Nov 8: General catch-up

Yikes--didn't realize how far behind this has fallen.

Congratulations, J.T.! I love the name Olivia.

So, after the happy euphoria from the last post some of the fatigue returned. Not really sure why, although it's possible that since I'm feeling better and pushing myself more than I've gone overboard too often. Pushing myself has been necessary, but as with so many things it needs to be with moderation. The foot has been flaring up every once a while, and with getting darker so much earlier I haven't been walking as much. (I have the treadmill, but don't enjoy it as much, so harder to motivate myself.) Additionally, I've been having a lot of right heel pain, which has not responded to either new orthotics or sneakers. The X-rays at podiatrist didn't show a heel spur, so I'm wondering if it's chronic fashitis.

Lots going on, nothing exciting, just general stuff that has been put off for years--literally. My house has never been organized since I was so sick on moving there. So picking up isn't putting things back where they belong, it's having to figure out where they go. This means that it isn't simple, so I keep procrastinating. Now that I have a new tenant it enables me to look for a cleaning service, so there is one coming out on Friday. My thought is once a month to do a really thorough cleaning: scrub the bathroom and kitchen floor, high up dusting. These are things which cause me pain to do and that's not likely to improve. It will make it easier to keep up knowing that someone else will do the big stuff. But in getting prepared for this it's made me more aware of all the clutter around, and cleaning is harder and less productive if it's cluttered. What's distressing is that I did a tremendous amount of picking up and coping over the weekend and the place still looks pretty horrid. (BTW: the place isn't horrifically dirty, because the wonderful Kim cleans when she and Rick are up. But then they had the gall to both get full-time jobs and aren't available as much. The nerve!)

Yes, there is a new tenant. She moved in Oct 30th, although her technical date was November 1. Since her name is Kim it will be easier to refer to her by initials: KH, so as not to get confused with the other Kim. She is disabled, gets subsidized housing, but not Section 8. So I get a percentage from her, the bulk from the county agency. Her prior landlords raved about her, how sorry they were to see her go. While that apartment was nice and more modern than mine it was out near Lancaster, a long drive to any store or her medical appointments so she wanted to be somewhere with shorter distances to important things like grocery stores. She's quiet and neat, when she's feeling well she likes to garden. (This is fabulous because while I loathe gardening I love the results!) From a totally selfish standpoint it's especially exciting as she will never have enough money to buy a house on her disability income,so I'm hoping she'll be as great a tenant as Marilyn without the chance of leaving. The only issue will be her doing the stairs if her disc disease gets worse. I'm exploring the cost to put in a washer/dryer up there as she has a fairly new one, so it would just be the cost of the plumbing.

My newest BFF is my handyman Nelson. He's been the one who replaced the rear door after re-finishing it, insulated the walls, did some stuff in the apartment, getting some lights up, etc. But his main concentration has been the squirrel infestation. While I don't like killing animals (I actually carry spiders and fireflies outside!), the squirrels have become a menace to both my house and me. They have become so bold that they climb up the screens in the windows and door right in front of me and the cats. They have found new ways into the soffet and space above the enclosed porch, where they can be heard chewing. So, after three years of trying everything else, we've resorted to kill traps. In only a few weeks seven squirrels have been executed for being on my roof, the first four in less than a week. So Nelson comes over for dead squirrel removal, also re-setting the trap. He's over so much that he refers to me as his 'significant other', although I told him to keep me out of the divorce if his wife hears that! For those of you who remember the TV show 'Murphy Brown', I've been telling him that he's become my Eldin.

Saturday, Oct 30th, I went to the Jon Stewart rally in Washington--it was an absolute blast. Most polite crowd I've ever been in. It also gave me a chance to spend time with Susan & Emily, as well as brunch with Aunt Beth, Uncle George, cousin Mark & his wife Leonor. The surprise here was that Aunt Beth will be getting a cardiac cath. She had a positive nuclear stress test about a year and a half ago, but since her symptoms were stable they decided to wait on doing the cardiac cath. But she's more easily short of breath now, so on to the cath. She was pretty nonplussed throughout my critical issues, which is partly due to her innate calmness as well as not realizing what it was like to cope with personally. Her comment was "It's different now that it's me." Ah, perspective.

This past weekend has been taken up by Mom. She got a total knee replacement on Thursday at Doylestown Hosp. The surgeon said it was completely routine without any surgical complications--and yet we're related? She's never had any major surgery before and was rather stunned at how painful it was, how disorienting anesthesia was, what it's like being restricted by pain, the trauma of trying to get to a commode. I only got in one shot: "The pain in your knee that's so terrible? Imagine waking up with that in your chest." She didn't appreciate my trying to give her perspective. She went to the nursing center of her facility for intensive rehab, so her friends can come over and visit. She'll return to her apartment in about ten days.

That's the general catch-up. Next will be a big announcement!

Thanks for checking in, Laurie