The season announced itself with quite a splash this weekend with the temperatures reaching a glorious warm high of 29C yesterday. It’s days like yesterday that make you want to never turn back to the damp and chilly days of winter. Our yard has become quite overgrown with grass and weeds over the winter so the Scientist and I have plans to get out and cut it all down before we start attracting snakes or, more likely the nasty moth infestation that has hit us the past two years. I have ideas of planting beans in the big planter I used for tomatoes last year. I’m also contemplating buying another planter for the tomatoes to be place in a shadier location in hopes of it lasting through the season this time.

I managed to take dogs out together for walks both weekend days. This was a first post-surgery and Saturday went pretty well considering it was a novel idea. Little girl dog seemed to enjoy going out more with her sibling along for the walk. Yesterday didn’t go quite as well. I had both on the leash and opened the kitchen door to go out when little boy dog started barking like it was an emergency and nearly pulling me over. This started little girl doing similarly…it seems the cat was under the car and that made the world totally wrong, at least in little boy’s eyes. As the dogs were both straining quite hard on the leashes and both out of control, I required assistance from the Scientist to return some sanity to the proceedings. The actual walk wasn’t so bad but there was much more straining of the leash from both and it often meant they were headed in opposite directions. Little boy dog did his share of mad barking whenever we encountered another dog or other people. I much preferred their behavior on Saturday.

The gym routine is continuing pretty well so far. I think my knee is gradually getting stronger. Sometimes it’s quite deceptive because I feel like it’s totally back to normal when it’s still just getting there. I have to force myself to slow down when I feel that good as I have such a bad habit of overdoing it at such times. I decided to try using the cross trainer going backwards the other day and realised I’ve neglected to work on those muscles. It was quite difficult at first but I seem to be building up strength much more quickly than when I first started using the machine. It’s still a bit early but I think it might be helping me get better at handling steps. I tested out my ability on a step stool and I was able to get up even though I was a bit unsteady during the process. I have to believe it can only get better…so far, getting that leg to lift me up just hasn’t worked so I think it’s progress.

The big trade-off with this lovely warm weather is my body’s reaction to all the pollen blowing around. I think all the rain from last month has pushed the flowering plants into overdrive and there is pollen everywhere. I usually get mostly stuffiness and nasal congestion but this year I started with the runny nose and the sneezing…and today got the stuffiness too. Not sure how I can have both at the same time but I do. I nearly took a Claratyne tablet last night as I was feeling pretty icky but I’m glad I didn’t. My body has gone really dry, presumably due to the Sjogren’s syndrome, so the anti-histamine would have made it that much worse. I am just glad I started on the Beconase last week before the allergy symptoms started kicking in.

A couple posts should be coming up, including:

• Lego Lover and I took a trip into the city in order to see one of several exhibits being displayed here from the Museum of Modern Art in NY.

• A dental appointment, also involving a trip into the city