Y'all, my sister and I have been gifted the crap back that my mother has. Now, I've had a spit-spot of trouble every now and then, but nothing like what hit me yesterday. I was in a big box. I was looking for some potting soil to use to start patching the grass in the yard. I found it in Big Box that is being reconstructed. Big Box had it on a shelf, at about high rib cage high on me. (Remember, I'm 5'1", so that's not that high to the average human.) I picked up the first back and thought, "Hmm." I walked a few paces and opted to get another. That's when it happened. It felt like someone was standing behind me and beating me with a very stiff, wire brush in about a 12" band across the mid to lower back. At this point, I knew that I had to lump it and carry on. I cashed out and heave-hoed the offending bags of soil into my vehicle.
I couldn't sit comfortably at all, but knew that I was in close enough proximity to the thrift that I wasn't going to waste the trip to have to run back out with gas prices hovering around $3.99. I did score on a boat load of bed sheets that were immediately laundered when I got home. K- got home and we had to run up to another section of town to pick up a remaining Easter basket item for Hubs. While that direction, we hit the craft store for a t-shirt K- requires for the 2nd grade tie dying project. We hit the local discounter to look for grass seed, but cashed in on lots of lovely produce and some food items.
It is at this point that my back still felt like it was going to fall apart and I, of course, opted to not take a cart. K- suggested. K- nearly insisted. "Nah. We won't need it." I'm just thankful that the cantaloupe that she dropped did bounce and not break. Yes, we did buy the one she bounced.
We made it through rush hour traffic and I was still having sitting issues. Truth be told, I was having mid-section movement issues. I hobbled out of the car. I hobbled into the house. I got dinner prepared (homemade safe pizza, pasta salad and steamed broccoli) and after dinner, I was out. I was down for the count.
I was in bed at 6:45 PM.
I tried heating it out and I wasn't certain of the success. In the middle of the night, I decided to snuggle up with an ice pack. Hubs had apparently tried to come to bed, thought the better of it and shuttled off to the couch. I think that he just felt so bad for me that he was afraid that any movement might hurt. The ice pack that I could find at 3 AM without waking Hubs was one of those hard gel filled numbers. I wrapped it in a towel, and wedged it under my back with one of Hubs' abandoned pillows.
It may have helped but I can't tell you for sure.
This AM, I woke up and was mighty stiff. Dr. W- was definitely on my list of things to schedule in for the day. I got up, made K-'s lunch, got her to the bus stop and came home. I decided that I would try to roll myself up into a ball and I rocked back and forth all over the bed. The success was that my hip popped. I know that sounds odd to consider that success, but I seriously thought that perhaps my back would crack next. While that has yet to happen, I've been able to stretch things back out and while I am still not pain free by any stretch, I can now tie my shoes, wear pants other than the yoga pants that I had to wear today and (TMI) bathrooming is much, much easier. I'll just say that when all you can do is to sit and stand straight, any side twisting movement is killer. I was able to carry on with my day and I skipped a trip to Dr. W-. (He's a D.O., so he is pretty proficient in manipulation. I figured he could give me a chiropractic-like adjustment if needed. He did it right after K- and I were in the accident that totaled the previous RAV.)
Mom told me to go buy Icy Hot. I was thrilled to see the Icy Hot (deodorant-like) stick and right underneath it was Epsom Salts. Can't hurt! Hubs came in, "What stinks?" "Oh, that would be me. It is my new geriatric perfume."
Now if you'll pardon me, I've been out of the tub for long enough to now slather myself up again with my new scent.
Have a great night!
Friday, March 23, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
So many ways of wrong.
We have gorgeous weather. I should highlight that. Beautiful weather beyond any memory that I have from living my entire life in Northeast Ohio. We've had record breaking temperatures for the last three days. With that comes some major issues.
1. Cabbage whites have been out for about a week.
2. Bees are out in force, doing their bee thing.
3. The Korean Magnolia at work has been bloomed long enough to be shedding petals.
4. My butterfly bushes have leaves-- big ones.
5. The purple plum is starting to bloom.
6. The dianthus are back-- and very big.
7. The mums that my sister gave me, I half planted them while being broken and all, hoping that they would make it during the winter on the worst corner of the house are greening up and doing great.
8. My garden bed is cleared and collard and snap pea seeds have been sown.
9. I've had to water the garden.
10. I've cleared all of the fall debris from the beds and can now start on the field grass removal in a 3' diameter section of one bed and along the tree lawn.
11. Our central air has been on since Monday. We turn it on in the evenings. The pollen is so bad that Hubs can't take the windows being open.
12. I found a 3" lime green nicotiana growing next to the house. They reseed themselves every year and usually emerge around June.
13. I've had the laundry on the line for the last two days, excluding Hubs or anything communal due to his allergies. It has been in the 80's.
14. I've been driving with the window down and the moon roof open.
15. I took my RAV for a chassis bath today (as well as the upper portion, of course) figuring that it might be the last salt I need to clear from the car.
