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Spring cycling
I hadn’t been out on my bike much lately due to a tube that had exploded and hadn’t been replaced. Happily the Scientist sorted this out for me. But then I noticed the back tire was looking bare so I went to the bike shop to see about new tires. I had been going to the shop where I bought the bike but it’s just a bit hard to reach and it’s even harder to get home unless the Scientist drives to the shop to get me. The current shop is in Morley, which I can ride to within forty minutes and also there is a bus that goes directly to and from our area. I dropped the bike off and picked it up the next day. I’d wanted to get a service too, but it was school holiday time and they were really busy. So I booked it in for last Thursdays.
Meanwhile I took my bike out for a proper ride for the first time this spring and it was a good ride. I made sure to avoid overdoing things. I turned around after forty-five minutes and came back just in time for sunset, which looked pretty cool. This ride was particularly nice because it went into new territory on a path that opened recently along new stretches of widened highway.The only negative for me was the fact that it became clear that my intention of riding to Midland along this path was going to take a lot longer than I intended. I’m not sure how much shorter the trip is from the previous ways of getting there. I never quite reached the goal and the trip took over an hour before. Hopefully I will get fit enough to do a longer ride and have a break in the middle in the next month or two.
So the bike went into the shop last week and then I didn’t hear from them for a couple days. I tried to phone but only got an answering machine. Then On Monday I called again and it was ready so I was able to collect it and ride home.
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Testing
I am way behind on posts and now can’t recall things I wanted to post about. So I will start with recent stuff and work backwards, if I can remember.
On Sunday I started getting a croaky voice and a bit of a cough. This just continued over the next couple of days. I suspected it might be allergy related but wasn’t sure. I was at an event on Friday and two others there were also sick on Tuesday so I worried there might be a connection. Anyway, the public health notices say to get a covid-19 test if you have fever or cough or flu like symptoms. Yesterday I was still coughing a lot so I went down to the hospital clinic and got tested. The process was pretty quick overall. My only complaint was there was nobody at the table next to the entry when I got there. I had walked well into the area before I was noticed. I assume this is not the norm for the clinic. The guy who greeted me gave me a mask to wear (the first I’ve worn!) and then another person came up and asked questions before leading me into the waiting area. There were only a couple people there when I arrived. I waited for ten or fifteen minutes after filling out a questionnaire and then was seen by one of the staff. Soon afterwards I had the dreaded swabs of which the nostrils were really uncomfortable. The throat swab didn’t bother me at all. I was given instructions to go straight home and self isolate.
And that’s what I did. I ended up missing work and a luncheon I was supposed to attend but I didn’t want to take risks. I was pretty sure this is allergy and/or reflux-related so I had major doubts about being contagious. Self isolating from the rest of the family went okay, I guess. I still did a few things in the house but mostly stayed in the bedroom the rest of the day and night. This morning I got a text from the health department saying I tested negative. Phew! I was almost totally sure this wasn’t covid-19 but now I have proof. It was a relief getting my results less than a day later. But it’s a shame I had to change my mammogram appointment that was today. There’s no way I could have been sure to have my results so soon though. My mammogram is now on November 17th.
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Trackbacks
I am still trying to work out why comments are showing as trackbacks for the last couple of months. It’s maddening because my comments are also showing as trackbacks and I can only see them under the dashboard. Sigh.
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Spring
It’s now spring in our part of the world and it’s obvious everywhere around us. We are suddenly getting much warmer weather and most importantly the pollen counts are high. All but one in the family is taking anti-histamines and I just bought nasal sprays today. I have had long success with Beconase and that’s what I got today. It worked almost immediately and turned my stuffy nose almost into a drippy nose. Not quite but close…
With the beginning of September I enter into the birthday season. There are several friends and family members with birthdays this month. The first birthday was on the first and was for a friend who has kept out of touch. Our sons have been in regular contact but she has not. There are things going on in her life that have been problematic so I can only hope she one day returns. But I did send her a message on her day and even did a bit of an update.
On Saturday, it was my dad’s birthday and I did call him that night (my time) and got hold of him easily. He’s been suffering massive pain after he fell of his bike recently and hadn’t had much relief until recently. Apparently he’s back to work and feeling much better but is looking forward to getting a pain injection in November. Frustrating he has to wait so long but it’s great that he’s feeling pretty good right now. I hope it continues.
