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Aching Back and Not-So-Tired Dogs
Feb. 17th, 2019 06:17 pmThe week ended with more than my usual share of aggravation. We largely begged off the bling and ca-ching! of Valentines Day this year (Eleanor works retail and sees way more of it than she can stand), so for me Thursday was just National Discombobulation Day. (That's really a word, according to spellcheck, although I've never seen it used as one. "Spellcheck," on the other hand, pops a red underline. Go figure.)
Going into Thursday, I expected to have three commitments: a 9:30 Rochester court appearance; an 11:00 appointment at a client's near there, timed so I'd head over to see him after court; and a 5:00 appointment at my office here after I got back. A bit busier than average day, but doable. Then it all started discombobulating. (Also a word, apparently.)
- The 9:30 court appearance transmogrified into an 11:30 phone conference, even before I got on the road. Yay! No suit and tie! I slept a little longer, and left to get to the 11:00 client appointment a little early, which the client had said would be okay.
- Client wasn't ready before 11. Also wasn't ready at 11, or even 11:30 when the call from Hurhonner was supposed to come in. No worries; I'd brought my laptop with me and got things done. Finally, he rolled in moments after the Very Important Call was about to come in- which, by the time he and I finished, never had. Instead, an email arrived as I was driving away from his office: Hurhonner will call at 1 p.m. Please confirm receipt of this email. Not please confirm you can do it at 1 p.m. That attitude comes as standard equipment with the black robe and the armed deputies.
- Once on that phone call, things went well, until a text came in moments later from Buffalo: Your 1:30 appointment is here. What, don't you read this blog? I had no such thing. I did have a 1:30 appointment I'd made for the NEXT day, made specifically because I was out of town on this day. She'd missed that part. We rescheduled.
- Other things took longer than expected, and I had doubts I'd make it back to Buffalo by 5, so I emailed that client (who was coming at rush hour from work herself) to say I might be a few minutes late. A reply: Oh. I thought we were meeting at 5 TOMORROW.
By now I was expecting EVERYTHING to go wrong, so naturally one more thing did: getting off the 90 to head the last mile to the office, I began to hear a grinding noise while braking. It had been a stupidly windy day, after an even windier one the day before when I was almost blown off my feet in downtown Buffalo and my stupid car's panic button started going off on its own again, so I gave it Friday to see if it sorted. It did no such thing, so I made a service appointment for Monday, then took one quick drive to the bank (this will be important later) and then to the downtown library to pick up a perfectly lovely indie film directed by the guy who directed the perfectly lovely indie film we saw right before the equally lovely indie film mentioned in my last post. Car was still noisy but seemed to handle okay. The premature Thursday client appointment went fine, and we watched the newest film that night when we both got home.
Both of us were dragging it yesterday, but we began another definitely not indie film with Bruce Willis that Eleanor picked up in her travels. Meanwhile, I resolved to have no more travels in my car, since my Saturday trips convinced me that my noise was getting worse. We resolved to take it in to the dealer this afternoon, and further that I would take her car for Pepper's Sunday dog-parking as well as a workout I'd booked not far from my car's dealership.
----
The two trips that convinced me of that were of mixed results.
First, to my office for anything that came in after I left earlyish on Friday afternoon, followed by running a check over to my business bank. This is when I discovered my business debit/ATM card was missing. I'm 99 percent sure I just forgot to wait for it to spit back out when I finished the Important Later Friday Deposit and that it is therefore stuck back in the machine- but because of the holiday tomorrow, I was informed that I won't find out until they clean out the ATM on Tuesday whether it's in there. All I can do in the meantime is wait, and check periodically online to make sure H@ckerbo1! isn't draining my business account (no, so far:).
