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All-nighter
Yesterday was the funeral for our family friend and it was at 3 pm EDT, which translates to 3 am WST here in Perth. That’s a bit later than I am usually awake but I decided it would be easier to stay up than go to bed and wake up. So that’s what I did. I was fine until about 2 am and then I was really tired. And then it was 3 am and the countdown to the live stream was on. Until that point, some of it feel rather unreal but once the funeral started, that meant it was definitely the real thing. Watching a funeral on a live stream is not at all the same though. The major issue is its reliability. I was lucky to see more than a couple of minutes without it breaking down and having to reload. Still, it was better than nothing and it made me feel more present than otherwise. Well, if it hadn’t been for the live stream I would have been sleeping.
Once I went to bed, it took about half an hour to wind down, and then I did sleep for a while. But I woke at 7:30, 8:30, and 9:30…not exact times but essentially every hour though. I finally gave up the last time and figured I would wing it. I had work today at 1 pm so my main thing was driving. I was fine but when I got home I was definitely feeling the lack of sleep.
Tomorrow should go better because I don’t have any commitments earlier in the day and the warm spring weather should be a lift to my spirits.
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Grumpy
I was feeling rather grumpy and grouchy today. I found out late yesterday that there’s a screening I need to do for work and it takes a couple of weeks to process. This required me to attend one of the local offices to put the paperwork through and verify four different ID sources. It kind of broke into my plans for going to the gym. Luckily I decided to go before the gym so I showed up at the office in my workout clothes. Not ideal but it had to do. I think I’d have run into time issues if I had waited. Instead I got right through to someone and that took a while even so.
I then went to the gym and kept having tech issues. Again, it’s a downside of all these fancy new machines. I had put off my weight workout from yesterday so I’d have more time but the issues ate away a fair bit. I did finish the exercises but had a bit of a rush once I got home. On a good note, it seems some of the exercises are getting easier, so that’s a win.
Work was pretty low-key, which was good since my mind was elsewhere. I support a guy who had a stroke last year and has memory issues. It’s not a high involvement job so that worked to my advantage. The guy I work with was kind of grumpy too. :D
I spent a lot of time with my thoughts on my friends and feeling so terribly far away. This death is hitting my Dad really hard. This guy was one of his best friends and it’s not like he’s able to communicate in a way that allows him to be a part of things easily. I wrote a message to one of the kids to offer further support and to ask if there might be some sort of video link for the funeral…not sure if that’s common there but it seems to happen here a lot. If there is, it might be a way for us to be more a part of saying goodbye.
Some other things didn’t go very smoothly today either, so it seems it was just one of those days. Lots of little things to aggravate when it’s least welcome. :)
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Unusual
It was my mom’s birthday yesterday but she was busy with various things during the day and I decided to call her in the evening (my morning). I set my alarm so I would be up and called her and we spoke for about twenty minutes before hanging up. I lay in bed for a little while reading and then I realized my nose was bleeding. I have had this happen once in a while, especially when it’s allergy season and I’m on antihistamines (which I am on now). But this one went on for about fifteen minutes and was heavier than I’ve experienced before.
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Like family
While growing up, our family was super close to another family. This friendship went back to my babyhood when my parents lived in the same building as their parents. The dads worked at the same company and were best friends for many years. When one moved to Atlanta, the other soon followed and our families were close all the years I was growing up. At this point, our lives diverged quite a lot and we saw less and less of each other. The last time I saw them was at my wedding over 25 years ago. But I consider them close friends despite the distance and time away. The dad in the family died yesterday and I’m feeling pretty gutted about it. This is hitting me harder than losing some family has been.
I talked to my mom tonight and while talking I also discovered another mutual friend had died some time ago. She was ten years older than me and lived across the street. She was our babysitter and at times she had all six of us kids together at once and loved it. She often spent more money on us than she earned. The last time I saw her was at my brother’s wedding which was a few years before my own. My parents discovered this while checking out her Facebook page and seeing an RIP message from someone going back a couple of years. It aches to know it’s been so long but we had no mutual contacts who might have alerted us to her death.