A dear friend had her 70th birthday on Saturday also. I can always remember her birthday since it’s the same as my dad. She had a lunch at a local restaurant with seventeen of her friends and family, of which we were included. We’ve been to the restaurant before and it’s been good, so it was no surprise that the meal was really nice. She was a really good hostess and moved around to different groups at the table so that she could enjoy the company of all present. We ended up sitting at one end of the table with a mutual friend and across from a couple that are former neighbors. They’re a bit older than her but it was really quite fascinating to talk to them. They are originally from the UK and they spent much of their youth going off to see up and coming bands like The Beatles and the Who and various other groups. It was quite neat to think of them being some of the first to see these bands in their youth. But it was also weird in a way to think that that era is now so long past that these people are well into the 70s and beyond. I don’t equate rock music and older people but these were some of the people that were in it in the early days. The other fascinating aspect of their lives is they both came to Australia as 10 pound Poms in the late ’60s. This was a program started to increase the population and the passage on the ship was a mere 10 pounds. So they were neat to listen to on two counts. The only downside was there was a lot of noise and I found it hard to follow a lot of what was going on. It was quite exhausting after a while. After we’d been there for 3.5 hours a few of us joined our friend at home for more cake and coffee/tea. I will note the Scientist made two special cakes to make sure there was enough and they were both delicious.
On the 10th it was my great aunt’s birthday and that was a bit of a sad occasion since she died just before her previous birthday from lung cancer. This aunt was particularly close to my mom and also one of my second cousins. It’s been over a year and it’s still been difficult for them. Even for me it’s unsettling to think this aunt is no longer around.
And that’s just the first couple weeks of the month. My mom’s birthday is tomorrow and further along my college roommate. And then we get a bit of a break.
Getting back to the spring weather, I will note we had to open windows and turn on the fan and later the air conditioner. Part of the reason for the a/c was to try to pump some of the pollen out of the house. But it was also already getting rather warm. And it’s now 11:30pm and the fan is back on to bring a bit of fresh air inside.
Our bottlebrush trees are starting to bloom and soon the branches will be heavy with red flowers. Afterwards I need to prune off branches as they are getting kind of low to the ground. Plus I need to get out and mow the backyard again. And still need to do something in the front yard. Hopefully it will stay dry long enough to make some in-roads for both.
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Absentee
It’s that time of year to request an absentee ballot for the upcoming election. I know I should have requested this earlier but I seem to have mostly thought about it when I wasn’t in the right place to handle it. I tried doing it on my phone but had a couple of issues. Anyway, I got it done today and it still tells me I need to send the paper copy. We ended up getting window envelopes last time we bought any and we rarely send mail so we have heaps left and they don’t seal properly. Plus we didn’t mean to have window ones. So I spent an hour trying to tape a printed address over it due my general incompetence with tape, I guess. LOL I did get it sorted out and then it cost me $3.20 AUD to post it. And it was such a pretty stamp I thought it was such a waste to send it where it wouldn’t be appreciated. Tonight I saw I got an email back from the copy I sent online and was told I actually didn’t have to send a paper copy. Sigh.
Looking forward to getting my ballot. I’m seriously considering making an appointment to drop it off at the consulate to speed things along. As much of a hassle as going to the consulate is.
Another American I know here already has a ballot but is delaying the opening of the mail due to covid-19. She’s in an area where cases have been spiking so I guess that’s understandable. Not sure whether I will be too worried for mine when it gets here unless community transmission returns. (We had two people who flew to Western Australia without an exemption and then they broke quarantine in the hotel to visit someone in the area. I can only hope they weren’t contagious. All it takes is one person after all. I think they came from South Australia so it’s probably okay but it’s really bad when people do this sort of thing. )
In related news, my blocking of a family members posts on Facebook has left me blissfully unaware of what is being posted. Less stress for me. Yay!
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55 1/4
When it was my birthday in March, the Scientist had had to drop plans for a special birthday for me turning 55. It was that day that we went into lockdown and the best we could do was to bring home take away food to enjoy with the family. I had a good day anyway and life carried on.
A few weeks ago on the Friday, the Scientist said to me we were going out the next day and I needed to be ready to go by 10am. I wasn’t too sure what that was about so I was kind of curious. On Saturday I got up and got ready to go out and we ended up driving out through a new section of highway we hadn’t used before. It was kind of neat to see it from the car. I’ve rode out that way on my bike but not so far as we went this time. We turned off to Bullsbrook and drove along another road for a few kilometres. Then we passed by this place called Outback Splash. This used to be called The Maze but they have added a water park and expanded it considerably in the past few years. Anyway, I commented that I guess our destination wasn’t Outback Splash only to be told it was where were going. It was a bit odd to pass by a place we were headed to. We turned around on another road further along and went back to our destination. Then the Scientist went right past the entrance to the parking lot and had to turn around. I later learned these were just delaying tactics. I should have been suspicious since I know he wouldn’t easily miss these turn-offs.
