It's All Maintenance

The one thing you never realize when you're younger is how much work it is to be older.(yes, I had a birthday, thank you for asking). Losing weight in my 20's generally involved a carton of Marlboros and a lot of coffee - and it worked very well. Now it's a carefully orchestrated diet with plenty of exercise and that's just to keep from gaining weight, never mind losing it. The surgery didn't help, it's still a few weeks off before I can even consider lifting anything and sit-ups are out of the picture for the time being - let me tell you, going from 150 sit ups daily to none at all is driving me crazy. The only thing that keeps me from cheating is the idea of a repeat surgery and ending up back at square one. I happen to be enjoying a belly that has nothing poking out of it so I will behave even though it will take me weeks to get rid of that cake!My birthday was quiet, but as you get older that's sort of what happens, isn't it? I took a couple of hours of personal time as David's truck is in Blacksville getting a new hub or something and Jackson needed retrieving after school.

The Birds.

We are being overwhelmed with birds - there was a red headed woodpecker out front this morning, turkeys were gobbling in the lower acres, geese were flying over head, the spruce trees were singing away, it was like a free for all for our fine feathered friends. We have to figure out something to keep the birds from flying into our picture window out front, I found two dead birds that had bonked into our window yesterday (not to mention it's a bit startling if you're sitting on the couch). David and I mowed the yard on Friday, he rides the 48" Yazoo and I have my little John Deere so it's not real bad, but we've been having intermittent showers which just encourages Jungle Growth. My little  push mower broke so we have to get a new one and I cannot use the weed whacker. I did  use it last week but my surgical site swelled a bit and was pretty sore so I think that was enough of that. David's almost done with the roof, they were having a sale on shingles at Lowes so he figured this would be a good time to do that. We're getting there slowly but surely - but there's always so much more on the list and when you get done with the list, it just starts all over again, doesn't it? We got rid of the giant table in the dining room and put our old harvest table back which looks much better but now the dining room doesn't match, but I don't care. I don't think we'll be bringing the hutch with us anyhow. David is still trying to figure things out, the RE called but we're no where near done, BUT there's a little house for sale in Fairmont on the lake that David thinks would have good resale value (not to mention how much closer I would be to AC Moores.......)

Is It Friday Already?

David is being driven insane by the birds - they do not sleep and neither does he these days. I know where they are - we have a line of giant spruce trees along the driveway next to the garage which is where our bedroom window faces. Those trees are literally stuffed with little birds, Pearl is forever standing on her hind and legs and trying to climb them. If you shake them the trees explode with birds and now they've taken to having All Night Singing Contests which is what is driving David crazy. Anyhoo, spring has sprung and the yard was instantly out of control so last night we manned the mowers until dinner time - I did the acreage around the house and David did the lower parts on the big mower. I always find it a little scary as we live on a hill and the mower always feels like it's tilting - when I worked in the local hospitals here one of the most common injuries (aside from getting drunk and falling out of your tree stand) was rolling lawn tractors and fracturing your femur - that is an ugly injury which tends to involve things like pins and traction so I try to be super careful. I am turning 47 next week so I'm too old for this crap anyhow. I'm back to exercising every morning but am not allowed to lift anything until pretty much the middle of May and even then have to be careful so it's put quite a dent in my morning routine. I'm back to trying to eat well - except for pizza on Friday of course. At work the other nurse has handed in her resignation but we have someone on board until we can fill her position so it won't be too bad. I hope!

