Passed!

Good gravy! I hurt. I thought my spouse and I were going to split the driving to reset the computer codes on the car. Nope, she didn’t sleep last night. She wanted to split ALL the driving last night, I insisted we don’t. She didn’t realize how long it really takes to drive that far...in the city.

I don’t even remember how many times I went past the mall that the testing site is behind. I still had 30 miles to go and not a lot of time so I hopped on I55, got off at the next exit, got back on and exited where I started. Rinse and repeat. Lol! Then I went for the test. I beat the last day of the month, last hour before closing rush. Only 1 car ahead of me. I figured I had enough miles put on, I had topped of the tank with premium gas before I started. I sat in the booth, fingers and toes crossed and said a prayer. I was concerned because it seemed to take longer than the car ahead of me. I PASSED! Turns out the reason mine took longer, was because my PASS paperwork had to print. The guy ahead of me failed and had to pay for an extension in the office while I paid for my registration. 

I know what you’re thinking. Lola! Why do you wait til the day before to get the car fixed and then the last day to get the emissions test and pay the registration? Money. I had a car repair the month before (power steering pump) and a new battery for the Pilot. And the repairs yesterday. I had to make sure I made it to the end of the month, and had enough. Technically there is no registration late fee until 30 days after the plates expired. I’ve paid it the next month more times than before the expiration date. Yes, I risk getting pulled over and getting a ticket, but the last 2 times I was late I got pulled over and schmoozed my way out of them.  Not bragging, it took a lot to accomplish it.

Tomorrow my spouse is putting the sticker on. My son had to little old lady walk me from the car to the house. I barely made it up the stairs when I got home.

So I took a muscle relaxant and am icing my back. Pain meds will be around 10:30, in the hopes that they help me sleep more than 2 hours. (It worked yesterday!) Good thing I did go to the doctor yesterday. The PT staff told me I couldn’t use ice or heat because of my skin infection. Wrong! Doctor said as long as there is a cloth between the ice pack and my skin I can do ice or heat. And I found out I lost 9 pounds since my last visit. Yay me!

So I’m just going to chill and watch Christmas movies. I started watching them a couple days before Thanksgiving. Trying to up my mood. 

Lola’s Diner cc  2008 - 2018

Yeah I’m here

I had my first day of PT in 4 months. EVERYTHING hurts. I’m going to a different place. I briefly went there before and didn’t like it, don’t like it now. I like the chain PT place, but this is what my new insurance pays for. The “exercises” just aren’t “right”. The movements and the way they had me use the Pilates Ring is not right. It’s supposed to be used to build up the abs. The way they showed me to use it today does not affect my abs. If it did my abs would be hurting. They aren’t. And the ab pain would be mild to moderate. But my back and shoulders feel like they thought I was Stretch Armstrong and they pulled my arms and back too much and tied me in a pretzel knot. My lower back is burning. Burning is not good. Dr Google does not say good things about lower back burning. If I sleep tonight and still feel it in the morning I’m going to call whichever doctor I can get ahold of, back doctor or PCP. 

After PT I went to pick up my spouse’s prescriptions at CVS Target and bought a microwave oven. I just didn’t stroll in and grab one, I researched a lot online. I spent less than $100 and it’s the same size and wattage as the old one.

It matches the fridge and the toaster oven/convection oven. So most of the kitchen is stainless steel and the rest is Bisque. It all works so I’m fine with it. 

Time to take some serious pain medication. I really hope Dr Google is wrong. 

Update:

The pain medication got me to fall asleep.  I did not take 1, I took 2. The Rx label said 1-2, I never noticed that. After about 2 hours I was awake and painfully tossing and turning. No more sleep and every time I got up for the bathroom I did the hunchback walk because I couldn’t stand up straight. I called my PCP when they opened at 7:30am. He is on vacation so I made an appointment with another doctor in the practice. Normally they don’t do that, but when the receptionist asked why I needed to see a doctor she kind of quietly gasped. So my spouse just called and told me what the PT staff said. They claim the burning means it’s healing. I don’t know what kind of crack they are smoking, but they need to put down the pipes. I’ve had this before, it means damage.

Update 2:

The car cost less than the estimate, but there’s bad news. Catalytic Converter, 1 bad strut, and something my spouse can’t remember.

The doctor I saw didn’t want to do a CT scan or order an MRI. He adjusted how I take my current pain meds (more often) and told me to follow up with my usual doctor end of next week. And no PT unless I get cleared for it at my follow up.

Lola’s Diner cc 2008-2018

How can I live without a microwave oven?

Today I was told that yesterday our microwave oven exploded. Well, not exploded, but end result is the same. LOUD sound, not working. That happened yesterday morning, so my spouse left it unplugged since then. She plugs it in tonight, it sounds like a microwave oven aircraft carrier. She unplugs it. I say I’m going to go check to see what’s on sale. She says, well let’s try it again in the morning. I’m not even joking!

