More nothing

Yesterday was just a great day. At lunch, eating beans and rice, I bit down on something and thought it was a stone, but it turned out to be a piece of a tooth that had broken off. It hasn't started hurting yet, but the part that's left is sharp (I think it's a tooth -- a back one -- with an ancient filling in it), so there's definitely a visit to the dentist in my future.

Then, on the way home, I stopped at the post office to mail off some jewelry orders, came back to get in the car, and one of my tires was flat. It was a few minutes aftter 7:00, National Tire closed at 8:00, and I debated whether I should call the road service and have it changed again, or just try to get to the tire store. I was fairly close, just a few blocks, so I drove over there, carefully, praying that I could get there before I was driving on the rim.

I got there, parked, went in and waited in line, and when it was my turn told the guy that the tire that they fixed on Saturday was flat again. I wasn't positive it was the same tire, but it made sense that it would be. He said there would be about an hour and a half wait, and asked if that was okay, and I said, well, what else can I do? So I gave him the keys and went and sat in the waiting room. I hadn't brought a book with me; when I left home that morning I thought about not having a book -- my ever-present guarantee against boredom -- but thought, you're only going to work and home, you don't need to lug a book with you. Hah!

But I had my knitting. So I sat for about an hour, knitting on the wall hanging I'm making for work. I could see into the garage, and they got the tire off, messed around with it a bit, then came and told me that it was ruined. Naturally.

So I ended up buying another two tires. So the downside is that I spent almost $600 on tires this week. But as Bob pointed out, on the plus side, I have four new tires. "The only thing between you and the road" is, I believe, how he put it.

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Forced to do nothing

I took Monday and Tuesday off this week--after the last couple of weeks I felt like I needed a few days off. So I had a nice, long four day weekend, and basically didn't do anything. Oh, I did buy tires.

One day last week, Monday or Tuesday, John left early, and called me from his car to tell me that one of the tires on my car was flat. As I was driving to work that morning, I'd heard something--thought I'd run over something--but looked back behind me and didn't see anything, so kind of forgot about it.

I went out to the parking lot to look, and the driver's side rear tire was totally flat. I have emergency roadside repair on my car's extended warranty, so I called Ford, and they sent someone out to change it. I called the dealership to see about coming in and having the flat repaired, or, if it couldn't be repaired, getting new tires, but the close at 6:00, and you can't make appointments, so theoretically I could have gone in at 7:00 a.m., but if there were a bunch of people there, I'd end up sitting for hours, and I just couldn't do that last week.

I called National Tire, and they had the same deal--first come, first served--but they didn't close until 8:00 p.m., so I was going to try to get there, but that just didn't happen, either. So I ended up driving on the doughnut all week. On Saturday, the first place I went was NTB, sat and waited for about an hour to have the tire repaired. I went back up to the counter after I'd put in the ticket, and said I'd forgotten to ask if they could rotate the tires, too, so I ended up waiting again, for that, and then the guy came and told me that I really should replace two of the tires. Not the one that had the flat, but the two on the front.

They were Pirelli's, so, even though I don't know a thing about tires, I thought they were good ones. But he said they're expensive, high performance tires, and they may be good, but they don't last very long. I've got less than 30,000 miles on that car, and shouldn't have had to replace the tires, but whatever. I did.

And that was basically the only major thing I did all weekend. It was nice. It's not like I usually spend my weekends doing anything terribly strenuous normally, but it was nice to have four days ahead of me with nothing in particular to do. It made sitting at the tire store for two hours not that big a deal. I had a book with me, and it was actually kind of nice to be stuck somewhere and forced to do nothing.

This weekend I also put a few new pieces of jewelry up at my Etsy shop. I have more to put up, but the photographing and posting take awhile. I suppose I should really get some pieces going that I can duplicate, so that I don't have to do every one individually, but that's sort of the charm of it -- one of a kind.

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Footie pajamas

The last couple of weeks have been really hard. I'm trying to finish up a couple of big projects at work that have big problems, and combined with the time that I've had to be off because of my knee, I'm staying at work later and later. Last night I didn't leave until about 8:30. I went out at 7:00 and moved my car around to the front of the building so I wouldn't be walking down to the (sort of) scary parking lot after dark.

I got home, microwaved some leftover macaroni casserole, talked to Bob for a little while while I ate, sat down in front of the computer and went to Second Life for an hour or so, and was in bed by 11:00. I had a few places written down that I wanted to visit, so I was pretty focused.

I went to the Sprint Center and got a free t-shirt:

One of my favorite places to shop at Disney World is Mitsukoshi, a huge Japanese department store chain. I ran across a brief mention that they had a presence in Second Life. I can't remember now where I saw it. (Edited to add: Just found it: New World Notes) Anyway, I went there last night.

There wasn't really a whole lot there, but I got a free kimono.

And then I found an extremely cool store called Pushbutton Industries, where I bought this extremely cool sweater:

And blue footie pajamas:

Good night.

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What I've been doing lately

What I've been doing lately:

• Working
• More working
• Going to physical therapy
• Second Life

And that's pretty much it.

Work is moderately insane right now. I can't stand to look at the whiteboard in my office because there are 15 projects on it that I'm in charge of, several of those with multiple items. Work is fine, it's just . . . busy.

My knee -- well, it's better, I think, but definitely not ALL better. But then again, it's not cancer, like my friend Liora is dealing with, so when you look at it that way, it's not bad at all. Like my dad says, "It's not bad, as pain goes."