16. My parsley is big, green and very bushy.
17. My sage is very big and very bushy.
18. My lilies are probably 4" high at this point.
19. The sedum is seduming.
20. The black eyed susans are cruising along nicely.
21. The strawberry I planted last year (a gift from my MIL) never browned out, remained a lovely green and is growing, growing, growing.
22. Our lawn could stand to be mowed. The neighbor's lawn crew was out today and her lawn has some lovely stripes.
Why are these things problems? Well, we live in Northeast Ohio. State wide mantra is not to pack the snow shovel away until after tax day. These are things that don't happen until the first or second week of May.
Frost happens. Hard frost happens. It actually killed a very well established, probably 5 year old tulip tree.
I'm looking at the possibility of having to string sheets through my yard not for two bothersome weeks in May, but for the potential of on and off for two months. Another thing-- if it snows we are in so much trouble. I will lose so many plants it will just be horrible.
I'm thrilled to enjoy the weather. Don't get me wrong. We haven't had a winter, which frankly I miss terribly, but I hope that if the weather is like this, it is not going to flip-flop back. Something tells me to ready the drop sheets just in case. I think that a trip to the thrift for extra flat sheets may be in order.
1. Cabbage whites have been out for about a week.
2. Bees are out in force, doing their bee thing.
3. The Korean Magnolia at work has been bloomed long enough to be shedding petals.
4. My butterfly bushes have leaves-- big ones.
5. The purple plum is starting to bloom.
6. The dianthus are back-- and very big.
7. The mums that my sister gave me, I half planted them while being broken and all, hoping that they would make it during the winter on the worst corner of the house are greening up and doing great.
8. My garden bed is cleared and collard and snap pea seeds have been sown.
9. I've had to water the garden.
10. I've cleared all of the fall debris from the beds and can now start on the field grass removal in a 3' diameter section of one bed and along the tree lawn.
11. Our central air has been on since Monday. We turn it on in the evenings. The pollen is so bad that Hubs can't take the windows being open.
12. I found a 3" lime green nicotiana growing next to the house. They reseed themselves every year and usually emerge around June.
13. I've had the laundry on the line for the last two days, excluding Hubs or anything communal due to his allergies. It has been in the 80's.
14. I've been driving with the window down and the moon roof open.
15. I took my RAV for a chassis bath today (as well as the upper portion, of course) figuring that it might be the last salt I need to clear from the car.
16. My parsley is big, green and very bushy.
17. My sage is very big and very bushy.
18. My lilies are probably 4" high at this point.
19. The sedum is seduming.
20. The black eyed susans are cruising along nicely.
21. The strawberry I planted last year (a gift from my MIL) never browned out, remained a lovely green and is growing, growing, growing.
22. Our lawn could stand to be mowed. The neighbor's lawn crew was out today and her lawn has some lovely stripes.
Why are these things problems? Well, we live in Northeast Ohio. State wide mantra is not to pack the snow shovel away until after tax day. These are things that don't happen until the first or second week of May.
Frost happens. Hard frost happens. It actually killed a very well established, probably 5 year old tulip tree.
I'm looking at the possibility of having to string sheets through my yard not for two bothersome weeks in May, but for the potential of on and off for two months. Another thing-- if it snows we are in so much trouble. I will lose so many plants it will just be horrible.
I'm thrilled to enjoy the weather. Don't get me wrong. We haven't had a winter, which frankly I miss terribly, but I hope that if the weather is like this, it is not going to flip-flop back. Something tells me to ready the drop sheets just in case. I think that a trip to the thrift for extra flat sheets may be in order.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Hello, garden. I've missed you so.
I've been out. I've been busy. I'd love to say that it was all gardening, but that would be rather inaccurate. The first gardening that I've been able to do was this evening. I'll be continuing to free the beds of what plant death left behind from the fall. The broken foot kind of prevented some garden clean-up.
This is where you expect photos and I fail to deliver. Why do I fail you so? Well, I had precious little time from the time that I got home until sunset. Mosquitoes are out. Yes, you read that right. In northeast Ohio, where mosquitoes usually start in June, we're rockin' here in March (mid-March as it was) and I didn't want chewed.
I freed the vegetable garden bed, flipped, twirled and fed it with my organic food. I pulled the dried up ground cherry plant and the accompanying carcass', tossed the cages for those (I hold them up on tomato cages) behind the shed and kept clearing. It isn't going to be a perfect job, but the perennials are at least a few inches up, a couple of months ahead, and I don't want to choke the perennials out with all of the garden debris left behind.
I placed my seed order this evening. Mmmmm. How I love Baker Creek!
I'll rewind now to tell you where I've been.
