random thoughts – Day 2,050 (Monday) – stress, nostalgia, progress

The frustrations are mounting. An issue has arisen with my unemployment payments from the merger/layoff which has heaped on a fresh shit ton of stress. The morning was spent in rounds of phone tag with someone from an office there which provided information and little comfort. A nervous breakdown felt imminent by the time I got off the phone.

The calendar shows a full month of constant shoulder/neck issues. Each hellacious morning begins with feeling like a broken puppet and sitting quietly with an ice pack. The ice pack helps with the neck pain (and we continue our dalliance all day long), but the tingling from shoulder to fingertips is constant, varying in intensity but never actually stopping.

The month of pain has not been idle. There have been messages to the primary care physician, a visit to an orthopedic who ruled it isn’t a shoulder issue, a visit with the spine and pain center which was delayed by a cybersecurity event at the local hospital that has lasted two weeks (so far) and crippled communications and the ability to have an x-ray done there (among other things).

Today, the hospital phones were functional and I was able to reach the radiology department. Hospital communications may be more normal, but they said they still can’t do x-rays and suggested I ask for a referral to a hospital in another town. The x-ray referral will now be sent to a hospital 20 miles away.

Moose and me on the mend.

It's neck issues now, but fourteen years ago on this date, I was laid up with a broken leg. A derby teammate hosted and played nurse and chauffer while Moose and I crashed at her house. I was in a walking boot, undergoing home physical therapy, and trying to not be in the way too much, which was hard when I occupied the entire couch with my leg elevated. Moose stuck by my side while I recuperated there and then later, back at my house. I miss Moose (and Winston) every day. 

The handyman was at the house today to begin work on the top items from the home inspector’s report. The carport gutter was cleaned out and the hole in the roof panel that once housed a sapling is repaired. A new downspout will be installed tomorrow. The crawlspace has new access doors that won’t rot. One of the bathroom fans is replaced, the other will be done tomorrow.

Oversized hood.

Other items on the original list are under review. The desire for a new stove hood is tabled. The current hood is much wider than the stove (40-inches on a 30-inch stove) and it’s low, making it hard to ladle soup or sauce out of the kettle without crashing a hand into the hood. I have no idea why it's like this, but I'll bet someone who never cooked a pot of soup or sauce (or anything else) had something to do with it. 

A smaller, correctly-sized hood can be installed but it will leave five-inch gaps on each side that will need to be dealt with. In order to create more space between the range top and the fan, the new one would need to be installed inside the cabinet, eliminating several inches of storage space and making a shelf too high to reach, rendering it useless. The cost/benefit analysis isn’t looking favorable. 

While the bathroom fan was being installed, I sat on the couch with a heating pad on my back and watched a Netflix show about an Italian serial murderer (The Monster of Florence - A True Story). When the handyman left, I heated and consumed an insane amount of leftover Chinese food for lunch. Shortly after eating, I crashed on the couch and napped for an hour and a half. 

And there we have it. A day of stress, pain, nostalgia, progress, and rest. Lather, rinse, repeat.