Adieu, January!

And, what a beautiful last day of January it has been! The weather was very spring-like and then the beautiful sunset that I captured out our bedroom window just a little while ago. We definitely got a preview of Spring! Woody has spent a lot of time outside working in the yard. He has blown leaves and gotten underway with cleaning up the gardens around the house...getting the leaves out of the flower gardens is quite a job! I ventured out for another first today...went shopping with a friend for a little while this morning. After shopping she and I stopped and visited with another friend. That was the first time that I had been in a store this year. It was also the first time that I have written this year's date on a check...always hard to make a new year's number come out of the pen those first few times! I came home and ate lunch and then set back to work on getting Christmas put away. Today's job meant reorganizing part of the shelves in the buffet in the dining room. I needed to put something else in it so had to rearrange which meant taking everything out of that side. I managed to throw a few things away, put a couple of other things in other places and thus make room to put the new items in...success! By the time that I got that done I was ready to head back to my recliner...I had been "up and at um" for quite a while at that point in the day. I probably stayed up a bit too long as not long after I sat down I started having spasms in my back (another way I could describe what happened is that my back "seized up"...or that is what it seemed like to me)! I think that all the lying around that I have done has probably weakened muscles in my back. This is the second time that this has happened since I have been back up and doing things. I just have to remember the word "gradually!" I grabbed my heating pad and tried to relax and after a couple of the spasms "things" got better! While I was downstairs working on undecorating, the phone rang and I was surprised to hear my doctor on the other end of the line. She was calling to check to see how I and "my gout" were doing. I filled her in on the latest and greatest. She wants me to go on and start taking two of my gout tablets each day...oh, boy...not sure if I am ready or not...just hope that the daily taking of two doesn't trigger anything! But guess I will follow my doctor's orders/suggestions! Woody left a while ago to walk to the prayer room at church. Before he left I gingerly got up to make sure that I wouldn't crumple into a ball when I attempted to walk across the room. All was well so he headed off. He has yet to return. I am going back to my chair and do some reading. I finished another book last night. That put the total number of books that I have read this month/year at 12...well ahead of my goal of one a week! I have two more going at the moment...one that I can physically turn pages and hold in my hand...the other on my iPad where I swipe to turn pages. I'm enjoying them both. Hopefully I won't have as much time on my hands to read this coming month. I love to read, but there comes a time when other things really need to be done...but am glad that I have had all these good reads to fill up my time while not being able to move around much. And, these words bring a close to the January's blogs for 2017. I started this blog in January 2009...January 7th, 2017 started the 9th year. Time flies when you're having fun...and even when you're not!