Ramblings of a rural(ish) geek

- Shoulder is feeling better. Still have not added in *all* the exercises I stopped doing, but I'm getting there. Plank 'lifts' were added Saturday; wall-pushups yesterday (eventually i'll get back to the kitchen counter, and p'raps even the bench); shoulder high rotations with no resistance. And I only say ow when I'm doing something I expect will be pinchy (folding queen size bedding, putting a box on an upper shelf), not when getting dressed or putting dishes away.

- J is turning into a geezer.

- Hiking boots arrived last week. I wore them at the gym on Friday, just to see if they'd bother my feet or knees or back. so far, so good. Still haven't worn them outside. They have a fairly aggressive tread, and will probably not slip on a muddy road or trail. Now to wait for it to get warm enough for me to walk outside.

- Mum went to Florida to visit her sister. She'll be there through the end of February, probably. She's basically just changed COVID bubbles, as AC rarely goes anywhere (lives alone and doesn't drive anymore - post concussion syndrome). AC didn't get to Boone in 2020, and is somewhat bummed by that. Mum says that she didn't get the first stage vaccine before she left because she'd not be there for the second one. They told her that she'd be first up when she got back to pennybyrn.

Talked to the ortho yesterday (tele-visit). "yeah, that's not right. Should be better than that by now. Come in for another steroid injection, since the first one helped a lot. We may not have gotten all the inflammation." So that's scheduled for next week.

Have started going to the gym for exercise, as walking outside when it's below freezing makes my back very cranky. Do not like cranky back. Would prefer track to treadmill, but they're using the track for equipment spacing, and there's only one lane open. (treadmills do weird things to my brain - the transition from walking-and-not-moving to walking-and-moving is tricky.) OTOH, one of the step-things that I like is set up facing the woods with no TV visible. I like that. :)

The ornaments are off the tree and put away, including the kids' new ornaments, and the outdoor lights are unplugged/timer removed. Now they sit until J gets around to taking them down. (I don't know where the tree bag is, and I certainly can't put the tree up in the garage attic.) EU is going to be 30 this year, DB 24. I think I can probably stop buying ornaments for them. When the mail starts moving again, I may ship EU's box of ornaments to her, so that she'll have them with her in Australia. That will be a big box, though.

PT says I went backwards last week - shoulder is both less mobile and less strong than it was last week. She says I really should ice twice a day for the next week, and be really careful about the exercises that I do so that I don't stress it further and trigger more inflammation. boo. No visit next week as the team schedule got over-run with new patients, but back to it the week after.

I know why - Tuesday we were wandering around the yard trying to figure out where a new root-pruned shrubbery was going to go, and I pointed out that the serviceberry had been swallowed by a grapevine (or three. or four). J just mm-hmm'd at me until he actually looked at it. Yeah, I really wasn't exaggerating. So we spent the next 45 minutes or so pulling grapevines off of and out of a 10-14 foot tall shrub (depending on where on the ridge you were standing). Lots of reach up, pull down motion, with things pulling back. And then I went and got the rake to rake all the viney bits up so I could haul them over to the burn pile.

Also on the burn pile is the branches of the old burning bush. Have no idea what happened to it. It was fine in the spring, but somewhere around July it just died. The wood is really light, as though it doesn't have any water in it, and the stump just sounds "wrong" when we kick it.

I cleared the dead bleeding heart stems out of the front flowerbed, and got the blackberry lilies cut back in one of the flowerbeds. I'll see how much gardenwork I can get done this weekend, before my shoulder starts complaining too much. There's lots to do, and it's supposed to be warm and not rainy all weekend.

We are now running on solar power! The electricians were out on Tuesday and Wednesday to hook everything up, and to swap out the old garbagy main service panel for a much better (safer!) one.

(also, I have marked my ballot, and sealed it up in the return envelope. I still have to deliver it to the township clerk. I'll do that next week. DB's went in today.)

I don't do anything else, and I tend to do them on the same day; mostly because PT is in AnnArbor, and most of the stores I go to are there. The rest of them are in town, and I stop on my way home.

