Velcro feet and how things are different, part 3
I've had a bunch of notes about more things that have changed, and one item that I figured I could explain a little more.
I don't know what has caused this, but the bottoms of my feet had gotten really dry as of late, to the point where fabrics would sort of catch on them. I know my hands got pretty dry, to the point of my skin splitting open at the bottom of one of my fingers, because I was washing them so frequently when I was sick. But feet? This is weird. I'm not washing them any more frequently; in fact, I'm washing them less. Perhaps part of it is because I'm not wearing socks hardly at all. I'd normally wear them all day at work, and if I was cold when I got home, I'd change into more loungewear-style socks. It hasn't been that cold, and now that winter's over it's not that dry. I've been sans socks for much of the time these past few weeks. That includes while painting, so I don't know if my stepping on who knows what on the floor is related. A more sinister thought is, what if this is some sort of weird illness sign or complication? What I ended up doing twice earlier this week was lotioning up my feet after showering--just lotion and white socks on Monday, but basically a full-on spa treatment on Wednesday, including some callus removal. Friday, I tried to remove more calluses. This seems to have helped. I'm just not used to having to give my feet the spa treatment at the end of April.
You may have noticed I mentioned Monday, Wednesday, and Friday--that's when I've been showering in recent weeks. That's it. If I'm not working, I don't see the point of showering daily. I'm pretty poky in there and would rather not waste the water, especially given just how much I was washing my hands in the early weeks (again, see my cracked finger--I honestly thought I'd cut myself at first but for the life of me couldn't recall how it might have happened). Other changed bathroom habits include conservation of toilet paper. It's a precious commodity now. I've gotten myself down to three squares per, uh, visit. Well, I'll bump it up to four if need requires, heh. But sometimes when I would throw certain items away, I'd first wrap them up in toilet paper. I've since found a way around that, so at least I'm not going through TP as much as I used to. I think that's good. I've also been putting the toilet seat down before I flush. That's something that's long been mentioned as a good habit, but I wasn't used to it. Then I read that the virus possibly could be shed through solid waste matter, and I figured I would try to contain things as best possible. Toilet seat down it is!
I got out of the habit of exercising nightly. I'd been doing *so* well with that, especially during Lent. But I couldn't exercise while I was sick, and when I started to improve, that's the timeframe when the family room was shoved into the living and dining rooms. Since dad basically lives on the family room couch, that meant he was directly below my room much of the time. I know, from hearing mom exercising in *her* room, that certain sounds would travel. I just didn't want dad to hear me, so during that timeframe I really didn't do much. Dad's unlikely to ask questions, and he's fairly hard of hearing at this point, never mind how loudly he blasts the TV. Still, I didn't want him to question anything I might be doing. It's pretty much been this past week or so that I've tried to get back into things. It helps that all the exercise equipment formerly stored in the entertainment center found its way into a large plastic tub and is now sitting outside my room. I have access to several sizes of weights, plus our Thighmaster, Buttmaster, and Shake Weight. No joke, I've kind of wanted to use those three items, so I have been pulling those out. When used regularly, they can show results.
Blinds. We've been playing with blinds lately. Every morning, I've been opening four sets of them upstairs--the two in my room, the one in my bathroom, and the one in the computer room. That last one is because I now have a plant in here, my old chive plant, evicted from the kitchen when we were about to start painting. Dad no longer wants anything on the kitchen windowsill, in part because it got trashed by all the crap we had hanging out on there previously. There were a ton of container rings and things on the sill and it looked pretty bad. Also, we've never had a full window covering in the kitchen, and dad fixed that as soon as he could. This was back on the 19th, so a couple weeks ago, but we now have blinds over the kitchen window. They're the same style as the ones he bought last year for the family room and my bathroom window. He's so excited because it really blocks out the light. It's pretty dark in the kitchen in the morning now. Better, in the afternoon when the sun really shines through that window, he can close the blinds and not get blinded. He's also paranoid that the neighbors behind us are watching us through that window. I say they have better things to do, but if you're so concerned, perhaps you shouldn't spend a ton of time in the kitchen, eh? He also put up this canvas paper over our sidelights, but he just took that down yesterday now that the house essentially is back to normal. Mom and I both like being able to look out the sidelights all the time. Again, dad's all, but people are watching us! Really? You have seen people standing on the sidewalk in front of our house just staring? If they're just walking past, whatever. But nobody just sits there and stares. We don't even have houses that face us, so it's not like there's a couple of old people sitting on their porch at night across the street or anything.
