Ouch

Have I mentioned that I'm just not that fond of getting older?  I have? Let me just mention it again then.   Just as my knee is finally healing up, I pulled my lower back out somehow when exercising on Thursday.  Yesterday when I got up it was sore and I had trouble bending, but I didn't let that stop me from my planned shopping.  I still went even though driving was painful and I had to move the seat way forward so I didn't have to reach for either the wheel or pedals.  I slept badly last night and this morning when I got up, there was no position that I could get into that didn't hurt.  Lying down, standing, sitting, walking - nothing gave me any relief.  And going between those positions - doesn't bear talking about.  I nearly couldn't feed the cats.

So I took a painkiller on an empty stomach.  Not my smartest move ever.  At that point I was in pain, nauseated, light-headed and sweaty.  I didn't think that painkiller would be that strong since it was an old one prescribed in 2003.  I expected it to just have enough strength to take the edge off the pain, not to make me sick and dizzy.  Maybe taking it with the INH was what caused that reaction because I usually don't have trouble with those things.  Although granted I usually don't take them on an empty stomach.

Anyway, I got into my recliner with a heating pad behind my back and waited.  After about an hour I felt human again.  The rest of the day hasn't been too bad.  I'm fairly mobile when I need to be, although I need to sit in my softest recliner when I'm sitting.  No hard chairs.   Plus I slept about 3 hours this afternoon, to make up for the lack of sleep last night.  I'm hoping my back will let me get some mostly uninterrupted sleep tonight.  

Okay, enough health complaints.  As you can see from the picture, the squirrel randomly decides that the red bird feeder is his exclusive property.  Little devil.  He was out there a couple times today, displacing the birds.  He's acquired a serious taste for sunflower seeds.

I thought I'd also post a picture of the two hanging baskets out there.  The spider plant isn't thriving as well as the wandering jew, but it's slowly gaining ground and looking healthy rather than looking like a brown-tipped plant refugee from a war.  The wandering jew is VERY happy out there as you can see.

The shopping I took a day off work to do yesterday was to find a cocktail dress that fits me for my up-coming trips.  Plus I stopped at a bank where I can order foreign currency and ordered some Turkish Lira.  I'll need it upon arrival for taxi fare and I try only to exchange money at an airport as a last resort.  They usually have seriously bad exchange rates.  Then I went grocery shopping.  So I got all my shopping in, but did aggravate my back doing it.   I was going to run some errands this morning, but that didn't happen.  Oh well, they'll keep.

The cat-kids like it when I lay around the house doing not much.  They tend to get more attention, more treats and get to go outside more.  So they're not unhappy that I'm not very mobile today.  The trick is to get them to let me read or use my computer while they're taking up my lap.  I'm typing this post using one of my small travel laptops in my lap sitting in my recliner currently.   

I got a free lawn fertilizing yesterday morning.  While I was drinking coffee waiting for the stores to open, I let Zoe out into the back yard.  Suddenly she came flying back in.  I looked out there and there was a guy fertilizing my lawn.  I thought - that's weird - because usually my lawn service comes on Thursday and it was Friday.  So I went and looked out the front and the service truck was not from my lawn service.  I opened the front door and pulled the service invoice that he had left on the door and it was for my neighbor's address!   So I stopped him as he was starting a weed treatment and told him he had the wrong house.  You can imagine his comments.  I felt sorry for him, but he was really not paying attention.  The house numbers in this neighborhood are very clearly marked.   

I guess that's about all for today.