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.
We’ve been madly packing and already took a load up north in a small U-haul today to a storage unit. We don’t actually know yet if any of our deals are done for real. But we are flying on faith. We hope they all will come to fruition. My buyers are waiting for the appraisal to come through, and the place we are buying is resting on the last few inspection items to wrap up. I don’t think anything will fall apart, but you never know. Meanwhile, we know we will move eventually, so we decided to start moving stuff and knew we would follow. What was the old story: build the train tracks and the train will come. So it is with us.
But all this with me having a bum knee. I tried this cane I had as some years back I ended up with a walking stick/cane collection. Just for show, mind you. Some are quite beautiful actually: carved and lovely. I tried limping around with it, but it’s too cumbersome. The brace is ridiculous and hurts, so no. I can’t wear it under most circumstances. The best thing seems to be ice. Which I do whenever I can. In fact, today in a New Hampshire rest stop, I asked if I could take some ice in a cup from one of their dispensers. They did me one better and the woman filled a plastic bag! This is why I can’t wait to move back there. She was offering all sorts of suggestions for my knee too. She had just gone through something herself. Such a kind person. We gave her some money for the cup, although she didn’t ask for it. I hope I can sleep a bit tonight. And I hope it’s healing, but I am not sure.
The condo is looking barren, but we know we are weeks away from being in our new home! Very excited.
Yes, we were about ready to toss it in today with the house we are interested in and ready to buy. The inspection came back with numerous issues (it’s old and not unexpected), and we’ve been going back and forth with the owners. Their estimates, our estimates–who will do the work, who will pay for it, etc. Frankly I was just getting tired of it. Was this place going to be an unending money pit? We paid less, but got less than we wanted and will have to sink lots in to add all the features we gave up in the first place. We weren’t about to fix all the things that the inspection showed up. Nope, I was getting ready to throw in the towel, start over and just pay more money for a newer home. We did very much like many things about this place…the location, and many features. It’s not that we don’t know older homes don’t come with issues and didn’t expect them to take care of them all. But the major ones–not our problem. If we don’t buy it, they would have to fix them, or lower the price anyway, or disclose these issues now.
Anyway, they finally met us on our requests. They are using the guy we wanted and coughing up the money to let him do most the work. They are handling one big job because the owner works for a company that can do it. That’s great, just get it done. We were still almost going to say never mind, but decided, in the end, it’s fine. We still will go with our original feeling about the place. We did love it and feel we can make it home. It will take longer to move in, but that’s fine too. We’re slowing it all down and will take a trip there this week to put some stuff in storage so the movers won’t have to do as much.
It’s all going to be fine. Buying a home is never over until it’s over. Once we are settled and looking out at our new yard, or sitting in the new hot tub on a beautiful night, or the dog is running free–we’ll know we made the right decision. At least I hope so!
So many books to give away…and this isn’t even all of them. When I moved to Florida, I gave away tons of them. Then when I came here, I carted all my mom’s art books. Now I will donate most of them to my local library. I’m keeping a few interesting ones as mementos to honor her, but the rest are too heavy and I never even cracked them open. She collected them as an artist, every time she saw one, so there were many! I don’t need them. And I have so many books of my own, because I love them. She taught me to be a bibliophile I suppose. Some were given to me, some have sentimental value, some are inscribed and others are just masterpieces. Now I listen to audiobooks, but I can’t seem to let go of many of my precious books. Silly I guess, but an audiobook will never smell or feel like a real book. Plus all the children’s books I’ve collected I hope to someday read to my grandchildren. If I don’t, well then, I will end up donating them too. My neighbor will pick through those I don’t want anymore and she will find good homes for them. The rest will go to the library book sale, along with mom’s–hopefully to help keep our wonderful library afloat. And me listening to my audiobooks. Until I move, and get my new library card!
secondhalfwoman 