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A few things
Just a little update from my last post. I’ve been going to the gym for over a week now. In fact, I went eight days straight with no break. Yesterday I didn’t go because I had a clinical pilates class with the physiotherapist and tai chi on. I’m glad I missed it yesterday because my muscles were pretty weary by the time I did the pilates and 1.5 hours of tai chi (which includes fan class). Today I took the day off from exercise and tomorrow I go back and do my weights routine. I’m trying to make that an every third day routine with cardio workouts the other days. I do the pilates every second week as it’s expensive but helpful and my insurance ran out on it months ago and the tai chi is only during school terms (two-week break coming up). I’m hoping to do a bit of swimming instead of the cardio soon.
My dad is doing well at the moment. He had his 80th birthday on Sunday and it was a low-key kind of day. He started occupational therapy on Monday and today he starts his speech (moved up a couple of times). The speech is what he needs most as he struggles to communicate. That said, he’s much improved since just after his stroke.
I finally contacted the clinic where I was referred to about osteoporosis and it turns out I just have to wait to hear from them. This is part of the public hospital system and they send out appointments. I’m hoping I don’t have a long wait and I hope I get an appointment time that can fit into my work schedule. I am a bit embarrassed to say I had a bit of an accident at the gym on the weekend when I stepped off a machine and tripped over the one next to it. I had forgotten how far off the ground it was and my balance was way off…and this is the sort of thing I need to be careful about with my bone health. I’ve got a bit of a bruise on my shin now but it’s nothing terrible.
I managed to move up the boys’ Covid vaccinations by a couple of weeks by getting appointments at the gp office. Previously I couldn’t book them in as the allowance didn’t cover their age group yet. But yesterday I checked and was able to get them set up and then I cancelled the other ones. This will be a lot more convenient and easier for the boys too.
I’m trying to decide whether to upgrade my phone now that the new iPhones are coming out. I’m a bit annoyed they haven’t brought back the fingerprint scan as the face login doesn’t work in the dark and with a mask on (I can overcome the mask issue with my watch though). It’s not that I don’t like the face login but it’s not really enough on its own. That might be a deal-breaker as this was something that has been mentioned as a change. My phone is only two years old so it’s not an immediate need. I am, however, considering the new Apple Watch since it’s supposed to be a major update this year.
I didn’t mention this earlier but we got a Roborock vacuum a couple of months ago and the Scientist takes great delight in it. He had a great time programming it to vacuum in certain rooms. It’s not set up to clean the entire house but it is taking care of several rooms now. The only snag is the fact our carpet is really old and it keeps unravelling so that the vacuum gets caught in it regularly.
Well this ended up longer than I expected…
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Something
I guess I didn’t have much to say for the past several months. Not that there hasn’t been anything much happening. In fact, quite a bit has happened. Currently, we are just coming out of winter after a fairly mild season. Funnily enough, we’ve had two days in September (spring), today included where it’s just been cold but didn’t have more than one day like this through the winter. But we had a few days of much warmer than usual temperatures earlier in the week that made me forget all about winter.
Anyway, spring has sprung and with a particularly wet July, plant life is really blooming. The bottlebrush trees are already flowering when that usually starts late in September. Pollen is everywhere and so the anti-histamine regimen has also begun.
After the better part of the year spent not doing much exercise, I decided I needed a kickstart and joined the new gym that opened up in our suburb this month. We’ve had a pool for 20+ years but no gym despite our suburb being one of the largest in the state. Not that there’s any shortage of gyms around here. Plus there are a couple of others opening up this year nearby. But I decided to go to the city-run gym because they have a pool and membership includes two free months. Well, it did when I joined as an early bird foundation member. The gym is high-tech with the machines all hooked to Bluetooth and the internet on many of the machines. It opened on Monday and I started off that morning. Last week I met with a trainer to do a plan and I got through the full plan. I was just a bit sore on Tuesday but went back and did some rowing and cycling and I was still quite sore. It was only today when I could say the soreness had properly gone away for the most part. So this morning I went and did another workout that will likely have me sore again tomorrow. I plan to do some cardio tomorrow. There have been some hiccups with the gym such as the fact that phone coverage inside is pretty poor, which makes it hard to access my online music service without downloading songs to the phone first. Some of the machines won’t connect online and so they don’t work with the online programming that is supposed to happen. This has slowed down my workouts a bit while I try to work out the bugs that can be sorted…or switch to a different machine. One of the treadmills was listed out of order on day two and is still not fixed. I am sure these things will get fixed but it’s a bit frustrating too. One of the downsides of having everything connected online, I guess.