Finally we were parked and went into to the entrance. But the Scientist made me wait outside for a bit while he was discussing something with staff. Finally we went through and sought out a particular “hut” (shelter) that we were aiming for. We did eventually find it and sat down at which point the Scientist did a little speech about how his plans for my birthday got ruined by covid-19 and so he was finally getting his plans into gear that day.
So I turned around to find three of my friends from tai chi there, with presents, to celebrate my 55 1/4 birthday. From my friends I got a candle and incense burner set, a tea cup with my favorite color purple, and a metal water bottle that had the color purple too. It was all very sweet.
Then we went off to the koala house to meet the koalas. We had special tickets to get up close and personal. The keeper took us through and set up a step ladder so we could pat the koala in approved locations and see what it was really like. This was my first time being so close to one. Decades ago when I was pregnant I had held a wombat and that was quite an experience. But these were the dozy koalas who were mostly sleeping. The one we had access to was agreeable enough for a while but after a few people had been up to see it, it moved itself to the back of the house and out of the way. Still we had a good look and I got a few photos on my phone.
Hello there! 
A bit shy 
Hide and seek
The koala house After this we returned to the hut and the Scientist went off to get a cake and the food he’d ordered for lunch. He came back with a huge tray of rolls with various fillings. It was a bit much for our small group of five so quite a few didn’t get eaten until much later.
Then it was time for cake and on there he’d written it was my 55 1/4 birthday and he had two candles to put on the cake. But there was the issue of blowing out candles and the idea was to remove them to a plate for the blowing part. But it didn’t matter as I expected because the breeze blew it out instead. The next thing was trying to cut the cake since there was a lack of any sort of knife. One of my friends made use of the cardboard backing of the candle and that worked enough to get the pieces we needed. It was a really yummy cake, homemade with buttercream frosting and lots of chocolate and decoration.
Special cake to celebrate my 55th birthday a few months late. Afterwards, the food was put away and we went off to the first of the mazes. We had been to the Maze years ago when the kids were much younger and had a good time. The hedge maze at the time wasn’t a thing yet because they were still growing it. But we could see where it would be. And it was quite a bit of fun although not particularly difficult. There were quite a few people going through and there was a natural reaction to just follow along but we did break rank and sought out our own pathways. It wasn’t long until we reached the center and stood on a platform looking over the maze. Then it was a pretty easy task to reach the end on the other side. I’m not saying it was simple but it wasn’t that challenging.
The second maze was a tire maze and the idea was to reach a certain point by following a color progression and jump across tires. I didn’t even realise where the goal was until after I’d gone through and come back out. I tried again and it was quite difficult to get through and we gave up. It was actually kind of tiring going round and round and there were also quite a few others doing the same but it was a lot of fun to try it out.
There was a maze/not maze with some other animals, mostly kangaroos we also visited.
Lounging around 
Lazy afternoon 
Rusty old ute
Kangaroo enclosure Next was a ring toss game that we all tried to play and had varying degrees of success. I managed to get one ring on the whole time. We took turns until we reach the goal on that one.
The last maze was the main attraction, a wooden maze that had several flags you needed to reach. I remember this from our previous visit and Game Fanatic was instrumental in helping us find all the flags. This time we made it through to a couple of flags and that was okay. The third flag was also doable. But trying to get to the next one proved a bit too difficult and we ended up going in circles and not getting any closer to our target. It was around this time my bladder made its needs known and it wasn’t too much trouble to get back out of the maze. I went off to to the toilets and the others came out of the maze and that was the end of that. I’d had stuck it out had my bladder not been so insistent.
Next we moved on to the mini golf part of the park. This was no great version of mini golf but we still had fun giving a shot. I managed to do par on one hole. The rest were kind of all over the place.
Afterwards, one of my friends bought us ice cream and we sat at a table outside the café to eat. It was in the midst of this final treat that the music that had been playing stopped and it was clear the place was closing down. So after we finished we left and came home. There had been ideas of carrying on the celebration afterwards by having a bit of a games night elsewhere but not all of us could go so we opted to leave it at that.
It was later that I realised it would have been better to say it was my 55 1/3 birthday since it was actually four months after my birthday so that was another fun aspect of the day. It was kind of surreal to be having a birthday celebration months later but it was definitely a unique one as my birthdays go. Even better was the fact that Lego Lover helped me finish the cake later on. He’s a bit iffy on cakes that leave the house but he was happy to enjoy all.
