These Are the Days of Our Lives - week 8

February 19, Sunday

Not a whole lot to report for this day, as we spent a lot of it laying in bed because of Janice's knee not being good at all.  It hasn't improved, and she says it feels better when it's elevated.  With all the cracking and grinding that you can hear and feel in it, you'd be led to believe that bone fragments have something to do with it.  Alexandra's ankle, we believe, must be broken.  It's huge and black and blue, and can't she can't move it in many ways.  Despite all this, both ladies are still working at their SDM post office.  There is no one to cover for them if they're out; something that management was warned about time and time again for ages.  And now it's down to this.  The problem here is, Loblaw doesn't allow Shoppers stores for the extra hours to post office managers like Janice to train people should things like this happen.  I blame Loblaw more than I do the stores themselves.  *  The plan was for Janice and me to have supper, in the form of steamed hot dogs and sweet baby kale salad, then pick up Alexandra at her apartment and go to outpatients to address their issues.  We did just that.  The stick in the mud is outpatients.  We went to the city hospital, and the outpatients parking lot was jam packed.  We all knew that if we went in there, we'd be waiting probably in the double-digits of hours to be seen, and likely nothing would be done anyway.  Plan B: try the French hospital.  I drive there and drop them off in outpatients and park the car, only to come back and find that the outpatients room is jam packed, with many people getting impatient and rowdy.  The same result, and a no-go.  We all agreed it didn't make any sense to even bother trying on this day.  Back to Alexandra's apartment she goes, downcast and frustrated, and we go back home.  The frustration with the health care system is real and palpable.  Premier Higgs keeps bragging about a 'surplus' while this fucking shit is going on.  *  Anyway, we get home and just head straight up to the Promised Land where Janice can get her leg up.  She requested that we watch more 'Battlestar', so we finished up the first half of season 2 and started the second half.  I know I keep writing this, but it's unbelievable how relevant this show still is, and how thought provoking.  *  And that's the kind of day it's been.

February 20, Monday

Today would be a paid holiday, Family Day.  Janice got the day off, but Alexandra had to work the mandatory four hour shift, though at double time and a half, which is kind of good because her man Cole is out of work at the present time.  *  The weather was pretty good.  Mild out but cloudy, sprinkles here and there.  Considering these are usually the dark days of winter, we'll take this.  We decided today, after careful consideration, that Janice gets to take a shot at the gym.  We've not gone since last Thursday, when she ran into knee issues, literally.  I kept a very close eye on her.  To start, I got on the treadmill and ran a mile, while she did abs training and some light weights.  Once I was done my cardio, it was free-weights Leg Day for me.  Janice grabbed a couple of dumbbells and did some high reps/low weight exercises.  Man, f/w Leg Day is a bitch!  It's probably my least favorite workout day of all of them.  I did my usuals... pistol squats, Bulgarian squats, weighted side-to-side lunges, weighted normal squats, and sumo squats - followed by calf extensions, walking weighted lunges and finishing off with barbell squats - fifteen at 135 lbs followed by ten at 240 lbs.  I might bump that up next f/w Leg Day.  We both then got on the treadmill and I did my mile-long cool down, while Janice also got on, walking 2 mph for 15 minutes or so, with me laser-focused on her if she should look at all like she's struggling.  As it all turns out, this was a good outing for both of us.  She didn't overdo it, and getting out and to the gym was great for both of our mindsets.  We've really settled in to doing this as a habit and miss it when we don't go.  Getting the heart pumping clears the head and freshens up the body.  It just feels good.  *  Back home we go, the streets very quiet around 7:00 or so with everyone chilling for this holiday, and MMH greets us as we head up to the shower.  After that, downstairs we go and I prepare to make supper, in the form of a Chef's Salad inspired by my old workplace BJ's Subs.  One of my favorite things that we do is me making supper while Janice grabs a chair and sits with me and we talk while I cook.  Sometimes we'll turn on a playlist or watch TV in there, and sometimes we just talk.  We never have a shortage of things to talk about.  I grilled four pieces of boneless, skinless chicken thighs in olive oil with salt and pepper; took the head of lettuce and hand-divided it into small bite sized pieces, and washed and rinsed them twice; washed and cut these little baby tomatoes; cut up a red onion; shredded some marble cheese; boiled a couple of eggs and sliced them; then combined it all with ranch dressing for one heck of a tasty salad.  Janice loved it, as I knew she would, as I've made it before.  She had some Bailey's and a Heineken and I had a Heineken and a DCD.  We watched a little TV, including 'The Last of Us' latest episode that was on the day before that we got on DVR.  Another pretty great episode.  We took in John Oliver after that, which is always great and informative, and funny.  This time he did a great piece on psychedelic therapy, with mushrooms, LSD, and a few other things, but mostly those.  It's being proven to be more and more beneficial to PTSD patients and depression.  Obviously this all peaks my interest.  *  After that, Marbles did his Kanga Kitty routine for his treat, which I'll have to record sometime for folks to see, we got our DCD ready in our Yetis for the night and attempted sleep.  And got it.  This is several nights in a row now where I've slept through the night.  *  And that's the kind of day it's been.

