Sore Arms And Green Thumbs

Several blog readers have asked me how Terry and I are feeling after getting our shingles vaccinations on Wednesday afternoon. As I said, I had a big lump on my arm, and both of our arms hurt all night long. By yesterday evening, mine was tender but not sore anymore, though Terry was still experiencing some pain in hers.

According to a couple of readers who are nurses, along with my daughter-in-law Geli,  who is also a nurse, the lump in my arm was because the woman at Walgreens injected me about halfway between my elbow and shoulder, instead of in the shoulder muscle. We were also both very tired Wednesday night and all day Thursday, which is one of the side effects of the shots. But sore arms and fatigue are a small price to pay to protect us from shingles.

Unfortunately, and ironically, we got the news last night that Terry’s 91-year-old father has come down with shingles. His nose and face look raw and miserable.

Some readers have also asked how things are progressing with Terry’s AeroGarden. The first time around, she planted herbs, cherry tomatoes, and strawberries. Though the plants were huge, we only got four or five strawberries that were about the size of a pea. The same thing with the cherry tomatoes, except they never produced anything except leaves.

She’s replanted again, this time leaf lettuce in the smaller AeroGarden, and as you can see, it’s really taking off.

She also planted some leaf lettuce in the larger unit, along with some herbs, and she gave the cherry tomatoes another shot. The same thing happened, lots of leaves and lots of growth but no tomatoes. We won’t be ordering any more of those.

When I checked our citrus trees yesterday, the key lime tree has some very small fruit starting, the tangelo has lots of leaves and some small fruit buds, and I was surprised at how many small lemons are coming out on the lemon tree. Dozens of them. It’s a young tree, and the folks at Lindley’s Nursery told us to pluck these off before they get too big because the branches are not strong enough to hold them yet.

Lemon trees typically flower and fruit all year long, especially in the fall and winter, and will continue to do so for many years. They are a hardy tree, but they don’t tolerate cold weather well, which to them is anything below 50°. And since it got down into the mid-40s overnight and is supposed to do the same tonight, I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

The weather is so crazy here. It was 90° on Wednesday, and the high today is supposed to be 61° at 9 AM and dropping to the mid-50s by noon. Along with that, we are supposed to have winds at 20 to 30 mph. Sounds like a good day to stay inside and write, doesn’t it?

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Buck Fever, the first book in my friend Ben Rehder’s immensely popular Blanco County mystery series. If you’re not a fan of Ben’s books you have no idea what you are missing out on. Wacky characters, great humor, and superb writing. Give them a try. You won’t be disappointed. To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with U.S. addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

Thought For The Day – I took a beginners yoga class this morning. Basically, I spent an hour trying not to fart.