Working Forward, Working Back

Yesterday was busy and kind of drawn out.

I am not sleeping well, of course, so I had been up for hours when my alarm went off at 5:00 a.m. I got in the shower. I've been putting off some blood tests, and yesterday was finally the day. The place opens at 6:00 a.m.--there's usually a line starting about 5:45 or 5:50--and so we (Dave was kind enough to take me, since I hate anything having to do with needles, unless I am at the other end of the barrel, pushing the plunger) planned on getting there about 6:20. We still had to wait about twenty minutes, though the phlebotomist was very speedy.

We had a few hours at home then I had to go off the physical therapy. It's a half hour drive there, then I do about a half hour of PT, then I drive home for half an hour. So that's useful. My shoulder did feel better after, though, so I am glad I went. The therapist added two more exercises to my routine.

I came home and had a bowl of soup and made Dave a bowl of cut up fruit (just apples and banana) with yogurt and cereal. Then I took a nice long nap.

At 3:30 or so, I got up and we went to Costco to get our flu shots in the pharmacy.  (Costco always has the quadrivalent shot versus the trivalent shot (which is what our doctor's office has), so that's a plus.) We've been putting off getting our flu shots for a few weeks, but Dave has a trip to New York this month and I've been nagging him about building up some anti-coming-home-with-a-virus immunity. Since it takes about two weeks for your body to build up antibodies, I wanted to get it done. The pharmacist who did the shots was pretty inept, but I'm more forgiving about those things now. Still, my arm swelled up and hurts like a mofo this morning. (I suspect I got a subcutaneous shot rather than an intramuscular one, which, not great, but better than nothing.)

While we were at Costco, we had dinner number one, a slice of cheese pizza for Dave and a barbeque sandwich (minus most of the bread) for me. We also picked up berries and yogurt and a few other things. Then we came home and put everything away. Dave went next door and fed the pups and then came back and had dinner number two, Quorn nuggets and steamed broccoli. (He made extra broccoli for me to have later.)

I got online and checked the results of my blood test. My thyroid is fine but my vitamin D is in the toilet, as expected. Even taking massive doses, it's still never crossed over in the lowest normal range. It's always super, super low. I could get out in the sun more, but where's the fun in that? Anyway, I may call my doctor and get a prescription for more vitamin D tablets.

Dave went off to spend the night with the pups and I lay down and napped a bit more. I got up at 9:18--I looked at the clock because I was going to text Dave about the dream that woke me up (I was dreaming of eating buffalo chicken wings)--and after a bit, I was able to get back to sleep for another ninety minutes or so.

Then I was just up. I read some more Shirley Jackson. I'm into the short stories now. I pulled my trade paperback copy of The Lottery and Other Stories down from the shelf. The date I wrote inside when I bought it tells me that I've owned this copy for twenty-six years. (How is that possible? Where does time go?) I read about a half dozen stories and then read about a page and a half of The Sisters Brothers on my Kindle. (That book is like a transcribed nightmare. I'm more wary of it than any Stephen King novel I've ever read in my life.)

I had a snack of cheese and crackers around 2:00 a.m. and then made myself some coffee and breakfast around 5:00 a.m. I played around on the internet for a bit.  I swept the floor. Just the usual ways of passing away the time in the middle of the night.

Dave came back to the casita around 6:30 to get ready for his workday and here I am, writing, wondering about getting back to sleep.

Working backward in our week, Halloween was quiet, as always. We went out for dinner--our weekly ramen jaunt, although I almost always have soba since it was more protein and therefore screws with my blood sugar levels less than ramen noodles. When we came home, we were unprepared for trick-or-treaters, so Dave turned out the porch light and barricaded the gate. Sounds mean, but we've only had three trick-or-treaters in 13 years or so). We got to bed early. And that was Halloween.