Little Black Spot

I dug the welding helmet out this afternoon so I could check out Venus' march across the sun. Not much to see actually, "there's a little black spot on the sun today". The weather was most cooperative, though. Beautiful day today. Temps in the 70's, a little breeze and a few clouds early. Not enough to block the view of the sun later when Venus was visible and an exquisite sunset to cap it off. Since it won't be around again until 2117, probably a good thing I got to see it today.

When I grabbed the welding helmet to check out the sun, I figured I should put in a darker lens prior to viewing. When I opened up the drawer I found a mouse nest made from insulation and the paper wrappers from the lenses. Plus some more little black spots of a different kind. Earlier in the day I was battling wits with a mole in the yard. Not much of a battle actually, all you really need is patience. I don't have much of that but I need to reclaim the yard and now apparently, the shop as well. Between the physical ailments, the barn blowing down and all of my traveling the past two years, things have gotten more than a little out of hand. As a weldor, I'm more than familiar with the old "rust never sleeps" thing. But neither do the varmints, the weeds and the scrub trees. The Missus saw an opossum in the back yard last night and we had a skunk out there the night before. One of the two has been digging up all the bulbs and new plants we've put out. Mother Nature never takes a day off, does she?

While I'm waiting for the official OK to resume my normal activity level, whatever the new normal will be, I'm still catching up on the reading. I picked up a book on how to prevent a second heart attack called: Prevent a Second Heart Attack, of all things. I'm about half way through it and it's an eye opener. The author is a nutritionist and makes the case that most doctors aren't really qualified when it comes to nutrition. Their training is more in diagnosing and treatment. The knucklehead I was going to told me to keep my cholesterol in line by taking the skin off the chicken before I eat it. Since I rarely eat fried chicken, I couldn't see how that was going to help much. If he would have told me to quit eating donuts and cheap sandwich cookies, that might have eliminated some of the trans fats that helped lead up to the grabber. Unfortunately, most physicians just don't deal with the whole person and an individualized approach to their health. Of course I knew eating that crap wasn't good for me. I just underestimated the rate at which the old plaque was progressing by about twenty years. Just like the moles in the yard and the mice in the shop, when it comes to your arteries, eternal vigilance is required.

Take care of yourselves.