In typical fashion my partner said: it’s only flat on one side… yup, that’s a New Hampshire thing to say given it’s easy to get a flat on all the dirt roads. I didn’t find it too funny at the time because I had finally decided to venture out, GPS all queued, to go shopping for food etc. It’s not easy for me given my knee and other aches (although I am feeling much better today!). I heard a very strange, but familiar noise, given my car has always had tire issues from the time I bought it. Yup, the scraping, thumping noise. I immediately stopped, got out and looked…and as you can see me holding my phone, this is what I found! I turned around and limped home. Maybe my car is having sympathetic pains with my knee? Same side actually? Hmm????
Luckily, we got AAA after other tire issues and such, and they came out here pretty quickly and towed me to a ‘nearby’ garage. I was out of my 5 mile range for my membership, but it was only $15 more. No biggie considering it was pouring out. Poor guy, he and I agreed that it never fails that it’s inclement weather when this stuff happens.
The garage seems super nice and will be my ‘go to’ place for tune-ups, oil changes etc. from now on anyway. I just met them a little sooner than I had planned. It figures. Just like the house, it’s Murphy’s law: everything that can go wrong will: and it is. Now plumbing issues here. Ugh. But we finally had a hot shower and full water pressure! We only had to pay the piper. It’s fine though, because Doug, the plumber is an old school mate of my guy. Gotta love that! We absolutely know we can trust him and his work.
We finally have some Sun streaming in! It’s been so gloomy and my plants have lived in windows with very little sun for 2 years. They mostly moved from the Florida sun (many I ferreted in my suitcase as clippings), and they are succulents, desperately needing the sun. They are finally coming back to health! They were actually cuttings from my mother’s plants! I just had to bring them with me to keep her memory alive, literally.
Can’t wait to really garden again!!
Just one of our two sheds…this is the gardening shed! This old deck will most likely go and become a dog pen.
…driveway, that leads to our door. Yes, this is our quasi steep driveway to the new place. It’s a bit of a hike to the mailbox to and fro, especially with a sore knee (which, btw, I am awaiting to get a call for an MRI). The winter…? Well, I don’t know. I won’t be going out, but K may not make it. There is a relatively flat spot at the bottom where we might put a spot for him and he’ll have to trudge up.
WelcomeGarden area with raised beds
Here’s a little tour of outside. It wasn’t a very sunny day, but you get the idea. We’re very wooded, so I hope we get enough sun here when the trees fill in. It’s very quiet, and we may have to clear or top some of the trees closer to the house if the light doesn’t get in…hope not, but maybe. A good tree company will know what to do. My hummingbird feeders are ready to go when it’s time. And today the washer/dryer is getting hooked because of course that didn’t work. Leaky valves. And the whole hot water system revamped too. Ugh…more money. But this will be one great place when we’re done!
So these are some of my favorite places as the new home is coming together. I nearly didn’t make it here as my knee was killing me. It was excruciating driving here, but I plowed on over a dirt road that seemed way off course. I was crying and felt lost. It was not the way I thought I was supposed to be going and thought I was lost for sure. But days into it now, we are settling, and I’ve set up shop with a new doctor and they have advised going to a walk-in Ortho clinic until I can be seen by them. Not until June! Ugh. For now I will take you through a quick walk tour before another sleepless night…
My little reading area in my bedroomWhat I see outside my bedroom slidersMy Mom’s old kitchen stuff…Cozy…Secret hideaway…
So that’s about it for now. The basement is still a mess. It needs a floor and still too many boxes there to sort. K’s is plowing through his between work. Hank is doing very well finally, not sitting by the door in desperation waiting for K to get home. He’ll sleep and wander, even occasionally come into my room, although rarely. He seems to like it here, he sleeps a lot and gets to run outside. It’ll be nice when I can let him out in a pen. It’s so, so quiet! It hasn’t been great weather yet, and only one dip in the hot tub, but it bothered my leg. I will have to wait.
Tomorrow is the moving day and it’s going to be cold. I always worry about moving my plants. They will go in my car, so I’ve made sure there’s enough room. This time I don’t have dogs and cats to move too, thank goodness. Hank is K’s pet and he’s made the trip a few times now and goes in his car. These are my babies and don’t fair the weather as well as Hank does. They will go in right at the end of course, and luckily I don’t have too many these days. But many are succulents, which actually can withstand some fairly cold temps. The dessert can get very cold at night.
Everything is about ready to go–just the last minute items that will need to be packed tomorrow morning before the movers come. The everyday things we use: bathroom items and food. K is due to arrive back from up north today to help with everything because he’s been there working. He’s exhausted and will be glad when the traveling is over. I will be glad when the packing is over and I can find a new doctor for my knee, which really hasn’t let up. I did go for a Lyme test yesterday, to rule that out. I’m nervous about driving all that way with a knee that doesn’t like to be in one position, but I will make frequent stops to stretch it.
I’m squeaking this out before the internet is shut off today. I quick got in my Tai Chi and Qi Gong on my videos very early, and now I can return the box today. Whew! I could barely move this am because of the setup I’ve been sleeping on. Tonight I have to move to the daybed. Long story. I HAD to do my movement or I wouldn’t be able to walk to today!
OK, well, sorry I haven’t been consistent. Our internet should be set up soon there, so I’ll be set up and back in business, although unpacking. I’ll try to be keeping you all informed. Thanks for sticking with me!
