Dear Diary

Good!

Good to hear you are doing better, husker.

And you, mapleleaf! How's spring in Georgia?

Dear Diary,

Just returned from the Georgia coast on Sunday...Jekyll Island by name. Temperate temperature...brisk breezes...low keyed...lots of bike riders...high tide covered beach...a wall of boulders 20-30 feet high serve as a barrier on some sections...dunes were close to extinction...very family friendly...

urs,

During the week plus we were away, the trees filled out...some plants grew six inches plus...most late Spring flowers/bushes are out...third group of daffodils are sprouting...

I am feeling almost normal, if that makes any sense...fatigue still a factor, but outside work does not leave me sore and aching...it is satisfying

I miss hearing from folks from the past three years...I know some of them are off doing their thing, but one becomes invested in them...like any other friend...and you like to know how they are doing.

Mapleleaf, I am very glad to hear that you are feeling 'almost normal'.

Today, I had the tires of my car changed to 'summer tires' so now it looks nice again with cool wheels. It seems like spring is really here to stay now. It's warmer, not really warm, but a leather jacket is enough and I am not freezing! It's supposed to get warmer on the weekend :-)

My nephew will check our car on Friday so that we are ready for our trip to Sweden. We will leave on May 8 and first go to Cologne, where we will spend one night. Then on to Denmark to visit a friend who lives close to Copenhagen. One or two days there and then to Sweden, Gothenburg and the family. I hope the weather will be nice because I want to go out to the small islands. The way home will first take us to Hamburg to visit my nephew and see Hamburg for the first time. Then we will take the car-train (is that how you call it?) down South to Lörrach and from there it will be a nice drive through the Black Forrest and home.

urs' trip
Wow! Are you going to do a thread with pics?

That's a good idea, mapleleaf. I'll have to see how our pictures turn out. But BigDice got a new digicam so chances are good!

The bags are packed and we will leave tomorrow morning. We are bringing a lot a clothes for our little niece in Sweden :-)

I might log on and give an update when we are in Sweden! See you!

Dear Diary,
I am looking forward to some pics from urs.

Well, I will need some time, mapleleaf. You know, I am still taking pictures with a camera that has a film in it and that has to be developed... ;-) But BigDice took a couple of nice ones. I will try to post them when we are home.

At the moment, we are in Sweden at Stefan's parents' place in Gothemburg. The trip to Sweden was wonderful - great weather all the time. Lunch on Monday was at a restaurant that is owned by one of the most famous chefs in Germany. He is on TV a lot, so everybody knows him... It was very good food!

Cologne was great and I even had a glas of beer!!! The little town in Denmark where our friend lives is sooo cute. Life there is a lot more relaxed than what we are used to.

Now we are spending time with the family and old friends. I enjoy it very much. Tomorrow we will go to the castle Läckö. It is still very sunny but a bit cool now. But that's fine with me - I am enjoying every minute :-)

yes it is.
It is because your muscles have to rebuild to accomidate the work.
Truthfully, if you practice every 2nd day, you wont feel as bad as trying to do it every day, or even every other day.

On your days off - inbetween the actual walking days,
sit and swing your legs back and forth with your toes pointed to the ground.
This gives the backs of your calves a tiny bit of exercize that helps to keep them toned and speeds up the rebuilding process with out the extra pain.

good goin. ;-)

actually, i shouldnt say every 2ND day-
what i mean is --

day 1 walk
day 2 dont , just swing your legs
day 3 same thing
day 4 walk



after about 3 weeks of that, bump up walking day to day 3
but always keep a day in between your practice for healing and resting.

It isnt easy at all, but you will feel SO much better, I cant even explain.

I went from walking 1/2 block , painfully to walking 2.3 miles every other day now with no problems.

but, it took a while..

thanks shewolfnm - the Cancer Walk is this coming Firday\Saturday. I can pretty much do 1/2 mile nonstop, so I think I can make it with a little pacing.

