Ow.

Dear Anonoymous - you are right. That was my stand-in. WTF WAS she wearing? There ought to be some type of photo filter management here. I'll have to work on that.

Let me tell you about my perfect day. As you can see from Jerry's photos, we worked in the garden on Tuesday. It was brutally hot, hence the refugee outfit. We planted about 12 rows, without thought to the consequences of bending, digging, lifting, bending, digging, lifting. After we were through, I came in and took a steaming hot shower and couple of tylenol. "Problem solved" I thought.

When I woke up yesterday morning, I was quite sure that I had missed the swine flu bullet and been stricken with polio. I couldn't move. Just getting out of bed was absolute agony. It hurt just to breathe. I managed to get my robe on (because apparently it is winter again) and hobbled out to the kitchen where my hero Jerry had started a wood fire in the kitchen cook stove. The crackling wood smelled incredibly good, and the kitchen was toasty and comfortable. He had made a pot of coffee and handed me my cup, already prepared just the way I like it. I made it over to the recliner and sat down slowly. Really slowly. He covered my poor aching legs with a knitted afghan, and brought me my glasses, my book, and my meds. After reading and relaxing for awhile, and allowing time for the meds to kick in, I got up and filled the tub with epsom salt and steaming hot water. The bathroom here is finished like a spa, and that is what I needed. I crawled into the sizeable claw-foot tub (there's a visual) and just lay there soaking my poor bruised and torn limbs. In comes Jerry with a hot cup of tea, again, just the way I like it. I lay there for an hour or so, with the heat lamp cranked and just soaking in the salts and trying to repair the previous day's damage, sipping my tea. I came out to dry by the woodstove, and when I got my act together, we went to run some errands. Just another lousy day in paradise.

Jerry covered our newly planted veggies with plastic runners last night, because the temp was supposed to go down to 38 degrees. I don't think it went down that far, but close enough to do some damage. Hopefully all these root veggies will be a little heartier than I was and survive the spring. There is some sleep finagling going on here. Daphne has been usurping Jake from his bed for some reason unknown to us. Bailey has his bed on the floor next to Jerry, and he has been left out of this problem. He was just sleeping. Jake moved over towards that bed, and finding no room there, just lay down on the floor next to Bailey, I guess hoping to get a little body heat. All while Daphne is parked in the center of Jake's bed, like a princess in a sea of puff. This whole process offends me. As much as Jake can drive me crazy because he is obstinate and spoiled, he is top dog and deserves his own bed. I happened to wake up during the night just to check on things, and saw what had happened. I picked Daphne up, woke up Jake and told him to take back his bed while I was holding her, which he did. Once that was set right, I put Daphne at the foot of our bed, which was where she started, and went back to sleep. She is still there now. I feel like a parent making sure everyone gets their equal share. She doesn't make it easy.

So today, who knows what we'll do. We're both so sore that we're taking things kind of slow. I do have an orthopedist appointment, just to check on my shoulder. I hope he doesn't try to move it or anything. That will be a problem.