the_rck

Kroger did substitute on our grocery order. We didn't end up with anything that will kill Scott, but one or two of the substitutions are things none of us will eat in place of things only I will eat. The ease of pickup was helpful, but us being able to read the labels matters a lot.

I haven't checked the bread yet, so I don't know if I'll be using the bread maker tomorrow.

And we didn't get any of the things that Scott habitually checks for to see if there are any sales. I don't have that list in my head, and I found the Kroger website horribly frustrating (and it crashed for 20 minutes while I was working).

I have a bit of a back up in terms of DVDs I need to watch and return to the library. I ended up not watching anything last week so that I could listen to some Overdrive audiobooks. Fortunately, the season set due today was renewable. I just have to get myself to turn on the TV.

I may have overdone things today. My wrists are bad, and my back is threatening to dump me face-first on the floor if I'm not sufficiently careful when walking.

The wrists are probably mostly down to having read a hardcover from the library, 450 pages in the last 48 hours. I typed a good bit yesterday, too.

I'm less sure about my back. I stripped the bed. I've washed three loads of laundry. None of those have come upstairs yet, so that's not a factor. Scott helped me get the fitted sheet on the bed, and I've managed the pillowcases. I haven't tried to deal with my flat sheet and blankets yet. (Scott and I have sufficiently different needs in terms of comfortable sleeping temperatures that we don't share flat sheets and blankets. It's just now because I'm constantly too warm instead of because I'm constantly too cold.)

Scott did the grocery and library pick up today. He mowed the lawn which required shifting all of the stuff in the front yard.

We're in that annoying state between summer and full on fall when I can't predict whether or not having the ceiling fan on over night will be a necessity or a misery. Scott generally doesn't have trouble either way. I do, but getting out of bed to flip the switch requires taking off my c-pap gear and then putting it back on again. Also, turning the fan on risks turning the overhead light on because I'm not likely to remember whether or not the light was on.

Fan and light are on the same switch, and I can't reach the cord for the fan. The light has a long pull cord so that I can find it in any light and so that I can reach it at all. We've discussed alternatives for the fan pull cord that will still make it obvious which is which, but Scott can reach it when he's standing at the sides or the foot of the bed, so I don't think he quite gets how difficult it is for me to reach. It's also something that's an issue for a few weeks every year, non-consecutive weeks even.

The household repair I most desperately want, though, is new back steps. The current ones are decaying from the inside out, and bits that look safe to step on have given out under our feet. Snow and ice will not improve footing. Scott says he wants to get something custom made, something wooden instead of concrete. Given cider season, though, I don't know that we'll be able to do anything before spring.

I've tried looking online to see what can be done about steps, but neither Lowe's nor Home Depot have been helpful. I very much don't want stackable pieces because that's what we have now. The top step has wobbled for years, and I'm nearly certain that's due to the same freeze-thaw cycles that destroy local roads and sidewalks.

I'd like to ban use of the back steps entirely until we have a replacement, but I'm not convinced that either Scott or Cordelia will listen to me.

Scott and Cordelia tried to do most of the birthday stuff for me on Saturday, the day before my birthday, because we were scheduled to spend Sunday with Scott's parents and his sister and her family (minus the kid at college). We had lunch with everyone on Sunday at Scott's parents place, and then most of the group watched the Indy 500 while Cordelia and I read our books.

Monday, my lower back spasmed. I needed help with standing up and with getting out of bed. I couldn't stand for very long, either. I remembered the stretches I needed, but they only help incrementally. The first time I did them, I couldn't get up off the floor without Scott to help me. I weigh enough that I don't think Cordelia could have.

Tuesday, the spasmed had decreased enough that I could do things if I was careful, so I took care of some chores. Yesterday, I was still hurting enough that I took a cab to my appointment instead of taking the bus the way I'd meant to. I ended up walking around a bit after that because walking didn't hurt and then took a bus to central campus. I walked to the South University post office and finally mailed my hair to the charity that does wigs for kids in Michigan.

I got bubble tea for myself and for Cordelia, and I played some Ingress. I misread the details of one mission enough that I ended up going a couple of blocks out of my way as I headed for the bus home. I also ended up detouring to the library when I realized that my water bottle was empty and that it was time to take my thyroid medicine. The bus I wanted was pulling up to the station at about the time I went inside the library. I don't think I could have made it even if I'd skipped both the Ingress mission and the medication.

At least the timing worked out so that I could drink my bubble tea as soon as I got home.

We had a session of Scott's Firefly game last night. It had been a while, so we all had to remind each other of details from the last couple of sessions. It'll be at least a month before we can play again because two of the players will be at Origins next time. The rest of us will keep going with the Betrayal Legacy game.

I was awake and functional during the game session which kind of surprised me given all of the walking earlier in the day. My back was semi-okay until I lay down on the floor to do PT after our guests had gone home. I'm not sure if that's just when my muscles decided to announce that four-ish hours of walking is not what's good for a spasming back or if it was entirely me trying to do the stretch for my neck which involves tennis balls under my head for a minute or three, but it spasmed again as I sat up.

I managed to stand up on my own anyway (I wanted to be able to test that before trying it while at home alone this morning). This morning, I made Scott and Cordelia manage without me so that I could get a little extra sleep. I needed it pretty badly. My lower back is still twinging, off and on, but it's not as bad as Monday or even last night.

I'm hoping that I can make Scott clean out the dryer vent today in spite of the rain. He washed his two winter coats on Monday and didn't manage to clean out all of the pockets. Those coats have a lot of pockets, so that part doesn't worry me. The part I'm cranky about is that he found bits of tissues all over the coats and the inside of the washer and still put the coats into the dryer.

There were a lot of paper scraps when I opened up the dryer on Tuesday. I'm not running the damned thing until Scott cleans that duct. We're due for it anyway, and there was so much of it that there has to have been a good bit that got past the lint screen. We have four loads of laundry stacked up and waiting. Because I'm short, I can't get at the dratted thing, even if my hands would do the work, and Cordelia's no taller than I am. I don't like the idea of her standing on the dryer to try to get at things.

My state i.d. arrived in the mail, and my goodness my shortened hair is floofy. When it's not wet, the ends spread a pretty long way out from my head. Measuring with my hands at ear level, it goes a bit wider than the length of my middle finger. It's still flat above the ears, probably due to the weight of the hair.