PT progresses. Team lead says 'not so fast' -- team member last week added an exercise and increased the weight on another, and my shoulder wasn't really ready for either of them. Being the good PT patient that I am, I dropped the weight, and dropped one of the exercises entirely. Team leader agreed with both of my changes. Today was evaluation day. Still fairly significant limitations, although everything is better than it was a month ago, which was better than when I first went in. At least two more weeks, and he retains the right to extend treatment further if needed.

I finally gave in and called my optometrist. The current glasses I'm wearing are almost three years old - the last time I went in (march of 2019), she said that the changes to my prescription were very minor and that I probably didn't need to get new lenses. So I didn't. But the changes have progressed (not just presbyopia, but actual corneal deformation) to the point that I need new glasses. She's currently taking appointments for 6 weeks out - the first one they offered me was November 3. Erm, no, can't make that one (Election Day! I will be trapped at the township hall). So November 10 it is.

Meijer is filling in the empty spaces in the soda can shelves with salty snacks. Paper goods are fully stocked for two layers deep, but the rest of the shelf is empty. Still no sliced chicken in the sandwich meat case. The cider mill is open, so I stop there on my way home - it's actually a bit out of my way, but it's still better than making a special trip. The grocer in town has sugared Pepsi (as opposed to the usual HFCS stuff). Still no throwback Mt Dew (also sugar). I was able to get everything on the list (except the one thing that I specifically chose not to, because I can go into town and get it if we run out before next Friday).

The solar panels are all on the garage roof! J has been moving some of the house circuits over to a critical circuits box, so that they'll still run off the battery if the mains power goes out overnight. Still waiting for various inspections, and to hear from the contractor as to when they'll be here, but things are progressing. J is also rearranging the internet stuff - the routers/modems/etc have all been crammed onto a drop-down panel in the floor joists in my workroom (right by where the cable comes in to the house), but he's moved them all to a larger, more accessible space on the wall in the storage room that we cleared off for the inverter and the battery. He pulled a couple hundred feet of outdated wire out of the wire chases last night (the old second phone line, old cable-TV wires, old LAN wiring, etc), so that will be neater.

I have been doing the early fall garden clean-up, pulling weeds (mostly grass) and cutting back flower stems. I've been avoiding a couple of gardens, just because there's so many different bees buzzing around in them -- I really don't need to disrupt them while they're stocking up for winter, so I won't. The high point frog count was 24 plus 5 tadpoles. The usual count in the evening now is 14-15.

Headed out to PT in the old car somewhat early this morning -- I had to stop at the township office to drop off the summer tax payment, and it sometimes takes a while to get through that town in the AM -- dropped off the payment, got back in the car, pushed the brake pedal. And it went straight to the floor. "that's not good." Pull around the parking lot to the driveway, push the brake pedal to stop. Car slows, pedal goes to floor. "definitely Not Good." Drive home (lovely windy road with no traffic lights) hoping that no critter will run across the road, swap to my car, off to PT, to hopefully not be too late. Made it to PT only five minutes late, which was not too bad.

Do PT, text J from parking lot after (it's half-nine by then, he's bound to be up), run errands, come home. The brake line split. OK, the rust that was pretty much all that was left of the brake line split. There's a trail of brake fluid in the driveway where I came home. At least it happened in the parking lot of the township hall, and I could get home without really using the brakes; rather than in A2. OTOH, I do have a cell phone and a AAA card, so I'd not be stranded for very long, as long as I didn't hit anything.

PT says I'm progressing well, but they still want more strength and stability under load. Range of motion is probably as good as it's going to get, but being able to put something on a shelf is as important as being able to reach the shelf. No appointment next week (clinic is only half staffed due to holiday, and they say I can miss a week without problem), but scheduled through October now. More exercises, increased repetitions, regrouped reps (rather than 3 @ 10, 30 with no break).

Errands were errands. Grocery shopping was light, as I've pretty much filled all the holes in the pantry that I'm going to. Mostly perishables today, and bird and cat food. Spent less than $20 at Costco (I know!), since all I got there was veg. New MI apples are in at Meijer (w00t). Probably coulda got a couple more snack-y things, but it won't do J any harm to run out of potato chips before I go shopping next week.

