When I woke up the temperature outside was a balmy 17 degrees, so I went to the gym. My plan was to walk on a treadmill, but halfway through I got bored and moved to a bicycle.

This afternoon is a Zoom committee meeting, then church. Tonight we're going to our church's trivia night.

Roomba'd while I worked today and half the day tomorrow. Good thing is, I will get a paid day off this Monday!

A few errands and a lot of shredding. We are not watching the Super Bowl but to all who observe I say, "May the team with the most points win."

Making a double batch of chicken, black bean and salsa soup; baking cranberry nut bread; avoiding local, icy roads.

Cookies, laundry, maybe I'll hang it out.
Snow shoeing.

I had my back surgery Oct 4. It turned out to be more than I thought, 9" incision, 5 fusions, 2 rods, and 4 screws. I did not go back to work until January, and I'm still not up to 40 hours. The pain in my legs is gone so I consider the surgery to be a success and I have no regrets.

I do have a different, localized pain on my right side in the hip area. My neurosurgeon says it could take a few more months to see if it resolves itself. Also my right side was the worse side, my age (65) is a factor, and I waited 15 years to have the surgery. My biggest frustration is dealing with the pain and I have to use my cane for standing and walking so I am basically one handed which keeps me from doing alot of things. I really missed doing things and cooking on the holidays. I was on a narcotic for 3 months, I quit completely, and that was 8 days of misery, but I'm glad I did it.

Here are some weird and good things from my experience. I lost 50 pounds in 3 months from no appetite, it's slowly coming back. Also, doing those 3 months I had no alcohol, very few carbs, and I was lucky to choke down 500 calories a day. Nothing ever sounded good, but I concentrated on protein because the medical team said that would help recovery. My blood pressure is down to when I was in my 20's. I have always had a high arch on my feet, I am now flat footed. I have more mobility in my back than I thought I would, but I'm still getting used to my new body and what works the best.

I've done a few Sonic shops, but my income from shopping is about 30% of what it used to be. Thankfully I finally sold my house last June and still have some savings from that, but most is earmarked for a down payment on another property. I'm not a fan on renting, just too used to having my own place.

Sorry so long, I caught up on reading this thread, and it sounds like most of you are OK. Good to hear.

@cjbstar Take care, you are dealing with a lot.
Glad you are recovering.

@cjbstar, You have been through an awful lot! But it sounds as though you are doing a good job on your recuperation! Don't overdo! Glad to hear all that back surgery gave you pain relief! That's quite something that you had done!

@cjbstar. Shine bright like a diamond. Sending hugs and best wishes for a healthy, pain free you.

So it is official: It ain't over till the talented youngster skates. At the risk of being banned for life from armchair sports commentating, I must agree with the unpopular decision to let the kid skate and determine the medals later. Why punish a history making athlete based upon incomplete information? Mmm? How did the kid get the drug in the first place? Why did it take so long for the test results from last year to be made known? Was the sample in question clean????? Mmm? Why did this happen now, when so many countries and skaters want higher positions in their sports rankings? Who might want to jab at this exceptionally talented skater? Who might want to pin this on/into this skater, the one most likely to improve one's own chances of fame or fortune? Mmm? Inquiring sports fans want to know. Tor the ones who are clamoring for clean sport, I say: Clean performance is good. The skater was clean during her recent history making performance. And, let us also have clean and clear results from all aspects of the investigation before we make any more demands about the outcome of the case. Our position should have a clean and clear trail or foundation, too.

But the Super Bowl is over for this year. It would be fun to hear others' reactions to the game. Did you have a fave? Were the ads good? What did you think of the halftime show?

@cjbstar: I was thinking about you over the last few months and wondering about your surgery. Now we know. Good for you to take this important step to improve your life!

((( cjbstar )))

I hope you get better than 100%!

I slept in yesterday, not late but cat naps all day until bedtime. I caught up on some Netflix, read some blogs and was overall productive in wasting my day away. I think the laziness was the result of too many chocolate martinis at the Galentine's potluck.

Went out with Hubby for a Valentine's Day lunch. By mutual agreement no presents given, but I've been promised a bouquet in a few days when flower prices return down to earth.

Made a platter of chocolate dipped strawberries and apples today. Mom made Ossobucco and DH was overjoyed. Chocolate wine, red roses, Dunkin Donuts, Hydrangeas and Godiva chocolates made for a communal sweet Valentine's Day.

Nothing too romantic for Valentine's. I wore myself out with phase one of a project, rallied briefly to have one of the gift chocolates, and followed Olympics somewhat between naps and movies. Today, I am slightly more ambitious. I am watching weather reports daily until merch trip and making all kinds of contingency plans so as to avoid getting stuck, needing a hotel, missing scheduled shifts, or otherwise making my little trip large and costly. One tactic was to add an extra talking head shift this week to ensure the correct average number of shifts for the pay period- in case life (mostly weather) as we know it means one fewer next week. On the sillier side, this laundry load is the right amount of time for a multitasking marathon: wash, dry, fold, put away, work out, and watch movie. Going away now...