I've been going to physical therapy twice a week for a month. They do all kinds of things to me there -- biofeedback, muscle stimulation, icing, heat, ultrasound, exercises. I ride the stationary bike, and today I practiced my balance. It's actually fairly enjoyable. I like the people there, and, except for the parts where I'm actually having to exercise, it feels kind of like a spa day. I actually fell asleep this morning while my leg was being iced. Well, you know, a spa day where they sort of torture you a little bit.

After I went on Tuesday, my knee felt pretty good all day. Bob and I went out to eat, and it felt fine, just a little pain (not bad, as pain goes). We got home, I went upstairs, sat down on the edge of the bed and took off my shoes, and when I stood up, had the WORST pain I think I've had so far just SHOOT through my knee. I could barely walk after that, and it hurt all day yesterday even though I wore an elastic brace on it.

I talked to the therapist about it this morning, and he said he thinks it's probably an endurance thing. He says my leg is getting stronger, but I'd probably overdone it, and it just gave out on me. So today after therapy, after my leg warmed up from being in the ice machine, I put the neoprene thing on again, and it's feeling better.

I've been taking some fairly strong anti-inflammatory medication. I'd like to stop taking it, because I know it isn't good for my stomach, but the therapist thinks I should keep taking it for about another month. So I called the drugstore to refill it, knowing I didn't have any more refills left, and they called the doctor, but he wouldn't give me a refill without seeing him. So on top of having two physical therapy appointments next week, I also have a doctor's appointment. Lucky thing my boss is understanding about that stuff. I've been staying most nights until 7:00 or 7:30 to make up for it, though.

Also on Tuesday, the therapist fitted me for orthotics. He says that should help get me back in alignment and fix my knee; they ought to, they're expensive enough! And insurance doesn't cover them. Why would that be?? I guess they'd pay for knee surgery if I ended up needing that. I was telling the PT intern that it's only recently that insurance started paying for mammograms. They would, of course, pay for breast cancer, if you got that. I guess the thinking was that if they paid for mammograms when you didn't really need one, every woman would get one. But the odds of getting breast cancer are pretty small, and even if they had to pay $100,000 or something, they'd probably still be ahead.

Don't get me started on insurance. It's a racket. You have to have it, but when you need it, they think of any way they can to not pay. Grrrr.

By the time I get home at 8:00 or 8:30, I don't want to do much other than sit down in front of the computer and play Second Life. Well, not play -- mostly shop.

I got attacked about three weeks ago. As "attacked" as a little pixel person can be, by another little pixel person. I was in an isolated area and some guy ran up to me and knocked me down and shouted "Take off your clothes!" In retrospect, yeah, it's ridiculous, but at the time it felt threatening, and I couldn't teleport out of there fast enough.

It happened again over the weekend, only this time it was two guys. They crowded me up against a wall and were basically just making fun of me. I should have told them to f*ck off or I would report them, but it made me uncomfortable enough that, again, I ran away.

In talking to a friend about it, he thought maybe it was because I still looked like a newbie. I kind of liked the way I looked, but most of the people who've been around awhile have customized their avatars a great deal; it's pretty obvious who's new and who's not. (He also said if it ever happened again, and he was online, to let him know and he'd come defend my honor, which was sweet.)

So anyway, I gave myself a makeover. I bought a new skin, got new make-up, bought new hair and clothes, and now, even though I keep walking into walls, I don't look like a newbie anymore, even though I really am:

New Harry Potter tomorrow!

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Pink Moon

Further to my last post about happiness, when I think of it, I've been writing down a list of things that make me happy, sort of like a gratitude list (I do that sometimes, too). One of the things on my list should be a husband who knows when I need to get out of town, and makes it happen.

He got Saturday and Sunday off last weekend, so we went down to Bennett Spring State Park on a whim. He had to work until 10:00, so we wouldn't get there until after midnight, and he had to work on Monday, so it would be a short trip. But a short trip is better than no trip.

When I got home Friday night I packed my stuff--Bob had already done his packing that morning before he went to work--and got everything ready to go. He got home around 10:30, packed up the van, and we took off. Remarkably, I stayed awake for most of the trip, falling asleep only toward the end, when Bob woke me up to look at the moon. It was huge, and pink! I don't know why, exactly, but it was definitely beautiful. We got to the park about 1:30 a.m. Everything was quiet and dark. When I called and reserved a cabin, the woman on the phone said they would leave a map on the door of the store, and would tape our key to the cabin door.

Bob got out and studied the map, then we drove over to the cabin. As we passed a picnic area, we saw three deer standing as still as statues. Such a lovely welcome! Our room was small, but fine. We never sleep very well away from home, but since we got in so late, we intended to sleep in anyway, so it didn't really matter. I woke up in the middle of the night needing to go to the bathroom, and I had a very disorienting moment of not knowing where I was.

My first thought was that yeah, I was at Bennett Spring, then I changed my mind and thought surely I must be dreaming, that I was at home, then I realized my first thought was the right one. So funny. It was pitch dark. I couldn't see anything at all, it was like being in a cave when they turn out the lights.

I knew basically where the bathroom was--Bob woke up and said, "turn right, then turn right again," but I knew that I would probably run into something on the way. I was close to the dresser, so I opened a drawer and rummaged around in my purse until I found my flashlight, and was able to light my way to the bathroom. The next night, I left the flashlight next to the bed!

When slept in, then got up and went over to the dining lodge for a leisurely breakfast, then Bob put his waders on, and got his fishing equipment together, and I grabbed my bag and my folding chair.

We walked down to the stream, where Bob fished for a few hours, and I sat on the bank, and read. I was well supplied with all the things I needed--my tote bag with knitting and snacks, a hat ("Life is Good"), a bottle of iced tea, and a book:

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