I recognize this. I’m reading White Oleander by Janet Fitch right now (got it for $0.25 at the library) and it is full of loneliness. I am so glad I’m surrounded by family and friends this week or the book would do me in. I will need something brighter to lift me out of this when I’m done.
We in the southeast have been experiencing a drought for a few years now. We are happy to get any rain. Tropical Storm Fay, after her triple-whammy to Florida, headed inland and we’ve been getting rain since mid-day Monday. Yesterday was significant. The rain last night was very heavy and relentless. We have an easement along the side of the house. When they built the house they narrowed the easement to give us more yard. While that was sweet of them, it didn’t have enough room for the amount of water that a rain storm sends our way. We asked politely and made some noise and they finally agreed to rework the easement to make it deeper and wider. It’s a good thing, because at 4am we looked out and the water was deep and wide rushing down the easemeant. But it was all in the easement, which is a good thing.
Why were we looking at the easement at 4am, you ask? Excellent question! The other water-related problem we had with the house 2 years ago (we moved in 3 years ago, where does the time go) was a leak around the flashing that was improperly put around the chimney. That time during the afternoon I heard water dripping in the bedroom and found it behind the a/c intake vent. This time the fire alarm started chirping at 3:40am and wouldn’t stop. Anthony said it wasn’t the low battery sound, but since it was not going to stop we finally got up and pulled out our extra tall ladder to get it down. Glad we have that ladder, toolman wins this argument, I don’t have any friends I hate enough to ask to borrow a ladder at 4am. While we were doing this I noticed a small stream of water coming down the wall by the light switch. Then I noticed water on the back of the fire alarm (that explains the chirping).
Did I mention that the attic area with the chimney has a door to it from the upper hallway? It’s just a small area with lots of insulation, so we logically put a bookcase in front of it and loaded it up with books. I guess if we have to empty and move the bookcase only every 2 years I shouldn’t complain, but at 4am I wasn’t thrilled to be moving books. Especially since it was a small stream and I wasn’t sure what we would do at 4am. Anthony imagined a bucket catching steady drops of water. I’m not sure we own a bucket, I guess I would have found something.
Anyway, no drops to catch in the attic. Then the rain stopped and the trickle down the wall dried up. We’ll start with the builder and see what we end up doing about the leak. At least we can be sure that’s the only place we have a leak!
Of course, the nephew slept through all of this. Sometimes ignorance truly is bliss.
I came across a link to Homeschool Memoirs and a new way to use blogs for homeschoolers to relate. The first one was Aug 20, write about myself, how long I’ve been homeschooling and why. Actually, they specifically refer to the Momma. I’m really the aunt but the rest is the same. Let’s start with why I’m homeschooling:
My nephew Connor moved in with us January 2008 and spent the last half of the school year going to Bailey Middle School near us. He finished 7th grade, barely. We agreed he’d go home for the summer and return in August. After an enlightening conversation with a friend at church I decided to try home schooling him for 8th grade to see if that environment works better. Given the time and effort spent working through his homework and then trying to figure out if he actually handed in the homework, I am not sure home schooling will be that much more effort.
We are now on day 3 of our homeschooling. I think things are going pretty well. I didn’t drop all subjects on him at once, and he’s going to stay with my mom next week so it will be a few weeks before we truly see how this schedule is going to work. But he’s doing pretty well so far.
In addition to homeschooling, I work full time from home. I spend a lot of time on conference calls so we built doors to my office so Connor and I don’t disturb each other. I am also in semester 4 of a 4 semester EMBA program. January should be a breeze after this year. I have been married to an absolutely wonderful man for 15.7 years and we are looking forward to many more years. I’m also active at church, sing in the choir, and play handbells. The full handbell choir is fun, and the quartet handbell choir is a blast.
For anyone following this blog my shoulder started hurting in June, just before VBS, probably due to some major web surfing for home school information and ideas. I adjusted (moved the mouse over to the left, which mainly resulted in my using the pointer on my laptop with my right hand) and tried to do more with my left arm. I also had some wrist pain, then that went away. Shoulder hurt a lot one week and then didn’t hurt as much. But it kept hurting and every once in awhile I would whine about it (Anthony may dispute my use of the phrase “every once in awhile”). Anthony finally told me to do something about it or hush.
Last Wednesday I went to the doctor and he confirmed that I have strained my rotator cuff (the 4 muscles that make up the rotator cuff). But nothing is torn. Then I sent in pictures to Egoscue and we played phone tag. I finally called them today and signed up for 5 menus of exercises over the next 8 to 10 weeks. Anthony and I compared the pictures from mid-July when I first thought about contacting Egoscue and the pictures from mid-August after I had been doing some of the E-cises from the books and we can already see a difference. I also can feel a difference, but my shoulder still hurts. They do say it can take 12 to 18 months to recover from a strained rotator cuff, and you recover by torture doing exercises to strengthen it. I keep telling myself I don’t really know who “they” are, and I’m a wimp so I whine.
The doctor gave me anti-inflammatory medicine and offered PT or a cortisone shot. I will work with Egoscue first and see how that does. I have had a few people warn me away from the cortisone, but the doctor spent 5 minutes talking about how they aren’t bad and 95% of the people who get them have no problems and the shoulder is the easiest place to give one. I still think this is an opportunity to make a long-term change to my posture/structure and I’m not convinced that a shot can fix something that could take months to get better on its own.
The good news is that the pain is still there, but much better over the past week. I start my new Egoscue menu of exercises tomorrow morning and I’m still keeping up with my yoga in the evenings. Work and homework and homeschooling all fit in there somewhere!