Friday- Canned food drive for school. It was the end day, and the day that required us to cruise around to gather up the offerings that each class collected. The fabulous news is that we collected 1192 food products for the local food bank. The yucky news is that we had to toss 72 expired items. The expired-s involved Jello pudding and gelatin from 2005 and 2006. We had a few cans that were bulged on the top and bottom. (Botulism, anyone?) The winning expy item was a can of Campbell's soup that expired in August, 2000. How's that for offering the first fruits for those in need? What was exciting is that while we did receive a disheartening number of items that had to be disposed of, we also received case after case of veggies that were brand new. The generosity of the families and children in the school truly warmed my heart. How wonderful to know that those 1192 cans hat we collected will be going off to the families of our community to be certain that they have food in their cupboards.
Saturday and Sunday sent me off to Columbus for a buying trip weekend. No, I didn't go crazy spending tons of money we don't have. I went as a buyer for the gallery that I work at and was paid to spend their money.
Y'all, it is exhausting to spend money like that.
Normally, they have my coworker join them, but she is in Rome with her husband and the school Latin club, so I was asked to consider coming along. While their full trip wasn't a possibility for me, I proposed a weekend (when I could place K- with the in-law's while Hubs worked and I was out) and it seemed good for them. We banged out a ton of Christmas buying and got tree themes nailed down. They'll be back tomorrow, but I had to return last night. I made the fly trip back, while keeping an eye toward the sky, as there had been a tornado warning for the city that I was in while we were out at dinner. I'm thinking that it was a funnel cloud, as we didn't see anything, but my coworker reported noticing a green haze that somehow I missed. I arrived home safe and at warp speed, since I just wanted to be home. The trip was nice, we all had a great time and got a lot accomplished. There's something to be said for snuggling up in my own bed, though.
Today I worked and it was the slowest day. The great weather that we are having has something to do with that, I'm sure. We're in the latter 70's and early 80's. That is weather unheard of for here until about late May.
So again I say, I was able to dig in the dirt. It was a good thing. I'll have a nightly date with the dirt until I get the gardens ship-shape again. Until then, I'm still tuckered from the weekend and from my gardening exercise. Pardon me as I now take a date with my pillow. Zzzz.
This is where you expect photos and I fail to deliver. Why do I fail you so? Well, I had precious little time from the time that I got home until sunset. Mosquitoes are out. Yes, you read that right. In northeast Ohio, where mosquitoes usually start in June, we're rockin' here in March (mid-March as it was) and I didn't want chewed.
I freed the vegetable garden bed, flipped, twirled and fed it with my organic food. I pulled the dried up ground cherry plant and the accompanying carcass', tossed the cages for those (I hold them up on tomato cages) behind the shed and kept clearing. It isn't going to be a perfect job, but the perennials are at least a few inches up, a couple of months ahead, and I don't want to choke the perennials out with all of the garden debris left behind.
I placed my seed order this evening. Mmmmm. How I love Baker Creek!
I'll rewind now to tell you where I've been.
Friday- Canned food drive for school. It was the end day, and the day that required us to cruise around to gather up the offerings that each class collected. The fabulous news is that we collected 1192 food products for the local food bank. The yucky news is that we had to toss 72 expired items. The expired-s involved Jello pudding and gelatin from 2005 and 2006. We had a few cans that were bulged on the top and bottom. (Botulism, anyone?) The winning expy item was a can of Campbell's soup that expired in August, 2000. How's that for offering the first fruits for those in need? What was exciting is that while we did receive a disheartening number of items that had to be disposed of, we also received case after case of veggies that were brand new. The generosity of the families and children in the school truly warmed my heart. How wonderful to know that those 1192 cans hat we collected will be going off to the families of our community to be certain that they have food in their cupboards.
Saturday and Sunday sent me off to Columbus for a buying trip weekend. No, I didn't go crazy spending tons of money we don't have. I went as a buyer for the gallery that I work at and was paid to spend their money.
Y'all, it is exhausting to spend money like that.
Normally, they have my coworker join them, but she is in Rome with her husband and the school Latin club, so I was asked to consider coming along. While their full trip wasn't a possibility for me, I proposed a weekend (when I could place K- with the in-law's while Hubs worked and I was out) and it seemed good for them. We banged out a ton of Christmas buying and got tree themes nailed down. They'll be back tomorrow, but I had to return last night. I made the fly trip back, while keeping an eye toward the sky, as there had been a tornado warning for the city that I was in while we were out at dinner. I'm thinking that it was a funnel cloud, as we didn't see anything, but my coworker reported noticing a green haze that somehow I missed. I arrived home safe and at warp speed, since I just wanted to be home. The trip was nice, we all had a great time and got a lot accomplished. There's something to be said for snuggling up in my own bed, though.
Today I worked and it was the slowest day. The great weather that we are having has something to do with that, I'm sure. We're in the latter 70's and early 80's. That is weather unheard of for here until about late May.
So again I say, I was able to dig in the dirt. It was a good thing. I'll have a nightly date with the dirt until I get the gardens ship-shape again. Until then, I'm still tuckered from the weekend and from my gardening exercise. Pardon me as I now take a date with my pillow. Zzzz.
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