Hit Me With Your Best Shot

I'm semi recovered from the 4th of July festivities on Saturday. I opted to stay home and view the fireworks from my backyard. We could see about 5 or 6 firework displays from our backyard, but most of those were way in the distance. The closest ones were from Sea World, and they put on quite the show this year. Unlike their nightly fireworks that start at 9:50 PM and ends at 10 PM, the 4th of July firworks probably lasted about 45 minutes. This drove my dog nuts, and her poor doggy voice was sore from barking so much.

Sunday we spent the day doing a ton of yard work, mostly in the back yard. My husband cut down a diseased eugenia bush (similar to the one pictured right, but not as healthy), and I talked him into chopping down a rather tall schefllera, (similar to the one pictured left, but not as lush and pretty), probably about 15 feet tall. That particular plant does well in humid, warm weather and shade. It was in direct sunlight, dry air, and not thriving. After the bushes were cut down into small pieces and put into cans for the greens recycle, we planted a palm tree where the schefllera was and planted several packs of dianthus (pictured below) in the same area. It's not that big an area, but it looks so much better. I should have photo-documented everything, but we were on a roll. Everything just sort of happened. My husband really enjoys using that chainsaw. We still have SO MUCH WORK TO DO. I really wish I could take a magic wand and suddenly have a backyard that looks like a tropical resort... HOWEVER, I don't have the staff for the continuous upkeep. The staff is just me.



Today was RU with a different PT, since my usual guy is on vacation. I did two rounds all of the usual stuff, like the squat matrix and lunge matrix, pylometrics, stability ball push-ups, and one new exercise. He had me do parallel grip pull-ups with my feet with one of those pull-up bars you attach to a door. My feet were anchored against the door, so my arms weren't completely lifting up 100% of my body weight. I easily did 10, so he added 5 more, which was no problem. I could have churned out 30 in one shot, but since I was already wiped out by just one set of the usual exercises, I used that pull-up portion of my workout to cool down. When I was done with the workout one of the assistants helped me with the ice pack for my hip, and I had a really nice, relaxing cool down, feet up. I could have easily taken a nap.

RU has three televisions all set to ESPN, all day long. Tour de France was on the tube while my hip was being iced. I happened to catch a portion of the race where two cyclists bumped into each other, causing both to crash. The weird thing was that they started swinging punches at each other. Some of the PTs commented "those guys really need boxing lessons." I never knew fist fights were a part of the Tour de France. It was so odd. I can deal with fights in hockey, and, of course, in boxing (duh), but in cycling? I don't follow the sport of cycling, so I don't know about things like that. Flat tires I'm aware of, fist fights is a whole other story.

Saturday's song:
Independence Day - Martina McBride - Katiefeldmom

PEACE

Schefllera photo from Mauroguanandi
Eugenia photo from Wikipedia.org
Dianthus photo from Missouriplants.com