Dear Diary well the rains in Colombia have given no quarter and have assaulted my area, the department of Valle without mercy. There are "derrumbes por todos lados" (landslides all over) including one at the bottom of my property which cut off my neighbors ingress and left me about a meter short of property. This was not a matter of a lot of shoveling by the mayordomos (caretakers) so the owner of the parcelacion (subdivision) had a big back hoe sent up. At the last minute they decided some trees had to be cut so as to avoid their falling on the electric wires. The saw the owner brought up, a huge Stihl had a bad chain, the neighbor whose property was blocked had "danos" (damage) to his saw so they asked me to use mine. I hurried down and the back hoe was working right behind me and as I cut the tree it split mightily and broke the leg of Ernesto who was there to help and is the the mayordomo of the subdivision owner. Probobly wouldn't have had I made a back cut but that damn bucket was right there and I felt rushed. Poor Ernesto. The owner left the next day for the island destination of San Andres leaving Ernesto with a cast on his leg and no crutches. The accident was just that of course and not my fault but I wanted to help the guy since he was helping me at the time so I bought a couple of boards and made him a pair of crutches. A few weeks later (yesterday) he invited me to their house for lunch. It was "gallina" (hen chicken) and about the consistency of a blown retread off a tractor trailer tire. Well I chewed and chewed and got most of it down to be gracious but it wasn't easy. Ernesto did most of the talking (my Spanish isn't that good) and owned up that before taking on this job he was a paramilitary. Well live and learn. And at least that faction isn't the one we gringos have to fear.

Pitter,
How far are you on your book/diary?

Hi Mapleleaf, well not far along at all 'fraid to say but here's a nasty business (chilling in fact) that occurred last weak not too far from my home: an elite anti-drug squad consisting of ten agents was led to a rural property by an informant where there were supposed to be a hundred kilos of cocain stashed. When they knocked on the door twenty eight soldiers from the "High Mountain Army Battalion" who had surrounded them opened up with heavy weapons and shot them to hell. The whole truth is yet to be revealed but it's come to light that the narcotrafikers offered a million US dollars to get rid of that squad as it has come down hard on them. It appears now that the police were set up (there was no cover or way to escape at the site) and the army slaughtered them for the narco's million. This a country where narcotrafico generates enormous sums and an army soldiers pay is $170US a month. Nevertheless the bloodthirsty greed is just stunning!

Pitter...my brain can't get around that scene...may I ask why you continue to live in the area?

Well I guess because there are orchids, heliconias and bromelias in the woods next to my yard and I've sighted exactly twenty different species of hummingbird on the property.

Dear Diary - I had a good day today. I 've actually finished something. I've been working on ----- a series of 6 photographs I took of some very unusual spring wildflowers in the Smoky Mtn National Park & now they are completed and framed. Where to put them is the issue now
one of my artistic-natured daughters will come along with an idea if I don't, but I'm going to TRY to make a decision on my own. They turned out so well, I should have shown them off in original art, but I never even thought about it. My niece cancelled today on my accupuncture and chinese medicine treatments, I do hope tomorrow works out better for us as timing goes, she has a 4 yr old son and a baby daughter. I suggested
she stay for a few days, expecially to work on the pain in my legs & feet,
it has been BAD. There are some places I can live, where it is extremely dry, and rarely rains, like the few months I spent in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. (a smallish town that is about 4 hours N of Mexico City)
It was UGLY though, the landscape was brown, brown and more brown, except for a huge town square right in front of the big cathedral, where gardeners keep flower beds, hedges, trees & statuary all looking good for the touristas.

Babs
Unfortunately - that's what you get when it rarely rains!

I've just returned from a holiday in the tropical part of Australia (Great Barrier Reef and Kakadu), where the wet season is finally coming to an end (rather late this year) and the green is just amazing. Everything is very lush!

In Sydney and all around here we've been in drought for donkey's year, and, while I wouldn't say it was ugly, there's certainly not the vegetation you'd like. The upside of this is that, with no rain, and severe garden watering restrictions, the grass doesn't grow, so doesn't need mowing.

It's raining now - but certainly not enough or heavy enough to ease the drought.

Babs,
Good read...do you have any pics which can be shared on A2K?

Margo,
Re weather patterns...in the last ten years, have you noted any changes?