Day 178, Year 11: Signs of Spring
Date: Sunday, April 17, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny, High 70 degrees F
Location: At Home in Evergreen Preserve, Lowell, MA
It finally felt like spring today with a high temp of 70 and sunny skies. And obviously the flora and fauna loved it. Little green leaves popped out all over today and the turtles came out of hiding to sun themselves. These are true signs of spring and we are loving it.
The peppermint oil (Mentha x piperita) that we have been using in the infuser really seems to be helping Mark with the nausea. He was so nauseous when we got home from the hospital on Friday, but I immediately unpacked the newly arrived infuser and oil, plugged the infuser in, filled it with water and drops of peppermint, and started infusing our air. The nausea went away and it has stayed away. We are new to the idea of using essential oils but peppermint, a cross between watermint and spearmint, seems to be doing its job.
My niece Lynn and I continue to spend our afternoons sorting and packing her things. Today I packed up all of her photo albums that were occupying a bookshelf in the extra bedroom and took that empty shelf into the kitchen. Mark helped me carry it in and then I filled it with all of the appliances that were on the kitchen counter. The realtor wants the counters clear to show off the countertops for photos on Tuesday and for subsequent showings. But I must say I think it looks a bit strange to see a totally clear counter. To me it looks sterile, like no one lives here. But we are going to follow the program and we got the counter cleared while Lynn continued sorting through books on bookshelves in the living room. We now have ten big boxes of books tucked away in the back of our car ready for the trip to Boston on Tuesday. Lynn will return tomorrow to do more sorting and we might end up with another box or two.
Working with Lynn has reminded Mark and I that we have a lot of sorting and packing to do ourselves. Once we feel like we have the nausea under control, Mark and I are going to try to make a trip to Little River to pack up everything that is on the boat. We had originally thought that Mark would stay here and I would go alone, but at this point he thinks it would be easier on him to be with me. We’ll just have to freeze packets of food and take a big cooler with us. It will be hard to fit this trip in between his infusions, but we worked out a tentative plan today and we are going to give it a try. We will wait until the first week of May when his infusions move from Fridays to Wednesdays. We’ll leave Boston on a Wednesday afternoon right after the infusion and drive to Nyack to Ed and Lynne Kirwin’s. We haven’t informed them of this visit, but now they’ll know! Then on Thursday we will drive from Nyack to Little River. We will have to borrow Heather and Jed’s van for this trip and from Friday to Sunday we will pack up as much as we can in the van and start home on Monday. Before we can make this trip, however, we have to clear space in our storage unit to hold the bounty from the boat. Whether we like it or not, it looks like our future for the next few weeks is going to stay centered on sorting and packing. Our present plan might be too ambitious, but we shall see.
 |
| 160417 Day 178 Cape Cod, USA–Turtles and Other Signs of Spring |
