And So We Are Home Again

llo My Friends, The first week home showed me just how exhausting the respiratory infection and the road trip with it had been. The day after Easter I literally did not dress--after breakfast I ensconced myself in my wicker fan back chair in my flannel night gown and put my feet up on the foot stool and just read and napped all day. I'd received Erik Larson's Dead Wake from Book Browse while I was gone and was therefore obligated to join the discussion on their website that opened the week before. It was no hardship for me to read the book about the torpedo sinking of the Lusitania during WWI. I'd read a book about it before leaving on our trip and was looking forward to Larsen's account since he is one of my favorite authors. I'm afraid that for the next three days that is pretty much all I did as Bill puttered around, never able to sit still for a minute. The weather was heavenly and so being back home was not the normal jolt and I didn't find myself falling into my annual depressive I'm back in ugly Vt winter slump. It WAS disconcerting to sleep nine to ten hours a night and then find myself nodding off around 2 pm and sleeping almost until 430, but, though I felt just fine, it was obvious that I needed the rest. By the fourth day, I did rouse myself to set up the bill payments for April and to organize the foodstuffs we'd bought on the trip as well as gather the things I'd purchased for Barb so that we can run them down to her at some point. Also, I got the newspaper going again as well as the DVD part of Netflix. I got involved in the Book Browse discussion and set up my Gypsy with the Cricut site so that it is all up to date. I haven't synced it with my Cricut yet though I have downloaded the Craft Room software to both computers in anticipation of doing some scrapping soon. My Aunt called to tell me that they decided she has a combination of allergies and COPD--they wanted to put her on an inhaler--the one they advertise on TV but since they really didn't have a hard and fast diagnosis she said no way --she was also on four meds and said she had more chemicals in her body than she'd had in her whole 93 years and she wasn't adding any more. Wonder where I get my attitude toward meds?? LOL But as one of my doctors said last year, we are probably as healthy as we are because we don't take tons of medication. I totally agree. Anyway, she is feeling much better and said she is taking Claridon for allergies and feels infinitely better. She will stop it when she wants and take it again if allergies hit again. I agreed that I think whatever we had did get compounded by age related allergies and I plan on doing the same thing if eyes get itchy and nose gets stuffy again. Betsy came the day after Easter and we had boiled dinner--not our usual Easter ham but we were all happy to have dinner together. I gave her a pair of wonderful earrings from Perry Null as her Easter gift--she loves them.I'm always happy when I hit a home run. For the remainder of the week I continued to put things away, bit by bit and finished reading Enduring Courage about Eddie Richenbacker which I'd started before we left. Kind of dry but interesting history, primarily focused on his role as ace of aces during WW I. That one was a book from Goodreads for which I had to write a review. Lastly, I read Brooklyn on Fire by Lawrence H Levy which I obtained from Blogging for Books and for which I also wrote a review. It is the second in a series about a real woman who worked as a detective, sometimes for the Brooklyn Police Department in the late 19th Century before the five cities united to form New York City composed of five boroughs. I find this period in the City's history to be very interesting, especially since it is the City my grandmother knew and wasn't that much earlier than the days my parents were growing up there. It is interesting to remember their stories as I read about the time. At night, because there isn't much on TV, I caught up with my Netflix streaming, watching season 3 of Crossing Lines and 17 of Midsomer's Murders, as well as Vera on Acorn through my Amazon Prime account. Before I knew it we'd been home a week and Bill had gone to PC to get his schedule set up for this week. And before I knew it, Winter decided to return. It snowed with accumulation in the beginning of the week. The temps dropped to the 30's and 40's.One day it was so windy that the drafts came in through the windows and between the logs. I could not get warm even with the heat on, the wood stove going and sitting under my electric lap robe. The darkness at night started to get to me and I had to turn the porch light on to illuminate the tree line as well as relight one of the window candles from Christmas. My mood plummeted with the temperature and I fretted that the old depression was closing in on me again. It is seasonal and not ongoing but I swear I just want to get divorced and get in my car and flee--or slit my wrists, whichever is easier. I got out my coloring book and prisma pencils and colored to save my life. AND then the power went off!!! As I write this I'm smiling but believe me, when I am moving into that dark place, there are no smiles or laughter, just despair. I managed to fight it off, but the effort was so great. The turning point was the day before yesterday when I saw that I gained back four of the 20 pounds I lost on the trip. Yesterday was Bill's first day back to work. It was also the first day since we left for the trip that I was completely alone for a whole day! I was up at 530 but went back to bed at 830 after I finished the puzzle. I slept until 1030. When I woke, Attila was stretched out along my side and Shadow was curled up against my bent legs. I had turned on the quiet instrumental channel on the TV, low, to get back to sleep. I looked at them and said we are going to spend the day together guys. So I came downstairs and got three of the Elks mag and one of the NPCA mags and went back up to read. Took a break around 12 for a little snack and then returned. Got through all of them while the music played. Bill came home around 2 but I didn't let him know I was awake and just went on. Came down around 430. What a restorative day--even though it snowed again all afternoon and the plow scraped 113 with a horrible sound after dark. It was wonderful to be ALONE! I really hadn't thought about the fact I hadn't been for months!! The other day we ordered a new air conditioner--I hope it won't go in our room--I want real curtains on my bedroom windows and no bugs coming in around the A/C, since it never gets properly closed up around it. I also ordered some new books which came yesterday, too. Today, Bill's new springs for his pruner arrived. We thought we had to get new pruners for almost $50 until I found the springs online for $5 plus $3 shipping. Infinitely cheaper and he has already repaired them. So, it would appear I'm well and truly home. Back in the old rut but looking forward to better weather. It is raining today but slept until almost 830 and have gotten the blog all caught up. A couple more sets of pix to upload and send out and the trip is put to bed for this year. Hoping to get in some small Spring excursions up to Maine and over to New York. Then it is Summer and who knows what will happen. Hope you all have a terrific one. Take care The Summer Stay at Homes KandB