Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Of wind and weariness....
This post may be cut short at any time. There's a storm a-brewing outside. I nearly shut the Mac down a little while ago because I thought I heard thunder, but when I looked outside, I realized that it had actually been the sound of both my trash can and recycle bin falling over in my driveway! I set them out on Monday nights because the companies involved pick up about 7am Tuesdays, long before I am up and cognizant. But since these companies rely on mechanical devices that look like robot arms on their trucks to actually empty the bins, one must have the containers in an upright position, or your trash doesn't get picked up. As it was, I had empty seltzer bottles and Boost boxes blowing into my neighbor's lawns, so I had to go out and rescue my refuse. And as I am on just half the dose of prednisone that I was on Friday, my strength is beginning to wane again, so it was a bitch to get the cans upright and back into the garage. Hope the same thing doesn't happen next week when I'm off the prednisone and am back to being a 150 pound weakling.
Did go out into the record 103 degree heat yesterday to go to the craft store. Being minus a tape runner constitutes an emergency when I'm in the mood to scrapbook, heh heh. I was kinda sorta almost frugal. I'm a kid in a candy store when it comes to scrapbooking materials, and the temptation upon me yesterday was great. Maybe compulsion to buy unnecessary things is like the food cravings I get when I'm on prednisone? Anyway, I managed to limit myself to one tape runner (refillable, I believe), two white pens to replace the one that had run out of ink a few months back (one fine line and one medium point), and three sets of black letters in three different fonts. No stickers, no background paper, although I was really dying to buy both.
Was wading through disc 2 on the "Brazil" DVD set when Dan called. He'd toured a few houses. One of them was kinda cruddy, with stains on the carpeting and such. The other two were adorable, but shared a significant problem: the kitchens were the size of postage stamps! Seriously, no counter space, no space for a small dinette set, and no dining area. What, did these people eat standing up in the living room?? I don't require a monster kitchen, but I do need enough counter space for my microwave, enough floor space for the table and chairs, and if my Foreman grill and rotisserie can't fit onto countertops both at the same time, I at least need cabinets that will hold them when they're not in use. Bummer, because these houses were otherwise perfect. Dan's gonna tour more houses when he's up to it. He's had a cold with a cough for three weeks now, and while he says he feels better, he's still coughing and is really tired. The houses he wants to tour are all larger. One is fairly new (built in 2000) but is on the outskirts of town (actually, I had to talk him into looking at that one, pleading the low-maintenance angle). Another is huge, 2400 square foot, but it in a suburb that might be too far away. There are three others ranging in square feet from 1700 to 2100 all in town. One that looks particularly promising was built in 1985, has 1900 square feet, has a kitchen/dining area remarkably like the one in my current house, and has a very nice deck in the back yard. And the one we liked so much from a few weeks ago is still on the market.
Because of the immense heat, I had to wait until 6:30pm to pull weeds. The disadvantage of this is while it allows me to work in the shade and avoid sun rashes, I am subject to every single biting insect on the face of the earth! Seriously, an entire swarm of mosquitos found me, and they were ruthless! Before long, horseflies were joining in, and even when I managed to get away from those, other stuff I couldn't even see were biting! I have red marks and swelling everywhere. So I actually went out this afternoon and bought bug spray. I really should take the stuff more seriously as there have been people in my state contracting West Nile virus.
I only got two of my remaining three photo album pages done. Because I have to keep the house de-cluttered all the time, I spend an inordiate amount of time packing and unpacking all the supplies and hauling them to and from the upstairs book room closet to the downstairs living room. Hence, by the time I've got everything ready to work on, a significant amount of time has passed and either I've lost the motivation, need to make something to eat, or have to stop because of some other commitment. The idea of getting a larger house is beginning to appeal to me more and more as I would have enough room to set up a card table in a corner someplace and have a little scrapbook workspace. I think Dan would let me get away with it as long as I wasn't cluttering up a primary living area. For now, though, with all the delays, I probably won't get the final page and title page (I always save that for last) on my 2002 album done until next weekend.
Today was ridiculously busy. Got up at 9am, and my neighbor/friend took Chip for a walk. Left the house a bit early for my aquacise class because I needed to get gas first. The class went really well because I still had decent mobility and energy from the prednisone. I actually had grip strength in my hands, something I hadn't experienced in about two years! On the way home from the class, I snagged the aforementioned bug spray and eye drops and (ahem, I'm blaming the prednisone for this) two dark chocolate bars from the pharmacy. When I got home, I checked my phone messages and discovered that the realtors had arranged a showing for that afternoon! Problem was, I got the message at 1pm, and the showing was supposed to be at 12:45! Yikes! So I herded Chip into the car and took off immediately for the park. But the realtor must have been running late, because we came back an hour later and they were still in the house, so we wandered around the neighborhood for another 15 minutes or so. When we finally got back home, I was left with half an hour to get ready for my massage/chiropractor appointment, and I hadn't eaten yet that day. I heated up from frozen Indian food (palak paneer with rice), snarfed, and was out the door again. Next I needed to cash a check (I got reimbursed for my deductible on my car repair, yayyyy) before the credit union closed. I had planned to go to the health food store after, but there was a major injury accident in the area, and I didn't want to get caught up in the traffic snarl, so I headed home. After a quick supper of leftover broiled chicken and tomato soup, my neighbor/friend came over again to mow the back yard. I did some yard stuff too, but I made sure to apply the bug spray first. Discovered fairly soon that while my arms and legs were left alone, I'd forgotten to put any on my face. Nothing like a swarm of mosquitos trying to go right up your nose.
Even though I did get through the day much easier than I would have pre-prednisone, I am beginning to slow in obvious ways. There is a slight stiffness in my knees that is more pronounced than yesterday, my hands are starting to ache again, and the grip strength is already starting to slip away tonight. And I'm beginning to show signs of having scrambled eggs for brains again. I was trying to hose down the front porch (looked like another cat vs. bird fight had taken place there) and kept forgetting which direction to turn the spray nozzle to turn it off when people walked by. Ended up squirting myself more than once.
And while I haven't dozed off putting a blog entry together since Friday, I'm coming damned close tonight. So good night.
Did go out into the record 103 degree heat yesterday to go to the craft store. Being minus a tape runner constitutes an emergency when I'm in the mood to scrapbook, heh heh. I was kinda sorta almost frugal. I'm a kid in a candy store when it comes to scrapbooking materials, and the temptation upon me yesterday was great. Maybe compulsion to buy unnecessary things is like the food cravings I get when I'm on prednisone? Anyway, I managed to limit myself to one tape runner (refillable, I believe), two white pens to replace the one that had run out of ink a few months back (one fine line and one medium point), and three sets of black letters in three different fonts. No stickers, no background paper, although I was really dying to buy both.
Was wading through disc 2 on the "Brazil" DVD set when Dan called. He'd toured a few houses. One of them was kinda cruddy, with stains on the carpeting and such. The other two were adorable, but shared a significant problem: the kitchens were the size of postage stamps! Seriously, no counter space, no space for a small dinette set, and no dining area. What, did these people eat standing up in the living room?? I don't require a monster kitchen, but I do need enough counter space for my microwave, enough floor space for the table and chairs, and if my Foreman grill and rotisserie can't fit onto countertops both at the same time, I at least need cabinets that will hold them when they're not in use. Bummer, because these houses were otherwise perfect. Dan's gonna tour more houses when he's up to it. He's had a cold with a cough for three weeks now, and while he says he feels better, he's still coughing and is really tired. The houses he wants to tour are all larger. One is fairly new (built in 2000) but is on the outskirts of town (actually, I had to talk him into looking at that one, pleading the low-maintenance angle). Another is huge, 2400 square foot, but it in a suburb that might be too far away. There are three others ranging in square feet from 1700 to 2100 all in town. One that looks particularly promising was built in 1985, has 1900 square feet, has a kitchen/dining area remarkably like the one in my current house, and has a very nice deck in the back yard. And the one we liked so much from a few weeks ago is still on the market.
Because of the immense heat, I had to wait until 6:30pm to pull weeds. The disadvantage of this is while it allows me to work in the shade and avoid sun rashes, I am subject to every single biting insect on the face of the earth! Seriously, an entire swarm of mosquitos found me, and they were ruthless! Before long, horseflies were joining in, and even when I managed to get away from those, other stuff I couldn't even see were biting! I have red marks and swelling everywhere. So I actually went out this afternoon and bought bug spray. I really should take the stuff more seriously as there have been people in my state contracting West Nile virus.
I only got two of my remaining three photo album pages done. Because I have to keep the house de-cluttered all the time, I spend an inordiate amount of time packing and unpacking all the supplies and hauling them to and from the upstairs book room closet to the downstairs living room. Hence, by the time I've got everything ready to work on, a significant amount of time has passed and either I've lost the motivation, need to make something to eat, or have to stop because of some other commitment. The idea of getting a larger house is beginning to appeal to me more and more as I would have enough room to set up a card table in a corner someplace and have a little scrapbook workspace. I think Dan would let me get away with it as long as I wasn't cluttering up a primary living area. For now, though, with all the delays, I probably won't get the final page and title page (I always save that for last) on my 2002 album done until next weekend.
Today was ridiculously busy. Got up at 9am, and my neighbor/friend took Chip for a walk. Left the house a bit early for my aquacise class because I needed to get gas first. The class went really well because I still had decent mobility and energy from the prednisone. I actually had grip strength in my hands, something I hadn't experienced in about two years! On the way home from the class, I snagged the aforementioned bug spray and eye drops and (ahem, I'm blaming the prednisone for this) two dark chocolate bars from the pharmacy. When I got home, I checked my phone messages and discovered that the realtors had arranged a showing for that afternoon! Problem was, I got the message at 1pm, and the showing was supposed to be at 12:45! Yikes! So I herded Chip into the car and took off immediately for the park. But the realtor must have been running late, because we came back an hour later and they were still in the house, so we wandered around the neighborhood for another 15 minutes or so. When we finally got back home, I was left with half an hour to get ready for my massage/chiropractor appointment, and I hadn't eaten yet that day. I heated up from frozen Indian food (palak paneer with rice), snarfed, and was out the door again. Next I needed to cash a check (I got reimbursed for my deductible on my car repair, yayyyy) before the credit union closed. I had planned to go to the health food store after, but there was a major injury accident in the area, and I didn't want to get caught up in the traffic snarl, so I headed home. After a quick supper of leftover broiled chicken and tomato soup, my neighbor/friend came over again to mow the back yard. I did some yard stuff too, but I made sure to apply the bug spray first. Discovered fairly soon that while my arms and legs were left alone, I'd forgotten to put any on my face. Nothing like a swarm of mosquitos trying to go right up your nose.
Even though I did get through the day much easier than I would have pre-prednisone, I am beginning to slow in obvious ways. There is a slight stiffness in my knees that is more pronounced than yesterday, my hands are starting to ache again, and the grip strength is already starting to slip away tonight. And I'm beginning to show signs of having scrambled eggs for brains again. I was trying to hose down the front porch (looked like another cat vs. bird fight had taken place there) and kept forgetting which direction to turn the spray nozzle to turn it off when people walked by. Ended up squirting myself more than once.
And while I haven't dozed off putting a blog entry together since Friday, I'm coming damned close tonight. So good night.
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