Tag Archives: sun

Paying For Pleasure

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Sun and Fun

Through the first two weeks of the new year already. Days are getting noticeably longer… and noticeably colder! Mid-winter is here but it has actually, touch wood, been relatively mild, with freezing temps at night but not too bad during the day.

So I knew that eventually the years of sun would catch up with me and now I am paying the price. On Friday I went in for supposedly minor surgery to remove a basal cell carcinoma from my eyelid. I wasn’t nervous at all, looking forward to having it gone! It was one of those things you swear everyone is staring at when they see you – “ooohh look she has a wart on her nose” or something like that. Probably no one even noticed, but it was starting to bother my vision, so my doc recommended a plastic surgeon/ophthalmologist so Susan drove me down as they has told me I wouldn’t be able to drive home.

Well…

The surgery took twice as long as they thought, and even though I couldn’t feel anything, other than the tugging and stretching, and could -oooo ick – smell the cauterizing, I found myself clenching my jaw so hard I thought I might crack a tooth!

The doctor started asking me if I had taken aspirin or any medications as they had a difficult time stopping the bleeding – hence the extra time to complete the process.

Finally, it was done and with all concerned clapping themselves on the back for a job well done, I staggered out. Shock set in immediately and I was shivering uncontrollably  until I got some sweet hot chocolate into me. Half way home, a 45 minute drive, I had to ask Susan to pull over as I felt like I was going to pass out. I managed to get my head between my knees and wait it out. When we got home, all I could thing about was getting into bed, which I did, post haste!

The shocky stuff continued through the night, sweating like crazy, light headed and woozy. But the vicodin kept the pain under control and in the morning felt almost human. With one eye-covered, my depth perception was way off and I felt completely off-balance.

Mid-afternoon I took the eye-patch off and decided I better not let anyone see me! I looked like something out of a horror movie! Eyeball bright red, and my eye almost closed from the swelling. But even with just a partial slit eye, it helped my balance and I could actually see.

Every day has been better and better. The swelling is going down, but my face looks lopsided but that is also improving with all the icing I am doing. And there is no pain now so haven’t had to take more vicodin.

I go back next week to have the stitches removed – and no, I am not posting a picture. I don’t even want to see myself in the mirror until I am healed!

On another note, my tenants in the Port Angeles house just got their orders to move back to Florida. Bummer! So now I have to go through that process again but I’m thinking that if I don’t get a Coastie, I will have a Property Management company handle it. It’s such a hike from here to deal with it, especially in the Leaky Beasty. So I have that to deal with in the next week.

Oh well, the trials and tribulations of a land baroness!

La Playa

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lighthouse

Green Point Lighthouse

Whenever I spend time at the beach and at the cottage, it reinforces the idea of where I want to live.

  • Where it’s warm
  • Where I can swim every day
  • Where there is household help

I feel so much better both physically and mentally in that sort of environment. So something to work towards – actually this isn’t anything new; I have simply refined my “wants,” leading more and more towards La Playa in Mexico.

The cottage was as wonderful as ever; warm, clear, lovely. We had a fantastic thunderstorm overnight which left the air fresh and soft in the morning. And the water was so clean and clear. The first morning it was very still and the waves were perfect at Green Point so a lot of surfers were out.

Well, let me clarify that statement!

By California standards, there were hardly any guys out – maybe six or seven, but here, at this spot, that’s quite a lot. They were all riding short boards when I thought they should have had longboards! But they were having fun, so that’s all that counts!

catherine-yoga

Catherine, doing her yoga on the lawn early morning.

Catherine (goddaughter) and I spent some time with Keith Cunningham, a member of the Clansthal Concervancy as I am going to do an article about the Conservancy and the ongoing effort to create a marine sactuary between Clan and the Aliwal Shoal. The Shoal is already a Marine Protected Area (MPA) so this was the start of the research. It’s a very popular dive spot, about 5 km (3.5 m) offshore and was named after the sinking of the three-masted vessel “Aliwal”, captained by James Anderson in 1849. There are two wrecks near the reef; the Norwegian bulk carrier “Produce” which sank in 1974 and the Nebo which sank in 1884.

Keith gave us a great tour and I decided to also do something for ecology about the indigenous plants. Also a lot of research required!

Conservancies in this country are the grassroots effort at conservation. With the government in such disarray, with so little understanding of what needs to be done, local people have come together and created conservancies around the country. Many are contiguous and it seems like there needs to be more communication between these all-volunteer efforts to enable them to become more effective.

Another interesting article idea! Oh dear! I think I am setting myself up to be too busy!

Mick and Debbie are gone for a couple of days and I am taking care of the “livestock.” Cats, chickens and ducks! But now, I am sitting on the veranda, it’s about 82F (26C) at 6pm. I have my drink (gin) and a little country music in the background and a thunderstorm lightshow happening all around, but no rain!