Yesterday, following a weekend of wind and rain which resulted in a bumper crop of walnuts, it seemed appropriate to rethink my previous decision to just mow over them, wisdom being the better part of valor, and all that. Facing the prospect of a bone jarring, tooth rattling, glasses-cap-hearing protector shaking ride, I grabbed a rake and headed into the walnut laced perimeter to do battle.

I rather quickly discovered the unintended consequence of my previous tactic. While I mowed I certainly did a good job of husking the walnuts, and an even better job of pressing the remaining nuts deeply into the soft soil of the yard where the tines of a leaf rake were of little use. After one broken rake and two sore shoulders I abandoned the attempt and contrived my new approach.

Today, after my euphoric experience and a little face time (more to come on those two counts) I returned to the great outdoors, this time armed with two rakes including one of the stiff-backed, steel-tined garden variety. Step one; rake the leaves and loose walnuts with the leaf rake. Step two; switch to the garden rake and re-rake the entire the walnut perimeter, using the tines to pry the embedded walnuts out of the sod. Lesson learned: rake first, then mow. Price: double the original cleanup time before this mowing. Result: much smoother and stress free mowing experience, plus several hundred calories burned. Well, on to more pleasant thoughts.

Not that I would categorize a Stress Nuclear Heart Exam as a pleasant experience; but strangely enough, I felt rather euphoric during the drive home. I had obviously been stressing about this stress test for several weeks. My blood pressure was way up, I was feeling edgy, and I was asking all sorts of questions of the technicians even though I’d been through this test at least four times over the past several years. Last year’s test uncovered more coronary artery blockage and resulted in a new stent.

What would they find this time? Nothing. Fully restored blood flow. Bright clear images. Clean bill of health. Driving home I’m feeling pretty good; better than pretty good; relieved; great; euphoric. Hmm…good word, euphoric. Guess I’ve used it more than enough for this post.

Having arrived home after four hours with the cardiologist including drive time, I prepared a non-savory lunch to avoid temping my spouse to violate her pre-colonoscopy routine. For a little distraction she called our daughter to chat a bit. Speaker phone setting is mandatory to include the grand-kiddoes in the conversation. Our voices almost immediately prompted a request from Lil C to play with Meema and Pop-pop, meaning a switch to Skype for a little face time. Hey, who are we to pass up this opportunity? Who cares if we can’t touch the dolly as long as C puts the doll’s basket right in front of the camera and demonstrates how she cares for and tucks in her little friend? And proceeds to tell you all about it, and sings little praise songs she learned from her dad, and throws in a verse or two of “It’s a Small World”.

Interrupted by E’s demonstration of his prowess with nearly a quarter of the alphabet, C stated, “I need to practice my letter skills too,” remarkably articulate for a three year old don’t you think? She proceeded to pick up each letter E had just identified, repeat it and show it to us before getting back to our play time with the doll.

Words and letters from E, play time with C, and a chat with K; all in all a nice bit of face time with the family. That, some good news and a healthy bout of exercise made for a good day…

Another good day of life in the sandwich…Pops