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And just like that September is long over and it’s almost halfway through October. I had actually started a post several days ago but it’s now a bit too dated.
Obviously time is just kicking along and life is happening. I’m still keeping up with my exercise and have been attending regular fitness classes. I have taken a liking to one that incorporates tai chi, pilates and yoga that happens each Wednesday. I also like doing a spin bike class although I probably will avoid the Wednesday class since it’s a bit much exercise. The other class is pretty full on and I got quite a workout this morning. Yesterday was even worse as I did my clinical pilates and a weights workout before 1.5 hours of tai chi last night. That won’t be usual but I was off schedule due to missing exercise one day on the weekend.
My foot/toes are still healing, I guess. I noticed I get bruises on my toes with minimal activity and that’s frustrating. My foot was feeling a lot better yesterday but this morning it was sore and I noticed one of the injured toes was bruised and then there’s a bruise on a toe on the other foot, totally unrelated. Not sure what that’s about so I guess it’s something to bring up next doctor visit.
Otherwise my body is feeling pretty good and my efforts to work on core exercise seems to be paying off a bit. I just need to stick to it more. I have a plank exercise at the gym that goes for 40 second intervals but was able to increase to a minute when I was there yesterday. I do a modified version to avoid stressing my toes.
Our weather has been off kilter again with cooler temperatures than usual for October. That’s due to change tomorrow with a major increase to higher than usual, I think. I guess nothing is typical in these times and I hear similar anecdotes from my mom about what’s happening in Texas…although her theories on reasons don’t quite gel with mine.
My dad is doing well with his speech therapy and I spoke to him briefly this morning and he was able to get through a lot more talk than he has on previous conversations. He goes three times a week for that so hopefully that continues to make a difference. He is doing really well with occupational therapy and was talking about dropping those sessions due to the co-pay required for each visit. I’m going to provide some funds to help ensure he can stick with it.
I think I had more to say but now I’m drawing a blank so will stop now so I can post this finally. :)
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Body and Soul
I was going to do another spin cycle class today but was feeling a bit too sore from all the exercise yesterday. But I did go and try out a class called Body and Soul. It’s a fusion of tai chi, yoga, and pilates, and it was pretty interesting and rather tough at times. It definitely got my heart pumping faster so I guess that’s a good thing. What was good is I was able to work more of the core muscles in the workout. Not so good was the need to use my toes so much. My right foot didn’t like it much at all so I had to adapt a bit.
On a related note, I noted my toe with the fracture looked a bit bruised and swollen tonight. To the touch, it feels like a bump has developed there rather than swelling. Weird to see but will wait and see what happens.
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Springy
Spring is moving along and trees and plants are in bloom in a big way. We are lucky to have blooms all through the year but there’s just something about seeing so much new life around. I got out into the yard today and did some more mowing. We managed to get a couple more batteries to use with the mower but I think I may have overdone it today as the mower wouldn’t restart with a change of batteries. Or maybe the batteries had lost charge. I’m hoping that’s the case and it all works next time. There’s a lot more mowing to do and lots of tall grass and weeds to get rid of. Will need to use the line trimmer for some of it and the rest might just require lots of pulling of grass.
My exercise program is going fine for the moment. With my membership, I have access to fitness classes, gym, and pool. I haven’t used the pool yet but will soon. Last week I finally tried out a spin class at another location. They don’t offer this at our local gym but it’s only a ten-minute drive to one that does. I arrived slightly late as there was some event going on and parking was difficult. The class itself was okay but it’s always hard to start late. Anyway, I did another spin class today and it was pretty tough. It was a different teacher and a more rigorous workout so I am a bit sore tonight. On top of that, I had a clinical pilates class this afternoon and I was so sore that my legs were trying to protest quite a bit. Normally we have tai chi on Tuesdays but we are on term break this week and next. I had wanted to try out the yoga class locally but was a bit too sore to attempt it. I will plan to do it next week, which should work since there’s no pilates.
I’ve been reading a lot of books on Netgalley this year but have had to cut back on requests because I am too far behind schedule. I enjoy reading the books but it gets a bit unmanageable when you have too many waiting to be read and reviewed. I had over twenty at one point and now it’s down to seven. Plus there are a few that I’m still waiting to hear whether they’ve been approved. I’m expecting to get one or two approved close to release dates, which is kind of annoying. One was requested in March and is due to be published in November so it’s going tricky if approval does come through.
Today both the boys had their first COVID vaccines. They opened up vaccines for their age group last month and initially we couldn’t go through the gp. I had made other arrangements but then found the gp is doing them. The old appointments were canceled and I keep getting reminders to make an appointment again. I need to see if there’s any place where we can indicate we got a vaccine elsewhere. The second vaccine is in three weeks, which lands the day after Game Fanatic’s birthday. Well, it’s due on his birthday but I decided to go for the day after so it’s three weeks and a day.
We are thinking more seriously about getting a new vehicle. We have our sights set on a Rav4 Hybrid so now it’s a matter of checking them out and test drives and all that stuff. We’ve had our current car for twelve and a half years and it’s starting to cost a bit more money. So upgrading makes a bit of sense at this point.
