Laid Right The First Time

You know what they say about guys being like hardwood floors eh?  If you lay them right the first time you can walk over them for the rest of their lives.  Okay, I know, pretty bad, but isn't that a great way to start a blog about laying hardwood flooring?  Yes today we start the last room of the shack which will be getting hardwood floor.  The sun is shining and bright, the humidity is within reason, so hopefully all will go okay and the fighting will stay at a real minimum. 

What does fighting have to do with laying hardwood floor you ask?  I'm not really sure but for some reason the hubby and I always end up in some kind of yelling match some time during the process.  Sooooo much fun.  Not.  I am hoping that today will be the exception.  That after all these hours of laying hardwood throughout the shack we have finally hit the stage where we can just get it done without pulling out the boxing gloves. 

This next couple of days will be just what I need for my sore knees and hips.  Oh yeah...fun time at Kitpu Estates.  Let us hope that is will be worth it. 

Back On The Ranch

Well I am back from the doctor's office, or perhaps it would be more accurate if I said, the alien mother ship.  Seems to me that doctors are really extra terrestrials because lately any time I go and see one all they want to do are probes on my poor unsuspecting body.  Well at least it is over for now and I can go on my merry way and try not to completely ignore what he wants me to do for the next six months.  Sadly I don't get a year's hiatus from him, I have to go back much sooner...sniff.

These days it is difficult for people to get a family doctor out here at the edge of the world but we managed to snag a brand new one.  Well not a brand new doctor, he actually has been practicing for awhile, but he is new to the province.  Anyway while I was gone last year the hubby actually managed to acquire a family doctor vis a vie a poster, yay us.  But unfortunately he is about an hour away, yikes us.  Which means that I had to get up rather early to be at my morning appointment today.  Afterwards we took the opportunity to drive into the city and return some items which we purchased a few days ago, but then were back in town a little after noon.  That is the kind of thing which really brings home the fact that I now live in a teeny tiny, small, wee province.  When I was out west going to the city would always be a full day's outing.  Driving there typically took hours, so consequently by the time I finished shopping and doing whatever "stuff" I had before I drove home the entire day was shot.  Always.  In fact, more times than not I would be pulling into the driveway in the middle of the night.  So instead of wasting all my time driving today I actually did doctor stuff, returning stuff in the city, buying groceries in town, and mowing the lawn.  My part of the whole lawn mowing experience usually takes about two and a half hours.  And the best part is that it is still light out.  Sweet. 

Have Fire Will Be Warmer

Hello electronic world.  It is nice to be back.  Funny how being cut off from the Internet makes one a little pissy about shit.  It isn't exactly like I am the most dedicated of all bloggers, but just because I couldn't write a blog yesterday it made me want to.  Of course I could have spent time writing and being creative instead but for some reason I am avoiding it.  Now if I were in therapy and had a good therapist I am sure that he/she/it would be able to come up with some kind of self hating/self denying/self snubbing reason that I continue to avoid writing.  I believe it is just plain old laziness, but only my hairdresser knows for sure. 

Today is cold and moist, and did I mention cold?  Which in my world means a good day to go for another run.  I went for a walk last night and whined to myself about my hip, knee, and heels. Yup what else is new eh.  Actually it has been so cold that today is day two of having a fire on to try and warm the place up.  Very odd for a June day.  And speaking of June!  Is it really June already?  Holy Popsicles Batman did last month ever fly by. 

Tomorrow I have to go to the doctor for a follow up appointment to see if I am all better now that I have had my round of antibiotics.  I feel much better, so I believe that is a good indicator.  And while I am there I also have to do my regular yearly check up...the whole shootin works.  Have I mentioned that I hate going to the doctor?  Good thing I am generally healthy, or perhaps that is just generally symptomless, well except for having a sore hip, heels, and knee, but all that shit is just self inflicted.  I am looking forward to tomorrow afternoon, that will be when I don't have to worry about going back to said doctor's office for another year.  Have I mentioned how I am not a fan of doctors?  Well not a fan when it comes to me having to have anything to do with them.  But I am a fan when something bad happens, which I am hoping never will again. 

Well the hubby has pulled out the shop vac and is now sanding the ensuite which is about two feet away from me, I would close the door but he would think I was trying to send him some kind of message.  Which might make him stop sanding, and of course I don't want that to happen because I want to get that room done before he leaves for the west.  So I either try to think and write through the din, or I give up on this post until silence reigns once again.  I choose silence. 

