Fiascos

I’ll take the first two, but you can keep the ugly one.

Fiascos, Health, Mobility, Personal

I am at eight weeks post-surgery, and I’m now permitted to do a little bit more.

1. I played my first church service last Sunday (and had a great time catching up with friends), and 2. I taught an hour’s worth of piano lessons yesterday. A nice, slow start.

3. I got very lucky this morning.

I’m groggy in the mornings, even without major painkillers. So, I’m very careful. I wear slippers with some tread into the bathroom, I make sure I always have a hand on a pole or a niche while I’m in the shower. I step in and out very carefully, holding on. But today?

Today, a blowing fan got me.

Fall is close, and temperatures have been dropping into the 50s at night. It’s been cold in the morning. I got out of the shower today and realized the blowing fan was pointed directly at me. Freezing, I took a few steps away — off the rug, and onto the hex tile some of you probably remember I layed a few years ago.

O

Of course, I ended up on the tile floor. I was flat on my back, which happens to house my recently-operated-on tailbone. I don’t know how I managed to land completely flat, but whatever Deity arranged it, thank you. If I had landed on my butt, this would have been a very, very different story. I’m fine, albeit a few steps backwards in the pain department.

I’m sure you expect our loving dogs ran in to see what the commotion was all about. Eli barks if he hears a footstep; nevermind 180 lbs. of adult human hitting the floor. Nope. Not a creature was stirring. Thanks, dogs.

Higgins and Eli

O

Historically, when I’ve slipped and landed flat on my back (winter ice, usually), I’ve started to laugh. I mean really laugh. For some reason, I’ve always done it. I laughed today, staring up at the exhaust fan. Which is filthy.

However, I now have a strong health reason to order a re-do of the bathroom with vinyl plank. (Wink.) See how that works?

Well, My Friends, the Time has Come

Fiascos, Health, London, Personal, Travel

Let the music play on, play on, play on …

What is that? I think it’s a Lionel Richie song. Anyway —

They moved it up, and we have a surgery date. July 2! Truth is, I’m getting much worse, sick (to some degree) all day every day.

I am absolutely thrilled. This will end a year and a half of pain and nausea, and other things best not mentioned in mixed company. I haven’t eaten solid food in a year, or been to a movie, or gone anywhere much at all.

They’re re-routing my lower guts, and also taking out a small tumor. This stomach/GI syndrome forces you to live minute by minute. Yesterday, I felt kind of okay, and then threw up in a cup while driving on a winding mountain road. Thank God I had an empty cup in the car!

Although I have to say, the pre-surgery rigmarole, pre-visits, paperwork, phone calls, and prodding is unbelievable. If someone were elderly or just not-that-with-it, I don’t know how they would get it done.

I really am thinking positively though. I have already made a list of all my favorite restaurants and foods. You can’t imagine how happy it will make me when I can have a Pizza Hut pan pizza or Pad Thai!

O

O

I also just started the germination of a London trip. October is my usual month. It’ll be a good project for the next few months. I want to visit and photograph every ancient church within The City of London. (Not “Greater London.” That’s gigantic.) The actual City is very small, inside the ancient Roman & medieval city walls. I think there are about fifty churches.

The London Wall (in red)

O

In passing — you know how much of a Dickens fan I am. My addendum to that would be except Martin Chuzzlewit. Just started trying to get into it. Jeez. I really dislike it.

So, that’s what’s going on here. Hope you’re all well!

The Old Curiosity Shop

Arts and Crafts, Fiascos, Home and Renovation, New York

It’s been one day, and I am already, “Are they out of my house yet?,”

Tomorrow is what I call “Mezzo Buildio” — taping, spackling, finishing up some drywall issues, wiring the lamps.

As you know, I kind of exist in a “I never really feel well” state, so I have been managing myself pretty well. =) Haven’t tried to help, haven’t carried anything, continuing to rest up and recover from the few days of prep. Needless to say, the dogs are a challenge where construction is concerned.

There’s an organ in the kitchen. A LazyBoy by the pantry. A bedroom’s worth of furniture scattered all over the house. Our living room looks as if Little Nell might crawl out from underneath the piano at any particular point.

The Living Room

O

Have a great day!

Sandwiches in the Dungeon

Fiascos, Home and Renovation, Uncategorized

I have a thing about underground buildings and rooms.

Our (very) small backyard is on a hill, sloping down 30′ to the house. Something occurred to me today when I saw the below photo.

“Well, that looks like it could be in our backyard. It sure would be easy to pay someone to dig out the space. Then, I’d be very comfortable laying the masonry myself.”

O

(Yes, this is exactly the type of thing I get myself into.)

These underground root cellars (and garages) built into hills are ubiquitous here in the Hudson Valley. No worries, though. I have forsworn longterm unnecessary house projects.

It seems like the sort of thing that could be done in less than a week, but we know how I am … it would take two years to decide, a year to plan, another year to actually start, and six months to finish.

I don’t need to pass into my retirement-age years with a half finished root cellar.

Itinerantur Interruptus

Fiascos, London

“Help!! I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!”

Ready for a great story?

I left my hotel on time this morning, hopped on the tube at Monument, and wended my way to Victoria Station to catch the Gatwick Express.

Victoria wasn’t crowded — rush-hour had passed. Nice! As I stepped onto a short flight of steps down to the station floor, it hit me. Or rather, they hit me.

A family with two running children either knocked me forward onto the stairs or kicked my stick out from underneath me. I’m not sure which. I landed a step or three from the bottom, breaking the fall with my hands and rolling down the last few steps.

The contents of my tote bag were all over the place, my phone and stick scuttled across the pavement, the juice I was drinking was now all over the ground (and me).

Many stopped to help — gathering my stuff and putting it back in my bag; retrieving my suitcase, phone, and stick. Two helped get me up.

People really are generally very kind when someone needs help. Except the family that knocked me over. They kept moving speedily to their train. (One of the helpers told me.) I’m not going to get into it, but you may refer to the list of “worst tourists” I posted earlier in the week.

Paramedics showed up and insisted on checking me out. I argued, but they talked some sense into me. Good vitals, nothing broken. A bone-bruised hip; and I hurt my wrist, something short of a sprain. I missed two trains and took the third.

By the time I got to the airport, my plane was already boarding. No way on earth I was going to get through security and to the gate at an international airport before this plane took off.

Now I’m a bit panicky. The awesome Assistance Center sorted me out. I explained what had happened. They gave me a comfortable place to sit down, hooked me up with good Internet, and explained I should switch my flight before it took off so I would still get the credit. JetBlue wanted $1600 extra to switch my flight to tomorrow. I said, “no thank you,” went to their website, cancelled it myself. I got 40,000 points and a few hundred bucks back. Which otherwise would’ve been gone along with $1400 more. Jerks.

I booked on another airline for $400, and checked into the terminal hotel I like. It is literally ten feet from the Assistance Center, at which I will present myself tomorrow morning. Why?

They insisted they put me in the buggy and drive me through luggage drop, security, and to the gate.