For weeks, I was eating all my meals in my bedroom, using my bedside table as my makeshift dinner table. That all changed a week ago Thursday, as I was both well enough to eat around others *AND* the kitchen table was able to be a kitchen table again--returned to its normal position, with all the chairs, and the various painting equipment removed. It was a big day. I really haven't eaten in my room since. However, because I was using my bedside table, I ended up changing things around with that. I'd had my three remotes (cable box, bed, TV) all lined up on the table, as well as my phone charger and my Serenity book. It got to be a hassle to take all of those off and put all of them back every time I ate. I have this yellow plastic container, sort of like a handle-less bucket with decorative holes punched at the top, and I was looking to re-purpose it somehow. It's now the catch-all for those items. Instead of removing five items from the table, I just remove one. (It's more than that, truthfully, but that's the bulk of things.) I've now gotten used to the remotes all being in the bucket, so what the heck. It's harder to knock them off there this way, too.
Up until this week, I'd been opening my window much of the time. Even when it was chilly outside, I still liked having the fresh air come in. Why not air the place out, especially given I was ill and spending so much time in there? I'd close it at night, and if it rained, but much of the time it was open. That is, until this week, when the wasps decided the inside part of my screen was the best place to hang out. Uh, no. I am super tempted to grab some of the blue painter's tape to try and close off the sides of my screen. Or, well, go back about thirty years and have this house's builders install screens that fit correctly. What the hell, guys?
Finally, I haven't really had any sort of schedule since I've been off. Especially early on, it wasn't uncommon for me to stay in bed until 8 or even 8:30. That first week, I was really tired. I would try to spend at least an hour in the morning reading through my backlog of papers (I have done so well with this! Whee! I have very few old ones left! …Now on to the recent ones…), and I did a lot of shredding, and some other projects. More recently, realizing I'd have to go back to work at some point, I figured it would be better to try and get up by 6:30. That…hasn't really happened, but as long as I'm out of bed by 7, I call it a win. Once I'm up, things start kicking in and I'm somewhat productive, but some mornings are harder than others. Now that I'll be going back to work, getting up is that much more important, but my schedule will be adjusted since I have at least an hour more in the mornings than I used to--I'll start at noon one day, 10 AM the other. I don't even have to shower until 8 AM, really. That's pretty much what I'm planning on doing. I'm so used to watching certain segments of the morning news that I'm not willing to give those up, heh, and I don't have to be out of bed by 6:20 right now. My thought is that I'd get up and out of bed by 6:30, then weigh myself (normal) and possibly do some exercises while I'm there (not normal). Even if it's just stretching, it's a good thing. Improving my breathing and stamina is a good thing. It's part of why I want to get back into exercising in general. I need to build myself back up.
I don't know what has caused this, but the bottoms of my feet had gotten really dry as of late, to the point where fabrics would sort of catch on them. I know my hands got pretty dry, to the point of my skin splitting open at the bottom of one of my fingers, because I was washing them so frequently when I was sick. But feet? This is weird. I'm not washing them any more frequently; in fact, I'm washing them less. Perhaps part of it is because I'm not wearing socks hardly at all. I'd normally wear them all day at work, and if I was cold when I got home, I'd change into more loungewear-style socks. It hasn't been that cold, and now that winter's over it's not that dry. I've been sans socks for much of the time these past few weeks. That includes while painting, so I don't know if my stepping on who knows what on the floor is related. A more sinister thought is, what if this is some sort of weird illness sign or complication? What I ended up doing twice earlier this week was lotioning up my feet after showering--just lotion and white socks on Monday, but basically a full-on spa treatment on Wednesday, including some callus removal. Friday, I tried to remove more calluses. This seems to have helped. I'm just not used to having to give my feet the spa treatment at the end of April.
You may have noticed I mentioned Monday, Wednesday, and Friday--that's when I've been showering in recent weeks. That's it. If I'm not working, I don't see the point of showering daily. I'm pretty poky in there and would rather not waste the water, especially given just how much I was washing my hands in the early weeks (again, see my cracked finger--I honestly thought I'd cut myself at first but for the life of me couldn't recall how it might have happened). Other changed bathroom habits include conservation of toilet paper. It's a precious commodity now. I've gotten myself down to three squares per, uh, visit. Well, I'll bump it up to four if need requires, heh. But sometimes when I would throw certain items away, I'd first wrap them up in toilet paper. I've since found a way around that, so at least I'm not going through TP as much as I used to. I think that's good. I've also been putting the toilet seat down before I flush. That's something that's long been mentioned as a good habit, but I wasn't used to it. Then I read that the virus possibly could be shed through solid waste matter, and I figured I would try to contain things as best possible. Toilet seat down it is!
