Ramblings of a rural(ish) geek

got into work yesterday, and there was a message from the supervisor -- "the moving crew will be here late Thursday morning to move your office". Um. OK, then, I know what I'm doing today. Well, after I finish these other two tasks which I am in the middle of. And BC (who is back in the office with strict instructions to do nothing more strenuous than walk to the bathroom or the kitchen) is actually working, and so there's a lot of stuff that I can't pack. And there's a board meeting Tuesday evening, so there's no place to stack the boxes that I pack anyway.

So I finished the tasks I was working on, packed up my desk. Packed up the notebooks/etc on the small table. Cleared the tops of the filing cabinets. Packed the top shelf of the filing cabinet. Packed the top drawer of the lateral file. After BC finished checks, packed up the top of her desk. Called the IT guy and asked if he would be available to do the re-assembly of BC's set up (thankfully, he will be, at least for a while.)

I still need to go in either today or early Thursday and pack up the rest of the filing cabinets. And buy/assemble a shelf in the basement for the ballot boxes which are currently in the office. I don't want to move them more than I have to! I don't know if we'll be moving the other offices Thursday or not. I have the plan for our old office, but I don't know what C wants -- I think BC knew, but she didn't write it down, so hopefully she'll remember (I haven't asked).

A couple of weeks ago, I made a plan for the basement rearrangement, but yesterday I realised that we'd forgotten all the cruft that was on the side shelf in the upstairs closet, so I had to add a couple more shelving units to the basement plan. There is wall space for that, in two different areas. I think it would be best in a side room, but it could also go in the main room. Supervisor was asking about the basement rearrangement, and I said that we'd need a moving crew for at least a day, *after* they got the pile of rubbish out of the middle of the large room, and then we could start the sliding tile game of getting cabinets/shelves/desks into their "proper" places. And we could install the new shelving units, and then get the stuff out of the random cabinets/piles where it was stashed in January. Must remind the IT guy to go through the stack of old computer equipment, so we can move the desk it's on.

And there's an FCB concert this weekend, with a stage rehearsal at an offsite venue Friday night. And complete teardown between Friday night and Sunday afternoon. (I will not be unhappy if the board says that we won't be using that venue again!)

And my thumb still hurts, although not as much. I fear that moving will not help it much. Doc knows what the issue is, but doesn't know *why*, and is sending me off to a hand specialist who may be able to figure it out (with the caveat that there might not be an obvious trigger). She's pretty sure that she knows a remedy for it, but doesn't want to administer it before the specialist sees the issue.

- results of ultrasound are back. No muscle or tendon damage, significant fluid buildup in the joint (causing the swelling and 'bruise-style' pain), and arthritis (which the doc looked for, but apparently it's a non-typical presentation). Since weakness & pain still exist despite the splint, I get to go for an MRI. (I hate thumb MRIs.) Meanwhile, as there's no hematoma/bruising, I can take NSAIDS.

- BC is in the hospital with bacterial pneumonia. She's had some upper respiratory ick for a while, and kept going to urgent care, but apparently none of the docs she saw actually *listened* to her lungs. She tested negative three times for COVID and twice for Flu. Monday AM she was apparently shaking with chills and running a high fever so her family dragged her to the hospital, where she was admitted as soon as they could find a bed. At last word, she was responding to the IV antibiotics, and she might get to go home tomorrow *IF* she will rest there. So I spent some time on the phone today with the twp supervisor making interim plans for getting the bills paid while she's out. We'd (treasurers and clerks) had already planned to run around to the local banks to get my signature on file so I can sign checks on Thursday, so that will happen as planned. The only uncertainty is how long it will take my accounting account to be updated to "this user can write checks".

- worked a funeral meal at the church. it was the new pastor's first experience of a NLUMC funeral meal, and she was impressed. Left here at 1115, got home at 1515. I got (good) baked chicken and ham to bring home, and a bowl of fruit salad (bereaved family got dibs on leftovers, but there were still some.)

