No Fire Works

Alyssum and Aspen arrived on Monday, the 1st.  Aspen is on the verge
of walking.  She crawls at break-neck speed and is all over the house,
but only if Mom is in sight. She is clearly wary of losing her mom.
So many new people and places.  But by yesterday she had decided I was
safe and let me hold her while mom was busy loading the car with all
the stuff to make Aspen happy, we hope.  They shall spend the weekend
at Alyssum's friend Summer's house. I missed them the minute they
were out of sight.  I am sorry they live so far away.

On Tuesday, Alyssum, Aspen and I went to the mall. It was really hot
and sunny, but we found shade, for the most part.  Our focus was to go
to Rebecca's Herb shop.  We had hoped to park at Jo's, but someone
else was parked there and took up the 2 empty spaces.  We ended up
parking  across the street from the Sherpa Restaurant.  Since we were
there, we stopped for lunch. It is not far from Rebecca's.

We had a delightful lunch sitting outside in the shade.  There was just
enough of a breeze to make it very pleasant. The food and service
were both disappointing.

 After lunch we went to Rebecca's.  Alyssum did not
find what she was looking for, which was a disappointment.

From Rebecca's we went to the Mall and headed for the area where the
water pops out of the ground with no warning and at different places.
It is fun to watch.  We were having such a good time we forgot the
time and suddenly it was way past Aspen's nap time and she decided to
let us know about that.  So we raced to the car with a screaming baby.
And I do mean raced!  I was happy to collapse into the car and glad
that Alyssum was driving.  When I got on the treadmill the next day it
was clear Alyssum and I were going a lot more than 2 miles/hour.

I went twice this week to Cardio Rehab.  I still enjoy it except when
I am very tired when I go as I was on Wednesday.  Monday, I did fine
at 2 miles/hour.  Wednesday I couldn't get there and finally quit
before the 45 minutes was up.  I rested and then did the 15 minutes
with the weights. Alyssum, Aspen and I went shopping before lunch and
then I went to rehab.  After rehab I raced from north Boulder to South
Boulder where I had an appointment to check my warfarin level.


On the Fourth of July we had a picnic in the backyard with Carl and
family, Connie and family (Alan was home for the long weekend; it's
not that far from their house to Wichita.)   Alyssum, Aspen, Robert
and I also, of course.  We had a great picnic.  Carl manned the grill
and served up great steaks!  Connie brought home made bread and a
cherry upside-down-cake.  We also had corn on the cob, 2 kinds of
potato salad...and chips with guacamole and fresh hot salsa.  Also
beer, soft drinks and water.  It was an easy meal for me.  Especially
that Carl did the grilling; Wholefoods made the potato salads and
salsa.  The corn was great and plentiful.

Today we went to the high country to get out of the heat.  What mobs
there were in Lyons and Estes Park.  It thinned out some when we got
into the park.  I had packed snacks and it was afternoon by the time
we got up there.  We found a vacant picnic table and were grateful for
some rocks someone left, to hold down our table cloth.  It wasn't
really windy, except for an occasional huge gust.

We headed home and took the Road to Allen's Park.  By the time we
got to 9,000 feet, I was getting sleepy and I think I dozed off for a
minute or two.  The next thing I knew was that my hands were tingling
and my blood/oxygen level was at 69%.  Way too low. I knew I was
in trouble.  I had to pant to keep breathing and then my hands got so
tingly...really so bad it hurt. 

We came down as soon as we could and by the time we got to
7,000 ft I was feeling better and slowly the tingling in my hands
went away.  I shall not go above 8,000 feet unless I have oxygen. 
It was not a pleasant experience and a scary one.