Seismic Twitch

I’ll post again when I get out of hospital.

Egyptians march from Tahrir Square to support Occupy Oakland protestors…check it out.

First, I have a surgery date. I go in at 6 am on Monday, October 31st. I’m first in line so not likely to get bumped back by an emergency surgery coming in. I’ve had the pre-op exam with my physician today. I got the call this morning at 9, got an appointment with my dr. right after, confirmed the time after I had a short nap in the afternoon, had the pre-op exam at 3 and was at work by 3:40.

I also went to the Field House with Bran. He was joining the cardiac exercise program there. He’ll be going starting on Wednesday next week. He could have started Friday but because I’m going in for surgery on Monday that would interrupt the program before it hardly started. This way that doesn’t happen. When I’m able, after surgery, I’m going to join him on walking the track. That way I can gain back some of the muscle and endurance I’ll need for when I return to work in January.

I’ll be off work for 8 weeks, going back at the beginning of January. When I go back I’ll be full tilt, not having to do light duties. When I go back there should be double staffing happen as well. Hurray. I’ll be going in at the end of November and December to do month end and the fourth quarterly reports for the Reporting Centre. That will give me a little extra time in lieu since earning money while on the EI sickness benefits would be clawed back. I’ll just claim 40 hours on the weeks that I work evenings.

My bosses are rather put out that there is such short notice. However they know that I either take the date or have another indefinite wait. They understand my need to have the surgery and all that. It does make their jobs somewhat more difficult.

That’s about it.

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He knits and he throws pots.

I found this really cool bowl on Tumblr. The home site is on “Etsy. It’s a bowl that holds your yarn ball while you knit. Check it out. I’m pretty sure he could build something like that for himself and his knitting buddies.

Well, at my request, actually. One of the many joys of getting old is a thing called a “skin tab”. You may have seen advertisements for the skin tab remover thing made by the same people who make wart removal things. Yeah, except skin tabs aren’t contagious. They are annoying at times though.

They tend to crop up on places that are prone to abrasion like at the part of the neck where t-shirt collar seams sit, or under one’s bra just below the support beam. That’s where I had a rather large skin tab. It became irritated by my underwire (now that my bra is getting to large it tends to shift to places it shouldn’t be). I’ve been hoping that it would eventually heal itself but the part of the tab that was attached to my body was loose and thin, think of a mushroom with a thin stem and large bulbous head.

So tonight Bran kindly cut it off for me. He brought an ice pack to chill the area to reduce sensation as well as bleeding. He swabbed stuff with alcohol swabs and then snip! The offending skin tab was mere trash. I have a small bandage covering over where the tab once was and it already feels better. I’m glad it’s gone.

Normally Bran doesn’t do anything that might cause my physical discomfort. He’s just that kind of guy. When I was in labour with boy he wanted to go to the vet right away and snip the supply line because he didn’t like seeing me in pain. He said he didn’t think about it, he just did it. I’m glad he did it that way.

So he cut me…but in a good way.

Last night we went to Early’s to get chinchilla food. I chose the 25 pound bag of chinchilla pellets. After we brought it home I set it down in the living room thinking that I would repackage it into smaller bags, zip lock types of about a kilo each. Well, the cat became particularly enamoured of the bag. She nudged it with her head and “rasped” on it with her non-existent front claws. After she managed to knock it over she climbed on it and “rasped” on it yet again and then started chewing the bag, trying to peel the paper away and get inside. She has never done that, not even to her own cat food bags. I have to wonder what the deal is about this bag. I wonder what she’s going to do when I open the bag to repackage the contents. I wonder if she’d eat the pellets or pee on them (some green litters are made of alfalfa. This stuff is made with timothy grass and other nutrients.

Today was a much easier day than yesterday in some ways and in others it kicked my ass across the room. I got up not long after 6 am and showered (beating my neighbour to the shower is such a satisfying and warm experience), made breakfast (leftover steak and eggs), prepped my lunch (leftover steak, cole slaw and a tomato), dressed and read my comics. I was into doing something, I can’t remember what, when I discovered it was time to leave for work. So in a relatively sedate flurry (if that’s possible) I packed up and drove off to work.

First off, the computer at front desk kacked it. Sometime last week a piece of malware was downloaded to it and it crippled the malware removal program and borked the system. The boss appeared to have it mostly fixed. At least I could use it yesterday to do the reports. However I had to go down to the office computer to finish the weekly reports because it was dead this morning. He’s unhappy that something was either downloaded or someone visited a site that wasn’t supposed to be gone to (like porn) to get this bit of nastiness. Other than weekly reports I don’t use that computer at all, even when I don’t bring much to do. I’ll play solitaire (with real cards) before I’ll go on that thing.

After that it was quiet, management wise. Guys came and went, business happened, mail got delivered, meals were cooked. However at lunch time I bit myself, twice. I bit my right lower lip and my left exterior side of my tongue. Both of those hurt a lot. And you know that once you bit a bit of your mouth it’s going to swell up and get bitten again. Now I talk funny because my tongue is sore and swollen.

I started getting charlie horses in my left neck/shoulder muscles. I don’t know why. I haven’t done anything particularly strenuous. They just decided to suddenly cramp up…painfully cramp up.

