post freeze work, finished painting, med report

Mid 50s out there, overcast and damp, dreary. Saturday was nice enough that i got out there and started cutting back some of the dead stuff; the lantana, the yellow butterfly ginger that hasn’t bloomed for a couple of years and probably won’t get any this year, the pink butterfly ginger at least what’s left of it, picked up the orange cosmos I had pulled out the week before, worked more on clearing out the overgrowth at the end of the shop. That five feet or so of cleared ground on the left is what I’ve done so far plus some behind the air compressor that was completely engulfed that you can’t see. That area used to be a nice patch of dewberry vines until the virginia creeper and wild grape vine took over.

I uncovered the ponytail palm and it looks good. Uncovered the other plants that always freeze to the ground and they did but I think covering them helps protect the roots. Took the larger pots out of the house and the smaller pots out of the garage so they could get watered by the rain predicted on Sunday.

I’ve declared this first part of the painting done, 4" x 4", and removed the blue tape 

and penciled in the shape of the zucchini below. 

I figure if I don’t like the way the zucchini comes out I can just cut it off. I’ve sort of picked an image for the next painting. I saved a photo of a landscape with the moon, all fading deep dark indigos. It will be another technique/skill building exercise. Not sure I can pull it off.

I had the TEE yesterday. I’m getting to be an old hand at this joking with one of the nurses that I could tell her what to do. I got the results today via the patient portal: “The WATCHMAN device is in good position; there appears only very trace leaking between the device and left atrial appendage (with maximal diameter of 0.2 cm). No evidence of any thrombosis in this leaking area or left atrium.” So, no change in the Watchman, the heart tissue did not heal over the leak in the last three months. No sign of blood clotting but I am on low dose aspirin and plavix so I wouldn’t expect there to be. I want off the plavix, the whole point of getting the Watchman was to get off the blood thinner and since this very small leak is within the normal range I expect to be able to stop taking it. I haven’t heard from the doctor yet about what the results mean and probably won’t until the end of the week. 

So the Watchman is stable but there were some other notes concerning the aortic valve that were not noted from the TEE three months ago. One that there are mildly calcified leaflets (part of the structure of the valve) meaning slight hardening (I looked it up) that can be a result of age but not necessarily. The other note was mild aortic regurgitation, meaning a slightly leaky valve. I have no idea if these conditions are newly developed from three months ago or just not noted previously or something to be concerned about. The third note was concerning the size of the ascending aorta, the value increased from 27 to 30 and while 30 is still normal the increase seems worrying. Anyway more stuff to talk to the heart doctor about. So that’s my health report for today.

back to normal life almost

Lantana blooming in the front, about the only thing that is beside a scattering of roses and the crepe myrtles. The orange cosmos also has a smattering of blooms as they get taller for when they go into full bloom in the fall. A few yellow rain lilies have sprung up.

Yesterday I was back at SHARE after missing the entire month of July, really only three weeks as it was closed on July 4th which fell on a Thursday. It was probably the slowest day since I have been volunteering there, only 15 requests for food. The first Thursday of the month is usually slow as people get their food assistance cards and also FEMA is in town and other organizations since the hurricane. But it enabled me to reorganize my station the way I like it. 

I had an appointment with my PCP Tuesday and filled her in on the last two months and my follow up with the surgeon, or rather the PA who attended me in the hospital, on Wednesday since I only saw the surgeon right before the surgery. The incision is healing nicely but still no yoga until it is completely healed, 3 more weeks he said. Ugh, I’m going to be so out of shape by then! I have to return in three months for another ultrasound to make sure all is well with my femoral artery. In the meantime I feel fine, feel normal, and am back to my usual routine sans yoga. The other thing the PA told me was not to wear underwear with the elastic crossing the incision until it is completely healed. No mention of that previously but whatev, so I went out and bought some boxers for women today. 

