Wall is Done; Why Am I So Exhausted?!

The block wall is up and everything is cleaned up. On Monday, they shoveled all the dirt in front of the block wall and put it behind.  They did a good job cleaning up including sweeping my patio. Though it was expensive, I see it is well done and they used lots of re bar to reinforce this retaining wall.  Now we don't have to worry about the wall falling down.  It has also been very hot which would have made this job much harder to do. They started very early, like 6:00 AM and stopped 1:00 to 2:00 PM.

The new block wall

That day was also the day I went in to get a Cortisol Stimulation Test.  I was there about two hours as they did injections into an IV and removing blood. The results came through the next day. My cortisol level was okay. But, the word came back with a Pre-diabetic diagnosis. I hope that is the issue, because it is in my hands to control this mainly by diet and exercise. I have been anxious about walking because I have fallen and I could fall again. But I think I'm going to have to do this.  I'll just watch my feet.  I've been checking if I could get into a Silver Sneakers program, but I don't think Kaiser does this.  They were closed to these sorts of questions on Friday, so I will call on Monday.

I showed Carol Bradshaw my painting of the sunflowers. She loved it and had a small suggestion which I incorporated. The assignment this week was to draw Hollyhocks. One of the things Carol does is work on getting us (me) to see whatever we are working on, what are the elements of the subject and what they do.  I appreciate that and have come to understand better what I am looking at. 

Our Red Hat group met at the local ice cream parlor which is called Dewars. This is an annual tradition. It is well known even beyond the borders of Kern County. There was a good showing of our group. We don't meet in August. I look forward to seeing them in September. 

So for Independence Day, I went with my daughter Shelley and several of her family plus Crystal and Devin, Jennifer's children.  Their father brought them.  Crystal and Heather came with their boyfriends.   We had hot dogs and side dishes of baked beans and potatoes.  There were three carloads of us and we went up to Lake Isabella which is in the mountains where they did a fireworks display over the lake. They started a little after 9:30 pm and it was over about 10 pm.  It was enjoyable evening for all of us who went.

Marvin, Crystal and Devin's dad took the picture.
We are at Shelley's home ready to head up to the mountain.

Shelley and Me
It was much darker than this, but I suppose the flash gave the
sense of it being more daylight than it was

Kevin and Shelley

The rest of the group sat mostly in the back of Marvin's pickup truck

This is such a terrible rendering of the scene we saw!
The fireworks were very colorful followed with loud booms.
There were a couple of small brush fires on the small island on
the lake where the fireworks were being lit, but they had it under control.

A little later this afternoon Shelley and other family members plus my friend Barbara are coming over to watch the movie Interstellar.  It came out last year, but for some reason Barbara and I missed it.  I watched it On Demand through U-Verse.  I thought it was a fabulous movie and decided to purchase it, because I knew I'd want to watch it again.  In addition to that my  friend read the book The Martian and the movie version of this is coming out soon.  From Barbara's description, it sounded along the lines of Interstellar so I downloaded it to Kindle in addition to Audible.com so I can listen to it and read it.  Anyway, that is a great story too, so I think I'll be buying the movie when it comes out.  It has a lot of science in it, like Interstellar, so I knew I'd like it.   We are going to have popcorn, iced tea or lemonade as our snacks during the movie.  

Still sleeping a lot.  I had dinner with my friend Janet who talked me into getting a blood pressure cuff and a pulse/oxymeter reader.  When she asks me what were the results, I kept forgetting when I felt knocked out, and when I felt okay, I didn't see the reason for checking.  Anyway, I'm going to have to start charting it.  She said, "how can they determine what is going on if you can't let them know when it happens and what are the results.  So this next week, I'll start charting this.

Another full week, despite sleeping a lot too.  I hope your week is going well.  I'll see you next Sunday!                   Rachel