I think

This is the longest break I've taken from blogging in a while. I've mostly been working and getting a handle on the new job, and I think I'm settling in pretty well.

Also, I've started physical therapy for the sciatica/myofacial pain, which consists of deep massage and loosening the tense muscles and tissue, which is pretty painful at the time, but it is lessening the pain I'm feeling the rest of the time. I'm lucky that they have late appointments, plus my schedule was adjusted a half hour earlier on arrival and departure from work, so that helps, too.

The dog is still full of anxiety. She only feels relaxed and safe with YKWIA and Brenda - not me. He was here all weekend but went over to help our friend who has cancer today, and when he got back she was just shaking. She needs a companion (the cat does not count; he just acts out and beats her up when he's ready to eat). But neither of us can afford to adopt another dog from the pound just yet. I hope she gets better at being alone.

I guess that's how my life is going right now.

Blissful coolness

So, I'm broke, but I managed to pay for the air conditioning to be fixed, so things are much more pleasant in the house.  It was funny, I don't see any reason to tell YKWIA this, as he would be terribly offended, but when I called to see if I could get the fan motor that was maybe one tick up from the cheapest part the tech quoted, the lady said that he'd actually given us an estimate on an original Coleman part that is factory-authorised, but knowing money was an issue, had given us the quote based on a senior discount.  So Tuesday came and I left my debit card with YKWIA and apparently the fan blade itself was so rusted in place that it wouldn't move, so the tech had to get that order brought over, which took awhile, but he got it fixed.  I guess that's what burned out the motor in the first place--it rusted over the winter because when we first turned it on in May, it pretty much worked for just a few hours if that. When I got home, I asked how much more the fan blade was.  'I don't know. I just handed him your debit card.' That struck fear in me, as while I had extra money in my account, it was earmarked for my car insurance.  So I went to my e-mail and it turns out that the tech did the complete repair for the original quote, without charging for the blade at all.  Yay! I really liked them--we went with Synergy, and the tech's name was Zach Taylor and he did an excellent job.  I have to thank my former boss for pointing me to them--she'd heard an ad and directed me to them.  That night, I didn't know what to do--I had to sleep under a cover and I wasn't drenched in sweat that morning, nor did I have the 'break-out-in-perspiration-as-soon-as-you-get-out-of-the-shower' issue.  But because I'd kind of gotten too used to that, I didn't sleep super well that night.  I did last night, though.  Yes!

Yesterday was mostly about medical testing.  I did work from noon to 4:30 pm, but I had an EEG at 7:30 am and an MRI of the brain at 10 am.  I had gone to my neurologist concerned over periodic dizziness (I think now that it's vestibular, but we needed to rule out other concerns).  I also expressed concern that my memory issues have gotten worse, and while it's probably normal ageing, I've done a lot of replacing words that I have had a hard time finding with the opposite, stuff like that.  Now I have ADHD, the inattentive types, so maybe it's just partly that, and as we get older there's more information to juggle.  But I've had several untreated concussions, and my family doctor and I wanted to rule out any chance of dementia or early Alzheimer's, a personal fear of mine given my great-grandmother's battle against the latter.

Anyway, the EEG--which was quite interesting, by the way--was negative for any of that.  My brain's not slowing down, even though it sometimes seems that way.  And the MRI was fine, too.  I came home yesterday and looked at the MRI scans they'd given me at Lexington Diagnostic Center.  Not that I know how to read an MRI at all, but you can kind of look for light or dark areas that don't fit the rest of it, and I didn't see anything.  This morning my neurologist's office called and said it was fine.  I did get put on a beta blocker that is good for essential tremor, a benign tremor that can make your hands shake when you hold a spoon or write, or hold a letter, or even a phone, say if you've got it above you in bed. :) Not that you should be lying in bed looking at your phone when you should be asleep, right?  Anyway, it's a small dose and it's good for anxiety, too, according to my psychiatrist.  It does seem to be helping.  Otherwise, I got a clean bill of neurological health.  I just am going to have to accept that my memory is not what it once was (and in truth, it was good when I was young, I didn't have to take notes in high school, but I dealt with a lot less information).  Given my experiences with anxiety and depression, it's no wonder I've had some impact on daily life.  And I tend to compare myself to YKWIA, who has an eidetic memory, rather than say, your average 51-year-old. :)