It will be "interesting" to see where this one goes. Went to see the doc for pain in/on my right thumb. Doc (orthopod) pokes at it, ponders a bit, does a few "does it hurt when I do this? that? other thing?", compares against the other hand, ponders a bit more. "Not arthritis, not either of these two tendons, not a sprain. Probably a partially torn muscle, possibly a hematoma. Won't know until the results of the ultrasound come in. Meanwhile, ice once a day and try to limit usage. A splint would probably be a good idea, because if it *is* a torn muscle you don't want to tear it further. If it's a hematoma, the splint won't hurt. Tylenol for pain, no aspirin, limit NSAIDs."

Both Trinity and UMHS are scheduling 3 weeks out for ultrasounds. sigh.

So I dug out the ambidextrous brace that I have, and have started wearing it. gahh. It's not as bad as the full wrist splint I wore for a while when they were trying to figure out what was going on with my left thumb, but it's still annoying. Although, if I'm honest, it's much better than the pain. I can play saxophone with it on, and it does hurt less that way. (Monday night was very painful, but the brace wasn't in the music bag. I did have it on Tuesday night, and it was better.)

Left at 11am CST, with over 4 inches of freshly fallen slippery snow (the air temperature was warm enough that the snow was slightly clumpy, but the clumps are smooth and so they slide on each other). 30 minutes out, the roads were wet but not slippery, 40 minutes out they were dry. Then we dropped SS off in Kalamazoo and caught up to the snow. From 5 miles east of K'zoo to home (85 miles or so), it snowed. Visibility ranged from 100 feet to a half mile, which is very tiring. Got home about 5:20 EST, so only a bit slower than usual.

We were in Chicago for Capricon, which is just a fun weekend. GT gets a really nice room, there are people that I only see at Capricon, and lots of conversations. Friday night I party hopped, as one does, and Saturday night I worked TC's cocktail party. That was fun.

I have finally shaved enough excess fabric off the palm area of the neoprene splint that I can wear it without getting pinched. Which is good, because my thumb was sore (tired sore, mostly) this morning. And driving is hard on it.

(I know, it's only February. of course it's still winter.)

The ice from Wednesday finally melted enough that I was willing to go out on Thursday afternoon (the roads were fine, but the driveway was still quite slippery). Today (Sunday) it started snowing again, just before I went out to pick up dinner. They say we'll get about an inch of snow this go-round, but the fun starts Monday evening, when the wintry mix is supposed to start. And I have rehearsal in Farmington until 9:30. I think I'll skip teardown and go home "early".

Yesterday, while J was off at movie night with people from work, I repainted the basement wall that he'd done a crummy job on. I still need to move the shelves back, but that can be done tomorrow. The stairwell needs to be re-done as well, but those walls are taller and I need a ladder to do it. And I'm not fond of ladders in stairwells anyway - so many things can go wrong.

OT says I'm on my own, she can do no more. She does like the extensions; and had me do a quick demo of playing position for her student shadow and for another OT in the clinic who has a sax player patient. Final diagnosis is stretched ligaments and muscle imbalance leading to tendinitis in at least two, maybe three, tendons in the thumb; due in part to an old mild strain (35 years ago) and most recently to overstress and overuse. No damage apparent on the images (Xray, MRI), other than minor arthritis. Keep doing the regimen of exercises, be careful of positioning and angle of stress, wear the neoprene splint and tape for playing, wear the thermoplastic splint when appropriate but not too much, etc. The thumb will slowly get better if I keep up the exercises and don't strain it, to an extent, but really it's just something I'll have to live with.

The parking lot at the clinic is heavily salted, to the point that the wheels on Esme's case left a salt trail across the driveway when I rolled it back to the house. I cleaned the wheels before I rolled onto the wood floors, but I may need to do more. It's hard to tell, as J is messing about with stuff in the garage, and keeps traipsing across the house in his work boots. I need to sweep and mop every other day anyway. sigh.

