Anyway, I digress. I had a swell week! I took Monday off in recovery from the Petersons and Goldsmiths Fabulous Packers Adventure. The crowd chant "Go Pack Go" was stuck in my head. All week.
On Tuesday I visited my health care provider, Sheryl Young, ARNP, for an annual physical. Flu Shot! It wasn't too painful sister Betsy - unlike the ones we had as children when Mom insisted we have them at Dr. Wilcox's office. I'm happy to report that all of my numbers are good! I'm having a bone scan in a couple weeks - just to see how the 'ol skeleton is holding up.
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| Are you staring at me, Tub? |
Wednesday brought the annual Land Quality Bureau (LQB) retreat for work - held at beautiful Reiman Gardens in Ames. At the meeting one of my co-workers spoke about a recent episode of extreme anxiety they had experienced, causing them to seek medical attention. They said they hadn't realized how the anxiety attack had been coming on for some time.
I'm not telling you about this to "out" this person, only to say how much this testimony seemed to touch everyone there. Later I heard several people sharing their own stories about anxiety with this person and each other. Illnesses of this kind have a stigma. I experienced quite a bit of anxiety when my Grave's Disease was uncontrolled. It is very unpleasant and difficult to live with. Bringing this topic out of the dark is a step toward encouraging people to get help!
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| Pulpers help make foodwaste lighter |
At the LQB Retreat we got to tour Iowa State University dining hall - the "back of the house" where they work on recycling food waste from student meals. The waste goes to the next place on the tour - the compost site - where waste from the ISU Farms goes to be made into compost used on campus and on fields. Really beautiful black soil.
When we got back to Reiman Gardens we enjoyed lunch from Hickory Park and the sounds of the ISU Campanile - playing the eerie music from the Munsters TV show. That afternoon we heard speakers from ISU talk about the environmentally sound way the school is expanding the campus constructing certified buildings. This was a nice distraction from the ISU president plane controversy. As a service project we helped prepare a million (slight exaggeration) pumpkins for carving.
On Thursday I headed with a group to an Iowa Waste Exchange (IWE) quarterly meeting in Waterloo. The meeting was held at an old John Deere building that has been refurbished to hold a University of Northern Iowa lab where they print things. No - not just copies of your standings in the latest Fantasy Football League. The place prints metal and plastic castings and parts - things we used to need metal die castings for. Very cool! And so are the IWE reps who help Iowa companies trade leftover materials, keeping them out of landfills.
On Saturday I trekked solo to the Farmer's Market. Paul finally got to hunt. My mission was a Grilled Cheese Sandwich Caprese. Yummo!
After that stop, I went to my friend Scott's to help watch his baby girl Ava while he worked on his kitchen sink. Ava's mommy Vic was at work. It was fun. I'm more at home watching dogs, but I'll get the hang of this people thing! Ava will be one year old tomorrow.
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| Ava loves leaves, being barefoot and lots of food |
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