Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer......

Emphasis on lazy.

Because they canceled my mother-in-law's doctor's appointment today, that meant we did NOT have to go to/near Atlanta for the fourth day in a row. (To be fair, though, I didn't take her on Tuesday to her regular doctor. Her own daughter deigned to do that one.)

I felt like I had been given a gift. and I'm not complaining about having to take her to her appointments. She's unable to get around on her own, someone has to do it, and I'm the person who is least likely to make her nervous. (She may be saying the opposite to other members of the family, because that's what old people do, but whatever.) I also had a doctor's appointment for myself sandwiched in there.

I got up at 6:30 this morning, and we immediately started watching golf. I know a lot of people can't stand to watch golf on television, but I love it. I especially love the British Open, not only because it comes on at 4:30 AM, but because it involves links play, with those huge pot bunkers and usually horrible weather conditions that make you wonder why the golfers subject themselves to such torture.

When Hubby left to go play golf himself, I was sitting in my recliner, iPad in hand and remote control nearby. When he returned from playing golf, I was sitting in my recliner, iPad in hand and remote control nearby. I did make up the bed today, and I washed the few dishes that were in the sink, but other than those two tiny activities, I didn't do anything useful all day.

I justified it to myself, saying I had earned a day to myself.

It was overcast all day, and I could have gone for a bike ride at any time and not suffered, not just early this morning as usual in these hot days of summer. I didn't.

I could have done some limited housework, at least during commercial breaks from the golf tournament. i didn't.

I could have gone to the grocery store and marked that chore off my weekend to-do list. I didn't.

And I feel yucky. I feel as though I wasted a perfectly good day. I tell myself on one hand that I didn't NEGLECT anything that absolutely HAD to be done, and I deserve a day off every now and then. But because of my upbringing, I guess, I feel guilty about such a lazy day.

Sigh. I can't even take a day off and enjoy it.

There's no way I'll be bored in retirement. I'll beat myself up if I have even occasional days of inactivity, so there won't be time to be bored.

I guess I should be thankful for the guilt.

Making Light.....

First of all, I have to apologize. In this blog post I'm making light of something that shouldn't be funny at all. Good thing my mother-in-law is a good sport about it.

She and I have spent a great deal of quality time together in the car lately, shuttling from doctor's appointment to doctor's appointment. Each one apparently leads to yet another specialist, and after three trips each one refers us to a new one, getting progressively closer and closer to downtown Atlanta.

This morning's appointment was at 7:00 AM. In Atlanta. I got up at 4:30, and we almost made it on time. We were in the parking deck at 7:00 AM, so that should count.

She was having an MRI today (she has a growth/tumor in the roof of her mouth, for Pete's sake, rendering her unable to wear her dentures, and when they did a CT scan, they saw something "they didn't like"). I realize the first word in the acronym for MRI is "magnetic," and the reason they have to ask these questions is obvious.

They're still funny.

Most of them I simply checked off myself, but every now and then I stopped and asked my mother-in-law, pretending to be serious.

"Any type of prosthesis (eye, limb, PENILE, etc.)?" I'm not sure I even want to know what a penile prosthesis is. Or does. 

"Do you have a bone growth/bone fusion stimulator?" Huh?

"Eye injury involving a metallic object?" Wouldn't they NOTICE a spoon sticking out of her cornea?

"Injury involving a metallic object (bullet or shrapnel, etc.)?" Yeah, we were just on our way to get that taken care of, but we stopped off here for an MRI first.

"Eyelid spring or wire?" Seriously? People HAVE those? Like that strange illness Hubby's uncle had where he couldn't open his eyes? Maybe he needed an eyelid spring.

"Any metallic fragment or foreign body?" Is this a trick question to make sure she answered the bullet question correctly the first time?

"Tissue expander (e.g. breast)?" No, that's not a tissue expander, it's called gravity.

"Intrauterine Device (IUD) or diaphragm?" She's 83 freakin' years old, for crying out loud!

It's possible ... not likely, but possible ... that these were only funny to me because I was/am sleep-deprived.

It ain't gonna get any better tomorrow, when I fully expect to get up at the crack of dawn to watch The Open Championship (formerly known as The British Open and I can't get out of the habit but wanted to be precise here). That's golf, y'all. Coverage starts at 4:30. Well, maybe I won't get up THAT early.

Sports in England.....

I just love it when major sports events take place in England. In the United Kingdom. Which of those is correct? I don't want to offend anyone.....

Lakeland Jo wrote a couple of weeks ago about what a pain it is when Wimbledon is going on. I guess if I lived there and had to contend with the crowds and the hype and all that I would feel differently, but I loooooooooooooooooooooooove Wimbledon.

I love it that it happens in the summer, when I'm home from school. And I love it that it comes on at 7:00 AM, because when else can I watch sports at that hour of the morning?

I have strict rules for deciding which players to pull for.

Generally, I pull for the Americans. That's sometimes a futile exercise when it comes to Wimbledon. I think 16 or 18 Americans started, and there were 6 left at one point this morning. And the one I was pulling for went down, so then there were 5.

I look at the seedings and pull for the underdog. Unless the underdog is playing Roger Federer. And anyone playing against Roger Federer is an underdog. He's just so darned cute. He even makes cute commercials. Last year I struggled with whether to pull for the cute Federer or the cute Nadal. This year I don't have that conflict, since Nadal had to pull out with an injury.

I pull against one of the Williams sisters, because it's so boooooooooooooooooorrrrrriiiiingggggg when it comes to a final between the two of them. I mean come on, how much of each other's game can they NOT know at this point? This year I'm pulling for Venus, which sort of goes against my own rule, because she's won more times than Serena has. But Serena grunts.

I pull against any women players who grunt. I find the grunting very distracting, and if I were playing against a grunter, I would send a line drive right toward her larynx. Game, set, match. It's not just me, either. The commentators did a whole segment about the grunters one day this week. One of the guilty ones was interviewed and she basically said, "No one's gonna make me stop grunting and I'll do it if I want to, and if anyone doesn't like it, they can just leave." I think she's up for the Miss Congeniality award.

I pull for anyone who has made it further than he/she should have had. Someone considered too old to play tennis, someone who has had a baby, someone fresh out of rehab....... oh wait, that's not tennis.

The only thing I don't get is the whole strawberries and cream thing.

One more week of Wimbledon, then it'll be time for the British Open two weeks after that. Sigh. Life is good.