Pondering a random act

I've spent my day on the sofa, reading.  I'm not sick, just lazy.  I woke up today with the nominal intention of going for a hike, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  Back out there in the heat with the ticks?  And the poison ivy?  The couch is so much more appealing.

It's been a long time since I had a lazy day at home.  I'm not sure how long.  I can't remember it, at any rate.  Today felt nice.  I had a cat on my lap at most times, and a book by an author I hadn't read before in my hands.  My itchy, itchy hands.

What I thought was a bug bite progressed into something that looked a lot like poison ivy.  And then other patches started showing up here and there.  I actually put some topical anesthetic on the worst bits for some temporary relief today.  I'm lucky that I don't generally have a bad reaction to either bug bites or poison ivy.  So, while it is covering more and more of my skin, it isn't driving me insane, and it isn't big and blistery.  Yet.

If it IS bugs, they are voracious.

I suspect that something of mine came into contact with poison ivy, and then later that thing came into contact with my arms.  (And belly, so far.)  Likely the dog, the horse, or some of my hiking gear.  Since I'm not sure what exactly did it, the affected item is now just lurking there in my environment, waiting to be touched again.  I'm pretty sure I didn't have direct contact with poison ivy - otherwise the rash would have been more intense and faster rising.

Anyway, that's been my day.  Slouching about, reclining, reading, and itching.

While checking my list of blogs which I like to read, I find that I wish to perform a random act of kindness (RAOK).  The thing is, it's a really expensive RAOK.  $3500 worth.  I've only performed RAOKs up to $500 before.  And I'm not sure that this RAOK is really in the blogger's best interest.  She is disabled and living in subsidized housing, but the place isn't meeting her needs.  Mostly, it's the problem with smokers - she has a severe reaction to smoke.  The place is supposed to be smoke free but that hasn't stopped anyone.

So, there is an RV near her on sale for $3500.  She and her (also disabled) husband would like to buy it and live in there instead of the apartment, but they have no money to make the purchase.  I could solve that problem.  I wonder about the implications, though.  She loves to garden, and she wouldn't have a garden anymore.  She is constantly ill - how hard would life be while sick in an RV?  If they had plumbing problems while she were in the grip of an episode, it would be a nightmare.  I also don't know if living in an RV would fulfill residency requirements, which I'm pretty sure she needs to get the lifesaving medications she receives.

While it would get her away from a toxic environment, I think it would make her life harder in other ways.  And it's a lot of money.  And she doesn't know me from Adam.  So I guess I'm just thinking.

I shall be sawing logs shortly.

I feel like a lot should have happened today.  Certainly I'm tired enough to account for a great deal of activity.  Instead, this is how my day went:

9:00 am Stumble out of bed
9:01 am Drag a comb across my head (okay I'll stop now)
9:15-10:00 am munch through breakfast and Pero
11:30 am realize I'll be gone mid-afternoon, eat lunch
12:30-2:30pm ride Pluto, hang out with Bonnie and Tara
3-5 pm hang out
5 pm EAT.  massively hungry.
6 pm Feel as if the heat death of the universe has occurred in my brain

So sleepy.  So very sleepy.

Apparently I'm not the only one.

In which I do nothing of value

I'm at home today.  I took the day off so that I could trailer Pluto out to a nearby park with horse trails, and then not fall off him.  Ideally.  But then a tropical storm came through, and apparently the park received seven inches of rain.  We thought it might be a little muddy.  So no riding.

But did I go in to work?  No I did not!  I have the day off!  Who would waste that by earning a living?

I'm wearing huge sweatpants (most of my pants are huge at the moment), a comfortable tshirt that proudly proclaims "NERD" on the front, and Crocs.  I've been ingesting various things and almost but not quite sorting things out on my desk.  It took me two hours but I wrote out a board check and put it in an envelope with Pluto's most recent Coggins and vaccination record.  I also compared mortgage rates and pondered refinancing AGAIN before finally deciding it wouldn't save us much.  So really I got a lot done when you think about it.

I almost threw out some junk in a very take-charge-ish way, but I got distracted by the internets. 

I looked out toward the mailbox and hoped my Awesome new Book of Awesome Pictures would show up soon.  Iphoto offered to make a book of pictures I took on my hike, for a nominal sum.  Of course, these pictures were taken on an Iphone.  All very Appley and I bet it predisposes Iphoto to be extra careful with my incredible artwork, but the camera on the phone isn't that great.  Nor am I artistically inclined.  At all.  So likely what will show up is a bunch of blurry photos of things that might be trees, or maybe rocks.  And then I will trap formerly interested former friends and make them look at the book of Awesome, and I will say "That blur right there is a bear!"

A book of pictures about hikes I did.  Because I need more reasons to think about hiking instead of getting things done.

That blur right there?  That's a bear!