The better car trip was at the end of the day. Dog and I actually worked in a bonus trip to the Parp!, since the sun was out for once, I'd slept through her usual morning walkie time, and I decided to take her. We usually go mornings, so the afternoon crew tends to bring a different bunch than we usually see. This trip included a wild and crazy 7-month-old puppy named Jake, who followed her around for most of the visit-
- and then this one, who has no name we know but we wound up spending more time with-
Afternoon park people tend to be a little more free-range with their dogs than the ones we see in our usual morning visits, but this guy was alone in most of his encounters with Pepper. Eventually, I came upon his mommy, who was friendly enough but had a problem: she desperately needed a restroom, and the ones in the shelter were shut for the winter. I mentioned the Tim Horton's a block away as an option, and she thanked me. Next I knew, Not Jake was standing in a far corner just staring at nothing in particular, and Mommy was on the bridge heading out of the park without him. I resolved to hang with our dog until she came back (which she did, in about as long as I figured the potty break would take). It made for a longer and colder visit than expected, but at least I didn't fall on my ass on any of the very-present ice.
This, also, will be important later.
----
This morning was the usual routine, except what wasn't. Pepper took her first ride in Alanis the plug-in electric; she seemed discombobulated being in a thing called a "back seat," which she'd never been in for the previous almost nine months. My troubles began as soon as I stepped out of the car with her: my back sent up instant messages of OW!
I've had issues with seat settings in some past cars, but never one where just five minutes of driving was enough to send me into pain. It then got worse on the first trip round the "Canine Loop," when I was watching my steps very carefully, mantra-ing to myself, don't slip on the ice, don't slip on the ice,.... and slipped on the ice. It didn't feel any worse than I already did, and by the end of the park trip I felt something resembling normal, but when I got home, it was more of the same. Eleanor then explained that the new car has adjustments for forward and back, but also up and down and angling of the seat itself. Somehow these had aggravated things for me. I'd signed up for a charity workout, and kept the appointment, although not going nearly as "all-out" as I usually do; she came to meet me at the dealer when it was done, and I've tried soaking, heating-padding, and, yes, more wine-ing than we've done in weeks. Tomorrow will tell if this was some random thing, or whether I'm going to have to get orthopedists into my life.
We're finishing Fifth Element tonight, I'm working from home in the morning, and then we'll see if me and the back are up to a Rochester appointment I've booked for 2 tomorrow. If I'm not quite sure things are good, this will be the one where I discombobulate other people for once.
And yes, that's a word.
Going into Thursday, I expected to have three commitments: a 9:30 Rochester court appearance; an 11:00 appointment at a client's near there, timed so I'd head over to see him after court; and a 5:00 appointment at my office here after I got back. A bit busier than average day, but doable. Then it all started discombobulating. (Also a word, apparently.)
- The 9:30 court appearance transmogrified into an 11:30 phone conference, even before I got on the road. Yay! No suit and tie! I slept a little longer, and left to get to the 11:00 client appointment a little early, which the client had said would be okay.
- Client wasn't ready before 11. Also wasn't ready at 11, or even 11:30 when the call from Hurhonner was supposed to come in. No worries; I'd brought my laptop with me and got things done. Finally, he rolled in moments after the Very Important Call was about to come in- which, by the time he and I finished, never had. Instead, an email arrived as I was driving away from his office: Hurhonner will call at 1 p.m. Please confirm receipt of this email. Not please confirm you can do it at 1 p.m. That attitude comes as standard equipment with the black robe and the armed deputies.
- Once on that phone call, things went well, until a text came in moments later from Buffalo: Your 1:30 appointment is here. What, don't you read this blog? I had no such thing. I did have a 1:30 appointment I'd made for the NEXT day, made specifically because I was out of town on this day. She'd missed that part. We rescheduled.
- Other things took longer than expected, and I had doubts I'd make it back to Buffalo by 5, so I emailed that client (who was coming at rush hour from work herself) to say I might be a few minutes late. A reply: Oh. I thought we were meeting at 5 TOMORROW.
