Last week Kathleen dropped off two puzzles. One is a picture of Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy, France. We visited this small picturesque island with Kathleen, Emily and Bertrand, and Bertrand’s sister Claudine, two summers ago. It is so nice to reminisce one of our favorite vacations while trying to put together 1500 pieces – with at least 500 pieces of a cloud free sky – quite a challenge. I am the only one with enough patience to try to finish all the blue pieces and I’m not sure I will be able to do that before the ascent of my next summit starts, but I’ll try.

In a couple of days I start the preparation for the surgery. I met with a GI doctor last Friday and I have been scheduled for a colonoscopy on Wednesday July 1st, the day before the big surgery. July 1st also happens to be James and my anniversary. What a way to celebrate that we have been married for 10 years. We will get a celebration in before I start restricted eating and drinking. I now have a list of 15 items I need to remember to do the days before it all starts, starting with stopping fish oil and other supplements on the 25th, going via low residue diet, clear liquid diet, a gallon of electrolytes, showering three times with chlorehexidine, antibiotics and clear carbohydrate loaded energy drinks. And it all has to happen at specific days and times. Some serious project managing skills are put into action here.

It is not much else to tell on the surgery front. I still try to keep active an eat well. We did no hikes this weekend, but Benjamin and I stained our new fence on Saturday and Sunday. 100 ft (30 m) long and 6 ft (1.8 m) tall – including some crawling behind trees and bushes. The first coat took 4-5 hrs, so that was workout enough for me. When Benjamin and I came back inside the house – the house was clean! James felt bad that Benjamin and I were the only ones out working, so he found the vacuum cleaner and the duster and cleared the house of dog hair and cob webs. That was a very welcoming treat for an exhausted body. We are quite happy with how the fence looks. After the second coat on Sunday we now see a fabulous start to replanting and sorting that part of the yard out after having to remove four sick palm trees this fall.

The surgeon is anticipating 10 to 14 days recovery in the hospital after the surgery. In these pandemic times I will not be allowed to have any visitors so I have been planning activities to keep me from going crazy and bugging the nurses too much. I have a granny square crocheting project going and this weekend I got the plan together. Earlier in the week I bought lots of yarn. Granny squares require a lot of colors. They will so laugh at me at the hospital when I bring 20 large skeins of yarn in all colors of the rainbow in a basket. I’ll probably be called the crazy granny square lady by the nurses. I have loaded my phone up with audiobooks and music, and my iPad full of films and TV shows. I’ll be so disappointed if they let me out after only a week when I have at least two weeks of stuff to do. 

I will try to make the best of the coming week and not think too much about the upcoming surgery – despite of my long list of to-do’s to prepare. I have very ambivalent feelings about it. I am eager for the day to come so I can get it done, but am so very much not looking forward to it. It is a long surgery. It will take at least eight hours. I will of course not remember anything but getting the face mask, but it is scary to think of what they are going to do with me and that I will have to be sedated for that many hours. Anyway – that is then – this is now.

More good news. Benjamin started college again this week. UCSB summer classes online, chemistry and physics. He has been looking forward to starting again – even if it is only online – and he is very motivated. That makes a mommy heart very proud. Until a few weeks ago he enjoyed not having a lot of plans every day, but he reached a point where he discovered that having no particular plans for the day for months is not very rewarding or exciting in the long run.