So much not much going on. It rained today, which is nice because it's been a couple of weeks since the last appreciable rain. The weeds will be easier to pull tomorrow than they have been. Of course, they'll also start growing again. It is currently not raining, but it looks as though we'll got more rain later.

PT this morning. It was Evaluation Day, in which they poke at things and ask for movement to the end of Range of Motion, so my shoulder is a bit cranky this afternoon. I suspect the rainy weather isn't helping much with that. They tell me that the shoulder is getting better, but there's still a long way to go.

Other that that? The weekly grocery run, a stop for T-shirts for DB who is getting to the mid-stages of wearing out the shirts that he wore in HS (every time he does laundry a few more get thrown away), and a run through Costco because it's been five weeks since the last one. I stopped at Menard's as well, but they didn't have what I was looking for. To be fair, I'm looking for something fairly specific, and it's something that they'd probably have already sold out of if they did have any -- we're looking for a couple of small solar-powered water features that we can put in the side gardens for the butterflies/moths so they don't have to go to the bird-surrounded rill to drink.

I took the beater again. I can't tell whether it's the rear wheel bearing or the front brake that's making the noise. Neither one would be surprising. :)

Frog count is at least 12. Although I haven't seen that many at any one time, the 2 I see in the morning are not part of the 10 I see in the evening -- they're much larger.

I did not break any bones last week when I dropped that rock on my foot. It's a lovely black and blue, but doesn't hurt unless I poke at the bruise....

Mum says that she did not notice the earthquake (in NC!), but she was in the shower at the time....

J's WFH order has been extended through at least November, but he really doesn't expect to go back into the office on regular basis until there's a vaccine, and maybe not then. But he was tired of working in the cold dark basement. So we moved my computer into the living room, and his into the den - now he gets to open the door for the cat.

Of course, now it's hot, and the cat doesn't want to do anything but sleep on the bed under the ceiling fan. :)

DB and I moved almost every piece of furniture in the living room -- the window bench and the corner shelf didn't get moved at all, a couple of cabinets got moved out of the room and back to the same spot, but we swapped out two large recliners for a smaller chair and a computer desk. One of the recliners is in the den, but the other one has to go downstairs.

I may have done a bit too much furniture moving - my back was really cranky (to the ragged edge of impingement!) yesterday. Started physio today, and I have some hope that we'll be able to stabilise/strengthen the shoulder enough that I can sleep on my side, and thus lower the baseline of spinal annoyance.

Now it's getting hot and humid for the next few days. The weather folk tell us that the heat will break on Friday, and the humidity will break on on Saturday, but between now and then? 90F+ with heat indices close to 100F.

I went to see the sportsmed doc (aka non-surgical orthopedic specialist) today. Cortisone shot to relieve the bursitis (and probably reduce the muscle tightness), a reminder to continue doing the home exercises from the last PT stint, and a referral for another round of PT, now that we know exactly what's wrong with my shoulder. Whether I'll be able to do it at the local clinic remains to be seen, as that won't post until tomorrow. Shoulder feels weird right now - internal novocaine is just odd. (Doc did her family medicine residency at the Chelsea clinic, and I think I saw her then. heh.)

I did errands after - stopped by the bank to pay for J's roof solar panel kit, and two grocery stops. And drop off DB's absentee voter application -- J and I got our ballots sent out in the first mailing, and that reminded DB that he should send his application in so that he'll get his ballot before August and not have to actually go in to the precinct.

The holes in the grocery system are shifting a bit - there are still gaps (PB & J selections limited; rice is weird - the "ethnic" sections have varieties, the Rice/pasta section is long grain white and short grain brown only; bagged beans are similarly weird; flour and sugar stocks are low but there's a little bit of most varieties), but I found most of the things I was looking for.

I finished weeding around the pond, except for where the big pile of rocks is. I found the stack of flat rocks buried in the weeds and was able to build out some waterfalls on the rill, rather than just having the water flow over the edge of the basins. It changed the sound of the rill a bit, but the birdies didn't really care. The Mark ii (Modified) Eyeball frog count is three plus a bloop - the toads have left the pond, now that egg season is over. There was a half eaten small frog in the driveway this morning - don't know if it was a bird or a mammal that ate it.

