Day in, day out

I'm still working a lot, although I feel a little less stressed about it.  My boss told me this is the kind of job where I will always have work to do and not to put in too much over 40 hours.  I really needed to hear that. 

Last week I had the lilacs pulled out.  I am so happy they're gone!  It's such a relief to not be dodging branches when I want to mow the lawn or use the front door.  I need to find something to plant there now.  I've been on a blackberry kick and I'm tempted to plant blackberry bushes but I don't think that's the sort of thing you put in your front yard.

This weekend I'm planning to cut down the saplings growing through my chain link fence.  Man, do they grow fast.  I may also have a reemergence of bindweed to deal with.  Things looked a bit vine-y when I was mowing.  I suppose I should also put down more weed-n-feed.  There's always something to do around the yard.  Yea for long weekends!

Mean Mr. Mustard

Remember last year when I freaked out that my cat might have mange?  I'm afraid her bald spots have not improved.  There are small patches on each of her front legs and a big one across her stomach.  I realized a couple of weeks ago that these bald patches roughly match the areas that were shaved when I had her spayed.  Each of her front legs was shaved to draw blood (one side clotted too quickly so they had to try the other) and of course her belly was shaved for the incision.  It's been 3 years and the fur isn't back.  I've watched her grooming and she nips the hair.  I think that's why it won't grow.  Part of me says I should leave her alone.  If she wants a Brazilian then it won't hurt anything.  The other part of me says I must fix this problem.  Enter the mustard.

I despise mustard.  My mother claims I ate a handful of hot English mustard at a bed & breakfast when I was 2, then screamed bloody murder.  Who knows if that really happened?  But regardless, I have never liked mustard in any form.  Hot, mild, honey... They're all the same: disgusting.  My sister, Twoofadozen, LOVES mustard so when she visited last summer I bought a bottle of French's just for her.  It's been sitting in my fridge ever since.  This kitty situation has finally presented a use for the yellow atrocity.  For the last few days I've been slathering it on the cat's stomach. Observe:

Turns out she doesn't like it either. I can report that there has been exactly... no progress.  I don't see any new hair growth and she's still trying to groom herself, only now she's making yucky faces.  What I do see is an increase in yellow stains on my blanket.  I'm not giving up yet, though.  If the mustard doesn't work then I'm switching to cayenne pepper.  She WILL grow that hair back.

Crack a lackin

I'm once again under the care of a chiropractor.  Don't worry, it's not the same one who said my pain was caused by my huge honkers - which turned out to be untrue because 10 months after reduction surgery I still have back pain.  No, this guy is an intern at the local chiropractic college.  He and his doctor-teachers prescribed an aggressive treatment regime involving adjustments and electrical stimulation twice a week for 6 weeks.  After 4 weeks I can say the pain is subsiding. I still have an ache but I almost never get the tingling anymore.

He's not just treating the chronic midback pain.  I also have lower back problems and tightness in the shoulders that pulls my neck and upper thoracics out.  It's especially bad after a tense day, which I've had a lot of lately.  I'm usually so tight that he can't move anything without marinating me in BioFreeze first.  I think I'm becoming a BioFreeze junkie; that stuff is fantastic! 

Today we found out just how potent the BioFreeze is.  While adjusting me he nicked my back with a fingernail just enough to draw blood.  Normally such a small cut would bead up and clot within seconds but this one kept bleeding & bleeding & bleeding.  He tried swiping at it with an antiseptic wipe.  That didn't work but it burned like a mother.  I could tell he was getting a little panicked.  He went looking for a doctor and a first aid kit while I laid down with a tissue on top of the cut.  He came back and applied a bandaid - which I started bleeding through.  The doctor who was observing him said the BioFreeze was probably causing an increased blood flow to the area.  I knew it relaxed my muscles but I didn't know it could have an effect like that!  Eventually with pressure and another tissue on top of the bandaid he got the bleeding to stop.

I don't know what's wrong with me but I thought the whole situation was hilarious.  I could hardly wait to text my brothers and tell them about it.  Poor guy.  He told me he became a chiropractor because he didn't like blood.