*************

Okay so that was a bit of a time out, now I am back and finished my run.  It wasn't too bad.  The hip hurt a little bit and the knee felt tight and not great, but all in all it was okay.  I was more concentrating on my pathetic wind capacity which is a pretty good thing.  In my opinion if a person is trying to suck air into their lungs and is having a hard time maintaining speed that must me that they are moving fast enough to have said speed.  In my case, speed = glacier. 

Anyway at least I actually managed to get another run in, so that's good right?  I should look a real prize walking...or should I say limping into the doctors office tomorrow. 



Ma Kettle Meets City Shopper

After an hour and a half car ride to the city, we parked and I got out of the car -

Me: Arghhh...holy hell my hip is killing me. (Hobble, hobble, hobble.)

Hubby: You're walking like an old lady.  Does your hip hurt?

Me: What did I just say? I said 'holy hell my hip is killing me'."

Hubby: No you didn't.

Me: My Achilles is hurting, my knee is stiff, and my hip is killing me. Man running sure is good for you.

Hubby: Maybe it's from running.

Me: Why do I bother even saying anything, you never listen to a word I say.

Hubby: Did you say something?

Me: Smart ass.

The hubby and I did a quick trip into the big city today to pick up supplies at the General Store (aka Costco) as well as the hardware store.  Specifically we were looking for under-counter lighting, or is that under-cabinet lighting?  Either way we needed the lighting so that I could do some actual 'seeing' when I was cutting stuff up on the counter in the evenings.  After some hemming and hawing, as well as a quick consultation with the local expert we finally picked some LED lights which we hoped would do the trick.  Apparently they will last 50,000 hours, in other words I am pretty sure if all goes well once we install said lights that chances of having to replace them are zero to none.  Yay!  We found said lights at the hardware store for $80.00, yes that is what I said.  "Holy hell," is actually what I said.  But after a quick conference of the Old Shoes and Tea Society board of directors it was unanimously decided to go with the LED lights which should last until we see our great grandchildren getting married.  Or so we hope. 

We walked away from the hardware store much poorer than when we walked in but were happy with our decision, that is until we walked into Costco and found LED lights for $50.00 cheaper a package.  The vice president of the Old Shoes and Tea Society immediately made a decision on his own.  (Can you believe it?  I couldn't.  It is a first.)  He grabbed his keys and headed out the door to return the other lights.  I believe before taxes were involved we saved over one hundred and thirty dollars.  Yay us!

So there I was wandering around the General Store picking up items and gimping around like Ma Kettle with a stick shoved up her butt when I looked up and saw a woman in front of me doing much the same.  The big difference was that she was easily pushing three hundred and fifty pounds and wearing stilettos.  Now I am the last person on earth to disparage someone because of their size but stilettos?  That just isn't right.  What the hell goes through a person's head when they decide to go shopping in four inch spiked shoes on concrete?  It can't be good for people of normal weight let alone for someone who tips the needle over to full on the scale.  My heels, ankles, knees, hips, and back ached just looking at her.  Hmm, come to think of it my heels, ankles, knees, hips, and back ached when I wasn't looking at her as well.  Okay I had to do a quick calculation, being generous and saying that the stiletto heel touching the ground is actually a square inch, and rounding out my estimate of her weight at 350 pounds, that is 2,413,164.9 avoirdupois units, or pounds per square inch.  Holy shit on a stick Batman!  That woman is crazy!!!  I believe I will stick to my runners, that is plenty o' heel for this chickie-poo. 

Lobster Shirt

I believe I am well on my way to acquiring a lobster shirt, or a Fundy shirt (oh I just realized the potential implications of that name and am extremely amused) or some other typical east coast sounding tshirt.  I did a two k run yesterday and was relatively okay during it so I am happy with my progress so far.  Unfortunately this morning my hip is in agony.  WTF?  I have never, never, ever, never had hip issues before while running, or for that matter doing any sort of physical exercise.  Is this because I am getting old and getting decreptitudish?  I refuse to acknowledge that bit of logic and propose a new one.  I think it is my cat's fault.  You see she is constantly sleeping either beside me, or on top of me in the middle of the night.  That cannot be good for a person's hip.  Most especially that whole kneading thing she does just before settling in for a sleep.  Of course I spend a LOT of time encouraging this behaviour by frequently kicking her off the bed, picking her up and tossing her over to the husband's side of the bed, or locking her out of the bedroom.  So it is my fault. 