Due to the rain in July, our yard turned into a jungle and I wasn’t able to mow earlier because the “key” for our lawnmower (battery-powered) got lost. New keys now exist but the motivation has been iffy at times for some good reasons and not-so-good ones. But I did get out and mowed a big section of the backyard and side and then got the front yard mowed this past weekend. The batteries don’t last long so I had to choose the most important parts. We do plan to get more batteries so we can do more mowing in the future.
About six weeks ago, I was leaning across the sofa to reach for the remote control when I hit the top of my foot and toes on a footrest that was slightly out from its closed position on our recliner sofa seat. It really, really hurt at the time and then it bruised up but I thought it was getting better. Weeks later I was still having problems and went to the doctor and then had an x-ray and ultrasound. Turns out I fractured my foot with that injury and it’s still healing. And I also had a mildly sprained ankle that needed to be looked after too. My doctor sent me to get a Dexa scan as a fracture with minimal trauma as occurred was not normal. Results say I have low bone density but because I have had a minimal trauma fracture, they are calling it osteoporosis and I’ve been referred to a specialist due to my young-ish age. It runs in my family so not totally surprising but I honestly thought the results would show nothing special as they usually do…I guess my luck has run out there. Anyway, the new exercise will help with that and I need to put more calcium-rich foods into my diet. The fractured foot has made my exercise options kind of limited but hopefully will heal soon and allow me to do more walking and other weight-bearing exercises.
Meanwhile, my father had a stroke about three weeks ago and due to negligence at the VA hospital his outcome was worse than it should have been. The emergency room staff were quite good but once he was admitted it seemed his care really went downhill. He was left in a room for a day and they didn’t do the MRI that was scheduled by the ER doc (or anything else) and constant attempts by my mom to get in touch with the doctor went unanswered. She finally checked him out of that hospital and moved him to one closer to home and the care was amazing there. My brother flew out from Charlotte for a few days and was also able to help things along in some areas. My dad has just gotten home after a stint in a rehab center and is doing okay, all things considered. His mobility is okay but his speech has been very affected and his right side is also impaired. Most of that has improved but the speech is still a major issue. And he turns 80 in three days. But at least he’s home now.
I sent a birthday message to a friend who has been out of touch in recent years and got a lovely message back. I was fairly sure she had just retreated from the world but it is hard to know when you are out of touch for long periods. I’m glad I was right about that. It will be good to be back in more regular contact again.
I guess it’s hard to write about current events and not write about Covid-19…We are doing fine here. We have had a few very short lockdowns this year, lasting three to five days each. We are fortunate it did not spread widely. The last time was in June and we had four local cases total and I think all were the delta variant. I suspect some luck was involved in the limited spread along with some effective government regulation. (I’m mostly happy with our local government’s response to COVID although they do have a lot of issues with the health system, in general, that need a lot more care.)
On a related note, potential visits back home are still kind of distant future. I had moved thoughts to middle-late spring next year but I imagine it’s going to be later than that.
Also on a related note, I am fully vaccinated. I had my first jab in May and the second last month. I got the Astra-Zeneca version which apparently is showing as better protection against the delta variant. The Scientist had to wait to get his due to surgery he had in May, and he got the Pfizer one which is now the preferred one for under 60s. (This changed after I had gotten my first one.) The boys are both booked to get their first jabs next month.
I think there was more for me to say but I guess this is a good start.
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Two days
At the beginning of the month it was Labour Day here in Western Australia and we had a three day weekend to celebrate. I don’t really think much celebrating of the holiday was done but there were plenty of events on last weekend. We had plans to attend events on Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday there was an event called Splash on at Hilary’s Boat Harbour and we had plans to have a look-in later in the day. This was mainly an off-shoot of the Fringe Festival and there were lots of performers to watch throughout the weekend. We showed up in the late afternoon and not a lot was happening at that point. We wandered around and I guess we were just at a point between shows. Eventually we settled on getting some food and stopped at a restaurant we’ve never been to. I ordered a fajitas dish and the Scientist ordered a side salad. Our meals arrived about five minutes later, which was a huge red flag. No way fajitas are prepared so quickly so we only presume it was reheated. It tasted okay but it wasn’t really fajitas and was sadly lacking. We checked out the timetable of events while at the restaurant to discover the program we’d wanted to see was in progress. Afterwards not much was happening for a bit and we finally came home. Part of the problem here was our lack of planning and not the events themselves.
