmemorable stuff got done.  Real writers would work on their novel or memoir or whatever, if they weren’t too busy accomplishing actual things to write about.  Not me!  I guess you could call it a mini-staycation.  Sounds better than an empty void.

So if I’m writing, I’m probably at Avdi’s.  This time it’s for a few days, while he goes on a business trip to Chicago.  K. is graduating from middle school, and has his commencement tomorrow.  I will be the family member representing, if K. doesn’t chicken out.

Avdi and I drove over to Jess’s, who is leaving on a business trip to Paris.  On the way, he showed me the route to the high school where the ceremony will be held, and where K. is going next year.  I enjoyed meeting J’s sister and brother-in-law, who were in town for J’s own daughter’s graduation from that high school.  Then I drove J’s car back to Avdi’s, while he drove her to the airport.

Later I helped A. with some last minute chores before he leaves.  His fridge was malfunctioning again, so we had to move all the fridge and freezer contents to the other one in the garage again.  At least his new washer is working!  It’s funny how older analog appliances often outlast their fancier hi-tech versions.  The newer electronic models are also harder and more expensive to fix.  The price of “convenience”.

Here are pics of all the latest happenings at Avdi’s garden.

Today at Avdi’s I was in bustling mode, which is the best state for me to be in.  I can’t even remember all the things I did.

While Avdi and Jess worked on the patio or in the office, I started preparing the Shabbat meal.  This week it is BBQ chicken, homemade potato salad, and southern-style greens (collards, turnip and mustard greens, and a few pak choi thrown in for fun).  That veg garden is going crazy producing food.  Percy got a big pile of salad!

After I got all that going, I started the challah.  In between food prep, I got other jobs done.  The new washing machine was delivered and installed in record time, while we all worked.  I didn’t even have time to take yet more photos of  the same flowers.  Now it’s raining again, so the garden is fine without me.

I saw a rabbit the size of a groundhog go sauntering by.  It’s like Watership Down out there.  Unnerving.

After almost two days at my apartment with absolutely nothing to write about, I’m back, at least with more interesting scenic views, including the guys up on top of the house they’re building next door (practically on top of Avdi’s).  They helpfully pointed out to me (from up there in the stratosphere) that his roof has shingles missing.  Like anyone sane is going up there.  Those guys are like mountain goats with magboots.

Here is a scenic and very good beer, the roofing goats, and picturesque plants.  Also, I harvested some of the first snow-and-snap peas, not pictured.

The weather here is never monotonous or predictable.  One day it’s an oppressive sauna, the next it’s cool and rainy.  Avdi’s yard was like a sponge this morning, and his “lagoon” was almost a rushing stream.  There has to be a Creature in there!  The “zen trail” [rhymes with “entrail”] was almost completely overgrown like a jungle.  My kind of weather.  And of course the whole garden was teeming with new growth.  The peas are finally pea-ing!  Some things are worth waiting for.

Avdi took me grocery shopping and was kind enough to help me out.  I’m STL-official; I have Provel.  No good deed goes unpunished, however, as now his washing machine broke and needs to be replaced.  Because he doesn’t have enough to worry about.  Always something.

Back at my apartment, I started more herbs in the hydro-cube to take the place of the herbs I potted yesterday.  Now I’ve replaced all the herbs I use which I transplanted to Avdi’s and Jess’s.  The AC is off and rain-cooled air is blowing in.  Nobody else here to complain about it!  Sometimes being by yourself can be a good thing.