I got out of the habit of exercising nightly. I'd been doing *so* well with that, especially during Lent. But I couldn't exercise while I was sick, and when I started to improve, that's the timeframe when the family room was shoved into the living and dining rooms. Since dad basically lives on the family room couch, that meant he was directly below my room much of the time. I know, from hearing mom exercising in *her* room, that certain sounds would travel. I just didn't want dad to hear me, so during that timeframe I really didn't do much. Dad's unlikely to ask questions, and he's fairly hard of hearing at this point, never mind how loudly he blasts the TV. Still, I didn't want him to question anything I might be doing. It's pretty much been this past week or so that I've tried to get back into things. It helps that all the exercise equipment formerly stored in the entertainment center found its way into a large plastic tub and is now sitting outside my room. I have access to several sizes of weights, plus our Thighmaster, Buttmaster, and Shake Weight. No joke, I've kind of wanted to use those three items, so I have been pulling those out. When used regularly, they can show results.
Blinds. We've been playing with blinds lately. Every morning, I've been opening four sets of them upstairs--the two in my room, the one in my bathroom, and the one in the computer room. That last one is because I now have a plant in here, my old chive plant, evicted from the kitchen when we were about to start painting. Dad no longer wants anything on the kitchen windowsill, in part because it got trashed by all the crap we had hanging out on there previously. There were a ton of container rings and things on the sill and it looked pretty bad. Also, we've never had a full window covering in the kitchen, and dad fixed that as soon as he could. This was back on the 19th, so a couple weeks ago, but we now have blinds over the kitchen window. They're the same style as the ones he bought last year for the family room and my bathroom window. He's so excited because it really blocks out the light. It's pretty dark in the kitchen in the morning now. Better, in the afternoon when the sun really shines through that window, he can close the blinds and not get blinded. He's also paranoid that the neighbors behind us are watching us through that window. I say they have better things to do, but if you're so concerned, perhaps you shouldn't spend a ton of time in the kitchen, eh? He also put up this canvas paper over our sidelights, but he just took that down yesterday now that the house essentially is back to normal. Mom and I both like being able to look out the sidelights all the time. Again, dad's all, but people are watching us! Really? You have seen people standing on the sidewalk in front of our house just staring? If they're just walking past, whatever. But nobody just sits there and stares. We don't even have houses that face us, so it's not like there's a couple of old people sitting on their porch at night across the street or anything.
For weeks, I was eating all my meals in my bedroom, using my bedside table as my makeshift dinner table. That all changed a week ago Thursday, as I was both well enough to eat around others *AND* the kitchen table was able to be a kitchen table again--returned to its normal position, with all the chairs, and the various painting equipment removed. It was a big day. I really haven't eaten in my room since. However, because I was using my bedside table, I ended up changing things around with that. I'd had my three remotes (cable box, bed, TV) all lined up on the table, as well as my phone charger and my Serenity book. It got to be a hassle to take all of those off and put all of them back every time I ate. I have this yellow plastic container, sort of like a handle-less bucket with decorative holes punched at the top, and I was looking to re-purpose it somehow. It's now the catch-all for those items. Instead of removing five items from the table, I just remove one. (It's more than that, truthfully, but that's the bulk of things.) I've now gotten used to the remotes all being in the bucket, so what the heck. It's harder to knock them off there this way, too.
Up until this week, I'd been opening my window much of the time. Even when it was chilly outside, I still liked having the fresh air come in. Why not air the place out, especially given I was ill and spending so much time in there? I'd close it at night, and if it rained, but much of the time it was open. That is, until this week, when the wasps decided the inside part of my screen was the best place to hang out. Uh, no. I am super tempted to grab some of the blue painter's tape to try and close off the sides of my screen. Or, well, go back about thirty years and have this house's builders install screens that fit correctly. What the hell, guys?
Finally, I haven't really had any sort of schedule since I've been off. Especially early on, it wasn't uncommon for me to stay in bed until 8 or even 8:30. That first week, I was really tired. I would try to spend at least an hour in the morning reading through my backlog of papers (I have done so well with this! Whee! I have very few old ones left! …Now on to the recent ones…), and I did a lot of shredding, and some other projects. More recently, realizing I'd have to go back to work at some point, I figured it would be better to try and get up by 6:30. That…hasn't really happened, but as long as I'm out of bed by 7, I call it a win. Once I'm up, things start kicking in and I'm somewhat productive, but some mornings are harder than others. Now that I'll be going back to work, getting up is that much more important, but my schedule will be adjusted since I have at least an hour more in the mornings than I used to--I'll start at noon one day, 10 AM the other. I don't even have to shower until 8 AM, really. That's pretty much what I'm planning on doing. I'm so used to watching certain segments of the morning news that I'm not willing to give those up, heh, and I don't have to be out of bed by 6:20 right now. My thought is that I'd get up and out of bed by 6:30, then weigh myself (normal) and possibly do some exercises while I'm there (not normal). Even if it's just stretching, it's a good thing. Improving my breathing and stamina is a good thing. It's part of why I want to get back into exercising in general. I need to build myself back up.