Update: another year, plus health and wellness

Life continues to be rich and full here in Enoughsville.  This is my birthday week; I have been telling friends that I am excited about this because I've never been 56 before, and now I am.  And also: do you know how many famous people have been 56?!?

For my birthday, my guy brought me chocolate in bed this morning (which is, like, 56 times better than breakfast in bed)!  Also, one of my students performed a concert on my birthday (not because it was my birthday, but I could pretend); he played his own compositions on the piano, and had other musicians play his orchestral compositions, and he conducted a group who was performing Strauss pieces. There were only about a dozen people in the audience, mostly sitting in the back, and I sat up close and center, so it was like he was performing a concert just for me. A lovely gift, really.

A bunch of my running buddies ran a half marathon in D.C. today, kind of in honor of my birthday (but kind of, just to run a half marathon).  They also have never been 56 before, and are not likely to be 56 for a decade or more yet, so I am looking forward to telling them what it's all like.  I did a much shorter run (a 4-ish mile run) with the runners who didn't go to D.C.; it's a run that ends with a set of four stairs, and I always start singing the Rocky Theme song as we get close to the end, and I make everyone throw their hands in the air after we make it up (four stairs), and we feel triumphant.  

Prewash is not feeling triumphant.  This photo of her makes it look a bit like she's in a jail cell; she's not.  She was in the vet's examining room, because the indigestion pills aren't curing whatever it is that's ailing her, so she got to get the full spa treatment at the vet that's conveniently a half a block from our house.  She is not particularly fond of the wobbly table, and the light in the eyes is annoying, and the funnel in the ears is to be resisted, and the thermometer in the rectu--OH Heck, NO!.  Well, we didn't do the thermometer, let's just say.  

She did get her blood taken, and her fluids analyzed, and a pair of x-rays, and our best guess right now is "bladder infection".  We are waiting/hoping for the miracle of modern antibiotics to kick in and do their magic/science.   More updates next week.  

On the topic of health and illness, it was two years ago that we were reading news articles about the importance of good hand washing and of Not Touching Your Face (combined with lots of descriptions of how we all Touch our Faces all-the-heck-time anyway).   I know the hand washing emphasis has faded in deference to other ways of mitigating disease spread, but I just want to say that the Scary Doorknob is still reminding people who enter my home about manual spread of germs.  I've grown quite fond of Scary Doorknob, actually.  I am also very, VERY happy that the mortality rate in my city has dropped to near zero in recent weeks.

OfSnough is working safety from a different angle.  He's been volunteering with Ukraine relief efforts.  Today he worked with a small group (8 Ukrainians and 2 bicyclists, he says) to assemble 1000 first aid kits to send eastward.  Tomorrow,  he'll head to a rally at the Lincoln Memorial.  He'll be a day late to do the half Marathon, but I hope that in the long slog, his efforts will lead to a good finish anyway.   

My college is off spring break, and I'm back in full swing in terms of deaning.  I am starting, finally, to feel like I actually know a bit of what I'm doing.  It is good to feel like I can be effective.

And that's the news from my little corner of the world, where we continue to be rich in our adventures.  May you and yours be similarly prosperous.