By now I was expecting EVERYTHING to go wrong, so naturally one more thing did: getting off the 90 to head the last mile to the office, I began to hear a grinding noise while braking. It had been a stupidly windy day, after an even windier one the day before when I was almost blown off my feet in downtown Buffalo and my stupid car's panic button started going off on its own again, so I gave it Friday to see if it sorted. It did no such thing, so I made a service appointment for Monday, then took one quick drive to the bank (this will be important later) and then to the downtown library to pick up a perfectly lovely indie film directed by the guy who directed the perfectly lovely indie film we saw right before the equally lovely indie film mentioned in my last post. Car was still noisy but seemed to handle okay. The premature Thursday client appointment went fine, and we watched the newest film that night when we both got home.
Both of us were dragging it yesterday, but we began another definitely not indie film with Bruce Willis that Eleanor picked up in her travels. Meanwhile, I resolved to have no more travels in my car, since my Saturday trips convinced me that my noise was getting worse. We resolved to take it in to the dealer this afternoon, and further that I would take her car for Pepper's Sunday dog-parking as well as a workout I'd booked not far from my car's dealership.
----
The two trips that convinced me of that were of mixed results.
First, to my office for anything that came in after I left earlyish on Friday afternoon, followed by running a check over to my business bank. This is when I discovered my business debit/ATM card was missing. I'm 99 percent sure I just forgot to wait for it to spit back out when I finished the Important Later Friday Deposit and that it is therefore stuck back in the machine- but because of the holiday tomorrow, I was informed that I won't find out until they clean out the ATM on Tuesday whether it's in there. All I can do in the meantime is wait, and check periodically online to make sure H@ckerbo1! isn't draining my business account (no, so far:).
The better car trip was at the end of the day. Dog and I actually worked in a bonus trip to the Parp!, since the sun was out for once, I'd slept through her usual morning walkie time, and I decided to take her. We usually go mornings, so the afternoon crew tends to bring a different bunch than we usually see. This trip included a wild and crazy 7-month-old puppy named Jake, who followed her around for most of the visit-
- and then this one, who has no name we know but we wound up spending more time with-
Afternoon park people tend to be a little more free-range with their dogs than the ones we see in our usual morning visits, but this guy was alone in most of his encounters with Pepper. Eventually, I came upon his mommy, who was friendly enough but had a problem: she desperately needed a restroom, and the ones in the shelter were shut for the winter. I mentioned the Tim Horton's a block away as an option, and she thanked me. Next I knew, Not Jake was standing in a far corner just staring at nothing in particular, and Mommy was on the bridge heading out of the park without him. I resolved to hang with our dog until she came back (which she did, in about as long as I figured the potty break would take). It made for a longer and colder visit than expected, but at least I didn't fall on my ass on any of the very-present ice.
This, also, will be important later.
----
This morning was the usual routine, except what wasn't. Pepper took her first ride in Alanis the plug-in electric; she seemed discombobulated being in a thing called a "back seat," which she'd never been in for the previous almost nine months. My troubles began as soon as I stepped out of the car with her: my back sent up instant messages of OW!
I've had issues with seat settings in some past cars, but never one where just five minutes of driving was enough to send me into pain. It then got worse on the first trip round the "Canine Loop," when I was watching my steps very carefully, mantra-ing to myself, don't slip on the ice, don't slip on the ice,.... and slipped on the ice. It didn't feel any worse than I already did, and by the end of the park trip I felt something resembling normal, but when I got home, it was more of the same. Eleanor then explained that the new car has adjustments for forward and back, but also up and down and angling of the seat itself. Somehow these had aggravated things for me. I'd signed up for a charity workout, and kept the appointment, although not going nearly as "all-out" as I usually do; she came to meet me at the dealer when it was done, and I've tried soaking, heating-padding, and, yes, more wine-ing than we've done in weeks. Tomorrow will tell if this was some random thing, or whether I'm going to have to get orthopedists into my life.
We're finishing Fifth Element tonight, I'm working from home in the morning, and then we'll see if me and the back are up to a Rochester appointment I've booked for 2 tomorrow. If I'm not quite sure things are good, this will be the one where I discombobulate other people for once.
And yes, that's a word.