February 21, Tuesday

Woke up pretty early today, 8-ish with Janice as she went to work.  I'm on quite a string now of sleeping through the night.  *  Didn't do much of anything, though.  Leg Day yesterday is making its results known to me today, that's for sure.  Janice's mobility seems to be stable, but not necessarily improved.  Alexandra was supposed to go for an x-ray on her ankle to see what's going on if it's broken or not, but the hospital never called like the doctor said they were supposed to do, which left Lex angry and frustrated that she can't get this looked at.  Janice and me had to actually go to SDM when she was working to calm her down a little.  Janice watched the P.O. kiosk while I took Lex out for a little drive to calm her down - I told her we'll make sure, without a doubt, that she gets her x-ray tomorrow, one way or another, even if it means going out of town to get it.  We drove by the hospital outpatients, and it was packed again.  I don't know if the health care system will ever recover post-covid.  *  We did head to the gym from there, with me keeping a very close eye on Janice.  I do admire her grit an determination to keep going - I just don't want anything she does to exacerbate the condition she's dealing with.  It was free-weights Charms day this time.  The gym was packed... and I hate it when it's like that.  We started with my running a mile on the treadmill while Janice carefully walked, then we hit the bench for our exercises.  We did drop sets for everything - for my chest stuff I used 30, 40 and 50 lb dumbbells for chest presses and flys, as well as on inclines; Janice always does half my weight, and did fine with it.  Seeing a woman using 25 lb dumbbells at 55 years old is kind of unusual, you have to admit.  Then it was on to arms, where I used 20, 25 and 30 lb db's for arm curl exercises on the bench - 12 reps reclined, 12 upright then 12 face down inclined, then we drop to 10 reps next set, then 8.  Janice did half the weight again and rocked it.  It was a bit awkward keeping her bum leg out of the picture.  Then we went on to the cable machine to do tricep pushdowns, 50, 60 and 70 lbs for me, drop sets.  Janice did half the weight.  Again, did it with rope arm curls.  Over after that to do chest dips, then Janice stretched a bit and went back to the treadmill while I did my farmer's walk (we actually call it the Monkey Walk), doing two trips around the gym perimeter with two 45 lb plates.  Then I did some machine crunches, stretching, and over to the treadmill with Janice; about three or four minutes in, I noticed her knee slightly buckle, and I called it right then and there.  She walked I think 3/4 of a mile, and that was plenty, considering she can't put much weight on her left knee.  *  Homeward bound - we'd gotten a few cans of Heineken to go with a pizza we ordered for this Fat Tuesday.  We only drank one king can each, though.  As of midnight, alcohol is completely out, even on Sundays through Lent season.  We watched some of our usual TV stuff, then headed to the Promised Land, escorted by Marvellous Marbles Hagler after he had his supper with us.  It was time for dessert!  He did his Kanga Kitty routine and got his meatstick treat.  We settled into bed and around 1:30 or so, it's lights out.  *  And that's the kind of day it's been.

