Anyone Know What Happened To July?

…. cause it went by in a total blur, especially the last couple of weeks!  Can’t believe I haven’t blogged in over a week!  Hope you’re all doing well, I owe so many people emails it’s untrue, I’m also behind on “phoning home” too, so I need to rectify that as soon as possible.

It all went pear shaped at work as not one, but two colleagues broke their ankles, and there was an awful lot of slack to be picked up by the rest of us!  The guys were hanging out together, doing guy things….. like messing about with a tree top zip wire without checking that the safety stop was in place!  The tree that Kazie smashed in to did a really good job of stopping him but Kevin mistook Kazie’s yell of “don’t come down” as an all clear and smashed in to the same tree!!  The result was a broken ankle each!  They both had surgery last Friday, Kazie has a relatively clear break and needed a pin put in to help the bone heal again but Kevin managed to break his heel which is an altogether much more painful and longer healing process, so he’ll be out for a while, Kazie should be back in a couple of days.  Talk about nominees for a Darwin Award!

I’ve also been making sure I spend a little time most days after work in the basement working on my fitness again, something I badly needed to do if you recall my self pitying posts before I went to England in May!!  I’m feeling better already, happier, healthier and I’m sleeping well too, I’ve also lost three pounds which is always welcome in the summer when the shorts and little tops are out and a bit more flesh is on display!

The final thing that came to a head during the last week was a frenzy of looking at “new to me” cars in three different dealerships.  Not sure if I’ve mentioned before but I’ve been seriously considering upgrading my 1997 Ford Escort with something much newer and safer with better features, warranty and reliability.  Andrew’s been bugging me to do this for the best part of a year or two, but I really liked my old car.  She certainly wasn’t the prettiest anymore but she was remarkably clean for her age with an excellent interior and very few body marks, there was also just 129,000 on the clock, which was slightly less than 10,000 miles a year, so very low mileage too.  Plus, having none of the “modern drive by wire, let me do it for you” kind of features, she was an absolute blast to drive, as input always equaled output, and if the back end stepped out around a corner it was solely and entirely due to the driver, who would have a grin a mile wide on her face!  I struggled to consider parting with her but after her last service Andrew warned me that she might not make it through the upcoming winter due to some corrosion that was taking hold under the drivers side foot well.

I’ve been looking around on and off all year, not too seriously, but I’d narrowed the prospective field down to just one type of car and then kept an eye out on the online trader sites.  We’d also been putting a bit of money aside as I didn’t want to get in to a payment plan, I wanted to buy out right, so I had myself a self imposed spending limit.  My car of choice was going to be a 2008 or 2009 model year Ford Focus, I really like the hatchback but they were proving difficult to come by with low mileage so I started to consider the 4 door sedan too, my choices were few and far between considering I was also looking for a manual not an automatic, they’re quite rare in Michigan, out of about 80 or so cars for sale in my area (50 mile radius of my address), typically about 6 were manuals.  Take in to consideration mileage, year and price and out of those six there may have been one worth considering.  So, out of the blue last week, not one, not two but three manuals with low mileage and at a price I could deal with turned up at three different dealers!  Sods law eh?  Talk about behaving like the the proverbial buses!

So to cut a long story short, the first dealership had only just listed their car and wouldn’t deal much on price and didn’t want my Escort as a trade in!  The second one gave me a fantastic price and a great deal on the trade in too but the car they had for sale had too many minor body blemishes and stone chips, plus it would need four new tyres very soon all of which worried us for a car with just 20,000 miles on it, it really looked like it had been driven hard and perhaps not looked after too well.  The dealer recognized this and cut the price drastically, but I wanted to look at the third one before making a decision.  This car was located just four miles from where I work so I went to see it on my own last Friday lunch time.  The Sales guy could see that I was serious, no nonsense, knew exactly what I wanted and how much I wanted to pay, so he talked to his Manager and the price was dropped by $1600 in about five minutes.  I knew this was my car, it’s been looked after and hasn’t a single mark on her anywhere.  The dealership took it on a trade in for a new Chrysler and they’d waxed, polished and prepped her very well, plus you could just tell that the car had been looked after, even the engine bay was completely spotless.

I took Andrew to the dealership on Saturday morning and we both had a test drive.  The dealer also put the car on a ramp for us so Andrew could inspect the underside, it was as perfect as perfect could be and so after a little more negotiating and a little haggle over the trade in price of my Escort I drove my new car home.  I do have to say I felt incredibly sad at walking away from my old girl, felt like abandonment!  We had a lot of fun together and apart from one small incident (the alternator about a month ago) she never gave me any problems at all.

