Decisions

Happy  866,148 US covid19 cases day. (Anybody explain oxymoron to you?)

Steve has been complaining of all-over body aches and shortness of breath for a few days now. No fever, no coughing, but who doesn't take that seriously these days? Besides Steve, of course. I finally convinced him to call his doctor. We were thinking that his prescription for metoprolol ought to be changed. Sure, it controls his blood pressure beautifully, but it also slows the heartbeat. That's why it was prescribed for me back when I was first diagnosed with A-fib. That's also why it was discontinued after bradycardia requiring a pacemaker. We took Steve's BP and pulse, and the latter registered 61. Borderline.

Steve finally got his arm twisted enough to make that phone call. He'd need a visit to change his prescription if the Doc thought that was the way to go. With his insurance, he has no option but to go through his primary first and then wait for his insurance to OK a referral. That's why it took a full year to get his back pain fixed last year. AAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!

His doctor's staff wanted nothing to do with him. They offered two options: go to the ER or hit Walgreens for one of those finger blood O2 meters. He'd already been thinking about Walgreens this morning for a couple other things, so that was the choice. Still, he just sat in his chair, perched between in and out. After asking whether he didn't feel steady enough to drive himself there, and offering to drive him, we headed over there. I stayed in the car while he went in.

I waited. And waited. Nearly everybody - but not all - who came out wore a face mask. A couple came out empty-handed. I was informed later that 1: TP was coming in on the truck ... later, 2: ditto for several other things on Steve's list too, and 3: due to a recent run on blood O2 meters, Walgreens was out. Frys was out too, but might get some Friday or Saturday night. Maybe. Walgreens had no pending order. But hey, milk and ice tea were available, so the trip wasn't a complete bust.

We arrived home with the same idea: order on line. His go-to is Amazon. Mine is eBay. He found something that would cost around $100. But it came from the Us instead of China, so he figured both the higher price would insure better quality and US origin would mean faster delivery. My eBay search found over a dozen sites with a $15 price tag, a US delivery, and every item was identical. Further research revealed several reappearing seller names, but all with few sales and zero feedback to judge them by. Color me sceptical. Further down the list was a site with the same item at twice the price. Normally I'd laugh at what they thought they could get away with. Research showed this seller with nearly 99% satisfaction level and thousands of sales. After a short discussion, that's the one which got ordered. I even accompanied the order with a note about choosing this one at the higher price solely because of their sales history.

Meanwhile, of course, I'm keeping an eagle eye on Steve. The second option is still open if needed. Fingers crossed. (Actually, that's a lie. Have you ever tried typing with crossed fingers?  How about eyes? No? Me neither.)

On the way home from Walgreens we passed several flowering plants. Perfect excuse for going out of the house again, this time with camera. Turns out the timing was perfect.

No sooner was I down to the corner - in the car of course - than I stopped to shoot a landscaping crew pulling down a saguaro. In a series of 4 photos, it went from erect with a rope, to slight lean, to 4 feet off the ground, to down. Perfect timing! Still doesn't explain why anybody would do that to a healthy looking saguaro though.

My next stop netted me a slew of pictures, a long sniff of a lavender rose (the only one these days with an actual rose fragrance!), a conversation with the homeowner about her plantings, expressing my appreciation, her appreciation of such, tips for planting and plans for her yard, and permission to take a baby which had fallen off the agave which was the prime cause for my stop in the first place. If that last -"falling" - sounds unlikely, it was much like the one across the street that I took so many shots of last summer, when it bloomed red and yellow on paddles splayed around a tall stalk, giving it the appearance of a giant asparagus. Today's plant was a different member of the same family, but no red until now, as the bottom leaves were dying in spectacular fashion, and rather than seed pods it produced babies up on the stalk. After a year, these were now dropping down in search of new homes to take root in.

If this sounds like my octopus agave in the corner of the house, mine is different in producing only (!) a single straight stalk, having much less unfriendly leaves, and being a year behind. It should, however, also product babies along its stalk after flowering which can be removed and planted in new homes. I consider this baby as a trial run on propagating baby octopi. My agave should, like hers, produce hundreds to thousands of viable offspring. Hopefully, finding new homes will be much easier than placing puppies.

I know a few garden centers....

Half an hour of driving and shooting later, and here I am, home again, glad to have something a bit more cheerful to blog about. Two favorite things in one day. Let's just hope now whatever is going on with Steve will soon be going away.

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In the time it took to write this, numbers changed to 867,089. Also 48,295deaths, one of whom is Elizabeth Warren's brother. And it's only lunch time.