*sigh* The rest of September has continued to be as bad luck for me as the first part was, so I'm happy to note there's only two days left in this month, counting today. For this post I threw in more pictures of my continued close encounter with the sorghum. I wonder when in this progression sorghum is usually harvested? Anyway, where to start with the bad luck stories . . .
Maybe with some good news. My foundation has been repaired. It took them 3 and half days to dig 23 holes, place 23 piers and lift the house. Considering the amount of work it took, I'm pleased to report that you almost can't tell I had it done. The guys were great, replacing the shrubbery and even filling in the hole in the patio (replacing the patio concrete) that they jack-hammered through in one place. I left to attend a meeting when the place looked like a war zone, so I was very pleased when I got back. I'm still gonna lose about 5 holly shrubs I think that aren't recovering from being uprooted for 3.5 days, but overall it looks good. In the first post picture you can see the three holly's in the front of the house that probably won't survive, the ones with the brownish look. The internal cracks in the house are another story. Two of them closed up, but my master bathroom had large cracks come up across the whole ceiling when they lifted the house. I'll have to get all that repaired, but they told me to wait a couple months before repairing any cracks.
That's the good news. The continuing bad luck is that the post-foundation-work plumbing checks sucked, big time. I have leaks in my sewer lines and water lines and probably in my sprinkler system. Yup. I figure it's a combination of foundation work and existing problems because I've always thought the water bills were too high in this house. I just had nothing to compare them to. Can you say "really sucky inspection" when I bought this place? Anyway, I have plumbers coming out in another week and a half to locate all the leaks and then tell me what it's going to cost me to have them all repaired. If I'm living right, they'll be able to do the repairs from the outside. If my September luck spills over into October, they'll have to go through the foundation in the house to repair them. Either way, it'll cost me roughly $600 just for them to find the leaks,so I'm not even going to guess what the repair cost will be.
On the medical front my bad luck is somewhat continuing too. I had to get a measles-mumps-rubella shot because my blood work came up that I wasn't immune to one of them (can't remember which). This last week I had a reaction to the shot. I had a full body measles-like rash and joints so stiff and painful that I had trouble getting up and down. Luckily it only lasted two days and then went away. But early this month I began having excruciating pain in my right knee, but only at night. It was waking me up every night, but during the day it didn't bother me. It seemed to be starting to go away, but after the shot-reaction, the right knee pain is back in full force. And it's bad enough at night that the knee is sore all day now, with some minor swelling. I suppose I'm going to have to find a new primary care physician and make an appointment. I was hoping it would clear up on it's own.
Good news on the medical front, the new dentist is great. I had an appointment with the guy recommended by my old dentist, and I like him and the hygienist who worked on me. Other good news medically, I'm not having any side-effects at all from the TB drug *knocks on wood*.
So that's been my September. See why I'm ready for it to be over. I'm hoping for better luck next month. This last picture is Zoe. She likes to sleep between the two quilts on my bed, so this cat-sized lump is her. It's kind of a metaphor for what I wish I could have done this last month - hide from everything. If I'm searching for a silver lining though, at least when all this is done I shouldn't have to worry about any more major house issues. *knocks on wood again*
You know the old saying about if it weren't for bad luck you'd have no luck at all? Usually I ignore that saying because as a general rule I'm one of the luckiest people on the planet. September has NOT followed my general rule! Seriously not.
It started on Labor Day as I was doing general house cleaning, and began noticing many more cracks inside this house in places that hadn't shown cracks before. So I bit the bullet and called two foundation companies to come and check the place out that first week of September. I found out that the left front corner of the house is four inches lower than the center and the left rear corner is two inches lower. The bottom line is that it's going to cost me $8000.00 to fix my foundation. On a house I've lived in just over a year. Can you say, bad inspection? *sigh* What can you do? It has to be fixed. So that foundation work will start Monday.
I've already mentioned that I bought a car the last Saturday in August. A really cool car that's a blast to drive, by the way. But anyway, on September 4th, (car not two weeks old yet) I took a rock to the windshield, which proceeded to form a crack about a foot and a half across the windshield. *sobbing quietly* My new car!!!! Luckily my insurance covered it, but I had to order the new windshield from the dealership because the car is so new (2014), nobody had the windshield for it. The windshield was replaced yesterday, so the car is like new again.
Okay, saving probably the worst for last - my TB test came back positive. Yes, positive. I had them repeat it to confirm. I'm not sick, I have no symptoms, my chest x-ray is clear, but because I've always had negative TB tests before, they say I'm a "new converter" and I have a latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). So somewhere along the way between last November and this August, I picked up TB. Luckily, LTBI is not infectious. You can't give TB to anyone with it (thank God, since I've been around my not-so-well parents). Not so luckily, a small percentage of people with LTBI convert to having active TB. So Monday I will begin the treatment for it. The treatment for LTBI is not mandatory because some people never convert. But the treatment does lessen the chance of ever converting, so I figure it's worth it, even if the drug is pretty liver toxic. I just can't drink while I'm on the drug. Which I will be daily for the next NINE MONTHS.
It's more of a pain in the ass than anything else, but it also freaks me out a bit to think I have TB bacteria in me, latent or not. I have NO idea where I picked it up, but if I were a betting person, I'd lay my money on the county hospital where I sign out test results.
