Happy (cough cough) birthday

The thing I learned this birthday, is to have respect for this body that's carrying me around.  Well, being a wholistic type person, I respect that I and my body are one, but I get things into my head and kind of push it beyond what is good for us, (the committee of Barbara).

So what's new?  I worked to get things changed so I could offer afternoon tea and coffee in a "parlor" or "tea room" setting.  Didn't ask for help.  Didn't get much done.  Being a cluttery kind of person, there's still lots to be done.  But I did start...that was Wed.  There's no deadline for when I get this endeavor going.  It's not a business, just like my pottery, but a hobby.  I'm not going to charge for drinks and cookies but accept donations.   I think some days nobody will drop in, but I hope to have a few friends come by for a cuppa.

I could barely walk when I got up Thurs.  Left knee complaining.  Walked slowly and carefully all day and it felt better by the time I went to sleep.  This morning it's at it again.  I think I will be doing this for a few more days...hobbling in the early part of the day.  But knee joints are tricky little buggers, so I don't want to hurt it.  My neighbor across the street has had one or both replaced.  I do hope this ends up being a heal-able thing from just over-doing it pushing furniture a few feet.

Coughing started about Wed. also, after a few days of scratchy throat.  I skipped choir because my vocal chords didn't feel like la la la, more like croak croak ribbit.

My cat Muffin was also born on this day.  When I lived in St. Augustine, Florida I had an apartment near the beach (5th house back from the Atlantic on 15th St.).  There was a big grassy weedy field across the street, which later became a Hampton Inn.  But in 1996 it was still bare when I moved there.  My son, Tai says the kittens were born o my porch the year he went to college, 1997.  So Muffin is my little old lady at 16.

Her mother was feral and I somehow caught her after the kittens had been weaned and took her to my vet to get her spayed.  He said she clawed everyone in the place.  I named her Mataley, after my mother who gave birth to me 71 years ago today, in Dallas.  There was no air conditioning anywhere.  She later tole me (probably when I was expecting a fall baby) she craved watermelon all the time.

It is a blessed day.  The fog rolled down the mountain valley when I awoke, only knowing by memory where the invisible peaks were, but I see glimmers of sun beaming through.  It's August and promises a hot afternoon.  And for this year, we now expect rain almost daily.