GRATITUDES:
1. Spring fever
2. The trust my kids still have in me
3. Morning coffee

It’s not quite 9:00 in the morning and I’m once again parked in the waiting room of the bone marrow clinic. The drive in to San Antonio this morning was a bit nuts but I amused myself by geeking out over the plentiful ground mist blanketing the fields on either side of the highway. I wanted to pull off the road and leap like a wild maniac through the fog. So, soooo cool. It’s also Mardi Gras and the nurses in the lab are proudly sporting their beads. Dang it, I wish I’d remembered the date – I would have pulled out some of my nicer strands of beads and festooned myself. I had pondered doing something special for tonight’s meal but with one kid refusing to eat with us and the other at work, it would be just Rory and me sitting down to jambalaya or gumbo. Not really worth it, although I may still pick up some Café du Monde beignet mix on the way home if I’m feeling ambitious. We’ll see about that.

It’s only the latter part of February but our oaks are already beginning to put out their fuzzy little catkins. The mountain laurels in the neighborhood are blooming as well. I’ll catch occasional whiffs of grape-flavored gum in the air – which is exactly what the blossoms smell like – and see glimpses of brilliant blue-purple in neighbors’ yards. It won’t be long before the sweet little bluebonnets appear, although we’ve had so little rain this year that the spring wildflower bloom may be scanty at best. I’d LOVE to see the riotous super bloom going on in the poppy preserve out in California! Seeing hills covered in screaming caution orange mixed in with smaller patches of lupine blue is a wonderful treat.

I’m craving more coffee. O wondrous magical blessed bean!

Just saw Dr. Bachier. All signs point to continued recovery. One thing, though – I seem to have developed some osteoporosis, probably brought on by age to an extent but more likely due to all the medications I’ve been barraged with over the past three years. It isn’t critical yet but I’ll need to be mindful of it and adjust my exercise and supplementation accordingly. There’s a medication, delivered via IV on a yearly basis, that can preserve my remaining bone density, so I may go for that option, but before that happens I’ll need to shore up my body’s vitamin D supply (I’m deficient, which is no surprise given that I hide from the sun).