Flung Into The Black Hole

Amazing how you can be off of work for three weeks and it might as well be three years. Yesterday was very disjointed with the exception of my first visit with a regular patient. I dropped off my labs and headed into the office - some of my patients that I thought would be discharged were not so that was a major discussion. I had new patients, discharging patients  and  an injection training  with that horrid injection pen. Talk about trying to build a better mouse trap - it has a digital dose meter, a needle shield with a safety lock, a little white button hidden on one side that releases the plunger on top that rotates to set the dose..... are you getting a headache yet? And it actually works very well once you get the hang of it. The first time I taught it the company didn't include the instruction manual so what I ended up doing was making the patient watch the ENTIRE video while I  sat on a couch behind her frantically taking the pen apart with the sketchy little troubleshooting guide and watching the video myself with the other eye. By the time she turned around I was an expert, barely. Anyhoo, yesterday was all full of surprises, some of which I can't go into but I will tell you there is a nurse in Chicago and a nurse in Texas laughing thier asses off about an incident that happened yesterday which of course, involved yours truly. By the time I got home I was dragging big time, it was all I could do not to fall asleep before 9pm  - it really knocked me out. But I got all my paperwork done and have all my patients scheduled for today so hopefully it will go smoother.

High. Ho.

That's right, it's off to work I go. The last week has been very nice - I read a lot of useless books, knitted, watched BBC until my eyes froze, that sort of thing. Poor Pearl, she's had 3 full weeks of company so I'm sure something of mine will suffer for my absence at some point today. David goes to the dermotologist sometime today to have his sutures removed, the incision seems to be healing well. My incision is all healed over, there is a dissolvable stitch working it's way out, tugging doesn't help and it hurts when I do it so I should maybe stop. I'm back on my diet this morning too, my weight has been gradually creeping up over the past few months and I'd like to stop it before it gets entirely out of hand. David and Jackson pulled the cover off the pool yesterday, the water looks alright and I asked them to put it back. It's too early to open it and if we do it just means extra time cleaning and adding chemicals to a pool we can't swim in yet. I figure in a couple of weeks I'll open it  as it should warm up by then, plus we have the solar cover this year. The frogs have been lurking around it, they are so sneaky! The neighbors next door have been working on thier property, from the look of the fencing it looks like we will have Cow Neighbors which should make Pearl The Watch Dog crazy. Oh well, I guess I'd better get ready for the salt mines..............

Things You Should Know

Throw your kitchen sponges in the wash, especially when you're doing the  whites - it keeps them from getting stinky and keeps them clean much longer

Keep the lid of the old coffee can and put it on the bottom of the new one to prevent rust rings on the counter

if you love pie -  instead of making a pie crust (the average 9" is 41% saturated fat and has about 700 calories) use Fillo pastry sheets which has little fat and 10 sheets is about 160 calories. You get it in the freezer section - so defrost of course, unroll, take a sheet (they're very thin) put in pie pan, spray with Pam, layer another sheet, spray with Pam, etc until you've made a decent crust. Add filling and bake! (Kathy told me about this years ago and it really is a great substitute)

If you come to visit me do NOT bring any clown friends - I'm scared of them (or coulrophobic if you need an exact term). If you bring a clown he will have to stay in the car.  I am not alone in my phobia    - http://www.ihateclowns.com/

I didn't end up at the Ramp Festival in Core, on closer inspection it had rather overt religious overtones and despite my love of ramps I would be hard pressed to have to pretend to pray over them. Us heathens have our limits. David and I spent most of the morning doing errands, We went to Mail and More to get the money order for the FULL SET OF RUSSIAN KNITTING NEEDLES - whoo hoo!! - I'm getting for my birthday  - http://www.peacefleece.com/knitting%20needle.htm    -they're actually coming from Maine so try not to be so terribly impressed - honestly, don't you people ever get out? David's neck is feeling a bit better, hopefully the doctor got it all so he won't have to go back in. I'm getting ready to go back to work on Monday, I'm mentally dragging my feet but I know once I get back it'll be fun.

 

 

 

Who Turned Up The Heat?