This really sux because the car is going in on Thursday. (It’s going to cost $240 to fix. We have to drive it for 150 miles so the computer resets before I can take it for the emissions test. So that’s, $50 in gas, maybe more? And we have nowhere to go, we’re just going to be driving around. Yes, I Googled. (It sounded whack, I had to check.) The OBD (on board diagnostic) has to reset by driving the car. 

I looked on all the store apps I can think of:  Target, Walmart, Kohl’s, Best Buy, BBB, Sears, Kmart, Lowe’s, Home Depot, JC Penney, Macy’s. I can’t think of anything else. 

Walmart store won’t show the prices. All the other stores did not have any of the items I wanted in store, so I would have to ship to store or have it delivered in a WEEK! I can’t wait a week to microwave food! 

Here’s my post from January 2012:

http://lolasdiner.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-long-can-you-survive-without.html?m=1

So my microwave oven lasted almost 6 years. There is no way I’m waiting 2 weeks like I did for that one!

If it’s not one thing, it’s another...and another...

Lola’s Diner cc 2008-2018

Apartment please! Please?

I am a nervous wreck since Tuesday. My daughter had her 6 month meeting. This was just her semi-annual meeting, not, “The Apartment Meeting”.

The meeting Tuesday went well. I can even say it’s the best meeting yet. Well, it should be, time and all. There’s always room for improvement, and just like any “review”, even if things were near perfect, they will turn the most infinitesimal thing, into a thing just so they can give you a demerit. (That’s always been my experience.) So what was it? When she asserts herself in situations with the sole housemate on her floor she doesn’t speak loud enough to be heard. I take issue with that for several reasons: 1) my daughter speaks in the same conversational tone as she does with anyone, 2) it’s not my daughter’s fault that her housemate claims to be hard of hearing, 3) if my daughter were to raise her voice, a verbal fight would ensue, and my daughter would not feel safe. So she got points for asserting herself, but...it’s bs.

So at the end of the meeting, even though I told my daughter NOT to do it, she asked what her chances were for getting into an apartment. So they brought up how my daughter doesn’t do all her chores, all the time. It’s mostly because she goes on home visits on the weekend because no staff will drive her to work, and on Fridays they pick her up over 3 hours late. No joke. The other reason is because her sole housemate doesn’t always do her chores, so...wait for it...”it’s not fair!” Life isn’t fair. She’s never going to do her chores all the time so don’t get yourself in trouble for not doing chores. And yes, if she doesn’t sweep the kitchen on her nights there will be more to sweep for you. Suck it up buttercup. Things won’t change until my daughter gets into an apartment and she can’t get into one if she doesn’t do HER chores. 

So I’m talking until I’m blue in the face. This “fair” thing drives me bat crap crazy. Both my kids do it at my house. “It’s not fair.” If life were fair we’d all win the lottery.

I’m also trying to delay “The Apartment Meeting” so my daughter has an opportunity to turn things around. Tuesday night I stayed up late and wrote out “Apartment Success List” index cards, took photos of 

them and sent them to her. Yes, I’m totally nuts! Who does that? A parent who wants their disabled young adult kid to succeed. So, yeah, that’s me. 

One of the cards said “Make your bed right after you get up. Snap a photo and send it to me.” The first day was a fail. She forgot. I wanted the photo to make her accountable and see what her idea of a neatly made bed is. The next day I get a photo of her bed made, kind of sloppy, and it looked like she was in it! She’ll kill me, but you have to see it.

Doesn’t that look like a body in the bed? Black pants, white foot? Ok, not really foot, but at first glance! Where did she get that many pillows that she thought  to stuff them under the comforter long ways? 

We had a good laugh anyway. So after she gets back from work she will be learning how to make a bed neatly...even if you have 12 pillows. Lol! We will also go over the index cards.

It really isn’t fair if they say no to an apartment now. Now is the time. Make it now before her housemate sucks the soul out of her. The verbal abuse, slamming doors, in the face yelling, threatening, screaming at all hours, barging into my daughter’s room without knocking, almost causing falls on the steep staircase...that all disappears with an apartment. The ‘she’s not doing her chores, why should I do mine...it’s not fair’...that all disappears with an apartment too. And, our family, are willing to do everything we can to help make it a success for her. How many other clients can say that?

Maybe I was wrong to get her living room furniture (free and super cheap used. Salvation Army was good enough for my first apartment. I’m not an heiress here.) She knows about that stuff, and my old dining room set. I also got her a lot of kitchenware and home decor stuff that she doesn’t know about. I stopped looking for stuff. I look at the Black Friday ads and think, wow, that’s a deal, I should take her to get that. I feel like the more I do, I’ll jinx it. It’s stupid I know, but I’m weird like that about things sometimes. 

TMI?

Lola’s Diner cc 2008-2018