Pot in my pot?

 I am quite naive about street and recreational drugs. I have seen photos in news stories of canisters of marijuana buds, little green clumps, however. 

Last night I took a look at the pottery jug I bought in Illinois. I turned it upside down wanting to see if there were any manufacturing marks. There were not, but some crumbly dark stuff fell out almost like dried dirt. 

This morning I shook out what was inside. It appeared to be some kind of dried plant material. But the weird thing was that there were sheets of paper almost like waxed paper which lodged against the small aperture. I pulled them loose and out with some difficulty.

The dried material had some little specks of green that reminded me of the cannabis buds. 

The suspicion arose in my mind that this might have been somebody's stash. If so, the materials were well concealed but terribly difficult to retrieve. 

I googled for images of dried marijuana and saw that you can roll the stuff to make joints to smoke. Hmmm. Now I probably will be getting feeds on Facebook and news sites of marijuana, but I didn't know anybody to ask for corroboration. Maybe some of you savvy people can tell me if my suspicion was well-founded. There was no odor I could detect.

Anyway, it has been disposed of in the trash. Not the kind of "souvenir" I thought I was buying. I now have an empty clean pottery jug. 

Free!

 I received permission to stop wearing my neck brace. I'm free! I also asked about the TED (compression) hose that the hospital discharge instructions said to wear for 4 weeks. They were feeling hot now that the weather has heated up. The doctor said as long as I was walking around, I didn't need to continue with them.  

I have some pain and stiffness around my shoulder blades and my trapezius muscles, but I start physical therapy tomorrow and hope those will soon be better. I had a good night of sleep last night. So nice not to have plastic poking into my chest, back, and face.

It was a different medical visit. The information board said that my doctor was running about 15 minutes behind. About 5 minutes before my 11 a.m. appointment time all but emergency lights went out in the building. By the time I saw Dr. Smith it was 12 noon. Of course all of the computers went down. The staff were accessing chart information via their cell phones. The examination room where I was eventually escorted had a big window which helped with seeing the sutures that needed to be removed. They took a couple of X-rays when I first arrived around 10:45. I don't know that they were able to access those digitally. Several people in the waiting lobby were told that no X-rays could be taken and rescheduled. I was called later in the afternoon to schedule my next appointment which is July 27th in Warsaw. 

When we left the Lutheran campus, we planned to head to Jefferson Point to Biaggi's restaurant. It took us about twice the usual time to get there because of all the traffic signals out along Jefferson Boulevard. We could see most of the businesses had no lights on so we knew the outage was widespread. Fortunately, a mile or so before our destination, we had working traffic signals and were glad to eat a late lunch at 1 p.m. 

WANE news station had a story about the 5,000 plus power customers who had no electricity because of a substation incident. They said the power resumed about 2 p.m. 

I stopped at Trader Joe's about a block from the restaurant. I bought some beef lunchmeat, white cheddar cheese, and a few bunches of flowers to throw together in a vase.

My husband visited a hobby store in a strip mall across from Jefferson Point. He found what he needed. We got home after 3 p.m. It was a long day since we left at 9:50 a.m. 

Perk-Me-Ups

 I have been feeling a bit down the last few days so today I decided to focus on things that cheer me up.

My rose bush is not the type to produce many single-stemmed blooms, but I found one yesterday. The plant does have clumps of roses now. My Asiatic lilies in my backyard patio are starting to flower. 

Yesterday my sister-in-law brought me a little pot of gerbera daisies.

Blooming plants give me joy.

I am getting quite a collection of get-well cards.

Knowing that people care about me and how I am doing also gives me joy. 

As I write this, I am viewing the lengthening shadows of pre-twilight (my favorite time of day). We have had pretty days though heat and humidity are building for next week. My husband went to the Village of Winona Art Fair this morning. He had a good chat with several woodworkers who were selling items. I am happy he could get out and enjoy himself after working so hard managing our home the past 11 days. He has definitely been out of his comfort zone. I am blessed to have him. 

I feel better already. Pivoting focus is good for the soul.

 I downloaded a free book from Wall Street Journal this morning. I will try to read it on my Samsung tablet which isn't too heavy to prop up fairly high so I don't have to keep my neck bent down. I started an audio book (biographical) by Madeline Albright but haven't really been drawn in. 

Counting down the days until I see Dr. Smith (June 9th) and hopefully get my neck brace off. 

More Blooms In the 'Hood on Phone

 I am doing quite well today. I went for a walk and took pix on my cell phone. Last night I slept in my bed instead of the recliner. It is a bit awkward because I have to prop my head up some with a small pillow. I am taking Tylenol in the daytime with percocet before bedtime and once through the night (alarm set on my phone). I use my new phone to "summon" my husband when I need help. The neck brace is hot to wear now that the weather is heating up. Hopefully it will come off for good on June 9th.

For blog purposes, taking photos on my cell phone is kind of clumsy. I have to send them from the phone to my computer or cloud storage to include them in the blog post. 

Not many people sitting on their porches; quite a few doors have the screens open to fresh air. 

I haven't killed my porch plants yet.

A pop-up card from loved ones. I have received several cards and phone calls wishing me well.

I find walking eases pain; sitting for very long increases pain. Probably going to rain tomorrow. I will have to make sure I get out of my chair and move around in the house. I am taking an afternoon nap most days though I found walking around the block not too tiring today. I do need to work on eating more fiber. That's my progress report such as it is.