It was over 80F (26C) at 8:30 am, and humid. There's a tropical depression going west(!) of us, so we're on the warm+humid side of it. It will break at some point, and we'll get back to more reasonable temperatures for the beginning of June (at least for a couple of days, and then it's supposed to get downright chilly). It feels like rain out there right now.

I did some weeding on Monday, but didn't get out there yesterday - it was over 90F(32C) when I got home from errands, and I had a telemedicine appointment in the early afternoon. By the time it cooled off, J was out mowing the lawn, and I don't like working outside when he's doing that, as I don't want to get hit by a projectile from the mower.

I was 'released' from PT last week because their metrics showed that the shoulder hadn't progressed at all, and while feeling better is good, it needs to be working better, and it's not. Doc has ordered imaging -- starting with ultrasound, as Xrays are no good for soft tissue. The results of that will help her decide which specialist I go to next. Waiting for a call from them, and from the women's health department (mammogram). She's also ordering a colonscopy, now that J is working from home and I have a chance of getting him to be available to drive me.

Yesterday was my mother's birthday, and we did not have strawberries! Historically (the last 50+ years), we'd pick the first few berries right around now, but there's none even near ripe. There are little green berries on most of the plants, and lots of blossoms, so we are running at least a week behind "usual", weatherwise. We do need rain - the strawberry gardens are very dusty, and most of the flower gardens are hard packed and it's hard to get weeds out (which is another reason why I didn't bother weeding yesterday). I don't know if the rain from Cristobal will be helpful rain or downpours. I hope the former, but expect the latter.

I need to take the kid's car out later this week and do some more errands - I can't get J's preferred breakfast pocket, and the Meijer I went to yesterday didn't have the secondary one. Tomorrow I'll try the local grocer (which very occasionally will have the secondary), and the larger Meijer.

No actual snow accumulation, but we did have flakes falling on Sunday, in between rain showers. Friday night the birdbath froze nearly solid -- there was just enough water in the bottom that I was able to break it up with a hammer and some hot water. (A frozen solid birdbath is hard to get the ice out of.) I dumped the water out on Monday evening so that it wouldn't freeze -- it's easy to get a jug of tap water to refill it in the AM. They tell us that it will probably freeze again tonight. Then, finally, it will warm up and stay there, getting to 'normal' range by the end of the week. I did not plant the california poppy seeds last weekend -- packet says 'after last freeze', which should be this weekend. Despite the cold, things are leafing out and flower buds (apple, lilac) are starting to crack open and show color.

Today was a major shopping trip - I went to Costco! We'll be out of a couple of things from there by Friday, so off I went. It was not very crowded, and seemed fairly well stocked, at least in the places where I looked (I don't usually buy groceries there, so I didn't look). I also went to two different Meijer stores - the big one had some odd holes in the stock, and I was able to get those things at the smaller store. None of the stores I went to had crunchy peanut butter in anything smaller than the large jar, which I don't like buying because it's just too big. We have plenty of Velvet, but J doesn't like it. He may have to choose between Jif/Skippy and crunchy.... Frozen chicken is getting scarce again (processing plants closing?), still sparse stocks of rice, dried beans, flour, pasta, ramen, & chocolate chips. House brand bleach is back in stock, and name brand liquid soaps are reappearing as stock makes it through the distribution network. Freezer cases are understocked in just about everything. I tried to spend money at the local hardware store, but they didn't have any of things I was looking for (Meijer had one, Menard's had the other two).

One of the things I've been doing is actually labelling my yarn boxes, and last week I had a collapse in the system. The batteries in the PTouch died, and we had one AAA battery left (of course, the labeller uses more than that). OK, I'll use the Dymo, which uses AA batteries of which we still have plenty. It ran out of tape, and I didn't have another cartridge. Today I was able to resupply both batteries and labeller tape.

PT today worked on the front of the shoulder -- he says that the knot-loosening on Friday helped, and it's much more mobile. Still not anywhere near 'done', though -- there's still a lot of work left to balance the muscles. And a lot of it is repetitive and boring stuff that needs to be done twice a day so that my brain can remember how it's supposed to work when it doesn't hurt.