Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

We're just back from a few days in the Olympic National Park. The Hoh Rain Forest was as delightful as I'd expected, though different in detail—brighter and drier, and with a lot more maple mixed in among the firs, and we saw few birds. Also, it's surprisingly tiring to take two and a half hours to slowly walk about a mile, most of it with little change in elevation but almost none of the path actually flat.

The tide pools were more delightful than I'd expected: I'd seen sea anemones in an aquarium, but that didn't prepare me for seeing them on rocks in actual tide pools, a few here and some more there and dozens more right here, many tucked in, others with tentacles waving, and some with tentacles waving on one side. Some of the anemones had covered themselves with a layer of mud, or mud-and-gravel, or even mud and bits of crab shell: a tide pool that looked at first like it was full of mud was actually full of anemones. The anemones were different shades of green, some pink, and some pink-and-green. There were also some fine seastars, oranges and purples. (And lots of barnacles, and some chitons, but I got very focused on the anemones.)

We didn't see a lot of birds on this trip, except for the swallows where we were staying (Kalaloch Lodge, right at the Pacific Ocean coast), but I did get a good long look at a bald eagle, from the beach where we had been exploring the tide pools. (I had added bald eagle to my life list on the strength of seeing recently-fledged birds flying free in Inwood Hill Park, but that was part of an attempt to reintroduce them to the area; this bird was entirely wild.)

Unfortunately, the things I forgot to pack included the elastics I use for my PT exercises; I did the exercises this evening, but I was supposed to do them Saturday and then yesterday. I did quite a bit of walking, including a good deal up and down hills (and stairs), but while that's generally good exercise it won't help my shoulder.

In the new job, I get five vacation days that I can use now (or anytime before next April 1), plus another five that become available in July. I have no sick leave yet. In email, I accepted my boss's suggestion to apply three of those sick days to Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week (time sheets are bimonthly). I still need to figure out whether I'm allowed to save the remaining two and take the rest of this recuperation as unpaid leave, or use the remaining two for today and tomorrow and then probably take some unpaid leave. I would be very surprised if I was up to going to work by Monday, although I did get outside briefly a little while ago, with cattitude to keep me company, for emotional support and in case I needed to lean on him.

No matter what, I'll have that one week off that becomes available July 1, to use in the second half of the year, plus whatever holidays, pre-announced or random-seeming, the company comes up with. (Last year, there was at least one "hi, take Thursday off just because" in the summer.)

Oh, and I gather from conversation that at least one person thought I was worried about paying for the hospitalization. I have health insurance, and it does cover this (I've already talked to the insurance company, in fact). What's missing is paid sick time.