Add to that bit of joy is my back, the disc is bulging out onto my sciatic nerve putting pressure on it. This is causing my left hip and knee to hurt.

The piece de resistance was stepping out of the kitchen pantry after I finished doing fills and having my right ankle twist painfully under me. I didn’t fall, but it was a close thing. After this adventure I went to my supervisor’s office, sat down and bitched at her for a little while about my misadventures with my body. Luckily for me it was near the end of the day. This meant that all I had to do was get through the next hour (which would include a building check) without falling down the stairs or having something fall on my head. I managed to safely make it to the end of my shift and drive home without incident.

What a day.

Bran’s day was better. A few weeks ago, during the fundraising/membership drive at CFCR the local community radio station, Bran donated some money and got a membership for himself. He got, in thanks, a t-shirt that I wear, a tote bag I use, a few blues discs that he listens to and a membership card that has given us 10% off on our purchases of pet food at Early’s. Today he got more good news. He won a t-shirt, a CD, a hat and tickets to the Johnny Winter concert happening tomorrow night. I get the t-shirt because it’s only a large (and he’s a lot larger than that, even when he’s skinny). The rest he’s going to enjoy. I thought about going to the concert but blues isn’t my favourite genre and I’m sure there is someone else in his life who would enjoy the concert more than I would. He’s quite happy about the whole thing.

I hope tomorrow is a better day, physically.

Yes, it is. Though I’m not in quite the same rough shape fatigue-wise as I usually am on Monday evenings. That’s a good thing. Tonight we’re having steak, Brussels sprouts and sauteed mushrooms for supper. The mushrooms smell heavenly!

As of this morning I am 11 pounds (or 4.98951 Kg) lighter than I was a few short weeks ago when we started eating using the Paleo diet as our base. My pants are loose, my t-shirts are loose and my bras are beginning to fit way too loose to be of good support. I knew that losing weight would feel good to my ego. I forgot about the expense bit though. While I can wear a belt to hold up my pants, that won’t work for supporting my poor boobies. In another month or so I’ll have to get new bras because these ones will be way to big. All-in-all I’m happy with things though.

Today had another good thing in it. We had 3 electricians in the house putting heaters in some of the bedrooms. Those rooms tend to get quite cold in the winter and so the big boss decided to put in wall mounted electric heaters to augment the rather ineffective water heat system. These electricians are all youngish* and appeared to be fairly fit, with muscles and all that. Well, today I took them up to the third floor where they would be working in the boiler room. I not only walked ahead of them, but by the time I got to the top floor they were lagging behind and panting. Sure, I wasn’t carrying tools and equipment, but I’m also not 20-25 years younger and used to hauling around shit. That pleased me enormously. They’re used to hauling around their equipment and tools. They’re much younger than me. As well, they’re used to physical labour. They should have been right behind me, or at least a whole lot closer than they were and without as much wheezing as was happening. Not bad for a newly minted 51 year old fat woman.

The rest of the day was spent mostly typing weekly reports. I think my angle to the keyboard was off because my arms got tired and a bit sore.

After work I changed the chinchilla cage and topped up their food. That was when I realized how low the pellets had gotten. This meant that a trip to Early’s for the 25 pound bag of pellets and a few treats. So when I got home I called Bran to see if he wanted to head off there after dropping Boy off at work. When he got home he got into my car and I drove us to Early’s. There we picked up the pellets and a box of treats (I wanted more but there weren’t more to be had) as well as a bag of mixed pellets. It wasn’t until the entire sale had gone through that the teller noted the small bag of pellets were for guinea pigs. Bran apparently noticed as well but I wasn’t hearing him tell me that. So the guinea pig food was returned. After hauling (Bran did this) the food to the car we headed to Costco to get an air pump he’s had his eye on. Here’s hoping it works more efficiently than the other one he has.

He wanted to go to London Drugs after that but I figured that having the fresh meat in the car meant we should go home instead. Then later I picked up Boy from work while Bran stayed home and cooked supper. I figure it was a fair exchange. Boy got out early so I didn’t have to sit around waiting. Supper was yummy and we are now watching “Small Mercies”. We are still missing 16 episodes but I’m pretty sure they’re not on DVD yet. They’re from the 2009-2010 and 2011 seasons. I can hardly wait for them to come out. John Nettles, who plays Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, retired in 2010. He might well be going back to the stage from whence he came, but it means the end of this Barnaby. One of the slimier characters of his series (the gardener in the episode “Garden of Death”) Neil Dudgeon is taking over with a new character who is
Barnaby’s cousin, or something like that. Maybe the photos are a good sign though. If he’s a good actor (and I suspect he is because he was a really good slimy character) then he should be able to carry off the change. We will have to see. I think the only way that I’ll be able to find out is to buy the sets with the new characters. Book TV, the channel that aired the Midsomer series before we cancelled cable isn’t known for having the most up to date shows and it is BBC, not CBC.

That’s about it. I have to get my meds sorted out into the dispenser.

