Friday, July 18, 2014

Locally, it's good

I need to remind myself that even if the world looks like it's falling apart (and really, there's nothing material I can do to fix that), things in my own little circle are pretty good:

* I got some more done on the manuscript the other day. I guess I had more done than I was remembering; I might actually have something submittable by the start of fall semester, if I work really hard on it.

* Had my six-month checkup with the internist this morning. Everything is good. Blood numbers are good (she didn't give me a copy of the bloodwork this time but I'm going to trust that everything is good - in fact, she didn't even discuss them with me beyond saying that everything looked good, so I figure that means everything is where it should be). My blood pressure readings have been the lowest they've been since I started this whole mess. (I don't quite know why. It could be being more active this summer, it could be more sunlight exposure. Or it could just be the medication finally really started working well). Heart and lungs sound good, carotid arteries sound good. AND I was down five pounds from the last time I was weighed, back in May.

* My weight seems to bounce around a little within a ten to fifteen pound window. I don't worry about it too much; it's not like I'm yo-yo dieting (which I've read is even harder on the body than staying a steady higher weight). My weight goes down when I'm more active and goes up a little when I'm less active. I was even whining earlier this week that I felt "fat" (based on a photo of myself where I was seated and could see a love handle) but I guess I'm not doing TOO badly. And my doctor seems monumentally unconcerned about my weight, even though if you calculate out my bmi, it's a little scary. I think she realizes that I work out (and I am fairly solidly muscled, just not around the midsection) and that I'm careful about what I eat. And except for blood pressure, all the other health markers I have point to general good health. (Also, I almost never get sick, and she's remarked on that too). I'm thinking that as much as it hurts some mornings to drag myself out of bed early to work out, in the long run, it's doing a tremendous lot of good for me.

* I have leftover mac and cheese in the fridge to heat up for a meal today (and probably, for a meal each day this coming week....) I wonder if macaroni and cheese is related to, or derived in some way from, Alfredo. I suppose it would take tracking down the history of each. I know macaroni and cheese has been around a long time; I seem to remember seeing a recipe for it that Thomas Jefferson liked. And I think Alfredo is a more recent development. So maybe pasta Alfredo is a development (a sophistication of) macaroni and cheese.

* Mostly knitting on the Hermione's Everyday Socks (in fact, I took them to the doctor's with me and knit on them while I waited for her to come into the room). After these, the next small project might be a pair of mitts out of similarly colored yarn (except this yarn is a sport weight and is a Louisa Harding yarn. I've had it in-stash for a while. (And she commented on the "skill" it must take to knit on such small needles. And we talked about crocheting a little. She doesn't knit, apparently, but she does crochet.)

* Because of this having been an expensive summer, and also because I do have a giant yarn stash, I'm trying to work on working down the stash a little (I know, I say that a lot. "Oh, Erica says she's going to work down her stash, LOL"). But I also want to start something new so I think I'll just go ahead and start a few new things, at least until I run out of row counters for projects or run out of appropriately-sized needles.  This cooler weather we've had the last couple days makes me feel like summer isn't this unbreakable grip on us and that sometime soon again it will make sense to wear fingerless mitts and wool sweaters.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Maybe you have mentioned this elsewhere, but I have read of a correlation between temperature and blood pressure. My own doctor was unaware of this study, but in my own experience, my blood pressure is higher when taken in the winter in her office than it is in the summer.

Grace