So those are the big three reasons why I'm saying September has been an unlucky month for me. Along the way I also got letters from both my dentist and my primary care physician informing me that they are retiring and I'll need to find someone else. So a few other minor bad luck inconveniences also hit this month. I'm thinking I'll be really glad to get out of September.
The pictures are of the apparently thriving sorghum plant by my back patio, with Zoe checking it out in the first picture. I've never been up close and personal with a sorghum before, so I figured I'd share the pictures.
One of these days I will take pictures of the new car and post them.
It's raining! What a surprise. They were calling for a chance of rain today, but they do that all the time and it rarely actually rains. So I wasn't expecting it this morning. They're still only calling for a 40% chance, even though I've got a continuous light rain where I am. It's not a hard rain, just drippy enough to get everything wet. I'm delighted to see it, but I imagine there are a lot of unhappy people to have their day off, Labor Day, spoiled by rain today.
For me it's okay. I have no outdoor plans and would rather have the rain.
I've been doing house chores this weekend, kind of like Labor Day Spring Cleaning. I've been working on thoroughly sweeping and mopping all the hardwood flooring, which is really pretty when it's freshly done. Plus I've been dusting, vacuuming, etc. Yesterday I went through my closet and pulled out everything I haven't worn since I moved into this house, and put most of it aside to give to Goodwill. I also pulled out a lot of the things that I can't wear any more due to my weight loss. I'm about 13 pounds lighter than I was in January, and am continuing to drop weight, thanks to my change in diet and exercise. After the Japan wake-up call I've been motivated to stick with the diet changes.
Did I mention the Japan wake-up call? My cholesterol was 20 points lower than it usually runs after 9 days in Japan, eating essentially only fish, vegetables, rice and miso soup. Plus I had dropped a couple pounds while there which was no doubt due to the increased exercise as much as the diet changes. So I'm not eating the same stuff I ate in Japan, but I'm eating significantly less than I was and I'm eating fruit (which in itself is something of a miracle because fruit has never been high on my list of favorite foods). Basically eating less processed food and eating MUCH less fast food. And I'm exercising three times a week. It's working, because as I mentioned, I'm continuing to slowly drop weight. I'll have to see how my cholesterol does the next time I give a pint of blood.
13 pounds isn't a lot, but it's made enough difference in my waist and hips that a lot of my work slacks slide off me without a belt to hold them up. Some of my current work slacks I have to just give up. Even with a belt I'm lapping more than an inch of material. So I have been doing a little work-clothes shopping this week while I've been off.
I think I'm going to need to have foundation work done on this house, which is kind of depressing. Especially since I just bought an expensive car. Since I've been home all week, I've noticed some cracks I don't remember seeing. I'll call around and get some estimates this coming week. Damn. Usually when I get depressing news it makes me want to go shopping, but considering this is likely to be expensive depressing news, I think I'll skip shopping today.
Which gives me plenty of time to do household chores and puttering. I'm considering tackling straightening up the garage a little. The rain today broke those nasty 100+ temperatures, so I can actually stand to be in the garage to more than a few minutes. I could feasibly clean it up some. Maybe. Don't know if I'm quite that motivated.
I couldn't decide which pictures to use today, so went back to some of the several million from Japan that I haven't posted. The first pic is of a small garden shrine inside one of the restaurants where we ate on Miyajima. Then there's a picture of the turtles attempting to sun (no sun present) at Toji Temple and the ducks chilling at the Unknown Soldier Buddha temple.
That's about it for today.
*sigh* The rest of September has continued to be as bad luck for me as the first part was, so I'm happy to note there's only two days left in this month, counting today. For this post I threw in more pictures of my continued close encounter with the sorghum. I wonder when in this progression sorghum is usually harvested? Anyway, where to start with the bad luck stories . . . 
That's the good news. The continuing bad luck is that the post-foundation-work plumbing checks sucked, big time. I have leaks in my sewer lines and water lines and probably in my sprinkler system. Yup. I figure it's a combination of foundation work and existing problems because I've always thought the water bills were too high in this house. I just had nothing to compare them to. Can you say "really sucky inspection" when I bought this place? Anyway, I have plumbers coming out in another week and a half to locate all the leaks and then tell me what it's going to cost me to have them all repaired. If I'm living right, they'll be able to do the repairs from the outside. If my September luck spills over into October, they'll have to go through the foundation in the house to repair them. Either way, it'll cost me roughly $600 just for them to find the leaks,so I'm not even going to guess what the repair cost will be.
On the medical front my bad luck is somewhat continuing too. I had to get a measles-mumps-rubella shot because my blood work came up that I wasn't immune to one of them (can't remember which). This last week I had a reaction to the shot. I had a full body measles-like rash and joints so stiff and painful that I had trouble getting up and down. Luckily it only lasted two days and then went away. But early this month I began having excruciating pain in my right knee, but only at night. It was waking me up every night, but during the day it didn't bother me. It seemed to be starting to go away, but after the shot-reaction, the right knee pain is back in full force. And it's bad enough at night that the knee is sore all day now, with some minor swelling. I suppose I'm going to have to find a new primary care physician and make an appointment. I was hoping it would clear up on it's own.
So that's been my September. See why I'm ready for it to be over. I'm hoping for better luck next month. This last picture is Zoe. She likes to sleep between the two quilts on my bed, so this cat-sized lump is her. It's kind of a metaphor for what I wish I could have done this last month - hide from everything. If I'm searching for a silver lining though, at least when all this is done I shouldn't have to worry about any more major house issues. *knocks on wood again* 