So this is what was sitting on my driveway on Sunday morning, I took these pictures really quickly just before we headed out to the lake with our kayaks, to send to my brother.  She’s a very sweet drive, and looks, feels and drives just like a brand new car.  I spent a bit of time sitting inside her on Sunday afternoon going through the manual before I had to drive her to work this morning for the first time…..

And my favourite feature???  Being able to plug my Ipod in, press a button on the steering wheel, say “USB” for the device type and then say “Play All” – “Play Album xxx” – “Play KT Tunstall” etc.  I like it that my car talks to me!  Makes driving to work so much more interesting!  Now I just have to make her remember my name!

The Last Post

I feel like this should be accompanied by a lone trumpet player standing on a hill at sunset!! But I won’t be that dramatic, even though I’m definitely feeling that way! So here we are, Thursday lunchtime (my time), 31 hours before my flight takes off and my suitcase still stands empty in the spare bedroom! Andrews is packed and I do have a few items on the bed that I want to take but I haven’t got my head around it yet, I think Andrew will be packing it for me, in fact, I know he will.

My problem, once again, is my back. You may recall that it was very sore about a month ago after a lot of gardening one weekend, Andrew had managed to alleviate the pain and free the muscles, but beneath the surface it still wasn’t good. This last weekend was Drivers School at the race track where I volunteer, two whole days on my feet on a hard concrete surface, and my back had started twinging a bit again in the week prior! Although my back wasn’t painful, by Sunday night I was understandably very tired, nothing a hot bath and a good nights sleep couldn’t put right, but my back decided it had had enough again and by the time I went to bed I knew I was in trouble.

As of today, I’ve visited the osteopath I use who told me I’ve really done it this time and this is the worst he’s seen me in ten years. He realigned my back again as much as he could and released the nerve that was being pinched, but now the trouble stems from all my back muscles that have been compensating my bad posture for the last five weeks or so as they’re now rather seriously inflamed and keep causing spasms of pain to shoot through my back. I’m on muscle relaxants and Ibuprofen and I’m icing my back almost constantly during the day, including at work. I should be ready for a massage tonight and then I’m back at the osteopath again first thing tomorrow morning for a second alignment as I was screaming so bad the first time I was there that he couldn’t get me 100%. And after that….. 7 1/2 hours on a hard and uncomfortable plane seat! They’ll probably be wheeling me off the damn plane when we land at Heathrow on Saturday.

So what’s caused all this pain? Not what, but who, and that would be me. I was born with an almost straight spine but had no idea until I changed osteopaths ten years ago and he xrayed me. I used to run, actually I used to run a lot, half marathons to be exact. I also used to go on week long back packing trips with 40lbs on my back. All of that had to stop as everything I do, from walking, sitting to sleeping, is channeled straight down my spine into my lower back and my hips, my back doesn’t support me in the way it does for most people. So, I walk quite a lot, I swim once a week, Andrew taught me some Yoga for strength and posture and I got some free weights and a book and I’ve kept my back strong. I’ve had very little trouble in the last ten years, then last November I set up the spare bedroom for crafting and I stopped exercising. I didn’t have time for everything and I stupidly stopped doing the thing I need the most. It’s my own fault entirely, stupid really doesn’t come close to describing how I’ve treated myself.

So assuming I make it back to Michigan in one piece, there WILL be changes around here, because the alternative is giving up even more things that make me happy, like working at the race track, riding my bike, camping and kayaking etc, as these things require a certain level of fitness. And what’s going to have to give is the card making as it’s sedentary and encourages bad posture. I’m certainly not giving it up completely, I still intend making my own cards for birthdays, Christmas etc, but I don’t think I’ll be spending hours each week making things for fun, frankly if I continue doing just that I may as well kiss the rest of my “young” life away because I’m doing myself no favours right now.

It’s not all doom and gloom though, I’ve had a massive kick up the backside that I really needed, summer is right around the corner too and I intend to enjoy it and start looking after myself again and that’s not a bad thing either. I’ll still be doing things that make me happy, I’ll still be enjoying my life and my friends, I’ll still be making cards and I’ll still be blogging. I just need to get my priorities straight, that’s all. If you’ve made it this far and are still with me, thank you!! I’m shutting up shop now until I get back in June, so I hope you all have a great few weeks.  Please don’t think I’m whining or looking for sympathy because I’m not! I’m in this situation because I put myself here and I don’t need any sympathy for that!! What I am looking forward to the most though is a decent nights sleep, the last full one I had was last Saturday as when I roll over in my sleep the pain wakes me up again. I never knew just how many times I roll over at night!! Right now I look like my black eyeliner is two inches too low!

