(Not) Talking about Health

Feeling sick. My shoulder still hurts. Can't exercise. Still dizzy and nauseated. Seeing the doctor again. These are not statuses that I have been posting on Facebook. Who wants to read stuff like this every day. Even I don't want to read it, and I'm the one going through it. So I haven't been writing about my health until today, and I promise not to write about again, at least for a while. The topic is just too depressing and there isn't all that much to say. Today I felt like whining and if you don't want to read any further, that's ok.

For the last six months or so I have been trying to get off one of my medications, as advised by one of my doctors. I had been doing pretty well on cutting back very slowly until I got to the final .5 mg. That's when the real trouble started. I started having attacks of dizziness, nausea, and muscle spasms. I had numbness and tingling in my fingers and toes. I wondered if I was having a heart attack or a stroke. I went to Convenient Care. I saw my rheumatologist. I was assured that I wasn't dying. That, at least, was a relief. On the other hand, I was having drug withdrawal in a very unpleasant way. So I gave up on the effort to stop the last dose of the medication. I still have some muscle problems, and some waves of nausea, and some dizziness. I'm not sure if the vision problems are my new glasses or remnants of the drug issues. And I still have the anxiety that the medication is supposed to control.

The upshot is that I may have to go back to the optometrist about my glasses. I may have to call my primary care physician about the anxiety. I will have to see the massage therapist again (I went yesterday) because of the continuing neck and shoulder issues. But I won't put any updates in my Facebook status. Maybe, if I start to feel really good, I will say so. But I certainly won't bother to say that I feel lousy. I wouldn't want to read it. And there's no reason why you should either. Read more!

Bike Counts, New Computers, and Not Writing

Today I counted bikes. Actually, I counted cyclists. This was a part of a national effort to collect data on how many people commute by bicycle. The rule was to count cyclists on bikes if they came through the intersection that I was at. But they had to be on the bike, not pushing the bike. So I couldn't count one guy who never got on his bike, but I did count the guy who didn't get on his bike until he got to the intersection. And I counted the guy who got off his bike, crossed the intersection, and then got back on. I was also supposed to mark people on the sidewalk differently from people on the street, but what about people who started on the sidewalk and switched to the street or who started on the street but switched to the sidewalk? All in all it was interesting experience. The weather was nice and I did see a fair number of people cycling. So I consider the bike counting experience a success.

So that was one way that I kept myself from writing and still felt that I was doing something worthwhile. I also got two new computers in the last month. Setting up new computers is another way to procrastinate and feel as if you are doing something. The set up on the first computer took a lot of time since networking was difficult and time-consuming. We got Airport Express so that we could network a new printer as well as the new MacBook Pro. That ended up being a lot of extra trouble and I spent hours on the phone with various Apple technicians before we finally got everything to talk to everything else. Peter's Lenovo was a problem once we reconfigured the 2Wire modem but finally we got everything working. Then I got a MacBook Air for travel and that took some set up as well. I tried to copy everything myself over the wireless network but it was too slow and I ended up taking the two computers in and having the Apple technicians do the transfer for me. Then I needed to spend time taking stuff off the MacBook Air since I didn't need to have everything on it and the hard drive was full.

Now the main problem in terms of computers is that my PowerPoint presentations won't work. So I will have to spend time opening them as Keynote presentations and re-adding all of the video and audio and maybe making them PowerPoint presentations again. All of this takes time. Anything to do with PowerPoint presentations eats up massive amounts of time. This is a major pain for both the Parkland classes and the Richard III talk.

So the writing is not getting done. I have two academic papers and two books to work on and lots of reasons not to write. The papers both have to get done since I have to give them at conferences next year. But it is easy to put the books off since I don't have any deadlines and I keep finding reasons not to write. After all, I have volunteer obligations, classes to teach, papers to give, and I am sitting in on an architecture class this semester. We also have four trips coming up this fall. I have plenty to do. Writing, why would I worry about that? Read more!

Bathtubs, Baking Soda, and Vinegar

Today we decided to unclog the bathtub, after getting advice from various friends. We were told that baking soda and vinegar was a good solution to a slow running drain, although bleach and Liquid Plumber were also suggested. Being environmentally conscious, at least I try to be, we went with the first suggestion.

