The Ramblin' Report

I had this past week off from work, with the intention of getting some cleaning & decluttering done around the house. Stuff that it's hard to get to regularly when your life gets to a certain degree of fullness.

The most I managed to get to is clearing out the triangular planter box by the front door and purchasing new plants to fill it up with.

After the cleanout.
With the new plants.

I still haven't quite gotten around to repotting all the new plants and finalizing the change.

Part of the problem was my mental picture of how the week would go got screwed up last Saturday night. Well, technically, Sunday morning.

SweetPea, the Monkeys and I had met some friends for the 10:30pm showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at the local theatre. After the showing was over, on our way through the lobby, I glanced down and realized that we were walking across freshly mopped floor. I commented to SweetPea, and, as I turned back to look at her, she was already going down.

The thing about SweetPea is that she's had four back surgeries, and has an anterior-posterior global fusion of her L4-L5-S1 vertebrae. She also has problems with her knees and hips, in part because of her back problems. Falling, for her, is a big deal.

She immediately started acting very shocky, even to the point of giving up the car keys when I asked for them - something she's never previously done. The theatre staff was helpful and responsive. A report was filled out and an ambulance called and SweetPea was taken to the nearest ER. Which turned out to be a big mistake, and we ended up spending a little over 7 hours there, waiting to be seen. In the end, though, the doctor declared that nothing was torn or broken, and she most likely had a bone bruise or a sprain, and should be ok within a few days.

In case you're curious, there was no wet floor sign, and the woman mopping had, apparently, been told before to wait until the theatre was cleared of patrons before mopping. Also, SweetPea has since returned, mostly, to her pre-fall self. Yesterday we spent the entire day out & about running errands and such, and she even did all of the driving. I think she very much enjoyed the return to freedom.

It's just been such a weird few days, starting with Tatiana and continuing. There are times when it's gotten hard, and I know it's not over yet. I'm not going into everything. Parts of it aren't mine to tell, parts of it I'm not going to discuss until I have further details, and parts of it I can't really discuss in a public forum like this.

So, for now, just know that things are, mostly, ok, and, of course, we'll get through and get by, same as we always have, and I may have more information for you all in the coming weeks. I know I've been unusually quiet the last few weeks, and I'm sorry. As the WineDog says, I really have to be in the right head space for a good rant and, while there's plenty for me to rant about, I just haven't been able to work up a good enough head of steam to tackle any of it. Most of the other stuff going on in my head has been largely my frustration with the gym and feeling directionless and progressless as far as that goes. Of course, I haven't been since the day we buried Tatiana. But whatever!

I did have my physical on the 17th, and, after the lab results came back, I was advised that my triglycerides were high and my hdl was low. Looking both of those up online to determine the best course of action, I was doubly advised to get 30 to 60 minutes of aerobic activity every day (!), in addition to the whole "lose weight and quit eating such crap" thing. So I guess quitting the gym in frustration is out of the cards, and I'll be headed back tomorrow. Hoping to get my pre- and post- routines more streamlined so that I can actually spend an hour working out without constantly running into "Oops, now I'm late". I also think that I need to figure out how to stretch and strengthen my hamstrings. After looking some things up online, it seems the most likely reason for the tightness in the back of my knees and the acheyness in my hips. I've been having this problem after switching from the steppy thing to the treadmill, and it's been frustrating me. I want to keep bumping up the speed on the treadmill, but the back of my knee gets so tight and stiff that I'm afraid to push it past a certain point. I think yoga would be an excellent idea, but the class schedules aren't exactly convenient and, frankly, I'm kind of scared about getting stuck, looking like an idiot, or breaking something.

I also want to get more into strength training at some point in the near future, but I know virtually nothing about how to do it correctly, and I'm afraid of hurting myself or spending too much time spinning my wheels. So I guess that has to wait until I can con someone into showing me the ropes. So to speak.

Friday we took the Monkeys down to Funderland. If you live in the area and have been to William Land Park, you're probably familiar with that certain food-smell in the area of the Zoo, Fairy Tale Town and Funderland. They all have concessions stands, and have probably sold pretty much the same things forever. For some reason, that smell always makes me think of these, even though they're not made there, and taste nothing like the smell:

I think it's the combination of popcorn popping and cotton candy making that mingle to smell like caramely popcorn. I was excited, though, about getting the popcorn brick. Turns out it really wasn't worth it. Tasted stale enough that I wondered if it wasn't the exact same bricks as when I went as a kid.

Saturday morning I got up and ventured out to grab some coffee and discovered this late-July rarity:

Frosted windows!
Those of you laboring under water-usage restrictions (oh, wait, that's us, too!) might see red over this:

That runoff has been pretty much constant since the weather's been so warm. I've been waiting for some city official to knock on my door to talk to me about *my* water usage. The grey & blue house is mine, and it looks very much like the water is coming from our property.

The culprit, however, is this guy:

I'm guessing that's a swamp cooler of some variety, but it's been... Well, leaking isn't quite the right word, as the flow of water is pretty vigorous. First from a spout on the bottom, but, lately, the entire bottom of the thing has just been raining water. I don't know if you can tell, but the one side of is filthy with rust, and bows out a bit. I would be surprised if it doesn't just come apart completely before the hot season is over.

I've got a bunch more pictures to share, but I think I'll get to those this week.