Category: Health

A better day

I was having a truly dreadful day, and then Paul called.  When he came over, he didn’t come in the house (I heard the door go, but not his voice) so I went out and looked for him.  He was RAKING GRASS.  After the Epic Mowing of Keith, there was rather a lot of it; Paul claimed he needed it to dry out his compost.  I got him a bag and he absconded with it, yay, thank you.

Then Paul took me for a tour around Deer Lake in a canoe, which was lovely and just the right amount of exercise for my shoulder, and then I bought some beer and watched soccer and a wonderful movie which I highly recommend, Calvary with Brian Gleeson.  It’s a downer but it’s a very interesting and lively downer.  I had never considered what it would be like to be an honest and kindly priest in a town full of previously abused and atheistic parishioners, but it would really suck. And, lots of Irish scenery.

I slept MUCH better last night, surprise, surprise.

 

For a couple of people

I struggle with wanting you all the time, so please don’t mistake my silence for indifference. It’s just I have to hold myself back because I feel too much. Too often. Too wildly out of my control.
–Tina Tran, “My words don’t say much at all”

Katie quoted John Hiatt on facebook this morning, that’s never a good sign.  I hope she’s okay.

Today I am going to look at the clock and wonder why I’m awake.  Then I’ll check the moon phases and understand that the moon is doing it….

I’m probably going to Ontario 1st week of July or thereabouts.  Depends on my teeth situation. And employment situation, but it’s going to take months for the right job to pop up, so patience is good.

No responses from any job applications yet, but that’s really no surprise.

Haven’t had the chance to go ramble and look at salamanders up at SFU as planned earlier this week.

I’ve started taking vitamin D again.

Pork chops for breakfast!

Weigh in

I hadn’t weighed myself in a while, but my clothes were getting tighter, so I was delighted to see from the scale this morning that the weight I lost after I broke my shoulder has stayed off.  Now I’m getting ridiculous amounts of exercise, since I have to walk a minimum of 2 kilometres a day through terrain plus two sets of transit stairs just to get to work, so I expect the weight will stay off.  My hips and back are better; my knees and feet are shouting things ungodly at me.  I’m sleeping better and staying up later.

Jeff has commented that he’s getting interesting pings from various muscle groups now that he’s back exercising regularly with his new rowing machine.  One of these days I’ll check it out but I’m never wearing shoes when I’m downstairs…

Many hugs to Jeff for letting me borrow the car yesterday after my phone freaked out and I ended up being late getting out the door in consequence … I brought home some treats.

The family that ________s together…. 

In one of those bizarre coincidences, I mentioned the cave of Chauvet in my last homily, and until she broke her ankle, our speaker this Sunday was to be a woman taking as her text Werner Herzog’s unbelievably amazing Cave of Forgotten Dreams.  Since she can’t do it, we’re subbing in three church members talking about their creative paths, and I helped one of them since he was being put to it on short notice and he said he was feeling apprehensive and I gave him some advice.  He appeared happy to get it (my enthusiasm is a substitute for skill sometimes) and I await with pleasure how he will deal with the creative challenge of a minihom. So I would have enjoyed the booked homily and will definitely enjoy the substitute homily, and that’s pretty much how she goes at church.  Which reminds me, I should scare up a ride.

Benedict Cumberbatch will be taking on Hamlet in 2015, live somewhere in England.  Sigh.

Currently watching: Archer Vice (interesting, but no longer quite as funny), Rick and Morty (most recent show? the last two minutes took me to an unanticipated height of awesome), Justified (Boyd Crowder, how you do blow things up!), Downton Abbey, NCIS, NCIS Body Count, CSI, Person of Interest, Castle, plus the occasional Frontline and 60 Minutes.  I’ve pretty much given up on White Collar, mostly because those whackdoodles at Netflix don’t appear to want to stream it to my profile, and Jeff’s burned out on Burn Notice (ha!) although I still want to finish the show.  Person of Interest continues to be the show that Jeff and I are most likely to halt on the PVR so we can talk about the issues they are raising.  It’s a show that demands close attention and thought, and Root walked the dog Bear last episode.

Jeff is trying to get caught up on March Madness, otherwise known as the Squeaky Squeaky show from the sound of all those basketball shoes squeaking on those nice wood floors.

I wonder if two zone bus passes are available yet?  I’ll need one of those.  I do think longingly of getting a car, but I’ll be better off in at at least three ways without one.