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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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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.
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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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Pat on the back
A few days ago, my bike ride turned into a particularly long one due to circumstances. One of those circumstances was that the final section of road on the nearby highway finished. This meant the bike path was open all the way to the end of the new highway. I will point out that it’s unlikely I’ll be travelling the whole way any time soon but it was kind of neat to know it was open.
The other circumstance related to an incident with a family member where I knew I had to speak up about something and it just made me ill to think about it. I was stressed and anxious when I went out and the other conditions were kind of right so I went off with expectations of turning around at the former end point of the path. I found, however, that despite playing my music while riding, I definitely wasn’t hearing it at all.
On that ride I travelled almost 40 kilometers round trip, which was pretty huge. It was kind of good for me to ride hard and long that day even if it didn’t make as much of a dent in the feelings I was having. On the other hand it was also kind of foolish since I had to make a return journey and I was cutting it close to dark. Not to mention I was expected to be back before a certain time so we could “play” a Zelda video game that evening. Anyway, I got back okay but the following day, I was feeling a bit wiped out, physically and emotionally.
Now after missing a day or two of exercise, there’s always a chance I will allow myself to fall back into old habits where I skip it altogether for to long. And with the cooler days it’s even easier to slip more often.
So there I was yesterday and I had spent a good part of the afternoon playing Animal Crossing. That issue I spoke about above was still ongoing although I wasn’t feeling quite as terrible as I’d been before. Procrastination on days that are getting shorter is never a good thing and I finally did get myself read to go out for a ride. The day before had actually been quite warm so it’s a shame I didn’t go out then. Yesterday was somewhat cooler and by the time I went out, the winds had picked up.
I had worn two shirts to keep warm and at the last minute decided to bring along a ratty light jacket just in case. Boy am I glad I had it as I had it on within the first five minutes. It was chilly out there. At this point I thought to myself that I would lower my expectations and just make it about halfway to my original destination (which made for about 65 minute ride). The winds were really strong so I wasn’t making much progress.
I got closer to that point but decided I shouldn’t be so slack and should push on and reach my usual turning point. I was moving rather slowly despite my efforts. I was tiring a lot and my new thing of pedaling while standing up were making it worse. Eventually I started to avoid the standing and just lowered gears to make it the ascents easier.
Thankfully my music was helping to drive my efforts. But I was well behind my usual time based on how far into the playlist I was. I did make it to that turning point and stopped for a couple minutes to recover and to rehydrate. Turning back, I found it even worse and I ended up zipping up my jacket this point. The sun was lower and I was getting chilled despite extra layers.
I ended up dropping to the lowest gears and just focusing on moving continuously rather than at any speed. That was pretty much all I could do and the trip back seemed to go on forever. In the midst of all this, my anxiety would return occasionally and I guess it was distract with the agony of the ride or the agony of the anxiety. I figure I must have passed it back and forth mentally most of the way home.
I did get home okay but I definitely didn’t feel any better. But I did pat myself on the back for making it through. Here’s hoping the next ride or exercise will be a bit easier to handle. :)
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April-the start
I’ve managed to go ten days without posting anything, which was breaking up a good run of writing. Hopefully I can get going again.
At our house we are doing okay for the moment. The Scientist continues to work from home and is both lucky and unlucky that he and a coworker are still on full hours due to urgent need of their projects. My work has come to a bit of a halt. I am still supporting my client but we aren’t meeting face-to-face right now. I think we may start up some more minimal activity soon with one of us (support workers) meeting with him each week. I’m still getting paid but it’s not the ideal type of support right now. The boys are doing okay and life carries on fairly normally for them. Except that Lego Lover isn’t doing shopping with me at the moment.
Which leads me to the next thing, going out in public. I was really good over the past week and only went out once during the week to top up a couple of things. But Thursday I had to do the shopping and it was mentally and physically exhausting. Playing dodge-em in the shops was a crazy pursuit. I washed myself down well when I got home as I felt rather icky from being out in the world. I didn’t go to the pharmacy at all during the week, which was good. But I should have gone yesterday as Lego Lover needed a refill of one medication. Just I didn’t know it when I was out. Sigh…Today, the Scientist and I went to see about getting the refill but the pharmacy was closed. So tomorrow I will go back and get that taken care of. We also need eggs so that Lego Lover can do his traditional decorating and then we can do a egg hunt inside as normal. The regular stores were all out on Thursday and most stores were closed today. So tomorrow it will have to be done. Plus there’s a need to start hunting down toilet paper soon. We have about a week’s worth, I think, but in case of increased usage, I’d like to have a few rolls extra before then.
We’re coming into the middle of April and we’re having a heatwave right now. Three days of hot temperatures that are highly unusual for this time of year. Tomorrow is expected to exceed 37C where we are (100F) and then we go back to more normal temperatures. It’s weird because our summer was kind of mild after we had a particularly warm/hot spring. So when there were all the reports about Australia having record temperatures, it didn’t apply here most of that time. But we may well set an April temperature record tomorrow.