No one told us that getting the baking soda down the drain, especially when you can't get the cover off, is not easy. Peter thought it would only take a few minutes so he started it and then went off to the gym, leaving the rest of the job to me when it became clear that it was going to take considerably longer than we thought. I did break my labors with a few doses of the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain playing at the Proms as recommended by my friend Kelly DeVries. That was fun, especially hearing Jerusalem, but not a total recompense for the trouble of being on my knees on the bathroom floor. After close to an hour of pushing baking soda into the drain and poking it down with my larding needle (brought home after a trip to England in the early '80s), I finally gave up in disgust, pushed the remainder of the soda aside, unfortunately a large quantity, and poured in the vinegar, closing the drain. A lot of the vinegar remained in the tub. But there was a satisfying fizz, so I hoped that meant that there was some kind of reaction going on between some portion of baking soda and some vinegar.

However, when I opened the drain and poured in hot water, things seemed even worse, so obviously this was not a good solution to whatever is clogging the drain (I suspect hair we can't get out because we can't the cover off). Besides the trouble we went to, we now have an even more clogged drain and baking soda in the bathtub. When Peter gets home from the gym I will have him get some drain opener and we will try that and hope that we don't have to call a real plumber! Read more!

Where Have I Been and What Have I Done

I feel as if life has been nonstop, even though all I do is run around Champaign-Urbana. I have been cycling and having lunch and coffee with friends, working out, volunteering, and doing the usual errands. Not an exciting life, but that and getting a new computer, and trying to make all the networking in the house work again has been the challenge of the last couple of weeks. I still haven't added the pictures to the blogs of the trip.

Trip planning is sort of going on as well. Peter and I are both planning to go to our 40th high school reunions so there is some planning for a trip to Glenview in October and to Greensboro in November besides the trip to Las Vegas in October and the trip to Philadelphia in November. And, since I have to give a paper in Venice in April, we are now thinking about going to Turkey after that. I love traveling but I am really getting tired of trip planning.

The new Mac is great but taking it on trips is not going to work, so I am already thinking about a second computer. I had thought about getting netbook and the idea of a Mac tablet, if that happens, might still be on the table, but I am leaning toward a Macbook Air. I can't believe, having just bought a new laptop, that I am thinking about another one so soon. Two in a couple of months seems like an obscene luxure. But it will probably happen since I have saved up practically all the money for it. I do need to buy books but the computer will eat up the book budget and I will have to start saving all over again. I have no place for books anyway and the basement is proving to be a disaster for the books that are already there. Some of them got wet while we were gone and I am worried that they may not be salvageable. There weren't too many but they were expensive and I don't think I can replace them.

So now I need to think about my priorities, which need to be research and writing, not gaming, which has begun to take over my life. I want to spend time with friends, catch up on books and movies, and ride as much as possible. My shoulder has been bothering me so I need to be a bit careful about that. I blame the riding but I think it is probably too much time on the computer. I also need to spend a little time playing around with wheat-free baking, especially once the weather cools down again. Read more!

Hunting Instinct

Our cats are indoor cats and with the exception of Sybil, none of them have ever lived outside. When we adopted Sybil we discovered that she had been an indoor/outdoor cat, whatever that means. In any case, because our cats have led sheltered lives, their hunting instincts have been somewhat muted. Sybil is, presumably because of her early experiences, is the exception.

Living in the house, Sybil has had limited opportunities to hunt and I had never really thought about it until last night. Lately I had noticed that some dead bugs were turning up on tables, but hadn't given it much thought. After all, bugs can die on tables. But last night Sybil did what hunting cats do. She presented me with her prey and her prey was still alive. In this case the prey was an ant. Not much but getting an ant in my lap was a bit of a surprise and not a welcome one. The fact that she was able to pick up such as small creature and deposit it, alive, on my lap, was testimony to her skill. My lack of appreciation was probably galling to her. My shock was genuine and perhaps out of proportion. Screaming and jumping up when seeing an ant in your lap is overreaction in the extreme. On the other hand, I do tend to overreact to insect life. Peter killed the ant, Sybil ran off. Peace was restored. I continued to watch Miss Marple. Read more!