I’ve lost track of how many cart loads of hurricane tree debris I hauled to the street today, four or five. I’ve been out there with my baby battery operated chain saw cutting up the 4” or less in diameter branches that are still hanging down from the pecan trees but it is so hot and the mosquitoes are still just so fierce. Fortunately we’ve had almost a week without rain and the last three days have been clear blue skies. Good for drying things out but also bringing back the heat. I put the cart, for scale, in front of the pile on the street that I’ve accumulated over the last three weeks, 

really only two out of the last three since the one in the middle was cleaning out Pam’s house and then doctor appointments. I still have two piles in the yard and it doesn’t look like I’ve even made a dent in all those huge limbs hanging down in the back even though that’s what I worked on today.

I sat down and did my first wash for the sky on my painting today.

I’m not very good at washes and I probably overworked it so it’s pretty funky. Nevertheless I will persevere. It’s just a warm up anyway, I tell myself, and it’s been well over a year since I put brush to paper.

it ain't over until the fat lady sings

You may have noticed that I dropped out of sight again. Or not. It’s not completely unusual for me to get busy and not post for a week. You might have figured that I was busy cleaning up the yard. That would be a big nope. Nothing has been done about that. The only difference is that now everything is brown.

What happened was that the hospital called on Thursday to check on me after the angiogram, asked if I had removed the pressure bandage yet, no, and to go ahead and remove it, clean the incision site, and put a bandaid on it. So I did. When I went to bed Thursday night I noticed four or five small thumbprint size bruises on my inner thigh that had not been there when I took the bandage off. Two hours later those spots were all connected. When I woke up Friday morning it had become a red and slightly purple bruise bigger than my handprint. That was alarming so I called the doctor’s office first thing and reported what was going on. The NP called back, some bruising was normal but the doctor ordered an ultrasound for today and to call the imaging center and make an appointment. They couldn’t see me until 2:30 and by noon the bruise was still spreading and my thigh was swelling. Since I was starting to freak out a little we left at noon hoping they could get me in earlier if I was there but en route I called the doctor’s office again, reported the increased bruising and swelling and asked if I should go to the ER instead. Yes, she said, get thee to the ER.

I didn’t get the ultrasound until 5:30. By then the bruising and swelling had stabilized. I had been taking the blood thinner but when I saw my thigh that morning I didn’t take it. Turns out I should not have started taking it again until 24 hours after the angiogram but they failed to tell me that. Anyway, the ultrasound showed a ‘pseudo aneurysm’ at the site where the catheter was inserted in my femoral artery for the angiogram and even though it had stopped actively bleeding they admitted me to the hospital. The surgical PA examined me Saturday morning, paged the vascular surgeon who was slow to respond so he put another pressure bandage on the incision site and a sand bag on top of that to see if that would close up the pseudo aneurysm. Then another ultrasound Sunday which showed that while it had decreased some it had not closed all the way and surgery was scheduled for Monday.

While I was in pre-op Monday talking to the surgical assistant about the difference between an aneurysm and a pseudo aneurysm I asked which was more dangerous. Pseudo aneurysm. Great, of course it was. So the surgeon made a 2 1/2” incision to put one stitch in my femoral artery, declared the surgery a success and they discharged me from the hospital Tuesday. So now I’ll have another identifying scar if my headless body ever turns up.

I was supposed to have the Watchman procedure Monday to get me off the blood thinner but I called the electrophysiologist’s office when I was in the ER and it was canceled. I still intend to have it but I’ll wait a while. As the floor doctor told me on Sunday it was a good procedure for people my age on blood thinners to get because that’s when we start falling and hitting our heads and bleeding. Fun guy, but I suppose he’s right. 

All this because I mistook an intense afib episode for some sort of heart failure but at least I know my heart is good, my lungs are good, and my vessels aren’t all clogged up.

Can my life get more exciting?

 

butterfly, flowers, and the appointment

I took the kitchen scraps out to the compost pile last Sunday and there were about a dozen fritillaries feeding on the watermelon rinds dumped the day before. They all flew up and this little one landed on my finger. I didn’t have my camera/phone on me so I walked back to the house and back outside all the while this one stayed on my finger. It seemed reluctant to leave but flew away when I blew on it after I took the picture.

And my tomatoes are blooming. What’s up with that? They’re not supposed to bloom when it gets this hot. Guess I’ll wait and see if they set fruit.

Yesterday was the appointment with the neurosurgeon and while I was trying to stay calm on the drive in and while waiting and then again in the room, my blood pressure was high when she took it, was it always this high she asked, depends on my anxiety level. Don’t be anxious she said, changed cuffs and took it again, still high but lower. Then the NP came in and took my history and family history, asked about any sudden deaths in my family. Yes, my father died of a massive stroke after surviving one and my sister just this last November, ischemic stroke with brain bleed, looking for a genetic history of aneurysm I guess. She questioned the ischemic part of my sister’s diagnosis, that ischemic stroke didn’t cause brain bleeds and also my father’s saying that stroke didn’t cause sudden death. So there’s a big question mark there as neither were autopsied. The neurologist in the ER when my sister died said it was an ischemic stroke and while it wasn’t usual, it could be accompanied by brain bleed if the artery became weak and friable from the blockage. So who knows. I did look it up when I got home and found several reliable sources that said bleeding in the brain after an ischemic stroke could happen. Then she tested me finger to nose, following her fingers with my eyes not my head, how many fingers in my peripheral vision, that sort of thing. She answered most the questions I had written down to my satisfaction, a couple she deferred to asking the doctor.

The doctor came in and I liked him immediately, friendly and casual. He showed me a picture of the basilar artery in my brain and the bulge that was previously diagnosed as a fusiform aneurysm, I think from the MRI, which was gray and fuzzy. He pointed out the shape which seemed to have a point and that there was a very faint line coming off of it that could be a branching off to the right from the artery like the one on the other side branching off to the left which was still blurry but more visible. Then he showed me a picture of (not my brain) the arteries as seen from a cerebral angiogram which was black, sharp, and clear. He told me there was a 25% chance it was not an aneurysm and if it is, not necessarily the difficult to repair fusiform type, could be the bubble type, hard to determine from that image. I asked him if it was fusiform (meaning an oval shaped bulge in the artery, not a bubble off to one side) could it be repaired. He said yes and gave me two methods, one of which was cutting a piece out of my skull and performing brain surgery (I’ve forgotten what the other method was, maybe a stent) but it would have to be much bigger and dangerous before he would consider that. If it turns out it is the fusiform kind then controlling my blood pressure and regular imaging would be the treatment since it is high blood pressure that causes aneurysms to enlarge and blow. I suppose if it’s the bubble type that could still be the treatment plan, that or repair. I’ll know what I’m facing after the angiogram.

So the cerebral angiogram has been scheduled for July 9th. I’ll have to go in several days before to get bloodwork done and blood pressure taken, will have to be there for the procedure at 5:30 AM. I’ll be awake he said, given some sedative that will cause me to sleep if I relax into it, it’s a quick procedure, half hour max, shouldn’t feel a thing, maybe a little prick when they go into the artery in my groin. And it’s possible the electrophysiologist will do the Watchman procedure after the angiogram in which case I’ll be staying overnight in the hospital.

My double purple althea (rose of sharon).

feeling in limbo

Now that the ablation is scheduled the afib has settled down and my heart has a happy sinus rhythm. Of course it does. But then it will slip in for short periods and out again.

