The Mast Cell Block Tango

  Something silly to start off with. Sunday equals art studio highjinks! One of the things I love the most about living here is my wonderful Tico neighbors. They just brought me a fat fully dressed fresh chicken. Plan on roasting it tomorrow. I sent back a big jar of homemade Boston baked beans and some fresh bread. One of the realities of being disabled involves being organized and strategic in how I cook. I cook a lot from scratch because of my food allergies. I make sure there's always enough bread, eggs and things that take little to no cooking. That roaster is going to be made into various easy to cook meals for those days I'm too sick to cook! Part of being strategic about our meals is making sure I always have things in the pantry that I can fall back on.

  Low O2 stats yesterday, rectified by a rest in a cold room involving a silly book followed by a good hard sleep. Too bad it didn't stay. Today, this morning, out in the yard filling the squirrel feeder, and the bird feeder, puttering around the potted plants, and TANK! It hit, I felt it, and that's all she wrote. I stayed mostly in bed or sitting in my chair in the living room. I freaking hate days like today. I wanted to be outside. It's the very high humidity and heat trashing the lungs.

  I love this lady. Every time I see sweet her face I hear her voice proclaiming " Lord Jesus, it's a fire! " and I hope life is treating her kindly, at least more kindly than I am treating myself. Been shaking since night before last because we had an earthquake. A rattling, rumbling, up, down and sideways shake at 9:01 pm on Tuesday night. It was above a 5. on the scale, some grade it a 5.3 and some a 5.1. Who knows? Right as I was standing nekkid as hell in the shower sleepily clutching a bar of soap. Do not recommend with my balance. Thankfully on the recommendation of my doctor and physical therapist I put a nice large teak bench in the back of the shower. I rarely use it, I can balance okay on a non slip rubber mat. Not Tuesday night, it was drop the soap, assume the position, and clutch the bench while shrieking at the husband in the next room. No damage here even if we were a mere 13vkilometers from the epicenter. Just my nerves. I've been sort of loopy since,...

  Well, not exactly like that....snipped a lot out because its just not needed. I was gaslit three years ago and fell into a depression. Cleaned just enough on my worst days to keep the worst of the dirt away. Mostly just disorganized and needed dusting more often. Massive house clean once or twice a week all day long. House mostly sort of clean. Then I stumbled across a cleaning list on one of the mast cell groups. It was a simple list, but I've taken it and tweaked it. It works! I've been cleaning from the list and after two weeks the house is immaculate. I am having minor disability issues. When the rubber of weeks of asthma hits the road we'll see, but considering how customizable it is to your day I'm predicting that it will likely work. Okay, the daily - all things I have found I can do on the worst days. I've always made my bed in the morning so this hasn't been difficult on no balance days. Back to the Daily List. Make bed Unload, load and run dishwasher...

  " Mama told me not to, I did it anyway, Misbehavin '" Nothing like a little Uncle Baby Billy from "The Righteous Gemstones"  Today was my 66th birthday and I spent the day trying to have a good time with my dear friends. It was fun, we went out for naughty breakfast of cake and refreshing adulty type coffees followed by shopping at a joint that was glorified Temu things at a crazy price. I still ended up buying knobs for my pantry. Didn't react to the food which was good because whenever I go to a new restaurant I'm very wary of food allergens and cross contamination. Nothing. The glorified Temu shop was another matter, everything in the entire place was encrusted with dust I think. All things from India with rough wood surfaces that are dust magnets.  It wasn't until we got to the plant nursery that my mastocytosis reared it's butt-ugly head. Very hot and humid and the oxygen stats plummeted. Went home, laid down in the air conditioning for aw...

  Well, today was one of those days. I felt decent, got up, and swam in the pool. I know I need to work out more to build stamina and lung strenght, but I keep forgetting if I overdo it then I am down for days. You'd think I'd learn by now. Nope. Swam and walked about forty five minutes. Foot I tore a ligament in during the July 2026 debacle of the concrete stepping stone giving way to dump me two and a half feet down into the French drain, that foot, yeah that foot, singing the blues. This is no way to run a body! After making sure that the water pressure was strong before I swam I emerged to just a trickle, not enough to shower in. Why does this matter? Every time I am dunked in pool water with its icky chemicals I need to shower with soap and follow up with copious natural ingredient body lotion afterward. Failure to shower and slather results in immediate itching and hives. Failure to moisturize means more hives and bigger.  Oh well, back to the drawing board after the ach...