Tuesday, February 09, 2021

A Litany of Activities and the Answer to Your Question on the Prior Post

The last time I saw my 13-year-old ( or is she still 12?) granddaughter was just before Christmas.  She looked at me sideways and asked "What do you do all day, Neena (my pet name)?"   The image of what she thought about an old lady who has no job, lives remotely in the country, and does not look at her cell phone every ten minutes flashed before me.  I am sure she thought I sat all day and stared out at the window.

Actually, I do a lot of that staring out the window in feeding and counting the birds that come to my feeders.




I also read quite a bit.  Reading three books right now:  Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age by Sanjay Gupta; The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz  by Erik Larson; and Best American Short Stories 2020 (The Best American Series ®) edited by
Curtis Sittenfeld.  I am going through a bit of an addiction to Winston Churchill because I am also taking the Great Course of him on my computer.  You study history long enough and you realize that pure damn luck has a lot to do with where you are at any time and that smart leaders are very complicated.

I watch a lot of British TV in the evenings and science fiction/space shows.  Hubby and I are binge-watching the various series of Star Trek each night.

I do sit and look at my phone every 10 minutes or so to see if any of the three places where I have registered for the COVID shot have contacted me to face the dragon on their website and pick a time.  Nothing...except 'we have no vaccines at this time' or 'working on our site and we will be available in the near future.'

I try to do my exercises 3 to 4 times weekly, but my continued chronic cough has interrupted my sleep for over a year and thus my energies are not as high as I would like.  My allergist is treating me with various versions of tranquilizers which seem to be making me edgier rather than calmer and do not seem to impact this cough which emerges every hour to an hour and a half during the day and two or three times at night.  My daughter is angry that I am not more pro-active in seeking a solution, but my insurance company is not as liberal as hers and my medical network is much smaller.

My day is also busy with cooking for someone with allergies and ordering food mostly remotely which takes up a LOT of time and creativity.

As my blog title says:  I am taking it ONE DAY AT A TIME.

And, to answer your question, the series of photos in the prior post came about because a pair of Canada geese have been sitting on the osprey nest.  They did successfully raise a small flock a few years ago at this nest and drove away the osprey couple for whom we built the nest.  Osprey arrive to mate about 2 weeks later than our local geese do and while they have talons and a sharp beak they are no match for the heavy geese with their long strong necks.  This year we want the nest available for our Osprey as their nesting sites are more selective.  The metal deterrent is something we used last year and then took it down when we saw Osprey in the area.  Our young friend who stands over six feet did the setup and we will now wait for the Osprey season.






19 comments:

  1. Okay, then. I hope the birds don't crap all over the boat.

    Your cough. A similar condition I read about on another blog, Old Grey Mare Primitives. I'm with your daughter on this. I have faith you can do research online. I've heard people with undiagnosed conditions that turned out to be food allergies mostly, mold source, and/or a material allergy. Writing down everything you eat and touch might be fun, and rewarding if it turns up what the problem is. Living near water, spores of some sort would be of interest. Prayers you find the cause, and it is not bad.

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  2. Canadians in any form are to be discouraged. :)

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    1. ABSOLUTELY NOT!! WE love you guys.

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  3. I hope that somehow, the cure for the cough will be found. What we do and what other people think we do can be totally different. When I was about 5 or 6 years old my mom took my sister and me shopping and then we stopped to see my dad at the military base where he worked. He was playing cards with some of the other men. I didn't know they were on a lunch break. For a couple of years after that, I thought Daddy played cards at work.

    Love,
    Janie

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  4. Yay for protecting the nest for the Ospreys!
    I remember wondering what retired people do all day when I was young, bur now I wonder how I ever had time to work.

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  5. Great idea for the Osprey nest. The geese certainly are opportunists.

    Hope you get an appointment for the vaccine soon, Tabor.

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  6. Okay, now I know the mystery, and I too hope you get an osprey family move in. And I had to laugh at your grand, wondering what the old lady does all day long. Now that I'm an old lady, I also wonder where I ever found time for a job! :-)

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  7. He looked good balanced up there in the air. I thought about that solution mid day yesterday..

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  8. PS: What are the birds please. Thank you.

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  9. The geese can go elsewhere and will be just fine, but not the osprey, i'm glad you are reserving the nest for them.

    Sometimes such a cough can be GERD related, just another thought.

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  10. you take such gorgeous photos of the birds. we don't have osprey but we do have red shouldered hawks year round and mississippi kites that show up in the summer that nest in the tops of the trees.

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  11. Tabor, I too (and my cousin) also have that chronic cough. They called mine a radiation cough for a while as it started after I had radiation for BC 20 years ago. But my cousin has had all kinds of tests run and tried different meds - to no avail. We both find cough drops work best and carry them around. I do think it's possibly related to GERD or a hiatal hernia... but running tons of tests during a pandemic doesn't appeal to me. Good luck with yours.

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  12. Happy that you are looking after the Osprey. There is one good thing that is happening in the world and that is we are beginning to look after our wild birds and animals, as the realisation hits us that maybe they won't be with us unless we protect them.

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  13. I always enjoy the Osprey return and look forward. I am scheduled for my first vaccine tomorrow but we have so much snow I don't know if I will make it.

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  14. We old ladies do a lot of sitting and staring. And reading, of course. Not such heavy stuff for me, I can’t cope with it. I’ve had my first shot but now have to wait until April for the second.
    I am glad that you are making sure the ospreys find a home with you. They are so much more interesting than fat old geese.

    I wish you could have your cough examined a bit more thoroughly. It’s been going on for rather a long time. What you need is an NHS like ours.

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  15. Glad the area is being protected for the osprey. Some meds can cause a chronic cough as can GERD, sinus drip, allergies. Trust you've had a thorough respiratory system and lungs check ruling out TB, too. I had a hacking cough for several years and never knew for sure what caused it. I carried lemon cough drops and popped them whenever. Hope you finally get a vaccine appointment. I’m still waiting here for the nearby drive-thru to let me make an appt. or my pharmacy to get some vaccine as they’ve been trying to get from the beginning.

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  16. Your bird photos are amazing?

    You do need to find out what is causing the cough. Maybe get a new doctor if yours isn't interested in finding an answer. You travel a bit and maybe you got something somewhere that your area doesn't expect. Valley fever is one that even doctors here in Tucson often miss.

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  17. It's interesting the way that children cannot imagine what older people do (and you don't need to be really old for questions to begin), because they know that you don't do what they do. You have a fine array of birds to keep you company and provide interest, to say nothing of your reading. Seems to me that Grandma merits a little emulation!

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  18. I love your bird photos. They must be so much fun to watch. I look at my cellphone constantly too. It's always next to me. I guess we have a routine we do everyday too. I look forward to the day we can get back to our normal lives. I wonder when that will be.

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Take your time...take a deep breath...then hit me with your best shot.