Going into October and changes

It's been over a month since I last blogged. Loads of changes in September, many of which I don't feel like going into detail over. My dgd was diagnosed with a congenital ailment that affects her adrenal system. Not life-threatening blessedly but still serious. And at the same time dh has been on a roller coaster over his job. His contract officially ends today and although he's received a new contract letter it's written in very "if there is work, there is a job" terms. Bleagh. And after multiple tests, the gastroenterologist has a partial answer for my health issues. Diverticulosis. Like dgd, it's something I will have to watch for the rest of my life, but it is not life threatening. Could escalate into diverticulitis but the key is eating more fibre. So, since the diagnosis two days ago, I have been trying to do it.

But I haven't been doing very well at it. I thought I was eating fibre but at the end of the day yesterday the total amount on my tracker was 13 g!! When the minimum should be 25. Aagh. And even at that my stomach was cramping quite a bit from the extra fibre. Did drink some herbal digestive tea and that helped tremendously. Within half an hour my stomach settled down. So this morning I had 14 g of fibre at breakfast (smoothie) and that's gone down okay so far.

Yesterday morning I hiked for 2 hours up and down hills at the Santa Fe Ski Hill--gained 900' from 10,200 to 11,100. We climbed Aspen Peak with a beautiful view of Santa Fe Baldy. I was happy to see that my buddies from the "NOT the Mountain Goat Hike" I lead on alternate Wednesdays all came to this one. And we shared a car going up so that was fun, especially as last week I "lost" a "friend" who led me to believe that only passive people would want to be friends with a person like me. These women are NOT passive! It was a tough hike as Dave's hikes usually are. I always choose to be the sweep because I like to hike at my own pace and this time there was a woman who really struggled with the climb and the altitude. So I stayed with her, watched over her. At the end of the hike, she was sitting on a picnic bench writing in her journal and saying aloud "Today Valerie saved my life." Well, not quite, but it still felt good especially after the last two weeks of this month. That's two lives I helped this past week--I helped another woman find a doc in this town (hard to find one who takes Medicare) and it turned out she had a serious infection that needed immediate treatment. So she was really grateful too. I write this to remind myself that despite what my former friend thinks (get past it Valerie) I am not a terrible person.

Photos from yesterday's hike:












The final photo is a view of Santa Fe Baldy (12,000') taken from Aspen Peak. The aspens are in the middle part of their glory. Another week or so and colder weather and they will have dropped their leaves. Just as beautiful as the Eastern colors in my opinion.