Ignoring the Doctor’s Warning!

(Let’s face it. You know me. Isn’t it about time?)

I watched a couple of episodes of “The Rifleman” while I ate breakfast (oatmeal, again), took my pills, shot up my antibiotic, saline and heparin, took my blood pressure and checked my blood sugar.

As I said before, “The Rifleman” was an old (1950’s?) western show I used to watch as a kid and they show like six episodes early every Saturday morning on AMC. I get a nostalgic kick out of watching it now.

I weighed myself and filled in all the information in my doctor diary." Then I got cleaned up and dressed and got to work. Now, I know I was told I couldn’t sweep, mop or vacuum by both my doctor and the physical therapists. And, I tried to be good.

Remember I had a social worker come to the house? Well, he was sent there when I complained to the home nurse about the cat hair and “stuff” building up in the house. He provided me with three names of people he said were reputable house cleaners. I tried calling and leaving messages with two of them (the other he said was more like Mom’s Cora, a little housekeeping but mostly help bathing, making dinner, etc.). He warned me that all of them were from the East side and might not want to drive this far.

Neither of them ever returned my several messages!

So, I girded my loins (actually, tightened my back brace) and started cleaning the damn house. I vacuumed, swept, dust mopped the wood floors and then washed them (with my Swifter, so I wouldn’t have to lift a heavy bucket of water) and swept and washed the kitchen and main bathroom floors (again with the Swifter).

I took my time, tried to be careful (no BLT’s) and used the “grabber” to pick stuff off the floors. While I was doing that, I also washed all the blankets I had used in the living room and the office. I folded the extra blankets up and put them in the linen closet.

I didn’t get around to dusting or washing glass surfaces, or cleaning the kitchen counters or the stove but the house looks 100% better.

Oh, and I finally changed the furnace filters (about two months too late).

Then I quit for the day, took off my brace, took a pain pill and laid down for a late afternoon rest. I thought I’d take a nap, but I made the mistake of starting to read a library book.

Somewhere in the middle of that, Jake called and we chatted for a while. Well, he talked and I listened, as my side of any conversation is admittedly short (same old, same old, nothing much new).

Later, I moved all the clocks ahead one hour (and I seem to have a lot of clocks – two downstairs; four in the kitchen, counting the stove, microwave, coffeemaker and wall clock; the mantle clock in the living room and the alarm clocks in the office and my bedroom). I need a new battery for the one in the main bath, so I didn’t need to mess with it.

As I was doing this, I couldn’t help but marvel how close Spring is now. I know I complained in the past that I had missed last summer completely and now I realized I’ve missed this Winter as well (I really wanted to do some cross-country skiing). Getting old (and sick) sucks!

I had an apple and a protein drink for lunch while I was working and for dinner I just made a sandwich (with a pickle on the side). I was going to watch TV, but the book was interesting. When I finished it, it was close to midnight (really 11:00 PM), so I just went to bed.