Nothing funny about feldspar

I signed up to take a 10-week “Swim Therapy” class from our local recreation center. It’s in a therapeutic pool, which means it takes place in warm water — cool bath temperature, about 85°F. I figured that since I can’t get any exercise by walking, because it hurts my back and hips, I’d try the no-impact route.

So… I slid into the water wearing a float-belt (used to help keep one vertical in deeper water), and eventually realized that just because I was in a no-impact environment, it didn’t mean that I wasn’t going to stress my hips and my SI joint.

I should have taken a pain pill before I went, ’cause I hurt as badly as I do when I’ve walked around all of a Meijer store (if you’re unfamiliar with Meijer, think about, oh, the biggest Super Wal-Mart you’ve ever seen. Or a smallish IKEA, but one where you have to visit every aisle not just the bits you’re interested in, with groceries).

The funny thing? The instructor said, “Let me know if this helps your bursitis. My husband has it, and he sure hurts!”

Right now, that would be a no. Who knows, though? I might end up getting enough strength and flexibility in the other muscles in my lower back, &c. so I don’t have so much problem with my back. I’m hoping so, at least.

Next week, I’m getting cortisone shots in my hips. Let’s see if they help as much as I want them too. I’m tired of this.

I’m finding it so hard to believe, yet this is the evidence of my eyes: we are out of table salt. Oh, sure, I’ve got a box and a half of coarse kosher salt, and I know that I used to have an extra canister of Morton’s… but alas, I’ve scoured the likely hiding places and it doesn’t appear.

Given our penchant for overstocking, I’m likely to get three or four pounds of salt over the next month or so, so that the next time this happens I know that I’ll still think I have plenty…

When I first went to the specialist clinic for my back, I had to fill out a 20 page form asking where I hurt and how did I get hurt and was it a result of an accident or am I in litigation or under workmen’s comp. and am I addicted to pain-killers and am I currently trying to bilk somebody out of their rightful inheritance…?

So I filled the whole thing out, saying basically: “No, I am not in any sort of litigation nor even in any legal or unsolvable financial trouble. I hurt my back by sitting in the wrong chair for too long.”

Now, 4 months after that first visit, I get a letter in the mail: “Dear Insured, are you certain that there’s nobody we can sue to get our money back? Fill out this two page form, and return it within five days (i.e. yesterday) and we may not bug you about it anymore. But we might, ’cause we’re your insurance company, and we save your money by suing others.”

*sigh*

little Bat, how I wonder where you’re at?

Right. Bat in the house last night. Scared the bejebus out of me, though I didn’t scream as loudly as I did when the starling came into the house via the chimney. I’m not quite sure where it got in, it possibly fell down the laundry chute from the attic, and flew up two flights of stairs to where I saw it flying up and down the hallway while I was watching television.

Somehow, it managed to get to the first floor, where it flew around a bit, and apparently got tired. We couldn’t find it anywhere, so we sat down with our flattened cardboard (used to encourage it to move towards the open door). After about 10 minutes it started circling again — with me ducking under the cardboard and hiding my eyes. I am not brave when it comes to wildlife in the house. I’m perfectly happy to let them have the outside, and even the attic, but not inside where I am.

Eventually, it made it to the family room where the door was as wide open as possible… circle, circle, circle. It may have actually figured out the whole door thing, or it got tired again and is just waiting for later, but it’s not flying around inside right now. I do hope it got out though — I look funny cowering under cardboard.

I keep trying to use Automator, but it continually thwarts my efforts to do anything with it. I can build a workflow that gives me little green check marks and then toots like a little train when it’s finished… but nothing actually happens. If I tell it to open Preview, it doesn’t. If I tell it to set the desktop picture, it won’t. If I tell it to split PDFs into individual pages, nope, not that either. I thought AppleScript was arcane — this is practically ritualistic! Next time I’ll try tapping my heels together three times before I push the run button. At least then I’ll know I’ve accomplished something.