I can not remember when a weekend of volunteering kicked my butt in the way this weekend did. I was tired when I came home from the concert on Sunday night and most of Monday was spent either in bed resting or in front of the TV. I did take a walk with the dogs in the morning since I am trying to move at least 3 miles every day but that was about it. I got ready around 3:30pm and left the house shortly after.

It wasn’t a lot of people at the airport yet. Not even a third of what the crowd was last year at the same time. But it was as hot as it was last year. The tarmac makes it even warmer.

My performance went well except that I couldn’t turn around to face the flag because then my body would shadow the radio signal from the microphone to the speaker. It felt a little awkward to see everyone else and not the flag. But my voice felt good and I think I was the only one thinking about that. Sadly no one took any pictures or video when I performed, at least not as I have found. I had a chance to take a picture of the other two performers and the Boy Scouts at least.

My friend Stacey took this group picture after the show that she sent me

I left the event right after the flag retirement ceremony was over since I had to head for the pillow again. My Fourth of July weekend was finally over and it was time to set the alarm for 1:40 am again and head back to work Tuesday morning.

It wasn’t too bad to wake up early again. I knew it was only for one day and then I would be off for two more days again. My regular partner is still out on medical leave so I was working with a supervisor. Both of us was quite tired though. I could feel that the last days had really knocked me down more than I expected them to. Even though Monday was slow, it wasn’t enough. The day wasn’t too bad either. We ran a bunch of calls in the morning but the afternoon was a little better. When it was an hour left of the day we went to fuel up. My partner had to go to the bathroom so I stayed and watched the pump. When I came back to my seat I found this as a little encouragement to keep on fighting the last hour!

It is a must for me to have a Twix every shift. That makes my afternoon so much better and he saw that I was getting more and more tired. I got so happy from this gesture. So kind of him!

We made it back to the station on time and did the regular duties. Washed the truck and I swept the bay because that is what is our station duty to do and we always do it on the last day. That’s when it all hit back again. Even though I had eaten lunch and I had plenty of water I could feel the heat (102F) slowly taking me down. Thankfully I could get in my car, turn the A/C on and go home. I had planned to take a walk after work to make my 3 miles but the closer I came to home the more I realized that was not going to happen. And at the time I made it home I was glad to just make it into the house and be able to let the dogs out.
I undressed without even putting the clothes in the laundry bin, they were just on the floor, did the most important things, took in the dogs and less than 10 minutes after I came home I was in bed. I could not move. I was nauseated and my entire body felt like concrete. Thankfully I did not have a headache and I wasn’t dizzy!

This is the situations when studying Twix (my dog) is very interesting. He knows so well when I am not doing good. He sits next to me and watches me and makes sure I am breathing. Sometimes he lays down and put his head on my chest so he can feel the air coming out of my nose. When he is not concerned about me he puts his back to me and his head on his pillow (yes he has his own pillow) or in the window.
I fell asleep for about an hour and when I woke up Twix was still sitting exactly the same way as when I went to bed! When he realized that I was awake he laid down and continued watching me. I had to get out of bed to use the bathroom and figured maybe they needed to go out again. They were not even out for 5 minutes earlier. So I did that, gave them dinner and took an expired Zofran for my nausea that was even worse now than before. I hoped that it could avoid me from throwing up because it felt that was coming any second. My body was barely moveable. It was so strange. I wished I had mom’s walker close by, that’s how hard it was for me to move. My body was done. After about 15 minutes I could return to bed. I didn’t even turn on the TV even though there was a show that I wanted to watch. I didn’t have the energy for it. Finally put the phone aside and went to sleep. The next thing I know is at 6:30 (!!) when I wake up by myself. I had slept for 9 hours straight and probably not moved during the entire time. But sleep can do magic. I felt so much better! No need for mom’s walker. I finally felt like back to normal!

So why not take the dogs for a walk. They had been locked in the house too much lately so I decided to take a little longer walk than normal. I usually walk between 2.5-3.1 miles but this morning we felt a little frisky (haha). More or less, I wanted to get in some more miles since I couldn’t walk after work yesterday!

BamBam, always walking a step behind me for some reason I haven’t figured out yet. I let Twix run off leash when there was no traffic. I am so proud of him. Behind a tree was a woman and I saw her quite late. And even later I realized she had a dog with her that was hidden behind the bushes. Well Twix saw them but did not run up to him to play or say hi. He didn’t even try or care for it. I could tell that she was expecting him to but when he acknowledged them and moved on I was the most proud mom there will ever be. He had moved on already when I realized there was a dog there!

Later on the walk I realized that Twix was getting tired. Y’all know his tail or “hook” as I call it. It curls up on his back. Well this morning was probably the first time ever that I saw it hanging!

You can tell he is tired but happy to be out and about. Both of them had a good walk and I think they enjoyed it. Yes, BamBam was off leash for a good while but he never leaves my side anyway. He is always walking that step or two behind.

I will have a slower day today. Have a lot to catch up with here at home. Dishes, laundry, cleaning. So that is a must for me today. Think my body needs a slow day just to make sure I’m fully recovered.