This last 10 days have been tumultuous to say the least. By Thursday morning I was ready for some normalcy so I went to SHARE. Jade had come in Wednesday evening and since both her parents were at work she came with me. It wore her out doing half of what I do. Then I went to yoga at Hesed House Thursday night and filled the regulars in on why I wasn’t there last week. I’m to the point where I make jokes about it because otherwise, well, it’s just too depressing and does me no good to obsess about it. Jade left Friday morning heading back to Austin. And last evening my grandson came by with great granddaughter Paisleigh, 

my first visit with him since he’s been back from Arkansas. He and Audra and Paisleigh are moving back but slowly while he works here, currently staying with his folks, and figures out a place to live but he’s still paying the bills on the house in Arkansas and the lease isn’t up til the end of the year. So Audra and Paisleigh are still living in Arkansas while she works there and he works here. Paisleigh has been here for the last week, Mikey went and got her last weekend, and Robin has been doing childcare duty while everyone is at work. Audra came for the holiday weekend and is taking Paisleigh back with her.

I wondered in the night during my awake time what the neurosurgeon would think of my upcoming procedure for afib and the effect, if any, on the aneurysm so this morning I went on the patient portal from his office to leave a message/question and checked the test results listed that he had reviewed and the most important one, the CT with contrast that showed the aneurysm, wasn’t listed. Did the hospital not send that report, has he not seen it, did he determine my condition didn’t need immediate attention because he did not see the test that showed the aneurysm? So I sent a long message with pictures of the type of test and the results showing the little bomb in my brain. He did review the CT scan, the chest x-ray, and the MRI. I doubt, being a holiday weekend, that it will be seen before Tuesday and I have no idea if he has left the country already or not. I also want to ask about doing a headstand, and a couple of other yoga asanas, which I do, holding it for 20 breaths, giving my organs a little break from gravity and sending the blood to my head, if that puts pressure on the aneurysm but that can wait. I did my home yoga routine this morning for the first time in about 10 days and thought to not do a headstand but I did one anyway only holding it for 10 breaths. I’m still here.

Summer is here, temps in the mid 90s and humid as fuck and no rain for the foreseeable future and I still have stuff out in the yard to do like excavate my potatoes (if I have some), repot some stuff, plant some stuff and ordinarily I would be out there for a couple of hours sweating but with these procedures coming up I am not. The last thing I need is to get heat stressed before all this happens. So I go out when I get up, kill stink bugs off my tomatoes with the insecticidal soap I made and then come in. In the evening I go out and water all the plants in pots. Yesterday I spent the day moving the sprinkler around. The new cotton out in the field, maybe not even 12” high yet looks terrible, sere.

Oh, and I went and got my glasses Friday. I wore them most the day but took them off to read and look at the computer monitor. I see better for that without the glasses which are transition bifocals. I doubt if I’ll wear them much in the house, just mostly driving and being out. I have 60 days to decide if I don’t like the transition lenses and I can get new lenses with the hard line at no extra cost. Rimless except for across the top.

The picture below is my previous pair, the ones I lost in the flood. I think I might like those frames better. This picture was taken in 2016 when Minnie was only a little over a year old. The last eight years have been hard on my face.

eye repair, snipped kitty, and Sunday's task

Yesterday was my annual eye appointment and the good news is that my eyesight hasn’t worsened and the good/bad news is that she did not tell me the cataract in my left eye wasn’t bad enough for surgery, come back in a year. My left eye, which is my seeing close eye, has really been bothering me for the last several months. It’s been feeling like there is some goo that I can never rub out or a sheer veil that doesn’t make things more blurry so much as reduces the clarity. I had to fill out a questionnaire considering my answers as if I was looking with my left eye only. Anyway, I had two options for where the surgery will be done, at the hospital here or the hospital in Bay City a half hour away. I will need to be taken and then picked up with about 3 hours in between. So rather than Marc having to sit around the hospital in Bay City for 3 hours plus the hour of drive time I opted for the hospital here. The downside to that is that she only gets one day a month at the hospital here. The March slot is taken, she will be out of town during the April slot, so it will be May before I get the cataract removed. The right eye is also developing a cataract but it’s not bad enough for surgery yet.