Today I won the parking behind the building (which is funny, as I'd reserved it yesterday since I was coming from my appointments, so I'm a little spoiled--I have parked there two days in a row), so I took Samantha, my co-worker to her car both days, but today after that I went over to the pharmacy for my pen needles (which are a pain to get anywhere else if you don't have the prescription on you, like you can shoot up heroin out of an insulin pen, thank you, Kroger).  Then I went and got YKWIA from our friend's, the one he's helping who is battling cancer.  Since my schedule has shifted a half-hour earlier and I hadn't had to go to my car on the shuttle, even with the trip to the pharmacy we were home about 5:30 pm.  He was really beat, so he went to bed, and he's still there.  I'm going to wake him in a bit to take his medicine.  I ate, and then realised I was pretty tired, too.  I worked very hard and very steadily today.  I like my new job, but I can't ever say I'm bored.  So I settled down for awhile with the cat about 7 pm after I'd fed the animals and brought the dog in--who actually wandered around the yard and acted nearly normal.  I woke up at 9:45, started some bread making (now that the temperature and humidity are back to where they should be), filled the dishwasher, put away plastic dishes, washed the ones in the sink, took out the trash and recyclables, and took the Herbie and Rosie (the trash and recycling containers, respectively--we name ours here in Lexington) out to the kerb, and generally straightened up a bit.  Now I'm listening to Pandora and spending some time on the computer.  We're about an hour from bread.  The cat's on my bed again.  I think I'm going to put the flowered quilt back on the bed, as I don't have to worry about sweat stains now.  But that might be a task for tomorrow morning--the cat is quite happy and quiet at the moment, and we like to keep it that way.  So I have a task to do online and then I may lie back down till the bread machine beeps and listen to music.  My phone turned off, as I let its charge run down, so I'm playing the music on the computer.  I may do some brain exercises that go with an application on my phone that are pretty challenging, too.  Just to help out on the memory issue--which I do fine with the memory tasks on that.  So maybe it literally is just in my head.  I don't know.

Alright, I am definitely getting some water and finishing up here.  I also should work on a book review by the end of the week.  And I just got another published.  Yay!

Good night.

Progress

The big dog is out in the yard, as first, she sat, now she's lying down. It's progress. Since the other dog died on Sunday, she has been looking for her little friend, even leaving the bed at night to go lie by the front door and wait for her. She's always needed her little friend to go out into the yard with. They used to run out like children, spilling into the grass together, even though little dog was 14 and had to take chondroitin to keep up with her. This one's grieving, as is the cat, who after all, has had little dog around all his life.

Meanwhile, the oppressive heat that means I felt like melting and dying over July 4th has ended.  I actually woke up with a blanket on that I'd pulled up, for the first time in days or even weeks. We are waiting for the air conditioning repair company to call us back concerning a part.  But I think it's okay that we won't get it fixed this weekend, anyway.

YKWIA is soothing the cat, who looked like his tummy might be upset.

I should get a shower, as I need to go by the pharmacy before they close and take him to meet someone/drop something off, and the pharmacy closes at 1 pm, but it'll probably be a couple of hours before he's had his coffee, etc.,  and gets ready.  It takes awhile for him to get going.

Right now I just want to enjoy the pleasantness that is inside the house, though. :) Less than 72 degrees!

A dollar? Really?

Got a text today from Aspen Dental regarding a balance on my account, so I called. 'We were just trying to reach you about the balance left after your insurance so you won't go into collections,' Matt said. 'Oh,' I said, 'I haven't gotten a bill or anything. How much of a balance is it?' '$1.00' he says. '$1.00. A dollar?' 'Yes. Did you want to pay it over the phone or come in to pay on it?' I did pay with my flexible spending card, but seriously, you never send me a bill for the amount and then talk collections over a dollar? Matt could not see the absurdity of it, I guess. He just went on as if it were $100 rather than one. Mind you, I have the Dental Managed Organisation (DMO) insurance, where you pay half of what people who have the Dental Preferred Provider network have (think PPO, but dental), so that's the only practice in my network, basically. But still, really? Weird. Makes me want to change come October. The only consolation is they probably paid more in credit card fees than they collected from me. :)

So the other night I upgraded to Oreo

On my Samsung Galaxy S7. Only issue so far is that the Gallery and Music applications weren't pulling from the SD card. I restarted it, tried pulling it out and putting it back in, but about the only thing I saw that it did was show the SD card in the File Manager application. So I went on to an image and opened it in Gallery, and they suddenly were all there, and did the same for Samsung Music. Now my music, which is on the card, is accessible. Simple fix, better than everything else I found online, so I'm including it here.

I have to get up in two hours

When you can't sleep so you upgrade your phone's operating system to Android 8.0 (Oreo). Thanks T-mobile.

Sigh

This was at the vet today. The candle was burning for us - - I snapped this after we said our goodbyes. The house seems emptier without her. It's going to be hard to sleep tonight.

When did I get old?

So this morning we were at McDonald's (after all the trauma with the dog) and a nice young man, seeing his kids were dawdling at the drink fountain, urged them to hurry up because no doubt the old lady behind them needed to get a drink. He was talking about me. I've never heard anyone call me an old lady before. I know he meant well, but if I'd had a cane I might have whacked him on his shins. That was my first reaction - - which I realise is the reaction of an old lady. Sigh.

Very sad day

One of the dogs had to be put down today. The whole thing was sudden and traumatic.  But we  couldn't let her suffer. I miss her so much already. I was lying in bed feeling sad and the cat came and laid on my arm and purred. I think he's sad, too. He and the other dog keep looking for her.