We then decided to find a movie on a streaming service to watch. It seems I mostly see tv programs and not too many movies even though we no longer rent dvds either. So watching a film was a good plan. We’d heard that Magic Mike was supposed to be worthy of seeing at various points so we watched that. It was terrible. Not even the supposed eye-candy was worth it and the artsy effects to the film just highlighted the dire state of things. It wasn’t art and there was no real story and it wasn’t believable. So it’s fair to say that Saturday’s entertainment was a bit of a washout.
Sunday our plan was to go to Hyde Park Fair which is near the city. I’ve been to Hyde Park a number of times and it’s a beautiful place with lovely old trees and lots of fauna and flora. We headed out late morning and arrived just around noon. We took a bus from a local shopping center as the parking in the area is almost non-existent. We kind of overshot the stop we needed so got off the bus and caught another one going in the opposite direction and had a more direct route there. Once we arrived we checked in on the local covid tracking app and joined the crowds. Yes, there were crowds although it wasn’t terrible and most people were keeping a respectful distance. The nice thing about this event is there were lots of people but I never felt crammed in like sardines like at some events. The park is quite large and includes a couple of large ponds that have islands in the center where local fauna seem to reside.
We found ourselves taking a slow walk around the park and checking out lots of stalls, including one where I bought some tea. It was all quite relaxed and the variety of stalls was pretty amazing. In recent similar events we’ve taken to collecting new plants and there were some pretty awesome ones here. One stall had homemade blocks that were designed as pot holders. If it weren’t for the fact we had to travel by bus, we might well have bought one. There was also a gin seller giving samples. I tried it out and nearly choked on straight gin but found a mix with tonic a bit easier. I’m not a huge fan of gin but it was nice to try. I didn’t end up buying there either. After getting halfway around the park we found some food trucks selling interesting foods. One was a corn truck, which we saw at another event and I forgot to try out. This time I got a cup full of buttery corn and some topping, maybe chilli flakes or something. There was also a stall run by a Canadian guy selling doughnuts and bagels, some of which were vegan. The bagels were Montreal style which I had actually heard of due to Lego Lover sharing his knowledge at some point in the past. As explained by the owner, they mix the toppings into the bagel instead of being on top of it. Anyway, I bought some bagels for later and a couple of doughnuts too. The bagels were really nice but we didn’t eat them quickly enough a couple ended up going bad. One of the doughnuts was chocolate with icing and wasn’t all that great due to being a bit on the powdery side in texture. Also, it was a bit sweet. There was another spice one that was okay but it didn’t make me want to rush out to have more. I ended up getting lunch from the same stall, which was a bagel sandwich with a veggie patty. It was quite nice but I was kind of disappointed to discover they used veggie patties I can get at the supermarket.
The Scientist and I sat under a big tree to eat and it was just wonderful to sit in the shade and enjoy the sights and sounds of everything going on. There was a water playground a short distance away and kids were having a great time playing in amongst the water that would shoot up from time to time. Afterwards we headed off to some food trucks near the entrance I got one of the best smoothies I’ve ever tasted. The Scientist got a drink of his own which suited his requirement of being not too sweet. And afterwards we headed to the bus stand to go home. But before that we stopped in a little bakery across the road and got some really delicious bread and pastries to take home.
So although Saturday was a bit of a wash in terms of just about everything, Sunday was beautiful in weather, atmosphere, and location. It was lucky we went on Sunday because Monday was quite stormy and the fair ended up being canceled on the holiday.
Big trees providing shade 
Lots of stalls 
Coffee truck with a neat vehicle 
Pond view 
Pond view 
Birds having fun 
More birds 
And more birds
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Glasses
A couple years ago, I saw an optometrist and I got some new glasses but they were only for computer use. My regular multifocal lenses weren’t working for the middle distance of a computer screen. So I’ve been switching out when I’m using my laptop since then. This has mostly worked except that I sometimes would forget to switch back. Anyway, I was overdue to an eye appointment so popped in last week while I had some free time.