This morning I dug back to the box of extra/off season birdfeeders to find a small suet cage. I think there's another one in there, but despite J's best intentions, there's stuff piled in front of the box, and I need to get the car out of the garage so I can move stuff out of the way so I can pull the box out all the way and dig around in it. OTOH, I only have space to hang one right now.

Monday we got over six inches of snow. Light fluffy stuff that blew around. And then it blew for three days. Nearly half of the driveway was drifted all the way across, and there was a plow berm at the end of the driveway. As it is no longer dangerously cold out there, I went out to clear the driveway. The drifts were, on average, about three inches deep, but there were a few places where they were twice that. And much of it was packed solid, to the point that the snow was coming up off the driveway in large chunks. A couple were three square feet in area, but most of them were only a square foot or so. Still, hard to shovel, and just barely enough structural integrity to pick them up and throw them.

Of course, it will all begin to melt tomorrow, but shoveling means that the driveway won't be a slippery, slushy mess. And I don't have to go to the gym today. :)

When I left for OT this morning, it was still below 0F, so there wasn't much point in trying to clear the ice out of the heated birdbath. It was 10F when I got back, so I went out with a pitcher of hot water and melted the ice out, then refilled the birdbath. I've been breaking a new trail out to the birdfeeders/birdbath every day this week, as my previous footprints have been getting filled in by the blowing snow.

The OT has now extended my daily practice time to 15 minutes. Whee!

I have shoveled the top half of the driveway twice in just over 48 hours. Once on Friday when I got home from the OT, and then again Sunday morning before I fed the birds. They tell us it's supposed to snow all day tomorrow and blow around. That will be fun. FSVO. One of the nearby school districts has already cancelled school for tomorrow. I suspect others will follow. I may not need to cancel out of FCB rehearsal.

Friday was first real treatment day with the OT, as the first two visits were pretty much devoted to figuring out what's wrong and for her to start working on how to fix it (well, really just ameliorate it). So far, she's just trying to loosen things up - little bit of ultrasound, little bit of directed tool work, etc., and a few little things to do when I'm not doing anything else. She also gave me an exercise that she thinks might help with the problem in the back of the right hand. She wants me to do a very little bit of practicing (like, less than 10 minutes!) every day, and play using the tips of my fingers, not the pads, on the keys. That feels really odd, and I have to keep thinking about it. She strongly recommended semi-weekly paraffin baths to help loosen connective tissue and keep it that way, so I've ordered one of those.

J printed off key extensions yesterday, and they do help. Hot glue for the win! - holds pretty well, and is reversible.

In other news, Mum sent us a bouquet for Christmas, and the balloon that came with it is still mostly inflated and floating around the house. So far today, it has visited DB upstairs, J in the bedroom, and me in the den. It started off this morning in the corner of the living room. We put a couple of tiny neodymium magnets on the string to keep it off the ceiling (the ribbon is a little too short for that), and it will occasionally get stuck to something -- a curtain rod, a shelf frame, a lampshade. :)

this one thermoplastic, thumb only. Which is nice, because now I can at least move my wrist. It's much more restrictive of thumb movement than the old one, so now I can skip taping, which is good because the skin under the tape was getting really dry. OT seems to think that I might be able to play with it on, but I don't think it's the right shape for that. Typing is harder in some ways because I can't really move my thumb.

Not real pleased with the initial eval, as she seems to think it's just arthritis. Which it isn't because the symptoms are wrong and they don't respond to the treatments for arthritis (other than immobilization). OTOH, that will become apparent during further visits (I have six scheduled, and may get more depending upon progress) Doc says tendinitis, which matches symptoms much better.

OT was a bit irked that I'd been in the wrist splint for so long, but it's not my fault that it took over a month to get an appointment with the specialist and then another week to get in to the OT. So now I'll get wrist exercises as well. whee. I get to take Esme in with me next week, so she can see exactly what movements cause pain. She asked what my goals were, and I said "to not say 'ow' four or five times a day, and maybe be able to practice three or four hours a week".