I will also point out the boys were both quite helpful in preparations. Lego Lover had the task of keeping me shopping on the Friday night while the Scientist worked on the cake. Game Fanatic kept watch to keep me out of the kitchen later that evening and even into the Saturday. It was very much a family project even though the boys didn’t come along.
Overall it was the most memorable birthday I’ve had in years. My 50th was another prominent one with a party at home but this was a totally different sort of thing. All great fun to share with the Scientist and my friends.
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Aches and pains update
I am happy to report my shoulder is mostly better now. I must admit I haven’t been doing the physio exercises quite as much as I should. I am doing them just less consistently than I can. I suspect when I next try to swim it will be fine so here’s hoping.
Meanwhile, my plan to go out on a bike ride on the weekend was thwarted when my inner tube burst. It was warm and pleasant and would have been perfect for a winter ride. Alas it wasn’t meant to be and I still need to get a replacement so I can use my bike again.
Since I couldn’t go that way I decided to tackle some of the jungle of the back and side yards. Weeds and grass had grown quite high but I hadn’t mowed due to lack of dry days. Our mower is electric powered so I need to be careful of that. While it wasn’t totally try, it was enough to work on it. I spent a couple hours, at least trying to clear stuff out. Much of my time was spent pulling out the weeds. I neglected to use gloves at first so now I’m dealing with prickle injuries from some of the weeds. Some of them look a lot like whitehead pimples although they don’t hurt or itch. Just look kind of iffy. At the end I cleared out quite a large area and it looks so much better now. We actually have space to move and now the dogs have less excuse to do their business on the patio…although they seem to be stuck in those bad habits at the moment so will have to be vigilant and stop them doing that.
So the next day I had a lot of pain in my big toe on the right foot. I have regular issues with toe pain, usually at night and I attribute this to arthritis pains. Well this time it got much worse than usual and just walking was painful. I bought some Voltaren (generic version) cream and later took some painkillers. It didn’t totally go away but was much better. It’s still more irritated than usual several days later but not painful like it was. My guess is I aggravated the problem while doing the garden work. And/or it flared up coincidentally. Or maybe a bit of both.
There were a couple other issues that caused a fair amount of problem but I won’t go into that here. Just to say that I need to plan ahead a bit more in the future.
Yes, this is one of those woe is me posts. I guess it doesn’t help that my anxiety is so bad due to the stress of dealing with family. I do know it will all pass but it’s just the getting through it that needs to be done.
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Trouble with family
It’s a story very familiar but family on Facebook has been a big issue again. A couple nights ago I finally decided to block posts from my feed from a close family member. I’ve had to see posts for years and years about dislike, fear and hatred of Obama. Now it’s similar for other Democrats and then there’s the undying devotion to the current president.
This time it was a post that was mean and nasty to those of us who are against Trump and I tried to call this person out on it. Unfortunately it was turned into more moaning about how terribly this person has been treated when the focus of my comment was on the nastiness of the post. I finally decided I had to block posts for my own mental well-being. It makes me sad but I just can’t keep reading all the stuff that’s posted. So I responded to the post and said I was blocking this person’s posts. Last night I had responses not so much to that but to my taking personal offense at the post…which led to more ongoing discussion. And then somehow posts from almost two years ago were being resurrected in an attempt to show how I was being mean to the followers of the president. Which it wasn’t since I was only targeting the president and fellow politicians.
I really had to ponder that someone would have to go back two years to find something even remotely close to being the same. But it wasn’t. Two posts from two years ago came up, one of which related to the confirmation of Kavannaugh to the Supreme Court…it was actually more related to sexual assault and reasons people don’t come forward. But that had also been turned political and it was claimed the allegations were false when in fact that wasn’t proven. Sigh…
I can’t wait for the election to be over even though that really won’t be the end of it. I can only hope the current holder of the office of President leaves if he is voted out.
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Aches and pains
In the last few weeks I’ve had quite a few aches and pains that were notable. The first one was some lower abdominal, possibly pelvic pain on the left side. It wasn’t constant but it recurred enough that I would have sought out a doctor’s opinion. Then it had disappeared. Next was the lump that appeared in my armpit and didn’t cause any pain although was later irritable to touch. That one also disappeared.
A couple weeks ago I was swimming and afterwards I was really quite sore, such that I wasn’t up to practicing more during the week. Most of the pain was along my shoulder/neck area and I figured it would go away after a few days. There was a shift in the pain and soon it was all about tenderness along my collarbone and that is something I’ve not had before. Last Monday I was at the doctor for other reasons and I mentioned the above issues even thought two had already resolved. She suggested I wait and see what happened on that as this too seemed to be resolving. I only mentioned it because I was already there.
