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.