Indy in Spring

Forget Paris, with the euro (and pretty much every other currency you can think of) thoroughly spanking the dollar of late.  Come to Indianapolis this spring!  It's so green!  It's got lovely rolling landscape because there are rivers and streams winding through town.  Nothing feels so green as the midwest after living in the desert for a decade or so.  We've been told to expect cold, rainy weather but so far it has been sunny, warm and breezy.  The lake is sparkly and peaceful.  There are trees aplenty, and there are lots of flowers in bloom.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I like a happier excuse for traveling, but as long as I'm here I am enjoying what I like to call "real weather."

Sunny the Cocker Spaniel graciously took me for a walk yesterday, showing me all the best places to get barked at by larger dogs.  The Kaisers live in a rather fancy suburb of Indianapolis, the major draw being the "lake" (Geist reservoir) which we can see out the front windows of the house.  They cleverly pointed the house at the sunset over the lake when they had it built, and the effect is such that most of the time, all I want to do is sit on the front porch and read and gaze at the lake.  When Gary is well we like to cook together, making large, caloric meals for his guests.  Gary is a fun and gracious host and likes to use guests as an excuse to make a big tasty meal.  The more wine or scotch we drink, the more butter and cheese ends up in our recipes.  Being the total lightweight that I am I don't let him pour me a scotch, I just take a couple sips of his as we go or have a glass of white wine.  He likes to sing what's going on sometimes - the most famous example being when he passed by Matt and cousin Kip's chess game singing, "Take his pawn, take his pawn..."  I tried this once to tease him, singing whatever we were doing in the kitchen.  "I'm grating zucchini, don't be a meanie, dinner's not teeny..."  But this backfired on me because it's an addictive habit and now I am a singing narrator too.

It's not as much fun in the house without him.

Gary is doing much better today.  I'll spare him the indignity of discussing his intestinal activity on the internet, but suffice to say that the bowel resection operation has obviously worked correctly.  He got to have liquids today, which helped his throat immensely, and he very much enjoyed the vegetable broth he got for lunch.  Someone made noises about letting us take him home tomorrow, which would be great, but I'll believe it when I see it.  Tomorrow is also supposedly when we hear the pathology report which will tell us how tame or nasty a case of cancer he has.  We're hoping for "it was all in the intestine and you're fine now."  But we're trying to be cautious and not form any expectations.

Cancer prevention tip of the day:  Stress reduction!  Too much stress is bad for you.  It sends nasty chemicals through your system and prevents adequate rest.  There are much more accurate and authoritative sources on this stuff, but here's such an easy tip, if you don't do it, you're being silly and I'll have to get my sack back out and stuff you in it.  I've got a dozen big, scratchy, burlap sacks on order from a gardening supply company so don't get on my sack list.  Right, the tip.  Deep slow breaths.  That's it.  So easy.  Not only when you feel stressed, but any time you think it might have been half an hour since you did one last.  Long, slow, deep breath in, expanding your tummy to make room for your lungs to expand to their maximum.  Tiny pause with lungs full.  Long, slow, complete breath out, squeezing your belly button towards your spine at the end to get the last little bit out of the bottom of your lungs.  Then let go and breathe normally.  Feels really good.  You can even do it in front of the TV.  Try it now.  Really, go ahead.  Ah, wasn't that nice?

Hm.  Pat just handed me a pile of books to read...