Sunday, September 23, 2012

Shut up Mr. Myagi!




It was a somewhat hectic week. I haven't caught up with blogs or even looked at mine.
Monday the big crusher truck came down the street and picked up all the leftovers and crushed them. Congrats to us, the scavengers, for our recycling efforts and up the Council for calling us thieves and threatening to land us with big fines.  Monday was also the day I ran out of arthritis pills, no problem I'll get them tomorrow on the way to see mother but I forgot. Big mistake.

Tuesday night the pain really ramped up, no problem I can hold out until Thursday when I go shopping.  No you can't says the body and before you can yell militant protest, the joints did.  Left hand was okay but right hand felt as if I'd gone 5 rounds with Mike Tyson. I worked out that if I taped it then I'd remember not to bend the knuckles and it wouldn't hurt as much and it didn't.  I also couldn't hold a pen, use the keyboard, get lids off anything or get pills out of stupid packaging.  I make a mental note to not have op for carpal tunnel which this pain isn't, it's arthritis pain but carpal tunnel op probably needs the hand being taped up.

Wednesday is horrible day, I don't get dressed not even to take the garbage bin out but sit and enjoy a book I've been promising myself to read after housework.  Can't do housework when every thing is hurting, much better to rest and read.  Until phone call from No. 1 granddaughter  to inform me that she will be arriving on Thursday morning from Brisbane and is it okay to visit.  Need she ask?  And then I start with the house tidying, not housework which is beyond me but moving boxes etc to where I had mentally moved them when sitting and reading.  Damn me but just look at that, the hall entrance is clear for the first time in two years, just don't look down the hallway.  I can get to the desk to dust which doesn't happen. Lounge needs brooming before a vac, chairs cleared for people to sit down and if I don't move anything perhaps no-one will notice the dust.  Hang up clothes, put away clean washing, dirty washing to the laundry and shut door.  Dishes? What dishes, I see no dishes, shut door.  The hand vac will get up the big pieces if I don't get time to get out the big guy.  Wouldn't you know it, the hand vac is fritzed. Doesn't anything last these days? Hmm, 20 years of solid duty will take its toll so I use a brush and dustpan but straightening up brings a protest from the spine, knees and one foot.  I decide that collapsing in a chair is good and gives the rest of the body time to have a protest as well.  


Thursday morning, I shower and clean the toilet and bathroom and beautify myself for gorgeous granddaughter.  Her other grandparents have picked her up from the airport and we all head for Southland where she will take the car. I must say her grandfather was fascinated by the hallway of forgotten things.  I had squeezed myself into the back seat of the teeny car and now had to get out, one foot first then me then other foot. Why don't back doors open right out.  It was like unfolding a protein under a microscope and I felt the side muscle go.  I don't care I'm with granddaughter I haven't seen for two years and I'm about to share my precious time with mother and sister.  That blacked out area is my sister who threatened to sue if I published her on the web.  Back in tiny car, out of tiny car for lunch, back in tiny car for home and by this time I have no knees just two bones worth of pain.  It was worth every broken piece of me. And it's spooky driving with someone you remember changing nappies on.


Friday I shopped for pain pills and I took them in the middle of the pharmacy.  I took anti spasm muscle pills in the middle of Safeway after I asked a stranger to crack the top of the water bottle.
Going home I ran into a herd of teenagers in full voice.  2pm and they were waiting to see Kim Kardashion at 4pm so I can't imagine what the noise would have been like then.  It pissed me off mightily that she was making a personal appearance to flog her weight loss product to teenagers. I hope her make-up melted.  By midnight the pain was gone, lovely little pills and I could untape my hand.

Saturday, mother again until her roomies came back and started fighting.  I walked to the taxi rank in lovely sunshine and no pain.  More visitors. BOH, little mother and great nephew.  They'd been to see mother and called in on his mother and a flying visit to me.  The little one was having a bit of wind so I threw him over my shoulder and began to rub his back and he went out like a light and was still asleep when they put him in the car seat. His parents were so astonished that he went to sleep they both took photos.  As for me, I got to see the back of his head and one little hand he put around my neck. That's one good reason for having a well padded balcony.
Now it's Sunday and it's quiet, very quiet and it's the Equinox, early to bed for me.




 


11 comments:

River said...

That blacked out area is your sister? i thought it was someone behind a big TV screen and wondered why they'd sit so close to it.
I'm sad to hear you've had so much pain, resting and reading is my method of coping too, with a hot water bottle, computer screen to the left, book to the right, TV straight in front with remotes not more than 6 inches away. I had my own bad Wednesday which I mostly slept through. Head cold on top of bad hayfever.
Your grand daughter is SO beautiful! and tiny babies falling asleep on your shoulder is the best feeling ever.
I hope you never run out of pain pills again.

JahTeh said...

River, I don't know how I could have forgotten, I was already in pain and could have bought them in Mentone. No heat for me, an icepack is the best straight to the spine and I was up twice on Tuesday night. Lovely now I can put on the light and the heater instead of sitting in the dark because someone has just gone to sleep. I can moan a lot as well.
Nice of him to sleep but I didn't get to see much of his little face and he is so cute.

R.H. said...

My daughter has a childcare centre. I go there to look at the babies.

Babies. Babies. I love babies.
Congratulations Brickman.

BwcaBrownie said...

what River said. X X

Elephant's Child said...

Pain sucks. And debilitating pain sucks worse. Did your pharmacy look a bit astounded when you took blissful drugs then and there? Mine do, but sod them.And lovely stranger cracking open your bottle of water. Would he have done the same if you had asked him to open the gin? (Which goes wonderfully with pain tablets).

I agree with everyone. Your granddaughter is truly beautiful and even if you couldn't see his face you could smell his delish baby smell.

Anonymous said...

Your grand daughter looks very attractive and somewhat exotic. Why don't you local council home care help for a fortnightly clean? Port Phillip charges about $5 an hour.

JahTeh said...

Robbert, I'm not a baby person but he is a real cutie and he has red hair.

Bwca, I'd forgotten how tiny babies can be.

EC, There should be special pill bottles for people with dodgy hands. It drives me crazy when first thing every morning I have to get 3 tiny tablets, really tiny, out of the plastic and foil sheets. Same for water bottles but gin bottles are easy to open.

Andrew, I get nothing from them until I reach 65 and am officially an old age pensioner. I need to go through everything as I put it away since I haven't seen what's in the boxes for two years. Two years changes a lot and I can throw out things I'm never going to use now.

R.H. said...

You've reminded me of how when I was a kid we got the tops off bottles as a last resort. You place the bottle top between the door and the jamb on the hinge side then begin closing the door until it's gripping the top, then you start turning the bottle. Golly but everything was make-do in those days. Here's a joke from back then, maybe the first joke I ever heard: When is a door not a door?
Answer: When it's ajar.

R.H. said...

Ajar is a lost word, haven't heard of it in decades.

River said...

R.H. Ajar comes up often as a crossword clue answer. I use it several times a year.

JahTeh: here's a joke for you,
knock knock
Who's there?
Goliath.
Goliath who?
Goliath down you looketh tired.

JahTeh said...

River, if you start Rh on knock knock jokes you'll be sorry and it took me a moment to get that joke.

Robbert, what about beer bottles, bashing the lid off by slamming it on the table edge. Dad had a friend who used to take the tops off using his false teeth while they were still in his mouth and I'm talking big full bottles not stubbies.