Chiropractor and shops in the morning. Afternoon crossword puzzle time, then took bike in for preseason service.

Today I watered my plants. It takes two days to prep the water.

P. J. O'rourke has died. He deserves his own thread. I will start it,

The usual here: little tasks, little projects, all the necessary workout components, and continue to try to build a few better gig days.

Going to the funeral of friends' son, who died from Covid. He was in his late 40s, and immunocompromised.

Very sad to hear that, KathyG. Sad for your friends.

The man was born with cerebral palsy. He was mainstreamed in school, and had friends there, but after high school never quite fit into either the 'normal' or the 'handicapped' world.

@guysmom wrote:

Very sad to hear that, KathyG. Sad for your friends.

^^^^ @KathyG; too sad.

Drama with not so nice, relatively new neighbors today. I do not like them and now cannot stand them. Worked my butt off and now time for dinner. YAY!

Cheers to the four-day weekend. Today was busy Work, baby-shower for a coworker at work, walked the dogs, Made breakfast for dinner, found some tax documents...now I'm super tired.
**Sorry Madetoshop, I know tension between neighbors can tough. Be careful.

As usual, I get the dork of the day... does anyone else wonder if the doping scandal, with the alleged tale of an mix-up of grandpa's meds with skater's supplements, could be true?* And if it is true, is it lucky for grandpa that this might have happened only once or twice? After all, he might not have received his necessary heart medication. Oh, my. It's almost the stuff of am Agatha Christie plot. Meanwhile in my world, it's all about work and more work because I have to make up for an unexpectedly expensive road trip from last month. This catching up process is creeping along at the speed of molasses because so many gigs are gone or not aligned with my orbit. I so want to stay at home today and make soup. I am working with new-to-me ingredients. This is what I would rather do today. Oh, well.

*I can picture it. Picture it: it is the middle of the night, dark in the house, and capsules look the same... in the mad rush to get everyone ready and out the door and on to their worlds, it really could have happened. In my weird world, in the mad rush to get ready for work, I chose one black pump and one navy pump from my darkened closet in my still darkened place in my mad rush to get to work on time in the morning These were twin shoes in different colors. If this can happen to me, their story could have happened to them. Just sayin' because I am compelled to see the skater as innocent until proof shows otherwise and I think this should be the universal rule, applicable in all nations, and even at the Olympic gathering of nationals.

The forecast calls for freezing rain/sleet/snow this afternoon and evening, so I made a morning trip to the gym and hit the grocery store on the way home for a couple of ingredients for tonight's dinner. Counting on the rest of the day to be lazy.

It was nice to see friends last weekend after straight two years! They have a new house so got them a housewarming gift. We will be selling our condo next year too. Meanwhile, the ppl who live a floor below sold their condo unexpectedly. The wife moved to Poland with her three kids. Heard from a neighbor that they were divorcing and selling. Apparently, cheating husband. Just makes me sad. And here I was, always admiring their perfect life, their perfect kids, and family. People seldom are what they seem to be.

Laundry, cleaning, watching "The Office."

So, our neighbors deserve a medal of honor or something for living here. Last night while we were at work, all smoke detectors went off simultaneously for more than 30 minutes. We had no idea! We came home and heard it. Law enforcement left a card to let us know that they were aware of the noise and the fact that there was no fire. The weirder thing is that even after hubby pushed the buttons to silence the loud detectors, and then removed them from their settings, the detectors continued to beep. He finally removed all ther batteries and will replace them at a time when we will be here for a few hours and can determine whether the detectors will work properly and not just make noise. Briefly, I thought we could build a film noir around 'The Beeping' and make it much ookier than 'The Shinning' but it was time to go to sleep. So, neighbors got silly noise and we get no silly blockbuster movie. Alas.

Hoping your Friday is less noisy (and more fun) that our neighbors' Thursday was.

*eta* Hah. ! "They" really do follow me around online. So we got chewed out for removing the smoke detectors because we should have called the emergency contact for the property instead of addressing the situation in any way.. tptb replaced the faulty units and all is well in smoke detector world.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2022 05:56PM by Shop-et-al.

I was at Trader Joe's at 8:15 am. Bought lots of yummy stuff. Can't wait to try Ready Veggies and Organic Veggie bites. DH went out with #1 and #3 to Dick's Sporting Goods for running and weight lifting shoes. He wound up spending $450 on adjustable dumbbells. SMH. They then went for pizza. Mom wants to go home but I don't want her to.