My Weird Stardust

Sometimes the universe is wild and wonderful. In the midst of all the medical shit and drama, I am blessed with a neighbor who randomly gives me art. Art that I love. Original, signed art. Fancy art. 

I have no idea why the universe saw fit to create this dynamic in my life, but he just shows up at random intervals and hands it over. He's slowly purging what his late wife collected and is just happy to give it a good home. So on Mother's Day, he was at my door, original art in hand.

Sometimes I get the good stuff.

As for Mother's Day...I either talked too much, or despite all our precautions, I picked up a bug. I can barely talk, my throat is road rash sore. I'm just drinking all the hot tea and taking it easy. I feel okay overall. A touch of asthma but nothing to where I don't want to go outside and weed.

Yes, weed. My iris patch is a hot mess. It's crying for help. And there are bugs everywhere. The asparagus has beetles and I saw a nasty looking bug in the strawberry beds. Last night, an absolutely massive bee spewed out of the hose faucet scaring the bejeesus out of me. And it didn't even come out right away! It came out after half the bucket was full...so it was DEEP in there. Do bees swim??? It must've been underwater!

If this is what a 60% decline in insect population looks like (so they say) I'm not sure I want to see what 100% population is like! 

But dealing with all that is now the big goal. May is our designated yard work month. So we are trying to get the garden, the flowers, our pest control, and our little pool set up.

The pool...kind of a funny story. I was having increasing issues with my hip and had dislocated my knee trying to deal with it. I didn't yet know the root cause was a cyst on my spine, but I was panicking because this body requires exercise to have even a shot at health and I was really struggling physically. I knew I wasn't going to be able to walk and do a lot. A pool was the only way I could think to stay active, and with COVID I didn't want to go to a public pool.

So I bought one.

In December. 

At 2 a.m. because it was 50% off.

With all the predatory arbitrage out there, that was the only way I could afford it. Indeed, after I bought it, the price went up a thousand dollars. By spring, I could have flipped it for about $4k in profit...an option we seriously considered.

I made it a Christmas present and gave everyone pool test strips because no way was I wrapping pallets or dragging them under the tree. Several people mistook them for pregnancy tests and thought I was announcing a baby (OMG). So that was a whole lot of fast explaining lol. They were like, 'it's a...pool...not a baby? Are you sure?'

And, me being me, it turned out that a pool made everything worse. After swimming, I would lose my reflexes and stumble around unable to lift my feet. Weightlessness destabilized my spine for some reason. Thankfully, while the surgery didn't fix everything, it managed to fix that.

And at least I have a neighbor who gives me art.

My life is weird, but I'll take all the good I can get.