Backup Earbud Retrieved

My husband, who never checks himself for ticks nor takes any precautions unless purposely hiking, woke up to a tick embedded in his arm. My son managed to tweeze most of it out and then my husband needed to be told to go to Urgent Care to get a dose of doxycycline. I've found tiny tick nymphs crawling over my dogs but since they're dosed monthly with Simparico Trio (heartworm, tick & flea), I don't worry too much about them. But tick season appears to be 3 out of 4: spring, summer & fall. With warmer winters, ticks might be year-round now...

Yesterday was Mother's Day and we took a day trip to visit the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford. It's mostly an art museum but also contains collections of interesting artifacts and specimens of bugs, butterflies, shells, rocks, fish, jewelry, furniture, paintings, sculptures, pottery and fine ceramics, textiles, modern conceptual pieces and baroque religious paintings. There was enough unseen to warrant another visit eventually. The museum's website has virtual tours of a lot of their exhibits with explanatory tags for many of the items. Definitely worth spending some time with!

It's 40F when the alarm sounds this morning. A bit chillier than I was expecting, but not enough to frost the windshield. M is at the front desk this morning and knows nothing about my errant ear bud even though Gym Owner has been in for a few hours. He doesn't know anything either when I walk back to his office. I tell him how it's somewhere under the step machine. I'm 20 minutes into cardio when he comes by with the earbud in a towel. Yaay! 

The earbud still needed sanitizing (pop the squishy ear plug out and soak in isopropyl, then replace), but I'm very happy with my current semi-wired pair 'cuz the music sounds really good. It sounds so good that I'm noticing vocal overlays in a song I've listened to hundreds, maybe thousands of times, and never discerned the musical complexities before. WTH? 

Cardio isn't great and hasn't been in weeks. Maybe I need to change things up and rotate another machine into the mix besides the step mill? Pull-ups are also worrisome as I've lost reps due to discomfort in my left forearm. Tendonitis of the forearm is what made me resort to the neutral hammer grip as both chin-ups and standard pull-ups caused too much damage to my elbows and forearms. I remember wearing forearm braces for weeks because of that, and I'm determined not to do that again. But when I get to rep 17, it's a struggle for the next 3 and then that's all I can do. It doesn't help that I'm still putting on weight. I've got to stop stress snacking! 

Meanwhile, my son sends me a video of tiny slugs in a drinking fountain. It's apparently one of the school fountains and that the slugs emerged as the water erupted. I tell him to tell the office as slugs and snails are known carriers of the rat lungworm, a potentially fatal parasite. He tells me he and his friend did and the school's response was to have the janitor pour a little bleach into the fountain and carry on as usual. Uh, that's a band-aid on a potentially bigger issue: Why are slugs having babies in the drinking fountains inside the school?! 

15 May 2023
Monday

Precor elliptical #1
Program 2
Time: 30 + 5 (5384)
Distance: 2.78
Cal: 305
Avg Hr: 142, 182

HGPU 20

20 Hip Bridges
Crunches 60
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
20 Hip Bridges
Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
Cat stretch 12x
Fire Hydrants 30 x 2
Child’s Pose / Cobra Pose
Bird Dog Planks 60s x 2
Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25
Upper body stretch
Eye yoga

StepMill (L)
Manual 10 min
Speed 6 (52-60)
Steps 537
Floors 33
Cal 79
Hr 142

HGPU 20