It's the end of February!  I just realized daylight savings time begins the 10th of March, noooooo!  I'm enjoying it being light when I get up, makes it so much easier.  Nearly my entire family here has this nasty flu that's jumping everyone, including two baby-grandkids.  Nothing sadder than little babies coughing all night in the company of their poor flu-ridden parents.  I'm back on prednisone and nebulizer treatments for my asthma thanks to the flu but this time I'm glad to have it.  I do feel better. 

This morning my eldest took his car to the garage.  It has the flu too, alternately running and then gagging and choking down the street.  Then he came over and then went to work in my car.  I'm really not going anywhere.  Tomorrow he will be over and take me out and about if needed and then hopefully retrieve his car.  Turns out to be a simple fix but he has to wait for a part.  We do live in a remote part of the state and things are not always readily available here.

Watched the Pope helicopter away on from the Vatican this morning.  He won't be suffering the retirement of lack many in his flock will be.  He is really elderly, you could see it when he entered the car in the same careful way every little old person does.  I wasn't going to watch but it is an odd historic moment.  As a former Catholic I have many thoughts about all that power in a the Vatican City State of only 109 acres.  Mostly crabby ones.

Hope all you flu sufferers will find relief and health soon.

 

It's still February so maybe it was goofy to think I had escaped the flu.  Oddly enough I had a doctor appointment yesterday and I was told I had the flu although I had certainly guessed.  Today I am not going anywhere.  What can I say, everyone knows how it feels.  I've been maniacally swabbing everything down with Clorox wipes.  I think it would be easier to just quit doing anything and go back to bed.  I am going to call the kids and ask them to pick up a roast chicken and hot soup (chicken of course) at the grocery and fling it through the door and run away.

My sister Susan who is awaiting her radiation therapy in Oregon has it too.  Since she teaches 4th grade I think it's amazing she made it this far without catching it.  I am glad she is tucked in at home with her family for a few days.  I wonder if they will postpone due to the flu. 

Thank you all for your comments and emails of good wishes for my sisters being treated for breast cancer right now.  They are both doing well and we were lucky it was caught so early.  We were also relieved they were both told there was no genetic component.  We have many grandgirls and nieces and this is good news for them.

Be well out there. 

Hatchery Pond in the Cascade Foothills near Sisters, Oregon

 

It's chilly but sunny here in Walla Walla.  Just warm enough to fool a small yellow flower to pop up in last year's flower bed.   I can hardly wait for things to be spring like again.

 

Photo courtesy of Alan Kuehner at bit.ly/ScienceFun

Meanwhile a flock of Northern Finches spent a couple of weeks dining on the remaining berries on my Clematis.  I didn't even know Clematis produced berries.  It's the first time in the 13 years I've lived here.  And I thought they were woodpeckers at first.  My birding skills are rusty.  Anyhoo, they were beautiful and interesting, and chased all the usual suspects out of the yard for a bit.   Seeing such a large bird dangle nearly upside down on a slender vine while nibbling berries is quite a sight. 

 

Watching the birds helps take the edge of what has been a stressful four months.  In January my youngest sister Susan was diagnosed with the same type breast cancer our next oldest sister Pam had and was treated for two months previously.  She has also had a successful lumpectomy and is now waiting for the radiation therapy to begin.  She is 20 years younger than I and has a 12 year boy and a soon to be 16 year old daughter.  She has returned to her job as a 4th grade teacher in the interim.  You can probably see where I'm going with this.  I am amazed that she and her husband are juggling all this, jobs, children, sports, and breast cancer and have drawn closer to each other through it.  Meanwhile the rest of us do what we can, we cry, we laugh, and are still in shock that this could happen twice in the space of two months.  Pam is through the treatment but now has follow ups and more choices to make about meds.  She has been a clear and true light on the path for Susan.  We making plans to bring Susans' kidlets here for spring break.  I miss seeing them and I suspect it wouldn't hurt for Susan to get to miss them too.

 

Finally in the dark of winter I realized what a funk I'd gotten into and did something about it.  It's amazing how just going for a walk, checking out the birdies, or really cleaning the kitchen cheers me up.  I can burn off a pile of angst by scrubbing the heck out of something like the kitchen floor.