Today is International May 12th Awareness Day, also known as International ME/CFS Awareness Day. It is held every year to raise awareness of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, multiple chemical sensitivity, Gulf War syndrome and other chronic immunological and neurological diseases.
Also, somewhat appropriately, today is International Nurses Day, observed around the world on the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth to mark the contributions that nurses make to society. It was first celebrated in 1965.
Tony Hawk, the American skateboarder and actor, was born this day in 1968. English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Steve Winwood was born in 1948.
Finally, today’s full moon is known as the Flower Moon. Other names include the Planting Moon, the Milk Moon, and the Hare Moon. It hit 100% just before 10 a.m. this morning here in Oregon.
The rain began just before we went to bed last night but only lasted a short while, just long enough to get the streets wet. There were other brief periods of rain during the rest of the night, but this morning was only cloudy. This morning’s low was 47 degrees, and with occasional rain during the rest of the day, the high only reached 55.
My blood sugar was in the good range again, at 143, thanks to the meatloaf we had for dinner. At least that’s what I have been telling myself.
After we finished our coffee and the Monday brain games, I ran out to buy more cream and cold brew. Nancy did yoga. Then we had oatmeal for breakfast.
I finally got started on the Fourth Step questions. I more or less finished, though it wasn’t my best effort. But I wasn’t going to be the only one there.
For lunch Nancy and I just had some cheese and potato chips. Then she talked for a while with her sister, Joan, who seems now to want to do her traveling on her own. She did not react as happily to our suggestion of helping as she had before. We decided to let things be for the meantime and see where Joan goes with it all.
I got a text from Dreya, Tucson friend Teri’s granddaughter. Dreya serves in the Navy and is now stationed near Norfolk. On Saturday, she met with my sisters and Beth, who is back in Virginia to celebrate her father’s birthday.
When the time rolled around for the Zoom meeting, it quickly became apparent that I had forgotten that the first session on the Fourth Step was going to be a discussion about the process of doing the work. That was a big relief. So we will meet again in two weeks, on Memorial Day, to go over the actual responses. And it might take us another session beyond that to complete everything.
While I was finishing up my meeting, Nancy put more potatoes in the oven to roast, then she sat down with a glass of wine from the Moore Family Vineyards. Then I helped slice and fry up more zucchini, and we heated up the leftover meatloaf. Everything was very tasty.
Once we had cleaned up, we were nearly ready to begin the evening’s streaming. Once the clocked ticked over to 7 p.m., we started on the next episode of “The Brokenwood Mysteries.” When Brokenwood’s elite begin to act strangely, the unusual occurrences come to a head after a wealthy man is crushed by a chandelier in his home. As the detectives investigate, they uncover a mystery filled with greed and revenge.
The next episode of “Harry Wild” followed. A fun day at the races for Harry and Fergus ends in tragedy when a racehorse throws its jockey from the saddle. Harry B. discovers the horse was sabotaged and insists the owner, his father, Duncan, is responsible for the crime.
Finally, we watched the seventh episode of “The Four Seasons.” It’s Nick’s turn to be on the outs as Anne joins the other couples for a New Year’s ski vacation and he struggles to fit in with Ginny’s friends.
As we prepared for bed, the rain was coming down again. But the forecast called for no more rain until late tomorrow afternoon. Tonight’s low will be 45 degrees, and tomorrow’s could reach 59. But given the changes we have seen in the past when it comes to predicting exactly how the weather will behave, we’ll simply take what comes and live with it. Except for my Tuesday recovery meeting, once again our schedule for the day is clear. Though we were thinking about going to Costco early in the morning to gas up the car and get a few food-related items.
