Eek!

So, the amazing thing about the human body is all the crazy things it can manufacture out of the paltriest amount of building materials.

Like, crystals.  If you have excess uric acid in your body, it forms these sharp crystal shards that can settle in your joints and poke you.  This is called gout.  Ask me how I know.

I had it for the first time last spring, shortly after my kidney stone fiasco - these two phenomena are related, so no surprise I went back to back.

This time, it was sort of out of the blue that my foot started hurting.  But thanks to the modern miracles of telemedicine, I got online, requested some medication - sent a few images of my foot, and by the next morning, I had medication.  The flare up subsided, or, I thought it had.  

It kind of re-flared a week later.

So, I went back to the medication and adjacent treatment - ice, elevation, rest - the usual.  Now it's really gone-gone.  Probably.

One of the frustrating parts of gout is that it often makes the skin extra tight and sensitive, so wearing a shoe is a bummer.  Which is why I have started wearing my Birkenstocks and it's not even May yet.

But you know - what humans can make is nothing compared to, say, birds.

We have a new guest on our back porch.  Her name is Mrs. Robinson (because she is a robin), and I love her already.  At last check, she was up to four eggs - and that's the typical number in a clutch.  The good news is - she does not seem to be a flight risk; despite the commotion we are making as we come and go with the dog.  Now, we have been putting Piper on a leash to take her out, keep the birdos safe.  Best we can tell, she built her monster nest while we were in Atlanta for Mom's birthday.  

We also have several midsize wild rabbits who graze with us.  Cinnabuns, to be precise.  So cute - and way faster than Piper, which helps.  The other night, after dinner, there was a red bellied woodpecker out there raising hell.  He sounded like a dog squeaky toy.

Spring is serene, but it's also jumping.  I like that about spring.

Once, some time ago, I wrote about the fact that Fall and Spring are both nouns and verbs.  I think that's fun.

But I am easily swayed by fun facts.

Here's another.  Mrs. Robinson doesn't have a first name in The Graduate.  None of the "adults" are ever referred to by their first name.

There is a reference that her first initial is G, and the man who wrote the novel claims that although it was never published, her first name was Glenda.

My Mrs. Robinson's first name is Ruth - because my father worked with a nurse named Ruth Robinson - and she was legend.

Once, they were eating together in the cafeteria, and he said to her he'd been having a little cold, and what should he take?  Her reply?

"Take it like a man!" 

Here's to you, Nurse Robinson!

ae