Still winter.
(I know, it's only February. of course it's still winter.)
The ice from Wednesday finally melted enough that I was willing to go out on Thursday afternoon (the roads were fine, but the driveway was still quite slippery). Today (Sunday) it started snowing again, just before I went out to pick up dinner. They say we'll get about an inch of snow this go-round, but the fun starts Monday evening, when the wintry mix is supposed to start. And I have rehearsal in Farmington until 9:30. I think I'll skip teardown and go home "early".
Yesterday, while J was off at movie night with people from work, I repainted the basement wall that he'd done a crummy job on. I still need to move the shelves back, but that can be done tomorrow. The stairwell needs to be re-done as well, but those walls are taller and I need a ladder to do it. And I'm not fond of ladders in stairwells anyway - so many things can go wrong.
OT says I'm on my own, she can do no more. She does like the extensions; and had me do a quick demo of playing position for her student shadow and for another OT in the clinic who has a sax player patient. Final diagnosis is stretched ligaments and muscle imbalance leading to tendinitis in at least two, maybe three, tendons in the thumb; due in part to an old mild strain (35 years ago) and most recently to overstress and overuse. No damage apparent on the images (Xray, MRI), other than minor arthritis. Keep doing the regimen of exercises, be careful of positioning and angle of stress, wear the neoprene splint and tape for playing, wear the thermoplastic splint when appropriate but not too much, etc. The thumb will slowly get better if I keep up the exercises and don't strain it, to an extent, but really it's just something I'll have to live with.
The parking lot at the clinic is heavily salted, to the point that the wheels on Esme's case left a salt trail across the driveway when I rolled it back to the house. I cleaned the wheels before I rolled onto the wood floors, but I may need to do more. It's hard to tell, as J is messing about with stuff in the garage, and keeps traipsing across the house in his work boots. I need to sweep and mop every other day anyway. sigh.
This morning I dug back to the box of extra/off season birdfeeders to find a small suet cage. I think there's another one in there, but despite J's best intentions, there's stuff piled in front of the box, and I need to get the car out of the garage so I can move stuff out of the way so I can pull the box out all the way and dig around in it. OTOH, I only have space to hang one right now.
The ice from Wednesday finally melted enough that I was willing to go out on Thursday afternoon (the roads were fine, but the driveway was still quite slippery). Today (Sunday) it started snowing again, just before I went out to pick up dinner. They say we'll get about an inch of snow this go-round, but the fun starts Monday evening, when the wintry mix is supposed to start. And I have rehearsal in Farmington until 9:30. I think I'll skip teardown and go home "early".
Yesterday, while J was off at movie night with people from work, I repainted the basement wall that he'd done a crummy job on. I still need to move the shelves back, but that can be done tomorrow. The stairwell needs to be re-done as well, but those walls are taller and I need a ladder to do it. And I'm not fond of ladders in stairwells anyway - so many things can go wrong.
OT says I'm on my own, she can do no more. She does like the extensions; and had me do a quick demo of playing position for her student shadow and for another OT in the clinic who has a sax player patient. Final diagnosis is stretched ligaments and muscle imbalance leading to tendinitis in at least two, maybe three, tendons in the thumb; due in part to an old mild strain (35 years ago) and most recently to overstress and overuse. No damage apparent on the images (Xray, MRI), other than minor arthritis. Keep doing the regimen of exercises, be careful of positioning and angle of stress, wear the neoprene splint and tape for playing, wear the thermoplastic splint when appropriate but not too much, etc. The thumb will slowly get better if I keep up the exercises and don't strain it, to an extent, but really it's just something I'll have to live with.
The parking lot at the clinic is heavily salted, to the point that the wheels on Esme's case left a salt trail across the driveway when I rolled it back to the house. I cleaned the wheels before I rolled onto the wood floors, but I may need to do more. It's hard to tell, as J is messing about with stuff in the garage, and keeps traipsing across the house in his work boots. I need to sweep and mop every other day anyway. sigh.
This morning I dug back to the box of extra/off season birdfeeders to find a small suet cage. I think there's another one in there, but despite J's best intentions, there's stuff piled in front of the box, and I need to get the car out of the garage so I can move stuff out of the way so I can pull the box out all the way and dig around in it. OTOH, I only have space to hang one right now.