Yesterday was also the brown tabby’s day to get taken to the vet to get snipped. This little cat is mostly silent, has a very quiet mew when he does mew and the only way I can tell if he’s purring when I hold and pet him is from the vibration in his throat. He was very loud and vocal in the car but after a few minutes he quietly settled down until we got to the vet where he expressed his displeasure. I’ll pick him up this afternoon. It may be awhile before he lets me pick him up again though the gray tabby got over it pretty quick.

I moved all the rest of the outdoor plants back outside last weekend and we even got the last three out of the garage, the biggest most problematic being the night blooming cereus. It is huge. And heavy. And cumbersome. And needs a new pot as the plastic one it’s in is starting to break apart. I’m going to have to cut it back though I don’t want to because I love how big it is and that it gives me 20 or more flowers at a time. Not that I always see them since it blooms at night.

So the task I had to attend to over at Pam’s house Sunday was filling an animal burrow, my guess would be armadillo. I don’t know if you can tell from this picture but there is a big hole under the bottom stair of the steps up to the front door and it extends under the concrete paver that the post sits on, which was already tilting down into the hole, and on under the house. Fortunately I had a wheelbarrow load of clayey dirt from digging the hole I planted the yellow angel trumpet in. 

First I pulled out the ferns that had migrated there in front of the steps and in between the steps and house and moved all the rocks she had there and the concrete paver at the bottom of the steps for better access to the hole. 

Shovel some dirt on two sides of the paver under the post and into the hole under the stair, used a length of 2” x 4” and a hammer to pound it down as far as I could, more dirt, more pounding, add a little water, more pounding until I felt like I had it well filled and compacted. 

Then I got a small piece of limestone I had hanging around and pounded it in the space between the 2” x 8” and the bottom of the step. I still need to get some small shims to complete that part. And then I put the rocks and the other paver back in place.

she's back, she as in me

Success! Actually, it was really easy. When the mini was first set up Greg made me create a password to get past the start-up screen for security purposes (as if it isn’t just Marc and I here but OK) and when I would be through for the day I would just put the mini to sleep. Monday, the power flickered off and on and the mini shut down. Alright, no problem, I restarted and typed in the password. Nope, typed it in again and still nope. Tried my Apple ID password and still nope. Nope nope nope. Well, fuck. Got hold of Greg and he walked me through changing my password, restart, type in the new password…nope. So then we tried a number of things all of which were unsuccessful and then the cable went out and I lost internet access and the mini went to sleep until this morning when our schedules aligned again. So restart again, type in the original password again and no, typed it in again and no (the point being to get the response after three wrong tries to change the password) but the third time I decided to type in the new password from Monday expecting it to be rejected as it had been on Monday and, whoa! It worked. Apparently it had to sit on it for a while or who knows, maybe it was because the cable was out and we didn't realize it yet, but I’m back in.

It was actually kind of nice, I didn’t really think about it. Did my yoga routine in the mornings, finally packed up all those glass jewels and clear lenses I promised my friend in Colorado months ago, got some weeding done in the yard, cut back a lot of dead stuff, moved some of the plants out of the house and garage.

Tuesday was my annual check-up…blood sugar 3 points over the high; A1c .2 over the high so edging into pre diabetes which runs in my family but she said it would have to get significantly worse before she would recommend medication; cholesterol about 50 points over the high so not so bad and same as it always is so I’ve always refused medication in the past. Key word, in the past, but now things have changed. My father died of a massive stroke when he was the age I am now, my mother died in her mid 70s from cumulative damage from TIAs, and now my older by three years sister has died of a massive stroke. So what’s that mean for me, I asked. That you are at risk of having a stroke. Even though I take a blood thinner? Yes, even though. She recommended lowering my cholesterol, what did I want to do. I do not want to have a stroke. OK, she says and sent a new prescription in for the med.

Today was Groundhog Day and for the first time in what seems like decades the little critter did not see its shadow and so spring is just around the corner. I believe it. It got up to 73˚ today with a mostly blue sky and I saw my first crane fly today. Fitting I suppose since it's my personal harbinger of spring. Now the wind has picked up and it’s mostly overcast with storm clouds, supposed to rain tomorrow. 

