Early Morning Blues

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I had to be in Southfield for my MRI at the ungodly hour of 6:15 AM. So, I had gone to bed early but unfortunately, I kept waking up throughout the long night. I got shaved, showered and dressed and then took out the garbage (it is Tuesday, after all). I headed for my appointment in the dark.

I got there a little early, and went through the usual forms, etc. Finally done with the red tape, I went and took off all my metal stuff, locked it up and then went into the test room.

Now, this is one of those "Open" MRI's, which sounds better than the tube (anything but that tube again!) But, you still have to go under a huge mass (the magnet). At first, I was looking up at it, but that immediately started to bother me. So, the technician gave me another style of pillow so I lay with my head turned and could look sideways into the room.

The noise was bad (they do give you earplugs) and I was grateful when it finally stopped. I was a lot less grateful when he told me that was the completion of the first set of tests (there are six in all and it takes 20-25 minutes). So, to keep from starting to panic and to take my mind off the noise, I decided to count seconds until I hit 1,200 (or twenty minutes). I had to remind myself to take some deep breaths every now and then, but otherwise the time eventually passed. I got my stuff back on, thanked him and left at about 6:45 AM.

I stopped back at the house to change my shirt (I had sweated a lot, although it wasn't that warm in the room) and then headed to work.

I went home for lunch and, after eating, went out to water the upside-down tomato plant. It was already getting hot out (I think it's supposed to get to a high of 76 degrees F., with rain beginning tonight and continuing on through Friday) and the barometer is falling.

I walked back to the raised bed garden and was shocked to see that of the four golf ball-sized green peppers I had growing (and were so proud of), three were missing! The last one was lying in the dirt with a hole gnawed through it! Damn!

When I got home after 5:00 PM, I changed clothes and went out back, with my 12-12-12 fertilizer, a bag of insect dust and the bag of sulfur. I lost one rose over the winter, so I made a wide circle of the fertilizer around the remaining four. Then I dusted them all with the insect dust (two look healthy, and two, sickly).

Next I went to the Rhododendron. I lost two out of the four last winter (Jake and Carla's was so beautiful it made my heart skip a beat this Spring). So, I duplicated the wide circle of fertilizer, the insect dust and then added some sulfur (Rhododendron's like that). Back inside, it was after 6:00 PM and I put the stuff away, and then carefully washed my hands and forearms.

I went back outside and took down my bicycle and then the step ladder. Jake had mentioned at work he was gonna clean his gutters tonight (the damn maple seeds or "helicopters" are just now starting to lighten up). When I pulled in the driveway, I noticed I had little maple trees growing in my gutters, so I decided to follow his lead.

I got the longest one done (in front of the garage), except the downspout seems to be plugged. But, it was getting late and I was getting tired of going up and down the ladder. So, I stuck the ladder in the garage and came inside to wash up (again).

What with my early morning adventure and late afternoon exercise, I was pooped, so I went to be at 9:30 PM.