It's typical WV weather - we were freezing our collective tails off and them BAM - summer is here. I swapped out all my summer clothes yesterday and sorted through all of them - there is no reason for me to own two pairs of pants that I don't wear, I can just not wear the one pair and  be happy with that. I have to lose a few pounds but nothing too tragic and I do have the elipse. I got rid of the main culprits this week, I had asked David to buy me some chocolate chip cookies which was something I will never do again at Sam's club - he bought a CASE of "Grandma's Homemade Cookies", all I can say is Grandma must have the cardiac constitution of a Samuri warrior. They were 200 calories - EACH, who needs that kind of trouble? However as we all know anything that has that many calories will sit in the pantry and call your name all day and when you're stuck home you will obey. So I dumped the majority  into a grocery bag and gave them to The Senior with strict instructions to give them out in school. Jackson reported the homeroom wiped out the entire bag in under 5 minutes and were astonished that I would give such a great thing away, I must be crazy or something. Must be. Anyhoo, we are getting ready to take the cover off the pool soon since we - cough cough - kind of had to refill close to half of it. Hmm, you're thinking, what could have happened to the water? Well..... there was rainwater on the cover so I took a garden hose and filled it with water, stuck it in the water on the cover and voila!, it started draining by gravity. However, UNBEKNOWESNT to me and I have no idea how this happened I not only sucked the rainwater off the cover but somehow managed to suck about half the water out of the pool(there is some sort of moral to this story about maybe paying attention or something.....). The Yarn Hater was actually sort of amused. It took two days to refill it and that of course is diluting the chemicals so we might have to open it a bit sooner this year. Anyhoo, we're off to Sam's Club and then Pizza for dinner, it is Friday you know!

The Computer Is Back From It's Vacation

After dealing with Dell's Tech Support(there's a loosely used term for you!) we decided it would just be better to bring it into local computer store - good decision! It was gone for 3 days and they fixed the USB problem, reinstalled the printer, cleaned the files, installed Norton and Symvac and straightened it all out all for under $100. Dell sent me a customer survey which I filled out and got no response (how shocking is that, sigh).  The guy at the computer place said my experience wasn't unusual, he said he'd heard the same problems and complaints from other clients. Anyhow - David had his basal cell removed from his neck on Monday and we both agreed it was a good thing he moved the appointment. David will never let that go again, he was in there for well over an hour and has a 3" incision down the jawline to prove it. The doctor ended up taking quite a bit and he has internal and external sutures  - I had to drive him home as he couldn't turn his head. The swelling is going down today and the sutures come out Monday. I had my followup appointment yesterday and will be returning to work on Monday with lifting restrictions - as lovely as it's been being home I have to admit I am getting a little bored. I'm still not allowed to do any sit ups or weight lifting but I can use the elipse which I was on for 40 minutes and it's just as great as I thought it would be. I'm on the 2nd row of houses in Baby Blanket News, everyone in the surgeon's office got to see it. I take my knitting for anything that might take longer than 10 minutes and it's funny how sometimes no one will even notice and then other times I spend more time holding it up than I do knitting. I'm not sure what I'm doing this weekend, Susan and I might go out to lunch and there's a Ramp Festival in Core on Saturday  http://www.richwooders.com/ramp/ramps.htm  (all the ramps you can eat!) so it might be a busy weekend in West Virginia!

The Channel Twelve Weather Team

Can you believe the Channel Twelve Crack Weather Team actually predicted SNOW for today - given their track record I suppose that's as good a guess as any others that they've made in the past. Yesterday was supposed to be rain all day, yada yada yada and it was rather breezy and sunny. It is  rather chill and crappy this morning and I believe I was standing in the "rain" - but since I'm not a meterologist I could be wrong. Anyhow, I was on my exercise bike this morning for a bit but David has banned me from the elipse so I have to sneak on that - I have only once just to try it out. The steri-strips are almost all off and the incision is quite impressive  - I think when it heals more down the road it'll be barely visable at all. Not that it matters - I have a scar on the right breast (benign mass), a nice big one running down the left between my rib cage and breast (benign calcification of the chest wall) and of course my hysterectomy scar which is pretty long due to the large tumor removal(benign). I'm glad it was all benign, but it means I won't be able to be an exotic dancer when I retire as I had planned. Our printer is still on the lamb, I have been researching it but all of the solutions are those scary things that you just know if you make one misstep you'll wipe out your computer for good so we'll probably be bringing it in to the computer repair.