I closed my Etsy stores. I doubt the information is gone since they say I can reopen my store at any time, but hopefully they’ll dump it eventually. I gave careful thought to this. If I’m going to sell things I make then I’m going to find a different venue for it, a Canadian one if possible. If I can’t then I’ll sell locally once or twice a year at craft shows.

I worked a full 8 hours today, not normal for a Friday which is usually only 4 hours long. But the woman who was to come on at 8 pm had a meeting and couldn’t make it then. So I stayed until midnight.

Tonight we lost two residents. One had warrants issued by their PO in the afternoon and he was taken by police after he returned at curfew time. Sad that one was. The other was a resident who was arrested by police. They found him in a park with a needle in his arm injecting drugs. Since he has an abstain requirement on his parole he was arrested. I don’t know if they would have arrested him if he wasn’t on parole though. Either way, he is going to be sitting in the RCMP buckets until his PO decides what to do with him on Monday. My boss wasn’t very happy to hear of that particular development. We have lost 3 people in the past two days due to being arrested for doing stupid shit or suspended by their PO. I don’t like having to do it.

I had a piece of cake at work today. It was a small piece of chocolate cake. I wouldn’t have otherwise but it was made for me by the cook at work and I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. I was otherwise good. Speaking of the new eating habits…I’m now 10 pounds lighter than I was a month ago. I feel pretty good about that. I like that I’m not suffering. I eat when I’m hungry, I don’t worry about calories. Speaking of calories…I’m hungry now.

On Sunday we’re going for dim sum at Genesis Restaurant. I’m quite looking forward to it and have every intention of taking my own containers to take leftovers home in. I’m so looking forward to dumplings, spicy ribs, more dumplings, Chinese broccoli, more dumplings. Yes, the low carb diet is going out the window for that day. I’m drooling.

It’s Thursday in what is turning out to be an extremely long week. Tuesday night was hell on wheels. It was like the instant I sat down something else needed doing or someone else needed help. It was nuts. I’m pretty sure that, at work, most other people’s days were like that. The replacement cook is settling in ok. She had an extremely steep learning curve since the cook was concentrating on getting the big supper done and was of little help in terms of telling her locum a lot of valuable information. She’s doing well though and my co-worker and I are making sure that stats are kept up. I find her to be somewhat…irritating, but she’s only there for another week (sadly, next week I’m on days and have to be around her for nearly the whole of my shift). She likes to have company when she has coffee and I usually don’t have time or simply don’t want to.

Bran was out helping a friend with car stuff when he phoned home. He asked if I wanted to do dim sum with a friend on Sunday to celebrate our two birthdays. What? I’m going to say no? Hell no, I said yes! We’ll also be ordering for left overs as well. I really disliked going there and not having supper provided as well. It’s the one big carb feast that I’m willing to go whole hog on (yes, that’s a reference to me being a pig).

I’ve been enjoying my tablet a lot. The on/off switch is stupid though and I think the machine will have to go back. It turns off easily enough, but turning the damned thing on is a bit troublesome. That’s a problem and with a mechanical issue like a button it generally doesn’t get better, it gets worse. So after Bran finds the bill of sale I’m going to reset to factory defaults and we’ll exchange it for a new one. It’s also possible that it’s designed to not be easy to turn on to prevent accidental power usage. Maybe I’m just sensitive because of all the issues I had with my desktop when I first got it, and the notebook being a dud (the alternate monitor connection not working, the touch pad not turning off, etc), my old laptop sounding like a jet engine with bronchitis…you get the idea. I’ve just been experimenting and found that this is indeed the case. You have to press the on button for an extended period. So it looks like it’s not a dud after all. Maybe.

Last night one of the parole officers was in the building seeing his guys. One guy and his wife come by then (he’s a former resident). Last night they brought their 18 month old girl. What a cutie she is! She’s very imperious and demanding and doesn’t speak adult yet. So everything she says is baby-babble. You should see the look of utter contempt she gets when you don’t understand what she’s saying, very impressive indeed. Anyway, I downloaded an app called “Colourbaby” onto my tablet. It’s not the most convenient app because it’s hard to exit and stuff, but she adored it…for as long as an 18 month old baby has the attention span to adore something. It presents as a blank, black screen until you touch it. Wherever you touch the screen bright rainbow colours appear (like when you’d colour black over other colours and then use a pencil to scrape off the black crayon revealing the bright colours beneath). Not only that, but it would play musical notes as long as your finger is in contact with the screen. Sorry iPad users, it’s only available for Android right now. Her mom tried to find it for her iPhone and it wasn’t there. Oh, and I found a menu button that allows the parent to control more things including exiting the program. This prevents the baby (and it is for babies) from exiting accidentally and getting into other, more sensitive apps.

We’re going to the zoo again this weekend. I’m hoping it doesn’t snow. That would put a damper on things.

Bran read to me: “In Bakersfield CA it is illegal to have sex with the devil…without a condom.” So remember that next time you’re planning on seducing the one who has been promoted from mere cast out underling to comparable nemesis of the “great bearded white man in the sky” (said on the National Film Board video Goddess Remembered but I can’t remember the name of the woman who said it…Shakina Mountainwater or something like that).

Anyway, here’s a photo of one of the animals at the zoo: