2010 Is Over...

**** Beware ****
**** This is not a fun blog ****


As 2010 nears to a close one cannot help but reflect on the year and take its measure. I for one will be glad to see this year end. I honestly feel that it has been one of the toughest years in recent memory. With Dena being out of work for the entire year and the construction business in the dumps uncertainty was behind every door and around every corner.

This was my most expensive medical year in dollars, time, productivity and mental toughness. Between my foot ailments, tension headaches, migraines and getting cold after cold after cold, I just never seemed to be myself. I struggled with the impotency of all that illness and spent a lot of time convincing myself to just keep marching step after step. It's the stress that's been weighing me down all year and slowly eating away at my health.

On top of all of that half of November and all of December was consumed with the logistics and stress of getting Dena's parents moved down from Cambria to Los Angeles. This prevented us from going home to Edmonton for Christmas and this hit me harder than I could have imagined. I struggled with it almost every day in December. Apparently I've become a big softy and family gal in my middle age.... As with all things, it eventually has worked itself out, almost, but not without some much loss of sleep and a trip to the emergency room to boot.

With that said I just kept keeping on with the hope that there would be a light at the end of the tunnel but the tunnel just kept getting longer. As I've said before, we humans have the unique ability to hope and hope has been what's keeping me alive. As the year drew to a close something happened just before Christmas. And this is going to sound corny but it's true. I got a feeling that good things were going to happen to me in 2011 and funny thing, my mom said the same thing to me. Low and behold something good happened the next day. I'm actually looking forward to 2011!

Finished Solar Panels on Roof

I hadn't gotten around to posting these but so many people are asking, here they are.

Happy Birthday to Me

Thanks to my wonderful family who all chipped in for a BIG Apple gift card for my birthday that allowed me to get my iPad today. In the true spirit of "if it's easy, it's not worth having" the iPad purchased turned into a one hour ordeal. There gift card system was down and popped up just as I was making my purchase and the salesman swiped the gift card and a visa gift card I had but couldn't swipe my Visa for the rest, so he cancelled the transaction but before he could do that the gift card system went down again. So now I had two gift cards with nothing on them. I kept my cool but inside I was freaking out. They were very nice at the El Paseo Valley Apple store and after it was all said and done they gave me a free iPad case (a $40 value).

Thanks to my exceptional girlfriend who continues to make every single one of my birthday's special and a special hug and kiss to my desert friends who are the best hosts on this planet.

Christmas Memories

I remember when I was a kid I would prepare diligently for Christmas. I suppose that should have been indicative of how I am as an adult.... I would take the big Sears Christmas Wish Book catalog and pour over the toy section for days marking the five things I wanted the most. I think I figured five was a reasonable number given things being out of stock and all that. Did you know that you can still get a Sears Wish Book in the mail? I had no idea until I started writing this blog. I just assumed it went the way of everything else - online. See the link above to order yours!

Always in the top five were a couple of large Lego sets. I was a Lego fiend. I distinctly remember circling the big castle. I dreamed of opening it on Christmas day and taking my time to build the castle and then play with it. Back in the day the little Lego menu were like gold. Very hard to come by and rarely in the smaller sets. I believe the castle came with 8 figures and a horse too! Alas, Santa never brought the castle but I built cities with the Lego I had, I had police cars, ambulance, and even a garbage truck with a pick up schedule. Yes, I was so organized (or I suppose you could call me anal) that my Lego trash truck had a schedule.

This Christmas it was my extreme pleasure to buy Sienna and Grace their first Lego sets. This is the set I bought each of the girls. We didn't have pink bricks in my day. My only regret is that this was all we could afford and the biggest killer of all is that I will not be there to see the look on their faces when they open them.

What A Day

Actually what a week. What a month. Oh my!

Tuesday I awoke with a crick in my neck. Apparently this is a common malady caused by sleeping on your stomach with your head turned. It was quite painful but I worked through it and made my way to the chiropractor on Wednesday. By Friday between the stress of the week and the dentist I was feeling pretty miserable. Saturday early morn @ about 2 am I awoke in such excruciating pain I cannot even describe it to you. It took about 20 minutes to get out of bed amid much yelping and some crying.

At about 3am I decided that enough was enough and took myself to the emergency room. I went to Olympia emergency just up the street. I was worried that being Friday night and all that the wait would be atrocious but it was only about 20 minutes. Interestingly enough my blood pressure and pulse were quite elevated. This is what pain does to you. I was diagnosed with a severe locked neck joint aka vertebrae and I received a lidocaine shot in my neck and after a few minutes I asked for another near the top of my shoulder blades.

These shots serve to numb the area so that the muscles will relax. You cannot heal if you are in pain which is why pain medication is given after surgery and for many ailments (and of course suffering and comfort). Pain causes muscle contractions and spasms which prevent the joint from loosening in my case. After about 5 minutes my pain level of an 8 dropped to a 4. I was so relieved. Now I just need to get myself to a bed and take the muscle relaxers he gave me to ensure that this joint loosens up. Wish me well....

Brief Post

Just wanted to drop a line on the blog. I've been absent for awhile....it seems I have a lot to say but it's only in my mind or in the shower or in the car. I've investigated mobile blogging but since I have enough trouble texting and driving, emailing and driving, and dialing and driving on my touch screen phone I thought that mobile blogging would probably really be pushing it.

It seems that my life is so busy lately. Sunday I had a few free hours and I was able to spend it in my garden doing fall cleanup. Pulling tomato plants, heading the herbs and a myriad of other cleanup duties. I completely filled the green bin with clippings. It felt so good to work in the yard. The one plant I didn't have the heart to pull up was a hearty broccoli I started late in the season, I started a whole 6 pack but this is the only one that flourished. It actually has a broccoli head on it now, albeit small. It's kind of exciting to this Canadian transplant to be growing such things. I marvel at the length of the growing season here in Los Angeles.

While gardening is very relaxing to me, as I was weeding I discovered all my tuna can tins. These were placed strategically throughout the garden filled with beer to catch those rotten slugs that were eating all my veggie leaves. Then there were the horn worms on the tomatoes and the aphids on the roses....jeesh, maybe gardening wasn't that relaxing. It seems that wherever I turn there are problems to solve even in my garden.

I suppose this 'eve I'm feeling a tad morose.....I have to catch a flight up to our corporate office early in the morning. While glad I'm going up to the mother ship, ever since my 13 year stint of travelling for business it just no longer interests me and often brings about a deep funk the night before. Alas dear readers, perhaps tomorrow will be a better day.