My Kingdom For a Working Dell Printer

I hate when something goes wrong with the computer - because you know no matter how simple or little it seems, it'll be out of control in no time. As I said previously our computer suddenly started not recognizing our USB device (that's what makes the modem  communicate with the printer) - so I emailed Dell. I got a response the next day and started following the directions but decided to locate the file I needed to download to reinstall the drivers first. It doesn't exist so I wrote back to the tech. Got a sorry and right web page, but the files I needed to locate -sigh, don't exist (at this point I'm seriously wondering if I'm not communicating with the janitor who is probably laughing as he makes things up....). So I call the Dell tech support and sit on hold for over twenty minutes and during that time I also sit on Computer Hold waiting for live assistance. Live assistance comes on and comes to the conclusion I either need a new USB or should try hooking up the printer to another computer (???) to see if it works. I told the tech since the printer still copies and scans it works,that we'd already replaced the USB and even if I did have another computer what would hooking the printer up to that prove - it still wouldn't work on my computer. I told him about the email tech telling me I needed to reinstall the drivers and he said that wouldn't work because the USB wasn't working so the computer wouldn't be able to install them -   I just would've ended up with no drivers. I asked him why the Dell tech would've emailed those instructions and he said he didn't know.Then he gave me the 1-800 number which I told him I'd tried that, but no one answers the phone. In an effort to distract me he started repeating himself about the new USB, etc... so I thanked him and cut it short - no matter how many times he said that it still doesn't make sense. So I now have a $160 piece of trash curtesy of Dell. It's just so frustrating that I know there has to be a simple solution to this but I don't know enough about computers to do it on my own and after my experience with the two Dell tech supports I am very leery of contacting them again. I  had an experience years ago with AOL where the tech was leading me through all sorts of Press This and Press That  - when I came to a blue screen with writing on it that wouldn't budge. I read it off to her and said, Well, what do I do next? And she very quietly replied "Take it to the computer repair shop" and hung up! Some things never change.

Days Go By

David finished up the job in Fairmont yesterday and came home to pick me up and get Jackson from school. He had his monthly Navy meeting so we dropped him off and then headed off to exit 7 because I have a coupon! The Yarn Hater has stopped making comments for now  - especially the ones pertaining to the fact that just because you have a coupon doesn't mean you have to use it as it appears it all falls on deaf ears anyhow. why would I be carrying around a coupon I wasn't going to use - there are times when he just makes no sense at all. I bought a really cool knitting bag to go along with the other 9 or 10 that I own - but they're like outfits, different bags for different projects. Since my birthday is coming up at the end of the month I'm busy plotting that out - the latest Alan Dart book is only being sold in England so I'll have to special order that. David is off to Maryland today, he's putting in a door for a friend who owns a house in Deep Creek - Maryland is actually only an hour or so from here so it's not that impressive. Oakland, Maryland is only 30 miles from Kingwood to give an idea of the distance. My project today is the printer. The printer we bought from Dell was working fine until a week or so ago - then all of the sudden it didn't recognize the USB cable - that would be the thing that communicates with the computer. We thought it might be the cable so we bought a new one and it worked temporarily but then the next morning it was back to announcing it had never seen that USB before and had no idea where it had come from. I've never heard of a printer taking the fifth, but apparently they can. I emailed Dell and got an answer back  - it is a LONG scary thing you have to do and since my problem is I can't print off the computer, sigh, I can't print out the directions. Wish me luck.

In The Name Of God?

