I decided to get some more lavender for the yard. I got Ann in the image as she has the same color blouse as the lavender pot.
I have some in the backyard and it seems to keep deer away from the flowers near the lavender.
There is one very nice and vigorous lily bunch in the front that keeps getting attacked by deer (second image) even though I place various deer repellent chemicals on it.
I was hoping to plant it after the rains that we are going to have Memorial weekend. However Ann liked it so much on the table I'll wait at least until after next shabbat.
I'll have to remember to use insect repellent before I start the project.
BTW, I was outside about noon 29 May and I could see my breath. Probably it was about 50F. It was cold enough to shut down the cicada sound. It was almost as cold on 30 May and the cicada were still quiet.
However, by about 1030am on 31 May they were at full loudness.
As I was driving to the barber shop this morning I looked around at traffic. I noticed a cicada had hitched a ride on my shirt.
When I got to the parking lot, the cicada was still hanging on.
Ewww.
.
I was at the grocery. I wasn't sure how many items I had but it might have been over 15 (actually I've never been sure what counts as 1 item, e..g., if you get 3 bags of something that is 3 for $10, is that 1 or 3).
Anyway, I motioned to the cashier at the more distant (in the image) express register and she waved for me to come in. I asked, "This seems to be express but without noting the number of items."
She said, "yes. So I just let anyone in."
I didn't want to take too much time in the garden so I just got a few of the roses.
Two stems were from the red, one from the pink (for some reason even after enlarging the image it's not that obvious which are which).
I added them to the iris stems still blooming from Shavuot.
I did spray my feet with insect repellent before I left the house too reduce further the chance of a bite.
Although the cicadas are in a lot of other vegetation they don't seem to be in the roses.
I put another rosemary plant in the garden on May 19.
Unfortunately, I am pretty sure I got an insect bite while doing it as the bottom of my foot got a big swell and started hurting. I took a couple of colchicine pills and they didn't do anything so I figured it wasn't gout.
Ann had a bottle of hydrocortisone (image). This seemed to reduce the pain and swelling so it almost certainly was an insect bite or sting.
So many iris. A month of blooms so far.
Ann likes them so I decided to go all iris again.
A couple of cicada were on one of the flower staulks.
As in the past, purple, champagne pink and champagne yellow flowers were available.
I could have done about 50 more like this if I had time.
A few days ago Irwin sent me a photo of cicadas in the Baltimore area.
Today I aw a few on our day lily leaves.
Uggh.
The image may be enlarged by a click. So ugly.
This is a member of the famous Brood X, also known as the Great Eastern Brood.
The wikipedia entry for this is here.
Some of the same stems from last week had new flowers so I kept those. The pink iris seem slightly orange this weekend.
I added some additional purple iris.
Finally, just above the vase are some of the first pink roses of the year. The red roses aren't in full bloom yet.
Pengy, our Haredi Penguin (and diamond merchant) is visiting us again this sabbath (and for Shavuot) so he is in the image.
I had a urolift on 12 May (at 8am). The operation took only about 10-20 minutes and I was sedated.
After sedation I awakened to find I had a urinary catheter attached. Some people need it, others don't.
The rest of the day was pretty unpleasant and it would have been much worse if I didn't have Oxycodone for pain killer and Azo for specific urinary pain.
I got the catheter removed on 13 May (also at 8am). So today was more pleasant but I haven't recovered complete urinary function.
14 May I felt well enough to go shopping. There is still lots to recover in the way of urinary function. I read that typical recovery is at least 2 weeks. Today at least I recovered a lot from surgery and medicine related constipation.
I went to the Physical Therapy group for a consult and initial treatment for my knee problem.
Apparently the problem is worn or torn cartilage (not bone problems) aggravated by some flexibility deterioration.
I start some exercises recommended by the therapist and one exercise recommended by Medicinenet.com.
The site for the latter on the subject post is here.
Similar to previous post.However, at the bottom right is an orchid that Beth sent.
Also at the bottom is Hadassah who wanted to prevent problems.
Also, different flowers are in different flowering phases.
Ann is in background and the perspective is a bit different. To the upper left, second shelf from the top, are pictures of Ann's parents.
Somehow there is more coke in the bottle today than there was Friday (or it is a new bottle).
The Mother's day card is at the bottom of the vase.
All the flowers are iris today.
The purple iris have a nice fragrance. They smell a little like coca cola.
The champagne pink iris have almost no fragrance.
The champagne yellow have a slight fragrance. These grow so high that they topple over after getting enough blooms.
This is the first week of the pink and yellow blooms.
This was the second time I saw someone faint after a platelet or plasma donation. He hit his head on the floor and started bleeding and the staff put his head up and called an ambulance. I noticed that at the recovery table he was, before fainting, reading a book called "A Dangerous Place" (first image) which is about the murder of a Sephardic Big Shot in Gibraltar just before WWII. Somebody mentioned this book when we were there a few years ago.
Metrics: Pulse=80, BP=130/86, Blood Reactive for Covid antibodies HG=13.7
I watched the MST version of the 1961 movie Reptilicus which was the first and so far the only monster movie made in Denmark (the first two Godzilla movies came out in the 1950s).
I didn't recognize any of the actors but Wil Wheaton (of ST NG and Big Bang) has a bit part as an executive at Gizmondo Industries, which employed the guy who is forced to watch the cheesy movies.
Some robot lines with a Danish context:
A severe thunderstorm shorts the electricity at the lab which is housing the frozen remains of the monster. This causes the door to the freezer to open. A robot says, "and that's why Danish freezer locks are rarely used in the US".
Later, the executive head of the lab is going over paperwork. He has some lab-made gadgets on his desk. A robot says (as if it were the executive's thoughts), "you know our lab could fabricate parts for assemble-able furniture with a Danish theme, but.. well, never mind, that's a stupid idea"
The special effects are bad even for 1961 and the props are cheap in the movie (see the last image where the monster is shooting a 1960 special effect) which produces some comments,
As three scientists are fiddling with gadgets mounted on what looks like a dish rack, a robot says, "People don't realize the importance of dish racks in science inventions."Another time a military commander (in charge of killing the monster) gets off the 'radio' which is a big box with some rods coming out of it. A robot says, "He got all that information from a Sears Die Hard."
I'm getting all the pre operation requirements done in advance of the 12 May Urolift.
Back on 21 April I had a pre-op visit with my family practice medical provider. They did an EKG, took a blood sample and took a urine sample.
Today, I went to the Urology Consult office and they took another urine sample which (seems stupid but not a big deal. They also took a saliva sample for a Covid test (first image but I didn't have to provide as much saliva as it seems from that image).
The latter was despite my two vaccine doses (second image) which also seems stupid but not a big deal.
A few days ago I told the Urology Consult office that I was not allergic to stainless steel, nickel and titanium.
This was based on the fact that I've used stainless steel cutlery for a long time. Also the nickel coin is about 25% nickel. Also knife shapening tools (third image) typically use titanium and many knives have titanium in the blade. Obviously, if I had a problem with these metals I would know it by now.