I’d been collecting these photos of the few butterflies I saw this fall just before and after my sister died but there were always other things to blog about so here they are finally, taken in November and December.

monarch

swallowtail

a tattered red admiral

fritillary

hairstreak

And the 10 petal anemone and redbud tree mentioned in my last post.

cut the med, cut the hair, cut the grass

Wednesday was my twice yearly follow-up with the electrophysiologist, my afib doctor. The protocol for the medication he has me on is a check in every six months. It's been four years since I had the ablation for flutter and he put me on meds for the afib. The low dose of the sotolol he started with wasn't having much effect so he bumped it up to the higher dose. Now, after 4 years of twice a year visits and ekgs showing a good sinus rhythm each visit he is reducing my med to the lower dose. Says I'll have more energy. More energy?! Seriously, the last thing I need is more energy. That's what my primary care doc said when he put me on thyroid medication those decades ago which at the time I didn't so much as walk from place to place as charged ahead from place to place. And my blood pressure was good so I was glad to have about a half hour waiting before being called in as I could feel it rising as I got into the horrible Houston traffic. I'm glad his office is a couple of exits inside the beltway instead of right smack in the middle of the city.

The other thing I did this week was get my hair cut. When it gets to the point of being put up in a bun or ponytail basically as soon as I get up then what's the point of keeping it long. 

Pulled back in a bun the gray is more apparent.

Besides, it's summer now with the attendant humidity so I went Thursday afternoon. I want something different this time, I told her. I don't know what I want exactly but I want it short, maybe just two inches, I told her. Off my neck, out of my face. Two inches is a bad idea, she says. We looked at pictures of styled cuts. I don't do styling, I don't use product, I'm a wash and let air dry kind of gal. I wasn't looking for a 'look' so basically I told her to just cut it. She started and the first cut was over one ear. My eyes got large, maybe even winced a bit. Should I turn you around til I'm finished she asked. A weak little 'no' from me. Second cut above my other ear, another little wince and maybe a whimper. Are you going to cry she asked. Another weak little 'no' from me. The die was cast and she cut and cut and cut. There was a small animal on the floor when she was done.

I'm reminded of the adage 'be careful what you wish for'. My hair has never been this short. Ever. It's a pixie cut she says. I like the way it feels. I like the way it looks in the back. 

Not too sure about how it looks from the front because of the way my hair curls above my temples. Oh well, I'll get used to it and it will grow out. I did think it would be curlier though.

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The riding lawn mower es muerto and the mosquitoes are horrendous out there, big black ones and teeny little ones, hiding in the tall grass waiting for me to wander in the yard. Seriously, they swarm you and run you in the house so today, Friday, I fetched the little electric mower from over at the shop and did the front yard. Took me almost two hours what with all the stopping to toss away the hidden fallen branches and clearing out the shredded grass and leaves clogging it up and the break I took to cool off and drink some water. Tomorrow I'll do the big backyard as far as the heavy duty extension cord will reach.

I have to get up soon to start dinner when what I really want to do is lay down and take a nap. A simple meal...baked cod fillets, buttered new potatoes with dill, and the handful of green beans I picked this morning,

and now that the first Fredericksburg peaches are in maybe a sliced peach too.

And just because they are so glorious, here's another picture of the zinnias.

what I did on my...er, last week

This is a long post, here it is Saturday, the first chance I've had to sit down and write. Nearly a week has gone by and I've yet to get back out and work in the garden but that's the plan for this afternoon. Tuesday, like Monday was very windy and grocery shop day and gas up the car day and fix dinner day and always walk the dog day. Wednesday we had to get up really early and get to Victoria for a follow-up X-ray and appointment with the pulmonologist. The most recent x-ray showed his lung nearly clear with the upper right section still densely white. He's feeling better I think than he did before he got sick but he's still on antibiotics and steroids there's that.