So, off to get that suitcase packed and I’ll catch up with you all in June.

Oh! And we won’t even talk about that dratted volcano!!! Just as long as I can get there…….

Another Card

Just a quickie post today to show you a new card I made, this one is for my MIL birthday coming up at the end of the month.  She doesn’t like a lot of bling or embellishment so I kept it pretty simple using only a few buttons.  I told you last week of my new love for all things Penny Black, well they also do stickers to and this card uses one of them from a sheet I bought at the same time as I bought the stamp used in the last post; looking at their website they have lots of lovely sticker sheets to choose from, some are truly outstanding and are great for card making.

The lovely heart sticker is mounted on cream and red card, and the hearts are covered in dimensional glaze giving a raised effect rather like those epoxy stickers you can buy.  The patterned paper is K & Co, the buttons are Rhonna Farrer and I printed the sentiment on the computer.  A striking but very simple little card.

Oh, and please think of me later today!!  I had some pretty bad toothache last week completely out of the blue, so toddled off to the dentist for a quick check.  I’ve had a crown for most of this year to try and put to bed my one “plagued me all my life” bad tooth, but it just won’t co-operate I’m afraid.  So at 4pm today, the crown has to be broken and removed and I will be on the receiving end of a root canal!  After that I will have another round of visits to fit and adjust a new crown.  So, I’ve not been a happy camper this weekend, laced up to the eyeballs with penicillin and pain killers.  I really hope this puts an end to it all.

Full of the Joys of Spring

I’m absolutely bursting with the Joys of Spring right now and blissfully ignoring the fact that our high temperatures are still predominantly below freezing, I’m also blissfully ignoring the fact that it could still snow at any given moment and we won’t truly be out of the woods until at least late April. I don’t care! The sun is shining, the sky is blue, the birds are once again singing their joyful little songs, and both the mornings and evenings are considerably lighter. I feel lighter, I feel brighter and I feel so much happier. In fact if I get any happier I’ll be climbing in the trees along with the birds and joining them in their morning singing!

We had a good chat this past weekend, A and I, we’re both active people most of the time, we usually need to have some kind of project on the go for weekends to keep us occupied and out of mischief. The winter really kills the enthusiasm for that kind if thing though, sometimes it’s just easier to sit on your behind and read a book of poke about on the net, but this inactivity breeds discontent, so, we decided to do something about it. We came up with a list of jobs we can do about the home, easily and for not a great cost, as like everyone else at the moment we’re watching our pennies, things that will add more character and enhance the environment for us. For example, we took a couple of very nice art posters we have along to Michaels craft shop as they had a framing sale. For the larger of the two we decided on a nice custom frame, but for the other we were able to find an off the shelf frame which suited it perfectly. We also called in to Home Depot to look at what they had available in the way of narrow moldings or chair/dado rails. Our hallway has two colours of paint in the same pallete separated by a white painted chair rail, the idea is to make empty, oblong “picture frames” that will be bonded on the lower wall to give the look of more expensive paneling, we may at some point, paint the inside of the “frames” or put in a piece of wallpaper perhaps. But not now, for now we will just add the pieces as they are, painted white, to keep the cost down. I’ll post pictures at some point too, so you can see what I’m on about!

The other thing that has been decided is to paint the front South facing bedroom. It currently does double duty at the moment, that of sauna room for our far infra-red sauna that we’ve owned for about four years now, and on the odd occasion another guest bedroom. The room is 12ft x 11ft with a built in double wardrobe so it’s big enough to accommodate both uses, but we’re also come to another decision. For the last year A has been seriously interested in massage, he’s always been very interested in alternative health and preventative health matters, but he took everything a step further last year by buying a massage table, making his own oils and cremes and hooking up with some nice ladies who are all Certified Massage Therapists. His goal is to take some classes and obtain a qualification in this field. Right now he often sets up the table in our family room and practices on me (it’s a hard life I know!)…. if he does get qualified he will need a room set aside for massaging, plus we’re always tripping over the folded up table when it’s not in use as it’s still quite a decent size. So, all this waffle is to tell you that we’ve decided to turn the sunny South facing bedroom into a little mini spa! I’ll paint it in a nice warm but not bright, yellow, and we’ll remove the bed as we can’t see it being used this year to be honest. The table can them be set up permanently in there, and with a painting or two on the walls and a little greenery from a nice plant it will become a wonderful relaxation room for us! I even still have enough paint in the basement from an earlier project so it won’t cost us anything! I want to paint it next weekend. Watch this space as they say.

