Day +183, Wednesday

Today was great! Highlights included bear sightings, a front porch date with Andy, salad for dinner, listening to birdsong while writing, coffee with hazelnut creamer, a hilarious video and a 5-mile hike.

My body feels generally OK, although my back continues to be a bit sore, leftovers from a culmination of driving, air mattressing, and furniture moving. I broke out the Motrin for pain relief & inflammation reducer, something I rarely do as I take the blood thinner, Xarelto. During today’s hike my back didn’t feel great, but I thought movement would be good for promoting healing and blood flow. And then I stretched! And for a big part of today and yesterday and the day before that, I’ve faithfully used my heating pad, and even applied BioFreeze. It’s better than what it was, so I’m happy about that – To be continued.

Earlier in the day, I enjoyed sipping coffee while proofing my 6-month Transplaniversary post; I did some light editing and added a bit more writing for clarity. The kitties, at least 3 out of 4, enjoyed spending time downstairs with me, watching the birds and listening to their sweet melodies. I think I’ll end up getting them a bird feeder in the near future, as the 4 of us really enjoyed the experience.

My hike was nice – didn’t push the pace at all, but the day was beautiful and it felt awesome to be outside. I wore long sleeve shirt & pants, an ugly floppy hat thing, and regular running socks instead of my compression socks! My legs said, thank you!” Seeing all 5 bears was really wonderful, but I didn’t want to stress them out too much, and my time observing them was short. Walking away, I noticed two cubs – in two different trees – climbing a la American Ninja Warrior. They were so amazing and cute and made me happy! I couldn’t help but grin!

The remainder of the night was low key- we had an outside, then inside date, made dinner, started laundry, etc. I’ve got a scented candle going on the dresser and wrote this post with Andy at my side. At one point, he couldn’t stop laughing and shared this video with me. I’ve watched it so many times – well, you’ll see for yourself…enjoy! Oh – and goodnight!