The week flies by

Puppies watching the tractor get picked up this morning
8/10/07 Friday
I’m glad I got the prescription refilled for my body made sure to remind me I worked a bit yesterday. Now I know I talk about pain and all that but in retrospect I am in much better shape than a few years ago. After my release from the hospital I was so weak that raising my hand high enough to comb my hair was a challenge that I often couldn’t meet. So I had all my hair cut off. You can correctly assume that the pain level was much higher but I wasn’t getting any medical help so had no pain medication, not even aspirin. My brother bought me a bottle of whiskey for the pain and to help me sleep. It really didn’t work. Learning later that excessive alcohol triggers seizures, and waking up to find cuts and bruises with furniture knocked over, the whiskey did more harm than good. One day I walked to a hospital and they gave me some Ambien for sleep and Ibuprophen for pain. Being technically homeless (I was living in the upstairs of a dilapidated house but had no listed address) and with no money they won’t prescribe anything stronger. So I learned to endure pain. I think that makes me a stronger person now but after enjoying the lessoning of pain real medication provides I might be getting soft again. Regardless, my body has done much healing so some of the pain is less anyway. But I am working now so that aggravates where the back and neck were broken. The fatigue thing will always be there and I understand will get worse with age. It’s not a physical tiredness, it’s a brain thing similar to how older folks need to take a nap.

There is so much I need to do. Finishing the kitchen cabinet is top on the list. Now that the rain has stopped I need to get back in the habit of watering the plants. Also I need to hoe down the weeds that are where the tractor couldn’t get to. I sprayed the Great Stuff foam where the honey bees apparently found a way under the house. The little suckers are still swarming around to fine a way to the hidden honey treasure they smell. Then I cut up the Habanera peppers and boiled them in oil to make a hot oil I can spray on the plants. This is something else I need to learn so will experiment with how much and how to apply it.

The puppies are staying close to the house. They are a bit unnerved by how their jungle playground has been turned into a barren desert so to speak. We started leash training today. It’s the first time they’ve had a leash on and I was impressed how well they took to it. Cherie and I started back on our walking regimen so took them with us when we walked halfway to the well and back. Now that it’s stopped raining we can get back to that.

I’m gonna take a short nap and get back to work.
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The last time I worked on the cabinet I cried about how I miss my old woodshop but I don’t think it would make much of a difference. Been working for hours to get one piece of wood cut to fit on the cabinet and still don’t have it right. The problem is that the switches in this brain don’t always work right. There are times when I am talking that the wrong word comes out, something totally unrelated to the conversation. When I unplugged a tool to plug another in I threw the power cord end down and was left with the two plugs from both tools in my hand. Then there is the short term memory problem. I measured 3/8 of an inch for a part but when I got to the garage cut that much off instead of leaving that much more. I remembered the measurement but forgot what I was to do with it. So I ended up scrapping another piece of wood. Maybe I’ll do better tomorrow. Sometimes I am fine with this stuff but when I am not it is real frustrating. I’m gonna call it a night. Don’t feel like writing much.