Bare Minimum

Mugwort image from A Way to Garden

I spent the weekend whacking down the overgrowth of mugwort that has taken over the central milkweed patch in my yard. I started out with over 5 dozen milkweed plants but there are fewer than a dozen that have healthy pods. Most have succumbed to the hordes of golden aphids that no amount of ladybugs or other predatory insects could control. The problem with mugwort (aka sailor's tobacco aka artemisia vulgaris) is that not only do they spread via underground rhizomes, but their stalks are hard like plastic tubing. Which means it's hard to weed whack a grove of them without risking being impaled or sliced by razor sharp flying sticks. Which meant I did not use a weed whacker. 

Instead, I had manual hedge trimmers and a parrot beak lopper for the thicker stems and I cut down all the stalks by hand. I haven't gotten around to gathering all the fallen stems yet. And later, I'll have to rip out as much of the residual plants as possible. Because I'd like to have healthier plants next year. Maybe something edible. One pest I didn't have to worry about this year: spotted lantern flies. While they were spotted in my county, apparently the milkweeds kept them away from my yard. 

I get to the gym earlier than usual but I barely have time to get a quick cardio jaunt and a single set of pull-up, no core routine or stretch. Luckily there were few folks exercising. A lot of folks take this week off if they don't have kids in school. The pull-ups were better. I'm trying to institute better sleep hygiene by not napping at 5 pm and drinking only non-caffeinated tea after 2 pm. I haven't tried 20 minute meditations yet. Most days I feel like I barely have time to do the things I need to do... It's on the list. I'll probably get to it eventually, see how I feel about it, and then most likely, make some adaptations. 

I make it to my eye doc appointment and after an initial vision check (20/20 uncorrected vision) and pressure check, I have to wait for another hour to see the doc. While my IOPs aren't great and should be lower, they aren't horrible. They're 16, and we all know we wanted them under 10. They've been better at 13/14. They've been worse at 17/18. I go back for an annual Visual Field test in a few months. That's where the vision loss in my eyes gets documented with an actual physical map. I suspect the right eye is worse than it was last year. This loss is apparently unrecoverable: lost vision can't be repaired. The best we can hope for is to slow it down. Slow it down a lot. 

2 September 2025 11:44-12:17

Tuesday Abbreviated Cardio

After the Holiday weekend

Precor elliptical #1

Program 3

Time: 20 + 5 (3820)

Distance: 1.97

Cal: 216

Avg Hr: 156, 186

New FB: 41-127

HGPU 17.5