A quick trip to Asheville

 It was a quick in-an-out trip down the mountain.

I didn't even go to my favorite grocery (Aldy's) or stop for lunch anywhere (and there are soooo many wonderful places to eat!)

I just went to the doctor, came on home. Perhaps feeling under the weather, as they say.

And as I walked into the Asheville Pulmonary offices, this greeted me. I pulled out the handy dandy phone to capture this luxurious dogwood.

Since Asheville is a couple hundred feet lower in elevation, they actually are a few days advanced from Black Mountain's spring blooms.

And stopped at a light I had the opportunity to capture these wonderful tile roofs of The Cathedral of All Souls. One of these day's I'll try looking inside these unique buildings.

My pulmonologist visit was a normal 6 month check in about COPD and bronchiectasis. I've been doing fine using the two machines that help...one to help me cough up stuff using a saline nebulizer treatment, and a C-PAP to help me breathe from sleep apnea. I did say I was feeling really lethargic, taking more naps, and just feeling low energy. Dr. Stashinko listened to my lungs and heard congestion, so is trying me on an antibiotic for 10 days. I've sure taken a lot of them in the last few years, and wish that I hadn't needed them so often. But I do have a bit more energy now after the first few days!

I've been in Physical Therapy to hope to improve or at least retain posture where my head is not bent so far forward (the good old sign of aging, or something to do with vertebrae.) So far I've improved my range of motion of my arms, which still do not go straight over my head. But yesterday I was on that huge ball sitting and doing some motion from my hips. I'd already done some sit/squats to the chair. But when I got up from the ball I felt like I had sea legs...seriously, remember when you get off a boat and dry land seems to heave around you? I clumped into the chair nearby and that was the end of that session. Even resting didn't cure it though. I kind of loose-jointed-walked to elevator, car, then home. Eating a banana and sitting with a cup of coffee did help.

And sitting here I just checked, yes, I can walk around now a bit more securely. Perhaps a bit of low blood-sugar also I'm thinking. Isn't it fun being old and thinking about all this? About 50 years ago, I was more concerned about the clothes I wore and my hair and makeup!

Today's quote:

Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison. 

-Mary Wollstonecraft, reformer and writer (1759-1797)