This feels like an unusual week for me. It’s probably most unusual because it’s a transition week for us, just getting back to our normal hilltop life. First of all, it’s early June, which means that we have an overabundance of June Gloom in the morning. That’s the marine layer that comes in from the ocean and creates a fog layer up here that burns off somewhere between 10am and early afternoon, depending on how the overall weather situation sets in. Yesterday it never really cleared up completely, but today it got clear and sunny by 9am, so there’s a bit of June Gloom variability at work. Joventino is here in the garden for the first time in five weeks since he doesn’t like to come when we’re not here. It’s been a normal and perhaps even more conducive than normal growing season so far, with lots of lovely flowers and color throughout the garden. Many of the succulents have sent up flower and seed stalks and while the bees love them and they are pretty for a while, they get to looking rather messy and overgrown after a while. Those will all get trimmed up by Joventino today and any that he misses will likely be under my clippers later in the week. I suspect that if you weren’t a gardener, you would look at our garden and think that everything looked fine and flowerful, but to the succulent-trained eye there is a lot of trimming to be done to keep the garden from getting overgrown. It should all be brought back to shipshape by the end of the week. Think of it as a decompression of the spring garden growth.
Buddy had his moment of excitement on the day we arrived home, but in the few days since then he has settled back into his normal rhythm. As we all know, Buddy is in charge in this household. Disciplined pet owners understand this situation and know that any opening where one fails to assert dominance results in the pet being in charge. Well, Buddy has been in charge all along and nothing has changed during our three-week hiatus to Malta and other exotic locales. We know how to manage around all this, but it does result in lots of yapping and some fussing when either of us leaves the house without him. It’s a lot of work being in charge of two human adults, but Buddy is up to the challenge. Buddy is certainly busy this week decompressing from being on his best behavior for three weeks.
I’ve lost way more of the control in this household than just being subject to Buddy’s whims. Kim has a vocal show at the end of this week and while she is not performing, she is arranging/directing. What that means is that she is off every night this week and several of the days as well. The shows are on Friday and Saturday. I will attend the Saturday show with our friends Gary. & Oswaldo, who will come and keep me company for the weekend. During the week, Kim spends the mornings preparing things for the show and then leaves to go work the show, returning well past 11pm before she returns. It gives me and Buddy nice bonding time, it what it really does is remind us about how otherwise boring our lives are without Kim to consort with. We are forced to decompress from our normal reliance on the best partner either of us could ever want.
Given that Buddy is a house dog and could be snatched by a predator in a heartbeat, I cannot really go outside and do things in the yard with him, so we are taking the opportunity to decompress from our vacation by mostly chilling in the house. There are plenty of paperwork things to catch up on (mostly having to do with my Italian citizenship application) and there is lots of relaxing to do, which Buddy is always up for. He doesn’t know it, but Buddy has a grooming appointment this afternoon. That’s not his favorite thing, but three weeks of beachcombing with Natasha makes it a necessity. Given the fluffy hair that results for Buddy from a groom, I think its fair to say that Buddy will be doing his own version of decompressing in the grooming van. When I took my truck to the car wash earlier in the week, the evidence of his vacation shenanigans was in full display as I vacuumed out the beach sand from the seats and floor.
Speaking of my truck, that is also in the shop for some work this week due to Natasha getting a flat tire. That’s sort of another version of decompression, right? I like the fact that these dealerships are making it more convenient to use their service areas by virtue of their car pick-up and delivery service. It save the logistical hassle that would have been even worse given Kim’s rehearsal schedule this week. It was funny watching Buddy’s reaction this morning as he and I stood in the kitchen watching the service guy get in my truck and drive it off. Buddy is used to going crazy when I drive off without him and the whole configuration of the truck leaving and me standing next to him was a bit confusing to him. He didn’t bark about it, but was very attentive since, by extension, he considers that his truck.
My biggest personal form of decompression is happening medically because of the visit I had to the doctor yesterday. Part of our concerted attack on my edema is that we have changed up the diuretic that I’ve been prescribed. I’ve taken Furosemide for many years and I think we have become way too familiar with one another. I started taking the new diuretic, Bumetinide, last night and boy, did it have an impact. I was up six times during the night, expelling what seemed like gallons of fluid. My second dose this morning has been equally as productive in sending me into the bathroom and the bushes far more than normally. I’ve already lost 4 pounds in water weight since returning home. I will need to regulate this by being sure of when I take the 1mg pill twice daily. I now know I will not be taking it at bedtime since the impact on my sleep will render me useless. I will also think carefully about my day before taking my morning pill. Clearly, this new vigorous hydro-redux program is decompressing my tissues and hopefully letting out some of that edema fluid in my lower extremities.
All of this means that I am more or less left to hang out with Buddy here at home for the week, running to the bathroom, doing paperwork, pining away for Kim and generally chilling with my Buddy. I really don’t mind so much after three weeks of running around the world. Decompression has its benefits, but it still feels a bit strange.