However, the five weeks off from playing seem to have helped quite a bit -- didn't hurt nearly as much at rehearsal on Monday as it had at the concert. Bunch of new, hard music this time. I expect we'll get the easier stuff later as we won't need to rehearse them as much. There's also a woodwind choir piece that has two barisax parts(!). I *really* need to practice that one - while the key signature (5 sharps) doesn't bother me, the double sharps and accidentals are tricky, and the range is pretty ridiculous.

Ji ia really annoyed with me -- it's been cold for the last couple of days; yesterday it was icy and today it's snowing. I am really incompetent at this weather control thing. who knew? (and it's also my fault that J didn't do the litter box last night. again, who knew?)

MRI results came in today. Nothing obviously wrong on the scan. Doc says "stay in the splint, see the specialist as scheduled. We'll figure it out." So far today, I have said "ow" three times, and all I have done is made breakfast, taken a shower, and gotten dressed. (OK, so the last two were done without the splint, but it's not supposed to hurt to get dressed, splint or not.) I cut up some sausage for dinner on Wednesday, and it hurt for the rest of the day.

Christmas was very quiet here. DB has a cold (on top of his mostly-healed extractions). J got an air horn for the motorcycle and spent the day putting it on. He was planning to get the drywall done on the basement stairwell this week (before he left for Isher), but see above. So my workroom is inaccessible, as the shelves that I'd put in front of the stairwell wall needed to be moved. (I put them there 15 years ago, when it became apparent that he wasn't going to get it finished any time "soon")

The Christmas Eve bell ringing went fairly well. I really dislike the pastor though -- I have occasionally said that I attend church in spite of doctrine, rather than because of it, and he's getting awfully close to making me say "you know, I'm done with this shit". There is a church-wide Special Assembly in February that will more than likely fracture the church, and I suspect that it will be the final straw. We shall see.

In procedural notes, they used battery operated candles for the candle-light portion of the service. la-a-me. More annoyingly, nobody checked whether the new candles fit into the pew end candle holders. They didn't -- too small, so the candles tilted alarmingly. I went through between services and put paper wedges into the worst offenders. (and then we cleared the chairs out of the overflow space, moved the bell tables and Sunday school furniture back, and locked the building. And people wonder why we don't show up very often.)

pretty much.

DB got his wisdom teeth extracted on Monday, and has been grumping about the house since. Scheduled followup was today. "well. You heal fast". He's still on soft foods, but at least he's off the liquid+yogurt+applesauce diet. Still will be on soft-ish foods on Xmas Day, so we'll probably do mac-n-cheese plus ???

Got the holiday packages out in the mail last Saturday. Mum got hers on Monday, SR's will show up on Xmas Eve (still on schedule). Her pressies went to LA, where they will be mongoled to Aus by a flight attendant friend. She and her housemates are apparently hosting Xmas this year, and she just emailed me for the recipe for the apple/cranberry stuffing I make.

Sunday's "ring-a-long" went pretty well. J and I wound up swapping bells from what we rang at rehearsal, but that wasn't a problem -- at least for us. I have finally figured out the timing for the tricky measures for Xmas Eve (dotted half note B on beats 1-2-3, quarter note A on 2 -- it's somewhat annoying how tricky that is to ring).

Still in thumb splint and thumb-sprain taping. Even so, I still say "ow" two or three times a day in normal everyday stuff, and when I helped J put the kayaks in the rack? yeah. There's something wrong. MRI is still on for tomorrow evening, afaik -- haven't heard from UMich to say otherwise. (Having an MRI that shows the damage won't speed the appointment with the specialist, but will expedite further treatment.) I have already given up on playing the March FCB concert. I hope I'll be back after that, but we'll just have to see how it goes.

I have started the holiday letter. Typos abound, as my right hand is still getting ahead of my left.