2022.03.25
The weather is unrelentingly beautiful and warming. The “rainy” season is about over and we have had scarcely any since December. Third year of dry weather. They talk about the drought on the news, but I wonder if most of the urban people understand. We still have water whenever we turn on the tap. I am sure the farmers feel it. And the plants and animals.
I try not to be water wasteful. I should do better in the kitchen. Too much rinsing of dishes. But I remember years ago when I would take long showers followed by a soak in a full tub. Now I get wet and turn the water off to shampoo, rinse, turn the water off to condition my hair and wash myself, rinse again, and then allow myself a couple of inches of bath water for skin softener. And I don’t shower every day. I pray for rain and for snow in the mountains.
In the movie westerns, the droughts are awful and everything is parched, but when a rainstorm comes, all is well and the drought is over. Here and now, rain might be a relief and give us cause to hope, but has not been nearly enough to replenish lakes and reservoirs or make the rivers rise.
I was supposed to work at the Folsom Pioneer Village today, but had a lot of trouble with my knees and also felt unwell yesterday and not altogether great this morning so I stayed home. I did pull weeds for about an hour and I cut up a rotisserie chicken I had purchased recently. I did some work on the computer while watching movies on Netflix. Highly productive.
I had lab work done yesterday. My blood sugar levels are improving. I am a little worried that the bsl average is better partly because I have been having night time low sugar incidents. Which is dangerous. I have been trying very hard to improve my bsl and my morning and bedtime readings have been in range or close. My afternoon and pre-dinner readings are still running a little high, but are improving. So my bsl is doing better even without the crashes. I have been advised to slightly lower my dose of bedtime insulin. We will see how tonight goes. Low blood sugar can be dangerous. Worse, symptoms are not as clear and distinct as they used to be, so an incident can get out of hand without being noticed. I am considering switching from finger testing to a continuous glucose monitoring system. In other bad news, the test that checks kidney function was way, way high. I shall be hearing from the doctor soon.
A good thing about Kira. We were out in the front yard. Me trying to thin out the weed jungle. A PG&E guy went next door. While he stood in the driveway next to our fence, the little dogs next door yapped up a storm and Kira went over and barked at him. After a minute I told her that it was ok and to stop barking. After a minute she did. He went into their backyard and did whatever it was he had come to do. When he came back out near our fence, Kira trotted over and watched him intently, but didn’t bark. I was pleased.
2022.03.29 Tuesday beautiful sunshiney day (drat)
We had some lovely rain yesterday. More than I expected, but, of course, not enough to break the drought. It was welcome and I pray for more.
Coming up on one of my favorite weekends of the year - the semi-annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We feast upon the word of God in 5 two hour sessions over Saturday and Sunday, share lunch with the missionaries between sessions, and have a family ice cream party. To listen live to apostles, prophets, and other righteous leaders! What a privilege, blessing, and joy.
Strangely however my usual anticipation is slightly tinged with sorrow. I have been listening to the talks from the last session (October 2021) over and over as I generally do and as I will with these new sessions next week after conference. What’s new to me is I find myself already missing the October talks. Some of them touched me deeply. Not that I can't still listen to them, because they will still be available - decades of conference sessions are available to read / hear, but I will shift my focus to mainly the new ones. And, doubtless, some of them will feel just as personal, inspired (ok, I am willing to say all of them inspired), and just what I need. It is just a little odd of me to miss the October sessions already.
Yesterday, the Sacramento district of the California Living History Service Mission had training for school presentations. We are going back into the schools for presentation - primarily for 4th grades as that is the California history grade. As I understand it, we begin with all the kids together and the Load Your Wagon presentation. The kids have to decide what will be packed in the wagon for the trek west and what will be left behind for good. Then the kids are divided into groups to rotate through various stations such as cloth doll making, the ship Brooklynn, rope making, laundry, and the Bear Flag rebellion , I understand that it is traditional for the living history specialists to go to lunch together after the school presentation, The training was helpful, interesting, and fun. My first school presentation day is April 7