Happy Friday to you all!  The port strike is over, although the drivers are still plenty choked.

 

Walking pneumonia

I have bubbling and crackling in my chest and when I cough I feel like a tectonic version of Camille. I slept about 12 hours yesterday, which is about double my normal 6-hours-no-matter-when-I-fall-asleep.

Another 350 words after I thought I’d wrapped it up for the day yesterday; I sure am having fun.

Margot seems to be off her food and a tad listless, but she was happy enough to chase after a treat last night so I’m not sure it’s all that bad.  I think the cat food is a bit rancid, it sure smells that way. But of course if cat food smelled good to humans, that would be kind of weird.

 

 

Superb owl over this year

That was a righteous shellacking, was it not?  I turned off the game at half time.

A thousand words yesterday.  I don’t seem to be having any problems making word count.

Church was pretty sad yesterday.  Two long time members of the church are facing their last illnesses, and I know they are old but I love them both dearly and it’s just sad to see how their wives are bearing up under the strain.  Also, one of my favourite church members has cancer and another one is also going for cancer treatments.  Ack.  Make it stop please.  At the same time church was pretty awesome; the service was about the life and work of Bruce Cockburn.  Night before at the housefilk I said, “Well I can’t imagine them playing “If I had a Rocket Launcher” in church” and I was wrong!  How Peggy and I giggled about it afterwards.  Congratulations to our minister for daring and being all she is. Thanks also to Marylke for the ride home.

I practiced for about an hour yesterday.  It was a bit painful because the con crud finally set in and I’ve got a ghastly dry cough. I will probably head out to the pharmacy today to get something to kill the cough, or maybe just load up on Throat Coat tea with honey.  I went looking for cold meds and everything was time expired by 12 months.

Welp, that’s enough for now.  I’m heading back to sleep, after another broken night.

Here’s a lovely version of Danse Macabre.

Yesterday disappeared into Laundry and Downton Abbey

Yes, I started watching it.  Yes, I’m a fool.

This is a pic of two nursing cats who are ‘coparenting’.  It is very adorable.

Thank you mOm for the books that came back with Jeff.

Margot wandered around the house making funny noises a lot while Jeff was gone.

I think I need to go see an eye doctor.  My right eye has underproduced tears since I was in my teens, but my eye is so dry now that I’m in pain a good chunk of the time – enough pain that I’m not noticing my back or my shoulder.  I think today I may get an eyepatch, just to give my eye a break.

 

This is a simply adorable series of family pictures.

 

Who cares what I dream?

It doesn’t mean anything.  But last night Lady Miss Banjola grabbed an overly officious and magically short security guard by the ear and lectured him, which caused him to GO ROGUE and investigate her grandparents’ garage.  Lady Miss B appeared and berated him some more, this time with crunchy swears and him running away to his SUV. Before I could learn what was going on, the scene shifted indoors to a Las Vegas style hotel, and she ditched me at what I assumed was a science fiction convention, because Seanan McGuire shimmied by in a dress of such surpassing sparkle and slinkiness that I was forced to rub my eyes.  I wish I hadn’t, when I removed my fists from my eyes, she was gone, and I was sitting at a table of quite possibly the strangest and least competent MARKETING people I had ever seen.  Not even beer could save me; I woke up.

 

On another subject, Margot slept with me at least until I woke up two hours ago with my eyes streaming and my throat sore.  Yes, the con crud hath landed.

May you find what you seek

In some cultures, that’s considered a curse.  Anyway, to the point; I am looking up stuff on Afghanistan and Persia (now Iran) because I am following information about Rumi.  Accidentally I land on the wikipedia page of the anti-Rumi, which contains a bunch of 14th Century dirty jokes.  They are at the bottom of the page, you’ve been warned, etc.  One of the jokes is so disgusting it could cheerfully be used by people who hate Muslims as propaganda.

We are watching Ken Burn’s Jazz, and it is uniformly excellent.  I wish I could have watched it with John, too.

Off to the library today.  I have a couple of other errands to run.

My request to have assistance in developing anti-racism curriculum is in the newsletter for church.

I can only wonder what my uncle, who got a PhD in Fluorine Chemistry, would make of this website mocking PhD subjects.

Church today was great

A good service, enlivened by Rev Deb’s inclusion of both Thomas King and George Carlin.  Plus, Beatles, and Dark of Winter, my favourite hymn as sung by the choir.  Paul, bless him, is back from his gig in Seattle and gave me a lift to and likewise fro. I sent him forth with chicken breast for sandwiches, my homemade pickled beets (which he adores) and a frozen soup by way of thanks (also he gave me one of his very chiropractic hugs, which by damn I needed!)

Wrote about 750 words on Midnite Moving today.

Practiced HARD this morning.  It’s getting close!

Found Keith’s 300$ sunglasses in the couch downstairs.  Phoned him immediately and was he glad!

No walkies today.  Still a bit nasty underfoot out there.  Not like Toronto, though, it’s a freaking mess there.

A*****e McF*****t stood me up for the meet at the shop.  Sorry, I’m not in the mood to be charitable.  Jeff knows the whole tale and concurs.

Totally took down some asshat on twitter going on about vaccination.  The article he linked to said that vaccinations have something to do with infant mortality in the US.  ( well they do, just not negatively). The high infant mortality rate in the US has more to do with institutionalized racism and unevenly distributed prenatal care than vaccination, and anybody who says different doesn’t know a FUCKING THING about epidemiology, obstetrics, and forty years of data drawing a line between race and good — or poor — health outcomes.  Given that the twitter account is ostensibly an anti racism media site, I unloaded very hard.  I do not want persons of colour to put their kids at risk believing this bullshit because ‘da man’ makes bad vaccines.  HEAVY HEAVY SIGH.

As a palate cleanser….Cute temporary tattoos!

Another no show

Person of interest didn’t show.  I’m supposed to be meeting with someone else this weekend re the cafe.  It’s a numbers game, I have to be patient, etc.

Eddie is basically not coming up the stairs at all these days.  He lives in Jeff’s bathroom closet, only coming out to eat and drink and use the litter pan.  He’s painfully thin and his hair is coming out in patches and sometimes when he looks at me I get the feeling he’s trying to figure out who I am, then he lets me pet him, calls softly and sadly, and goes back to his hidey hole.  Every once in a long while he tries to jump up on something and loses his balance. Since he is still eating and drinking and taking his meds, we’re in a state of watchful waiting but also premonitory sadness.

I’m hoping to score a flu shot today, if I can gird up my loins to get there.  Also to pick up the colour printer from Paul’s place and also to do a bunch of other errandy type things.

Customer surveys can be hazardous to your marriage. (picture of a hotel survey)

 

Filking today

Tom and Peggus are hosting, which is mahvellous, because you can’t actually turn around in the house upstairs right now.  I need to invite people over to encourage la mighty cleaning.

Showing the shop tomorrow.  We shall see.

I am playing around with Garageband. Got a tune in my head and instead of reaching for my phone, I sang it directly, crappy mike and all, into computer, and it’s adorable.  It needs a minimum of ten hours of brutal work before even a scratch copy is ready, but the sketch is there and the beats have a weight suitable for their height.

Started watching Farscape.  The opening shot made me laugh like a drain.  (Ben Browder, wearing a baby blue open Hawaiian shirt covered in stylized white octopi.  A-DORBZ, progeny!)

There’s a REASON the physio said “And if you don’t exercise every day you’ll get stiff and weak.”  Did my exercises today.  I suppose I am not in the right lineup for getting sympathy on the subject, so least said fastest mended, one supposes.

 

3.5 k yesterday

I walked 2 k to have coffee with Katie first thing and then 1.5 k to take advantage of my first seniors meal deal with my dear friend Sue.  She has auditioned for the role of Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret and I really hope she gets it.

My audition was completed without incident.  By the numbers I have a one in 5 chance of success as they only provide 8 licences and at least 40 people applied.  I’m just glad I got to do it.

Now I have to get back to my previously scheduled insanity….

 

I just walked 3.5 kilometres doing errands

I paid for Katie’s storage (and it’s great I won’t have to do that much longer), I mailed my application to be a busker at the post office, and I turned in my plates for my car insurance refund.  It isn’t much, but the last two days represent the first time money has come into the house that my fOlks didn’t give me in many moons. I did take the bus for 2.4 k up the hill from the insurance co to the storage co., but given how my feet are singing and how that is about a 300 foot elevation gain I am not really beating myself up over it.

I am now pleasantly weary and thinking about the next thing on my to do list.

And hoping it doesn’t actually involve, you know, standing up.

 

This is a very rude and funny commentary website on how top heavy webdesign is these days.