Monday, March 11

Thanks to the time change, I woke up at 3 a.m., and tossed for an hour and a half. Then got up with the alarm at 6:30 to get ready to go to water aerobics. Br-r-r, a cold morning for March, but thank goodness the pool was wonderfully warm.

About fifteen of us showed up today, though the regular leader was not one of them. She told the substitute leader that she hopes to come back on Wednesday.

A couple of regular attendees returned after a long absence. One has been suffering from pleurisy. The other had been on a trip, and then fell ill with a cold or allergies or something.

Humans are subject to so many ailments...today, one of the women told us she recently learned she has arthritis in one of her eyes. I have never heard of this, but apparently, it's a condition associated with rheumatoid arthritis.

Back home, I warmed up with a couple of cups of coffee. Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house while I relaxed. She went to her jigsaw puzzle right away, and I got ready for the day.

It was nearly noon by the time I got back downstairs, so I fixed lunches for us. For Mother, it was a cold salmon sandwich, with veggie chips, and for Hubbie and me, it was leftover barbecued chicken, sweet potato fries, and a white potato dish leftover from last Friday's salmon supper.

After lunch, Mother returned to her puzzle, and I reviewed today's ESL lesson plan. Hubbie spent his day nursing a cold that I hope he doesn't pass to Mother and me...especially Mother.

Around 1:30, my student called. She sounded absolutely horrible. She's sick with some malady that has nearly robbed her of her voice, so she begged off of today's lesson, of course. It might be two weeks before I see her again, because I think the college in on spring break next week.

So, since I wasn't scheduled for anything this afternoon, I lazed and read my novel. I'm almost finished with it.

Later, I heated leftovers from yesterday's beef pot roast for our supper tonight. After I checked Mother's blood pressure, Hubbie accompanied her home. Her BP has varied from 140/67 to 167/84. I'm not sure what causes the variance, but I wonder if it could depend on the amount of salt she consumes from one day to the next.

Ramen noodle soup is laden with salt, and she eats this for lunch nearly every day. Of course, she gets about four servings from a package, but at 1600mgs a package, this is still 400mg for a meal. Add to that a slice of cheese (240mg), and salted crackers (128mg), and she's still getting too much, I think. But this is her favorite lunch, so I doubt we could talk her out of it.

TV fare tonight included a 1990 movie borrowed from the public library..."Quigley Down Under," starring Tom Selleck. An American sharpshooter is hired by an Australian rancher, but when he gets there, he finds that instead of being hired to kill wild dogs, the rancher wants him to kill aborigines. Instead, he defends them. We've seen this movie before, of course, but it has been a long time.