Today dawned sunny and bright but has slowly been turning cloudy and chilly.  A perfect running day, if one was not walking like a gimp because of hip problems.  Perhaps I will suck it up and go running, or perhaps I will pull out the bike and pedal my butt to the highway and back.  I will decide after I give the walls one last coat of paint.  Sigh.

Party Central at Kitpu Estates

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned before but I live out in the sticks on a nice little, quiet lake.  All but one of my neighbours are summer cottages only, so typically we have the place to ourselves about 90% of the time.  And although I do occasionally resent having people show up I am usually magnanimous about it and allow them to stay provided they don't try to get all friendly like with me and say hi.  Well perhaps I'm not exactly that bad, but on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is Julie the cruise director on the Love Boat, and 10 is the guy with the chainsaw in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I am probably a seven like the woman off Saturday Night Live who says she will keep the ball that was accidentally thrown into her yard.  I will chit chat with our regular neighbours, after all she is one of the sweetest people ever.  I will chit chat with her husband but only briefly because he annoys me.  I will even talk with summer cottage people as long as they don't make a habit of it.  LOL

Anyway one of the neighbour cabins had a party last night and I couldn't believe how rammy the animals were.  Both the cat and dog had their noses out of joint and spent a lot of time pacing and getting all pissy about the additional noise.  To be honest it was just a bunch of people having a campfire and doing sing-alongs as a group.  It sounded like fun.  The dog did what any normal German Shepherd would do, she lost her shit and acted all tough and barked like a crazy thing when someone tried walking by the house.  Hackles up, bared teeth, and Lucifer like noises emanated from her mouth. I dragged her into the house where she continued to be out of sorts.  On the other hand the cat walked around looking like she was at least three times as big as she normally is.  Actually she looked like she was sitting on one of those electricity balls which makes your hair stand up when you touch it. I pointed out to the hubby that I was by no means the most antisocial entity in the house. 

I went for a bike ride yesterday and felt fair to middling during it.  My knees held up not too bad, they just complained a bit when I was pushing up some of the more longer hills.  But all in all I think I came out of it relatively unscathed.  I managed to cover around 24 kilometers in a relatively short period of time, considering that the last 12 k was very rough.  The coolest thing about it was that just before I got home I came across a mother deer and her newborn fawn.  It was so new that it still couldn't really walk yet.  It was about half the size of my dog.  As all animals seem to be around here the mother was super skittish and high tailed it when I called out, but the little spotted thing just crouched in the long grass on the side of the road trying hard not to be seen.  Obviously I did not stop and just continued by not wanting to terrify the poor little mite. 

So today I believe I will try another run.  Yeah.  Yikes.   

Morning Thoughts

Wow it is a beautiful day today, blue skies, birds singing, and unemployed.  Nice.  I think my whirlwind of job interviews are finally over and the end result is bupkas.  A bit of a relief there, although I do wonder how my amazing, awesomeness didn't translate into a job offer.  I will try again in the fall unless I can come up with something better to do, and get paid for it at home.  In the meantime I will be concentrating on finishing the house, getting my slovenly self back into shape, and doing a bit of writing.  I happen to have a good sized novel finished in my head, and one started, the next step obviously is to get it out of my head and onto a file or two. 

My daughter and clan are 15 days away from packing up their house and making the big move across the country.  We are all very excited.  The last time she lived close to me is just before she went off to university.  That is not right, most especially since it would have saved us a heck of a lot of money in phone calls if she would have been close by. 

Speaking of the daughter she tells me that she is up for some running with me so we will be doing more then yakking up a storm together this summer we will also be doing some huffing and puffing together.  I am looking forward to it.  Although being almost fifty years younger, and a hundred pounds lighter than I am, I am betting she will be getting into shape much, much quicker.  (Yes that is a bit of an exaggeration, but my vocabulary is all about exaggeration if you haven't noticed.)  Speaking of running and not exaggerating, I didn't do any yesterday mainly so I wouldn't end up a cripple by the weekend.  I did go for a little walk yesterday and my legs were a tad bit sore, not super sore.  My hip and butt cheek were definitely sore, but again, not too bad.  This morning it is just general achiness so perhaps I will give it another go later on.  Or perhaps I will do a bit of a longer bike ride, that way I will hit different muscle groups then the running ones, that way I can have ALL my leg muscles sore instead of just half of them. 

Anyway seeing that it is a nice day and I have crappy stuff to do (painting) I had better go and get that out of my hair before I do anything else.