Wow, it was a whirlwind day, but we made it. Unfortunately, my partner had to turn around and go back north the next day to work. But today he got to rest…if you can call it that! He slept on a very uncomfortable blow up mattress and is living out of boxes. I am too for that matter, and neither one of us can find anything. In a few more days, he’ll make the trek back down for the final and last move. The moving company will come to get ALL the stuff. And I hope that goes well! It’s so incredibly stressful, but we hope in the end it’s worth it. We have found so many quirks and oddities, and it was left quite dirty. I am cleaning as I go, so our new people will find it relatively clean at least. I never leave a place I sell too messy, so it was strange to see it this way, especially since the sellers wanted (felt they needed) to do the walk through with us. That was odd, but when I met them, I understood why. Too hard to explain here. It was OK, but very awkward. It will be so nice when it’s all done. Which will be never, but this little charmer will be a constant thing. There will always be something to work on. It’s cozy though, and I can’t wait to put up my solar hummingbird feeder that my realtor gave me. She’s more a friend than a realtor. I’ve known her for years and she’s a doll. She worked like crazy for us. The previous owners said there’s lots of wildlife passing through the property too. And it’s so quiet there, my soul naturally feels at peace. Sigh…
More photos to come for sure. A whole new life and path ahead. Back to where I started when I began this blog! Crazy, eh!?
The hot tub
My bedroom overlooks the hot tub! That’s where all the bird feeders will go!
Today we travel up north for our walk through and closing! Hooray. The move in for me doesn’t happen yet, but my partner will be there in a few days. The actual real move date is not for another week plus, so I will putter around here amidst the clutter and finish up. We finally got our ‘clear to close’ on my condo yesterday, thank goodness. That seemed to take forever. But, at great last, it’s all coming together. Very excited.
Could re-create this splendor! Nature is our most perfect artist, painting by the hand of God, or whomever you choose (or not choose) to believe brings us these moments of utter awe. But my breath was taken away. I will, once again, miss this view for sure. And I’m grateful for having lived so close to these moments.
This is how I’ve been living lately. The knee pain I’ve been having, seemingly forever, but probably only for some months, has been wildly painful and debilitating. In the middle of a move, it seemed fruitless to start some major work on it if the diagnosis was for knee replacement or something. So going to an orthopedic urgent care, when suggested by my primary care provider was suggested, I went. That nurse practitioner, whom I have seen before for an injured foot, seemed to feel it was a strained MCL (the ligament on the inside of my knee) as I’ve mentioned before here. It needs time and I was fitted with a brace. You do the usual other things for these types of things (which I had already done anyway): hot/cold, ibuprofen etc. Unfortunately, the brace felt awful and didn’t appear to fit properly, and hurt more. I did understand that I had to be careful not to move my knee side to side, but I decided to take my chances and scrapped the brace.
Since then, I’ve been icing it quite a lot. This seems to help as much, if not more than anything. Also, surprisingly (to me anyway), the Tai Chi I’ve started–and basically given up most of my yoga stretching (which may have added to straining an already injured ligament), always makes it feel better after. Yes, getting those meridians flowing really works! How can thousands of years of Chinese medicine be wrong? And I try to keep it moving. The worst is at night or sitting. Any time it’s static to moving again is when I have an issue. Once I’m moving again, it’s better. I’ve also been doing lots of self massage with Arnica massage oil. I’m sure getting good blood flow to the area can’t hurt.
Every morning I am a bit better. Each day it feels slightly better and it’s easier to walk. It said it could take up to 8 weeks to heal. It’s been way less than that since I’ve ‘started treatment’, but way more since this all began. The question is: is it healing because of time, or is what I am doing speeding the recovery? It doesn’t really matter in the end, because either way, I was really done feeling this way.
Anyone who has been in this kind of pain understands. I’ve had a few times where I have had issues of severe pain: a wisdom tooth that became infected due to something a dentist did incorrectly. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like someone had shot me in the side of the head. A rotator cuff that had been torn over time, was agony. This one, I thought maybe I was having a stroke or heart attack. My problem is that I handle pain and therefore wait way too long before getting help. It’s rather ridiculous. Healthcare providers tend to be like this. We grit our teeth and carry on. Yet on my ambulance, I was always incredibly understanding of anyone in pain and gave them medication to help them. Society tends to be very judgmental of folks who become addicted to ‘pain meds’. I personally transported some on my ambulance and listened to their stories and how it happened. It was tragic and sad–and I completely understood.
How pain reacts in our body is worth a read. It’s actually quite fascinating. They actually have to do with our nerves. So much of pain has to do with the brain and central nervous system. I believe this is why Tai Chi is so successful in mitigating pain. But there are multiple ways of dealing with an individual’s pain. And it can be done in combination. A decent healthcare provider will hopefully understand and know their patient well enough to find that best combination. Now, they are well aware of the dangers of opioids and such. Many do suggest other ways to help with chronic and traumatic pain situations. But in the end, much falls on the patients to do with work.
I’ve taken to looking up my own physical therapy for my knee which I already began. It has much to do with strengthening the muscles around it, as well as the abductors and adductors (hips). Since the body all works together, we must constantly keep in mind how everything is attached. When one part is tight, it will make another part sore or hurt. (The knee bone is connected to the hip bone etc…). It’s a constant loop. I was ahead of the game, even at almost 70, in that I am in good shape and had been doing lots of these exercises already. What I really had to do, was STOP doing many things and substitute other things instead! Sometimes I really don’t love being old. Haha.
So, I do believe I’m getting better. Slower than I would like, because after all–I got stuff to do! I’m usually running around like a frenetic Energizer bunny. Instead, I’m packing…limping along, very carefully and slowly. But hey, I’m getting the job done just the same!
While many lifetimes might be a head…best not to take any chances. Safety first, especially when driving with the person at the wheel of this vehicle. Take my word for it. I know. He only got his license a short while ago, and really doesn’t pay attention. Peace.
secondhalfwoman 