Meanwhile I had made an appointment with my physiotherapist and then cancelled as I didn’t think I needed it. This was all done online. I was called by the receptionist/front desk manager and I mentioned that it had seemed to be gone but then it was back again. So another appointment was made for Thursday morning. By this time the pain seemed to be mostly gone again so I wasn’t sure whether it was worth going or not. But I dragged myself out that morning and went in and it turns out I had an AC sprain in my shoulder. And some movement were actually painful and I had weakness in some movements too. She sent me away after a painful massage and some exercises to do until Monday. So I’ve been doing these exercises and find my hand gets numb while doing them so have to spread them out. It’s not too time-consuming and two of them involve stretches that actually feel pretty good. Three days later my should is feeling better and times and not better. It seems to be hurting more today than it’s been. Apparently it’s a grade one injury and should get better in a few weeks.
I forgot to write about the previous injury. It’s usually caused by a fall or running into another person as might happen in playing a football game or similar. I obviously haven’t done that nor have I fallen down. But there’s a bit of a niggle of a memory that I ran into a corner in the house once not too long ago and it hurt a lot at the time. But then I forgot about it until later. I thought it was the swimming that set this off but it seems that might have just aggravated it. So that’s my theory and I’m sticking to it! :D
On top of all that, I’ve had a stomach bug or something since Friday. The Scientist and I had plans for yesterday but had to cancel as I wasn’t up to going out. Even today I stayed home from a lunch at my MIL’s place. I am better but my stomach is still quite sore and I really don’t want to pass along anything contagious. So I’m alone at home with the dogs.
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Half a year gone
Hard to believe but half the year has gone by and it seems like just yesterday I was having a birthday. During lockdown it seemed time went quite slowly sometimes and other times it was just speeding past.
Here in Western Australia we are still quite fortunate and have reached stage 4 restrictions. We still have limits on numbers to stadiums and such but life is certainly close to being normal here. Our borders are still in hard lockdown and it looks like it might be some time for that change. It was due to move to stage 5 on the 18th but that has been put back to due to spikes in cases in Victoria and to a lesser extent in New South Wales. Now the plan is to move to stage 5 on the 1st of August. So we continue in our rather large-ish bubble in WA. International travel is likely some time off although it’s possible we will extend the bubble to New Zealand which has been mostly covid-19 free for a while now.
My swimming lessons restarted a few weeks ago. The first lesson back was quite a mess for me. I felt like I couldn’t do anything I had learned. But I was doing much better the following classes and I’m even improving on my breast stroke kick.
My exercise has been up and down. This past week I’ve done limited exercise but the couple weeks before I did much better. Overall, I think I’m doing far better than last winter but I could be better. I’ve got plans to do some swimming this evening along with tomorrow’s lesson and some swimming on Wednesday when I go to the pool with my client.
Our tai chi classes are back to meeting in person again and it’s so much better now. We got going again the last week of term and now it’s term break. However we are doing workshops during the break so we’re still attending and for longer hours.
One of the things I missed out on earlier this year was the opportunity to get my Animal Crossing Switch when it was released. I had no idea it would sell out so quickly and there weren’t restocks happening in Australia. But that changed late last month when new stock was announced for Australia and I managed to pre-order one for release on the 10 of July. Happily my order worked out and was deliver on the day and I am quite pleased. It’s rather expensive but I’m a long time lover of the Animal Crossing franchise and if ever I would buy one of these, this is the one to get. Even the box is quite lovely and it likely will be the only one in this how to be kept in the long term. Now we have consoles available for each family member and can play against each other. Lego Lover has the lite version of the console and the rest of us have the regular one which can be used with the tv. I had just about given up hope of getting one when the new stock was announced so I guess I was quite lucky in that.
Another thing that we are back to is organised games nights with our friends. At first we were taking a lot of precautions but since community transmission here has been zero, we have relaxed quite a bit. On the 4th, we had a special 4th of July day with special food and decorations for the day. It was more than our family normally does and we had such a good time together. It really helped to improve moods among us to be close with people we care about.
I am so frustrated to see the situation back home and to see people I care about about carrying on about wearing masks and the whole hoax conspiracy stuff. So far nobody close to me has got this but I worry that it’s a matter of time.
And who knows when I will get back to see my family. I imagine it might be still another year and a half before chances of getting back to the US is possible. And that’s only if the leadership actually changes since the current leadership is so lacking.
Well, I guess I have rambled on enough for this post. I am going to try to update on a few more things in the next week or so.