February 22, Wednesday

Not a bad day.  Sunny outside with temps around minus 5 or so, and a chilly night that featured a great look at the crescent moon flanked by a very bright Jupiter and Venus.  *  I was up early once again, though I could've used a bit more sleep, but Janice could've used more.  She's the one who works, after all.  She got home after work and then promptly went for her own x-ray at the hospital.  The doc will give her results when she goes to see him tomorrow.  She'll also tell him about an annoying dull pain I've had in my lower left flank side for over a month now, and my suspicion is that it could be a kidney stone lurking.  I've felt this before.  But if I can catch it before it makes me crawl, literally, that would be nice.  Might be nothing too.  Either way, not terribly worried.  Janice, on the other hand, is dealing with too much with her left knee.  Way too much pain.  She can't put much weight on that leg at all.  *  Once she got home, we both agreed it'd be a good idea to take a short sleep, so we did.  We woke up around 5:30 or so, and got ourselves geared up for the gym once again.  What we did today, both of us, was fast for Ash Wednesday, where we didn't eat anything until we had a waffle each when we woke up from our afternoon snooze.  Lent is now underway.  *  Off to the gym we go.  Starting off with my running a mile while Janice gingerly walked with her brace on, then it was on to machine Shack Day.  Did all kinds of exercises utilizing equipment to work our backs and shoulders, some ab work, and back on the treadmill for another mile for me - Janice stopped when I reached it.  Most people, I think, wouldn't go to the gym with a bad leg like that, but she's pretty insistent on continuing.  The girl's got some serious power.  *  Back home we go after nearly two hours at PF, we hit the shower, and had a merry conversation with MMH.  It's suppertime.  We forego the meat today to honor Ash Wednesday, having bagels with garlic spread and melted cheddar in the oven, with broccoli and cheddar rice.  It was quite a great combo, really.  Diet Canada Dry was the liquid of choice, as it is most days.  We watched Chris Hayes, who was subbed by Ali Velshi doing on-location reporting in Ukraine.  He does really good work when he does this kind of stuff, showing what needs to be seen.  A lot of heartbreaking footage, but necessary to keep the awareness of the brutality of the war in the public eye.  Watched a bit of Alex Wagner after that, which is hit and miss for me.  She often covers stuff that's already been covered, sometimes too much.  I decided I was going to make cookies again.  Only this time, not the ginger snap variety, but Mom's chocolate chip cookie recipe she liked to use.  I have this box of her recipes she used to keep, and one of them had an old Baker's Chocolate Chips wrapper from the 70's with the cookie recipe on it.  I followed it, and boy those cookies taste just like Mom's. Like her ginger snaps.  I'll have to post the recipe for those.  *  Up to the Promised Land we go, Janice gets on her Cookie Crush game, and I turn on AEW Dynamite, a marked improvement from last week.  They're gearing up to promote a pay-per-view in early March, doing a good job of it.  *  Not a lot more to report on the day than this - as that's the kind of day it's been.

February 23, Thursday

Chilly out, minus 10 but sunny and a calm evening.  Snow is supposed to be on the way, but apparently not much.  A cold snap is also coming, but not like that polar vortex crap we had to deal with recently.  I hope.  *  Janice got her x-ray done today, though I don't think she gets results until next week where the doc's office isn't open until Tuesday.  Her knee has improved, but that doesn't mean it's 100% by any means.  The doc said he thinks that a scope may be necessary to clear the debris in the knee.  When she bends her knees, it's pretty noisy.  Definitely something going on in there.  I have to go to the hospital tomorrow for a KUB x-ray myself, as I'm suspicious of possible kidney stones.  I think I mentioned that.  It's been a calm, quiet 8 years since my last bout with those little bastards, so I get the feeling I'm due soon.  It'd be nice if I snagged it before it became a problem.  *  After Janice got home from work and her x-ray today, we loafed around and talked a lot, before getting ready to hit the gym once again.  On the menu later would be broccoli casserole, which will feed us for two days - today and Saturday - we give it a break tomorrow when we have baked haddock and chips, which will be kind of a Friday staple through Lent season.  Then we finish off the casserole Saturday, which will mean four straight days with no meat, something else that we try to do through Lent, which is to cut down on it.  Anyway, we went to PF which is supposed to be machines Leg Day, at least for me, because Janice has to abstain from that until her knee gets better.  She wound up doing ab stuff and very light cardio while I did my seven leg exercises, which culminated in a brand new squat record for me, 260 lbs for five reps.  I surprised myself a bit.  I did quite a lot of ab stuff and a Monkey Walk around the gym twice before joining Janice on the treadmill for a mile to finish.  Also, this is four days in a row where I ran a mile to start off.  I start the workout running a mile, and end it walking one, albeit walking fast.  Janice was able to get in over three miles today, which is encouraging.  She's a tank.  *  After a 2 hour workout, it was time to go home for our showers, and I had to assemble the casserole, which had brown Minute Rice, two heads of broccoli, green onions, marble cheese, celery, cream of chicken soup, and salt and pepper with garlic powder.  It turned out pretty great.  This makes for an easy meal Saturday, too.  We watched 'Star Trek: Picard' - a so-so episode if you ask me, and I'm getting a little weary of being told how great the upcoming seasons of these shows are going to be, only to disappoint as it goes on.  *  Up to the Promised Land we go, MMH gets his meatstick treat after his Kanga Kitty routine, and we settle in bed for the night.  Not a lot going on news-wise.  *  And that's the kind of day it's been.