The thing about these religious sects that they occasionally raid  - I understand they're following "god's law" - but why is this god always telling these old geezers to marry teenage girls?? Why doesn't this god person tell them to, hmm, I don't know -  MARRY SOMEONE THIER OWN AGE?  Interestingly enough in other parts of the country if you take an underage girl, beat and seperate her from society, make her have sex with older men they call that "pimping" - in the Church of the Latter Day Saints apparently they call it "ok with us".  One of the fun things about the bible is you can pretty much twist it anyway you want and it still makes sense. The Tibetian Book Of The Dead is a much better read as it's pretty clear on The Rules Of Conduct and Other Things. That would be my thought for the day. Moving on, Jackson has gotten a stay on his execution and will indeed being doing the cap and gown thing as far as we know. We now have to deal with the prom thing but if he can't come up with a date so we can rent a tux he still has his All Purpose Suit  which will do for that. My car is hopefully coming home today, it had to go back on Monday for the part they had to order that came in. It's not a big deal as I haven't been driving of course, but I like to have it here just in case. I do like that fact that we can use the garage in Blacksville and that they'll drive it back and forth.

Rock Bottom Rock Of Love

First off, I was led down the garden path by Kim and secondly I've been watching too much tv entirely. While yakking with Kim last week we got on the subject of reality tv which we both professed to have never watched and then both admitted we do indeed watch it. My skeleton in the closet is viewing the entire season of Flavor Of Love in one day and being unable to stop until I knew if it was Punkin, Hoopz or New York who won the hand of Flavor Flav.(in case you're wondering it was Hoopz who was presented with a diamond grill in addition to becoming the girlfriend of the strange little man). Kim then had to admit to slumming it in the kitchen with Brett Michaels Rock Of Love 2 as strangely enough he had been unable to find his True Love in the previous 12 episodes. So of course while channel surfing from the couch yesterday there it was. It's sort of interesting in a strange way - the show I watched he's down to Ambre, Daisy, and Destiny. My two favorite parts were when they were declaring thier love for Brett but poor Destiny was unable to commit - Daisy yelled at her "are you here for Brett or the show? If it was John Stamos would you still feel the same?!!" - wow. even I had to stop and think about that one. Since she was unable to answer that question the other two outed her at the Elimination Round and Brett in a meaningful way held her hands and told her she was an Awesome awesome awesome awesome person who needed more time to party. This had to suck for Destiny as she'd gotten a tattoo of the show's logo on the back of her neck earlier in the episode. There's a bad decison for you. So Brett is now down to deciding between Ambre who accidently shaved about 6 years off of her age and Daisy the stripper who apparently has all sorts of revelations on a regular basis. I need to get out of the house.

Out And About

I finally felt well enough yesterday to leave the house for a little while, David and I did our weekly food shopping up in town. I spent most of my time sitting in the truck, but after a week of sitting in the house it was a welcome change of pace. I finally got an elipse!! which I'm very excited about even if I can't use it quite yet. I've been looking for awhile as the treadmill is tearing up my feet with repetition injuries but they're pretty expensive if you want a decent one and they don't come up used too often. While we were at Sam's Club we looked at thiers but it was too much. But in the back in the clearance section - there was not only an elipse, but a much better model. It was the  old floor model and was marked down to less half the original price so we bought it. I'm keeping the treadmill as I'll probably be able to use it once in awhile in the future - we bought used for a great price and it still makes me laugh every time I think about it. It was originally about $500, had barely been used and the woman only wanted $75 for it. She told David it had been a Christmas present from her husband who had announced he thought she should lose 20 lbs. She decided it would be more beneficial to lose the husband and the treadmill followed shortly thereafter. We now have a lot of gym equipment but it all gets used and about 90% of it was bought second hand. If you look in the merchandise section in the classifieds you can find tons of barely used stuff for way less than the original price. In other news I'm considering having Jackson killed - he changed his mind about wearing the cap and gown and doing the graduation but never bothered to find out when they needed to be paid for (that would've been LAST week), so he got send into school this morning with a check and it hopefully won't be too late. He also wants to wear a tux to the prom but still doesn't know when that will be occurring so I suppose we'll just have to call the tux rental store and rent a tux for "whenever", hopefully they won't have a problem with that like I do.