And still bursting with the Joys of Spring, I sowed some seeds yesterday! Two types of heirloom tomatoes are now sitting in my little propagator in the aforementioned sunny bedroom! Drat, I didn’t think about that! I’ll have to move them! Or maybe they could provide the greenery we want in there, lol. Tomatoes need to be a decent size before I can plant them out in May, I usually start them in early April, hopefully this year they will have more time to mature and fruit.

Finally, I am completely and utterly in love with a new to me Australian band. Anyone heard of The Audreys?? We rented an Aussie series called Rain Shadow from Netflix a couple of weeks ago and ALL the music used on the show was taken from The Audreys first cd release called Between Last Night And Us, and it’s absolutely superb, right up my street. And the show wasn’t too bad either, two female vets, one older and wiser, the other younger and impetuous straight out of college, working in South Australia in a region that hasn’t seen any rain in 10 years. The music is a stunning blend of folk, country and blues all rolled into one, and I absolutely adore it. Amazon here I come! If you’ve never heard of them I implore you to follow the links and listen to the snippets on their website, or better still, rent the Rain Shadow dvd, you won’t be disappointed.

And it’s March too!  Yay!!!!  Winter be gone!

The Eyes have It

Well, what a weekend!  I’m still trying to chisel the grin off my face, a grin that was put there by flying around the racing circuit at 125 miles an hour in a Corvette!  But more on that later.

What I wanted to share with you today was a little bit of good news I received last week when I went to the opticians for my eye check, so, not really very exciting stuff to be honest, but I was chuffed none the less.  It went like this….

My eye test was due, and I had been noticing a difference with my prescription, especially when I was driving.  I’ve worn glasses for 21 years but only for distance work, such as driving or going to the cinema, watching tv etc, don’t need them for close up work at all.  So, I went along and had all of the tests with Dr Kirk, and at the end of it he set the “optical machine” they use with my current prescription and then flicked it over to what I’d chosen for my new prescription….. and the difference was night and day!  It was great, I could read the board again and see all the letters!

So what’s my presciption, I asked?  Well, said the good doc, I’ve been a qualified optician for over 19 years and I’ve only ever seen this one time before, but it’s good, it’s very good.  I think he saw the panicked look on my face!  How long have you been wearing glasses??  21 years, well, you can put them away in a drawer because you don’t need them any more.  You have 20/20 vision again!

Wow!  I was very happy, no more glasses for me!  No wonder I wasn’t comfortable driving any more!  I put it down to two things, I know I mentioned in an earlier post that I believe most ailments are curable, without drugs, if you know what to do and if you have the right support and the confidence to actually do it.  Two things I think have worked for me…. one we have a juice machine, and we juice carrot, clelery and ginger juice almost every day, I’ve had it for breakfast all summer in fact; and the second thing is I’ve been taking a dietry herbal supplement this year from an Australian company called MediHerb.  I started taking it after reading a number of papers about how it was doing quite amazing things for people with sight problems…. quite simply, it’s nothing more than extracted Bilberry (blueberry).  It’s the anthocyanosides contained in bilberries that do it, that’s the pigment that makes the ripe berries very blue in colour, and it’s also been demonstrated to support macular integrity and to support healthy eye structure among other benefits.  You’ll find the reports about it all over the web…. here for example.  I’m a believer.  Are you??

Before I finish I thought I’d share this photo with you.  There is glaucoma in my family, it’s a nasty disease and causes premature blindness, so at my yearly eye checkups, I also have the glaucoma tests done.  A few years ago, the only way to test the pressure on the eyes was to blast a little puff of air into your eyeball, it didn’t hurt, but boy did it make you jump!  Nowadays your pupils are fully dilated with some special eyedrops and the optician can then get a really good look at your eye tissue.  But the problem with having your eyes dilated to such an extent is that it also lets in every available speck of light, normal sunny conditions are absolutely blinding, and just sitting in a normal room with a light on is like someone shining a torch directly into your eyes.  It also takes about 4 – 5 hours to wear off too and for your eyes to return to normal, it feels very strange wearing your sunglasses indoors I can tell you!

So have a look at my eye in this photo, just look at the size of that pupil in relation to the rest of my eye!!!  Scary huh?