February 24, Friday

Woke up relatively refreshed today, as a bit of a streak continues for sleeping thru the night.  I'll be honest, I don't expect it to last forever, but I'm enjoying it while it's going.  *  Janice got home from work on this rather icy day, and we head out to Sobeys with her Mom's grocery list.  Of course, it was pertinent for me to tag along with her today because she's getting around with a cane lately.  Her leg is getting better, but we need to be cautious.  By 'getting better', I mean the pain is improving, but the condition of it isn't.  I truly believe she needs to have it scoped.  *  We get Mama's shopping done and bring her the goods, with which I demanded a kiss and a hug and "I love you!", and it was back home where we prepare to hit the gym one more time for the week.  Today would be machine Charms Day.  Friday nights are wonderful at PF, because it's so peaceful with not too many people.  When it comes to machine workout days, I like to strive for at least seven exercises, and that's what we did.  We really challenged ourselves with higher weights tonight, something I like to do on these machine days, because it helps us prepare to lift higher with free-weights.  We finish off prematurely on the treadmill, because after I got on after Janice has been on it a bit longer, I noticed her knee buckle and I called it right then and there.  All in all, the workout was quite successful.  She's walking a little bit faster every time we go.  Of course, the goal there is to get her leg strong enough to be cane-free.  She does go see the doc on Wednesday to discuss options.  *  Home through the chilly night we go.  In full disclosure for journal purposes, Janice made a bit of a nasty joke towards me as we pulled in the driveway that I took very personally, and I went into shutdown mode.  Meaning, I couldn't process what was said, so words clogged up any transit of emotions and just sat with me.  This was an example of why I have this mental disability where it stops me cold.  A normal person would let it roll off like water off a duck's back - but I'm not that duck.  I'm an emotionally weak old man that never quite grew up to deal with this kind of thing when it comes along, certainly not from those close to me.  I continued with the evening, trying to shake it off in futility, making baked fish & chips in the oven I'd thoroughly cleaned earlier in the day.  Man, that was a job.  I Easy-Offed it, let it sit for several hours, then scrubbed and scrubbed with a bucket and pail and a scrub pad all over and got it pretty satisfactory.  When we got home I rinsed it once more to get the residue off, took a shower and made the fish & chips - that was a bit redundant.  Supper was quite good.  Janice tried to break through my wall, but when I'm dealing with this, I think time is the only thing that will bring it down.  A lot of things go through my mind when I'm sorting things out during this kind of thing.  The biggest worry is the urge to self-harm, which was enormous Friday night.  I felt ugly, unattractive, loathsome, and downright unapproachable.  I think everyone who knows me well enough has had to deal with me in this state at one point or another.  *  We did watch a few things on TV, and headed upstairs where I took oil, for a second time as I took some as soon as we got in the house in an effort to ward off the self-harm thing (it worked), and after quickly giving Marbles his goodies for the evening, it's about time for lights out.  *  And that's the kind of day it's been.

