Day 567

My daughter helped get today's picture.

My back and body have been bugging me so I've been having trouble getting anything done around the yard. I've needed to tackle the front bed for quite some time but knowing the additional aches it would produce I've been putting it off.

No more. Today we deadheaded, cut back out of control plants, and pulled up wayward grasses. Now all we see is what we need at this time of year. Thanks to my daughter's help, mums, Lady's Mantle, and some foliage from fall bulbs as they make their way through the soil are all that are left.

Day 566

We gave our daughter our old car when we bought the new one a few months back. We knew then that it wouldn't be long before the car hit 100,000 miles. Not that 100,000 is bad, but it was what kind of service came with that 100,000 miles that hit her pocketbook hard.

She has a boyfriend who is a car guy so he makes sure she takes care of her vehicle properly. They took it in for a tune up, which turned into a replacement of a timing belt, which turned into replacing other belts, which turned into flushing coolants, which turned into replacing filters, which turned into two days of service, which turned into a huge bill.

$1,525. Poor kiddo.

Thank goodness the holiday season is coming soon and she can get lots of hours to help replenish her savings account.

She'll probably have to work as hard as these two spiders hanging out at our house.

Day 565

I sure like it when I find a picture first thing in the morning. Even better, I didn't have to even get dressed or step outside to get this view out my dining room window.

What appears to be the sun touching the ground is actually the sun's reflection in the Snake River. The actual sun is higher up in the tree.

Day 564

The year and a half before I started this blog I had gone through a lot. Back injury, three surgeries, lots of physical therapy, and excessive amounts of pain medication. Since then I've gotten myself off the pain medication but replaced it with multiple rheumatoid arthritis medicines. Then I went through taking myself off all those medications, too. Except now something needs to change.

I don't know if it's stress or not taking care of myself properly or what, but the pain, stiffness, and fatigue have returned full force. I've been fighting it for a while now and it has been getting the best of me. So Friday night I did it.

I took a pain pill. Took another one last night, too. But the relief I was hoping for did not arrive.

Although the pill did have me behaving like our cat in a sleeping-in-the-daytime kind of way.

Day 563

First it was that I was taking too many food pictures. Then it was because I was writing too much about Christmas stockings and taking too many pictures of fabric.

So for you my daughter, I have three new pictures. No stockings, fabric, or food. Any complaints about a spider hard at work, a Black-Eyed Susan up close, or the clouds in front of the sun?