Showing posts with label frantic hamster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label frantic hamster. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

In which my underwear has more of an audience than I expected

Tonight was supposed to be working the horses night with Tara.  But you know what?  It was 96 degrees out when I left work, an hour late.  I got heat prickles just walking to the car.  Working with the horses, even just in hand, seemed like a fabulously bad idea.  But I still wanted to go see Pluto, to check on the state of his various owies and to make sure his latest fly mask was working out.

So I booked it on over to the barn, and this is what I found:
Technically, this horse is grey.

Man that's a dirty horse.  I couldn't have done anything with him anyway.  He'd need a bath before I could work with him, or I would immediately become as dirty as he is.

The fly mask is a success.  It doesn't have a forelock hole, but that doesn't seem to be a problem.  It stayed on really well.  I actually had trouble getting the velcro to rip open.  Yay!  A flymask that actually stays on!  And doesn't seem to rub anything or pinch ears!  I was starting to doubt that such a thing existed.

Timber, btw, was similarly filthy.  It was just harder to see over his dark coat.

Okay, so, that was my evening.  My extremely short evening, because my day was so long it ran over into evening time.  I got up an hour early to go see the chiropractor.  Despite the additional stretches I've been doing, my sacroiliac still hurts.  The doc got this *look* on her face and made me go get x-rays.  I am hoping that whatever she thinks it might be isn't there, because bone things are not good.  Not when they're that deep.  There ain't a dang thing I can do about bones several inches in.  Not that I'm having any luck fixing non-bone parts, either.

There was a radiology place in the same building so I toddled over and they fit me in pretty quickly.  They couldn't tell me at the front desk if my insurance would cover x-rays prescribed by an out of network doctor, so I have no idea if it just cost me $20 or $1000.  Sheesh.  I do have a healthcare savings account that will cover part of it, at least.

When I got dressed this morning, I pulled out a new pair of underwear that I got this weekend at REI.  They're breathable, lightweight, travel style, yada yada, feature, yada. They are also pink and lacy.  (When did REI underwear become pink and lacy?)  So I was happy that this one day I happened to wear the one pair of presentable non-granny-panty underwear I (now) own.   Because when strangers are unexpectedly seeing you in your skivvies, you want them to be nice skivvies.  Even if those strangers are x-ray techs who are used to random people in their underwear.

X-rays are a much faster proposition than they used to be.  I was out of there with copies pretty quickly.  I looked at the x-rays but all I can determine is that I do, in fact, have bones.  And intestines.  (How come when I look up x-rays on the internet, I never see intestines?  I think they photoshop them out.)  Also, staples.  I wonder if they are non-magnetic staples?  I don't recall them being an issue the last time I had an MRI.  And they have all those warnings about not having loose metal in the room.  Not that these are loose, I guess.  Still, it's an uncomfortable idea, that staples might suddenly come shooting out of my side in the event of magnetism.  I expect it might cause a pinching sensation.

So, that was my morning.  And in the middle I did the hamster in a wheel imitation at the office all day.  I didn't even take the time to heat up my lunch.  I ate it cold.  And no walkies because it felt like it was 108 out, according to the weather folks.

Oy.  Long day.  Underwear, x-rays, hamstering, and filthy horses.  I need a nap.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Pants? Check.

I checked VERY CLOSELY to make sure my pants were on right today.*  Didn't check my shoes too carefully, which was dumb because I've left the house with those mismatched too.  But luckily I have the right ones on.  I mean a left and a right.  You know what I mean.

Giving up coffee has not helped me, sartorially.  Maybe the Fashion Police will give me a coffee deprivation waiver.

It looks like I'm going to have some backpacking time in mid-November.**  Assuming the weather isn't super-crappy, that is.  If it's snowing or raining sideways, I'm staying home.  However, now I have an important decision to make:  Where to go?  I want to stick pretty close to home so we can spend more time hiking than driving.  And I don't want to have to buy new maps.  I'm thinking maybe start in Maryland and go southbound for a while.  Or check out Shenandoah again.  It's been a while since I did the trail there.

Guess I should haul all that camping gear back out.  And Febreze it.  Whoa Nellie, you do NOT want to come up on unFebrezed thruhiking gear without warning.

I'm off of running for a little bit.  My knees are starting to protest.  The naturopath suggested lower impact exercise for the nonce, since I'm not taking joint supplements.  And my knees totally agree with her.  So I need to make time for more walking, but so far that is not happening.   I get up, I go to work, I run as fast as I can in the hamster wheel until past the time when I should have left, and then I drag home.   I'm going to have to set an alarm on my watch to make me go outside.  Otherwise I will only take breaks to breathe, pee, and gulp down food.  Normally it isn't a big deal to find some time for a walk, but work really isn't normal right now.  I'm looking forward to next year, when things theoretically settle down.***

Because I'm an optimist.  Is what I am.

*Unlike yesterday.
**And a hiking partner!
***Shortly after heck freezes over.