Day 492: It Still Hurts.

You always think that the perfect vacation involves books, knitting, tv and nowhere to go - and then when it happens it's perfect for like, maybe 3 days. I can honestly say I've watched every episode of You Are What You Eat and How Clean Is Your House - each show is on four times a day which is something I didn't know before now. Dr. Phil has become trite. I spend the other half of my leisure time defending my midsection as all the animals in the house have become Hernia Seeking Projectiles so lying on the couch has a certain air of danger about it. Other than that I have my follow-up appointment for the 15th and this morning I am feeling better. Of course I've only been up for half an hour so that could change. The blanket is coming along, I'm already halfway done with the first line of houses - it's a fairly easy pattern to follow along with but the size of the needles make it slow going. The carpet guy came yesterday - David stayed home for that as he had not previously realized I probably wouldn't be able to deal with the dog and he wanted to make sure all the rooms were measured. I also finally got my car fixed - the struts were in need of repair but since I can't work without the car I've had to let it go. We use Vance's in Blacksville but the guy opens the Vance's near us so David and Jackson dropped it off here and the guy just took the car when he went back to Blacksville. I've heard from Adam several times, he has two more weeks of boot camp and then he's off to A school for further training - I think he'll be aiming to go back to Japan after that. If he goes, then Jackson will probably follow in the fall and half of the family will be in Asia and the other half in West Virginia, sounds a little strange when you write it out like that, doesn't it?

Life Of Leisure

This would be more fun if there was no pain involved, I could drive or there was something more interesting on TV. I actually feel better today, it's sore but less so and I think I can stay out of bed for more than a couple of hours today. David is taking advantage of my being home by getting my car fixed and the carpet guy is coming today to start measuring for that. We're doing the diningroom, the livingroom, the steps and the upstairs hallway - we'll do the bedrooms as the summer wears on. We have a year so it's no hurry but since I'm home for a bit we might as well get started. I wish the weather was a bit warmer so I could sit outside and read, it's raining today but should clear up over the weekend.

Survival Of The Fittest

Yes, it's all done and over with. David rescheduled his appointment at the dermatologist for Thursday as he thought it would be too much to try and get both done the same day and I'm glad that he did. We got there about 8:30 am as same day surgery likes all thier ducks in a row and they do everything from the paperwork to the bloodwork right then and there. I brought my knitting with me which seemed to amuse the medical staff - the anesthisolgist wanted to know where I'd gotten my circular needles (they were my Addi Turbos) and the surgeon examined my knitting before he looked at my hernia. David was not amused at having to carry a big green and white polka dotted bag through the hospital but he survived.I had to answer the same questions about 5 times - I think everyone underlined the morphine allergy - that gives me uncontrollable vomiting and believe me NO ONE wants to be your friend when you're doing that. I had my surgery around 10:30, it was pretty quick and I was informed after the surgery I got an IV push of toradol so it was also painfree. David joined me in the recovery room around 12:30 (he went down and had lunch while I was in the OR) and by 1 pm I was drinking water and eating graham crackers and pestering the nurse about when I could go home. She said if I peed I would be free to roam the country so I slugged down another glass of water, performed and they came and took out my IV and let me get dressed. I was out by 2:30 - not feeling the greatest but since I was still somewhat under the influence of anethesia and toradol able to totter to the car. I don't know about you but if I'm going to be uncomfortable I'd rather do it in my own bed thank you very much. I have Loretabs for pain - it got bad around 9 pm when everything wore off. So I'm pretty much laid out for awhile, my abdomen is a little swollen and I can only sit up for an hour - or two at best and then it's back to bed. I think it will take longer than a day.......