Thursday was my SHARE day and then I had an opthomologist appointment in the afternoon to check the progress of my cataracts (still not bad enough for surgery, come back in a year) and she dilated my eyes which made my left eye feel weird and when it got dark, all the lights on buildings, headlights on cars, traffic lights had rays coming out from them to a wonky shaped halo but only with my left eye. 

Never had that happen before and then yoga. And Friday we drove to Shopping Mecca for a series of purchases, some successful, some not, but the main one is that we bought a new washer and dryer. I mean, as long as we're throwing money around for a new water heater and two new iPhones, why the hell not? The ones that came with the house have to be 30 years old if not older and the dryer quit working the week before I took Marc to the ER and the agitator in the washer starts out vigorous but then gets sluggish and we're not at all sure just how clean the clothes were getting and besides that one of the springs that balance the tub is broken and no longer available for replacement, same with the discharge hose that broke in two so we had to glue it back together with Gorilla glue. Suffice to say, a new washer and dryer was not a frivolous expense and besides, I was out of clean underwear. Delivery is imminent.

out with the old

in with the new

After two days in the 80s, really? it's February, this morning was a bit chilly which is more like it though it didn't last long and warmed up. The first EarthLab talk for the year at Hesed House is this morning on creating a successful butterfly habitat and since my sister is the one who organizes this lecture series my presence is de rigueur, not that I mind as she arranges very interesting programs, but it does mean those Saturdays start earlier than usual.

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Well yesterday didn't play out at all as planned. I did go to the EarthLab presentation from the Texas Master Naturalists Coastal Prairie Chapter on building a healthy habitat for butterflies, which mostly boiled down to creating a 'pocket prairie' that is consistent with our ecoregion which is coastal prairie, you want to have the proper plants that bloom at the proper time to support our region's butterflies and caterpillars for food and shelter as well as those migrating through, and leaving it all the fuck alone. So if you like a neat lawn of grass with tidy bordered flowerbeds of forced garden center annuals, which she said very often don't even produce nectar, this is not the style for you. Don't rake those fall leaves, don't mow the spring 'weeds', learn to love the look of a natural habitat through all four seasons. Here's their website if you want more information about the Texas coastal prairie which the speaker says, because of all the human intervention, is nearly extinct and is, in actuality, functionally extinct.

When I got home and came in the garage door and crossed the threshold I saw a thick line of fire ants marching along the baseboard. Backing up, Thursday morning as I was getting ready to leave I noticed ants around the baseboard of my workroom and into my bedroom so I spooned out cinnamon along their path which a friend had recommended for getting rid of ants and it had worked for a previous attempted incursion from the door to the little backyard and left for SHARE. When I got back I swept it all up and then discovered they were making a nest under the rubber mat right outside the door into the garage. Swept them out and sprinkled some ant poison under the mat. Problem solved. Ha. Saturday, I followed the thick line of ants to the corner where Cat's litter box is. Picked up the litter box and there were thousands of the fuckers setting up shop. No no no no no! Can't spray poison in the house so out came the vacuum cleaner and then I moved the plants in the opposite corner back outside and vacuumed there and then along the baseboards of all four walls following the trail of ants.

Then I figured as long as I had the vacuum cleaner out I would do the rest of the house which I did and threw that bag into the trash can in the garage. Later I checked and there were still some ants traversing the baseboards in the big room, sucked them up as well. So now, this morning? Yes, still some and I'll get out the vacuum directly. I just wonder if these are stragglers or new ones coming in wondering where the hell the nest went. Surely, eventually, they'll figure out that ants come in but they never come back out. Now I need to take the plants in the garage back out, pull up the mats around the door and along the wall, move a small shelf unit, and sweep and use the leaf blower and clean out all the accumulated dirt and put the mats back down. They probably initially came in with one of the pots that have overwintered in the garage.

So, yeah, still haven't gotten back out in the yard but here's a few pictures...the first amaryllis, the pink rose bush, false freesia (freesia laxa), and more daffodils.