I forgot about taking my computer glasses so I couldn’t have them checked for the prescription. The optometrist spent a long time examining my old glasses. He noted they were really scratched. Funny but I didn’t notice it until he mentioned this. I’ve had them for probably five or six or maybe even seven years so that shouldn’t be too surprising, especially since I have knocked them off the night table next to my bed on a regular basis. For that alone, I needed new lenses. Anyway, my prescription has changed so I was off to see the optician just after. There were three tiers of multifocal lenses so I went for the top one as I had never been able to read well with the old ones. I usually had to remove my glasses to read.
My new glasses arrived today and I picked them up soon after I got my notification. I immediately could see better in that everything looked sharper. I suppose lack of scratches could do that alone. :) I have also noted that it seems I can read with these so the days of moving my glasses off and on might just be over. Alas they are of limited value at the computer, which isn’t unexpected. I will continue to use the special pair for that and I keep the old glasses in the car for future needs. Even overly scratched they will suit my needs for driving. One other thing I noticed is I didn’t feel all weird when looking around like I have in the past. It was quite a bit more money but it seems the premium will be worth it. I do wonder how many years these will last.
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Audiobooks
For almost my entire reading life, I’ve always read to myself. I have no recollection of ever having books read to me as a child. That’s not to say it didn’t happen but possibly once I learned to read it stopped happening. Or something along those lines.
The one exception on this was when I was in fourth grade and our English teacher read Charlotte’s Web out loud to our class in preparation for us to take a field trip to see the animated film. I don’t remember it that well aside from us sitting on a rug or something while she read. That was the only teacher who I recall doing that.
I didn’t go to kindergarten but once I was in first grade I was super-ready to read. I was in the top reading group from early on and stayed that way throughout my primary years. So again I read to myself and there was never any notion that I would be read to.
I few years ago I read The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker and I really adored it. I read it a couple of times and still go back and read parts occasionally. Barker just released a sequel this week, but it’s currently only on audiobook. I was quite torn because I want to know what happens next but I really prefer to read for myself.
I read books on Netgalley which provides advanced reader copies in exchange for reviews. Occasionally something good comes along and this time the audiobook for the sequel showed up. I went ahead and requested it and happily, I succeeded.
I’ve been listening for the past three days now. It’s really weird to listen to the book instead of reading it for myself. The worst part is I have my own imagined voices and images of the story and now I’ve got someone else inflicting a different version on me. Of course there’s no way around this but it makes for a totally new “reading” experience. I did find the first couple of chapters to be a bit rough and didn’t find the reader did so good of a job at differentiating characters voices. It’s gotten better as it’s gone on. What’s really funny is that one character has a longish name and it’s pronounced fully each time. But when I read for myself, I tend to create a mental shortcut while reading so as not to take up so much time. It’s really funny to keep hearing this long name spoken.
I’m only up to chapter ten and there’s a lot more to go. I am kind of getting into it a bit more now. Initially I was listening with earphones but last night I connected with a bluetooth speaker and just let it play continuously. I’ve also played it in the car but I find it gets stuck after each chapter ends. I think I listened to three or four last night without pause, so that set up seems to work okay for me. It says I’m about a quarter of the way through the book so progress is happening.
I really look forward to the ebook/print versions being released in June or July so I can read it again with my own personal voices and images. One thing that I do wonder about is whether this would have been an issue had this been the first book or a standalone story. I might have to try it out some time just to see.
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Pilates
In the last few years I’ve had issues enough that I see my physiotherapist reasonably often. Well, the past few months it’s been quite often as I have had one issue after another. A few weeks ago it was suggested I try the clinical pilates classes they offer so I decided to give it a go. I had to attend an assessment session first but I’ve now gone to two classes and it’s been quite interesting. I have used some of the machines in the regular appointments but it’s quite different using them for a whole hour. The first week the exercises weren’t too difficult although a couple really brought on a muscle burn. This week they have ramped up a couple to more difficulty. The worst one is standing on a bosu ball for balance. I can stand on the flat side and let go but balancing on the ball side was a bit too hard when I was there this morning.
I also said I wanted to work on my abdominal muscles as they tend to be pretty weak much of the time. I can’t help thinking it will be beneficial to get that toned up a bit. It might make a different in my swimming when I one day get back to lessons.
I’m scheduled for ten sessions and then we will see how I am doing and reassess my needs. I will likely take a break at that point since I can’t afford to do it through the year. But it’s nice to have this option available to me.