I’m keeping up my exercise for the most part. I’m alternating long and short bike rides with some combined bike rides/ walks at nearby Whiteman Park. It takes me close to 30 minutes to ride to a place where I can park my bike and then I walk for about an hour most of the time. There’s one trail that works well for that. My favorite walk goes quite a bit longer so I haven’t done that one much lately.
I’ve been adding to the challenge on my bike rides the past few times by trying to pedal while standing up while I go uphill. It does make for better riding but I need to keep at it a while to build up the muscle and slow down the racing heart a bit. Today I found it particularly tough at a couple points, but maybe that was related to the heat more than anything. I will point out that it was reasonably pleasant but quite dry outside so my main concern was hydration. I pushed through the first half of my trip without stopping and I had to stop for a few minutes to get my heart rate back to normal and to drink one of the bottles of water I’d taken. (I had three with me). I also have managed to start riding using the last set of gears and it’s working out pretty well. I am missing my swimming but that will just have to wait a while.
I’ve been playing my Animal Crossing game every day since it was released so far. This is the fourth incarnation I’ve played and it’s looking to be the best of the lot. I’m finding it amusing to see so many people are getting hooked on this game as though it’s a new thing when it’s been around in other forms for quite a long time. I’m still hoping there will eventually be a restock of the Animal Crossing Nintendo Switch. Thanks to the shortage, there are a lot of scalpers about, getting 3-4 times the true value of the machine. This is the only special edition console that has ever interested me and it figures it would be released at this particular time.
I finally got a message from the airline about a refund on my tickets. It seems they have put through refunds of the seat fees but it might be a while for the regular fare. So long as I know it’s coming, I’m okay with it. It’s weird to think next Tuesday is the day I was supposed to be travelling but now it’s going to be an ordinary day.
Which reminds me that our tai chi class is proceeding for the moment using the Zoom platform. It has some limitations but it’s been really good to handle our group so far. We should be able to catch up a couple classes that didn’t happen during the usual break time.
For me, the isolation isn’t too terrible at the moment. I’m still able to go out on my bike and to walk near home so I am not stuck inside all the time. But that suits my personality a bit more. I am mostly affected by limitations on going out to take care of usual stuff and having to think through ways of consolidating on trips. It’s not so easy for some though, like the Scientist, who has a much higher need for human contact than the rest in the this family. I do wonder how I will feel in a month when we start getting cooler weather and more rain that keeps me indoors a lot more.
Here in Western Australia, the numbers have been dropping recently so I think we are “flattening the curve” pretty well. Most of the recent cases seem to be related to cruise ship activity here, which is a frustrating situation which doesn’t seem to get improving a lot. I heard talk of a couple more ships coming here soon. I honestly don’t understand how so many ships carried on after this pandemic was declared. It’s been weeks now, and it hasn’t improved. I remember it was early March when the Queen Mary 2 was here and they cancelled all itineraries while here. The cruise ships aside, I guess the fact we are so isolated in the country really helps a lot.
Anyway, our weekend ahead is going to be a stay at home thing. Well I might go out to exercise tomorrow but otherwise will be home. Hopefully we can engage the family in some games of some sort over the next day or two. Or maybe some other activities.
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Good
Today was the beginning of another hot spike in temperatures for us. I think it got to 35 C today where we live. At least that’s what the car thermometer said. I had to take the dogs to the vet for vaccinations and a couple other issues and that started at 4pm. We got in rather late due to some emergencies that took priority. It was okay aside from the nuisance the dogs were making of themselves. We finished up just around 5pm and I came home. As it was warm and I was in the right mood, I went out for a bike ride soon afterwards.
It was still kind of hot, so I took two bottles of water with me and put one in my backpack just in case. I got started easily enough and got out onto the bike paths near us. I found today was an easy ride. My heart rate was on the higher side but it wasn’t making me feel ill so I didn’t take any drastic measures to change it. I kept a steady pace all the way to my destination and didn’t struggle all that much with the hills tonight although it was a definite workout.
Once I arrived I parked my bike and went into the shopping center for a few minutes break. I had a banana I’d taken with me so had a bit of a snack and then made sure to drink all the water in one of the bottles. I hadn’t stopped at all along the way. Then I went to refill the water before setting off again. Unfortunately this took long enough that it was just about sunset by the time I got going again. I wasn’t too fussed as it still felt pleasant outside and the bike path is well lit until I get to my neighborhood (where it’s lit but not as well). It did serve as a reminder that I need to get a light installed.
The ride back was even better than the ride there. It was such easy exercise that I didn’t feel as though I was working all that hard. It’s really interesting how that happens some days and then others just the simplest ride can be so hard to get through. The temperature had dropped a bit once the sun set and I found myself riding through pockets of cooler air. But as I got closer to home there were pockets of warmer air that I was hitting. I did stop briefly to take a photo of the pretty night skies fairly early on in the ride back.
Pretty sky during ride home When I got home I was feeling pretty good. I think this sort of exercise releases those endorphins and I felt like they were really flowing tonight. Even hours later I’m still feeling pretty good.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a scorcher with possible high temperatures that we don’t get in November ever. Just another tick in the evidence of climate change, methinks.