February 25, Saturday

Woke up today with a bit of fog, from the result of dealing with my anxiety toward the end of yesterday.  It is tough sleeping when I deal with these episodes, because bad dreams tend to creep in, which affects how I feel when I wake up.  I did get a reasonable amount of sleep - but there's room for improvement.  *  I came around slowly as the afternoon crept toward the evening.  I made the decision to make a distraction when I woke up:  I was going to make a shit ton of cookies.  Oatmeal, ginger snaps and chocolate chip.  I knew this would take up a large portion of the day, but I considered it therapy.  I asked Janice if she wanted to come to Costco with me, to which she cheerfully accepted.  For her part, she feels very guilty about what was said yesterday, but it was just a mistake.  If fault is to be assigned here, it's to me for being too fucking sensitive and not being able to take a joke - although this one felt excruciatingly personal.  But in retrospect, she knew that as soon as she said it.  Everyone screws up once in a while.  I screwed up more letting it get to me.  *  We head out to Costco - gotta get margarine, gotta get margarine, gotta get margarine - picked up waffles, looked for and didn't find a tub of Crisco, got this cinnamon that I now regret getting because I think it's the hot kind, brown sugar, looked for and didn't get Gatorade for the gym, Janice picked out a pair of shirts she wanted for me and got some for her, too; also got one of those Kirkland water filtration pitchers, where our cold water on our water cooler is on the blink - literally, and that was more or less it.  As we drove away of course I knew I forgot the freakin' margarine.  *  Off to Walmart we go.  I wanted mixing bowls for all the stuff I was about to start baking.  So, I got some really nice ones, oven mitts which I should've tried on because the ones I picked up are quite small, a bag of quick oats, that tub of Crisco, and I was pretty much good to go.  *  Back home we go, for Janice to attempt our tax returns, which are exceedingly difficult this year, and we'll have to seek help for, while I got to baking.  I actually made the chocolate chip cookies earlier, I forgot to mention, then made the dough logs for the ginger snaps, so next was slicing up the logs to make the actual cookies.  The cinnamon I used was Sobeys 'Compliments' brand, and I found it inferior to something like Club House, which is why I got the cinnamon from Costco, but I won't be using that either.  I don't want my ginger snaps to set our mouths on fire or anything.  Ah yes, I got a couple of Rubbermaid containers for the cookies I was about to make too.  Lots of ginger snaps later, it was on to the oatmeal cookie recipe I found on the internet a few years ago.  I think it's more apt to call them 'butter oatmeal' cookies, because the recipe calls for a cup of butter rather than shortening, leaving them with a pretty immaculate flavor.  Boy, that recipe made a lot of cookies!  No problem here.  Janice insists that she loves all these cookies I made, especially where she's not a 'chocolate chip cookie' person.  But the recipe I use is the one Mom used to always use, and I use milk chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet, so that seemed to make the difference for her.  She also loves the butter-oatmeal one.  Those particular cookies are great for breakfast, because they're so hearty and loaded with oatmeal, with a crispy edge and bottom.  Anyway, cookies are all done, and we're set for quite a while.  I felt quite satisfied having carried out what I set out to do.  *  Suppertime was warmed up in the nuker, the broccoli casserole we had left over from Thursday.  Fridays through Lent are fish & chips day, that's why there's that lapse.  This will be four straight no-meat days for us, which is something else I'm kind of proud of.  I feel more and more worse getting meat from factory farms knowing how many of them treat their animals.  We'll be getting a meat order from a local farmer next week.  The difference in quality couldn't be more stark.  *  By the time supper was done, I was beginning to feel more like 'Shaka... when the walls fell!' (Star Trek TNG reference), which largely was why I wanted to do all that baking, to get my mind moving somewhere else.  We decided to watch the movie 'Contact' on the Starz network on Crave, which would be the second time this week I've seen it.  Janice had mentioned she wishes she saw it with me, so I had no problem watching it again.  With subtitles.  I know there are folks out there that loathe subtitles, but it's surprising how eye opening it can be to use them, especially with detailed movies like this.  *  There was no gym today, as we thought five days straight was fine, and it's good to let our bodies recupe for a day at least, and start up with free-weights Shack Day next time, which is the beginning of the cycle.  It was on to The Promised Land where we settled in for the night, watching 'The Proof Is Out There' and 'The UnXplained' on DVR, and eventually calling it a night after giving our loyal Marbles his tasty meatstick, with a side of fingers.  *  Something I forgot to mention that was quite funny... I almost pride myself on being Canada's Worst Handyman.  It's been a cold weekend, so I took to putting weather stripping around the doors, which seemed to work okay, in an effort to thwart the draft that we feel a lot.  So I said to Janice, "I've got an idea."  The dryer vent is virtually in the kitchen, because there's not much separating where we do our laundry from the kitchen itself.  And the hole in the wall for the dryer vent isn't very well sealed off.  This is a job for Canada's Worst Handyman!  Leave everything to me.... I took a bunch of old socks (clean ones of course), and enlisted Janice to help me in tying them all together to make this long chain of 'sock rope', with which I took to winding around the end of the dryer hose.  Laugh if you want, but it worked!  The draft was largely eliminated.  But there was a lot of laughs while we were tying those socks together.  This is a classic handyman job of yours truly.  It reminded us of one Christmas where we have this macrame Santa thing that my sister Cindy made with a Pringles can, and this cone goes on top of it that's supposed to be Santa's hat.  I had the brilliant idea of the three of us chewing a whole bunch of gum and sticking it on the top of the can and 'gluing' the cone to the can.  So it's funny to think of the three of us with these huge wads of gum in our mouths so we can stick this Christmas ornament together - but with one major complication:  The gum was Hubba Bubba, notorious for being non-stick.  Clearly this was a misfire, but a hilarious one!  Fast forward to the sock-rope, and at least this idea kind of worked.  And not a single chew was required.  *  Anyway, that's the kind of week it was.