...update from "the front"...

I have had a productive day today...
I have just returned from a "twice as long walk"...
it was suggested to me that, perhaps,
doing that, or walking twice a day,
would be a good way to get more exercise...
provided my sore lower back/sciatic nerve "cooled" down...

so, this morning, when I got up, and there were only a couple of twinges...
not the usual,"where's my Excedrin" kind of pain
that I've been dealing with for a couple of weeks now...
I thought....wow....this is a lot better !
but it can be sneaky...coming later in the day...making walking painful...
so I waited for it to strike, to grab me...
but NOT today...hmmm...I wonder HOW she arranged that...?

so I had chores to do, since trash day is tomorrow,
there were kitty boxes to clean... and dispose of...
trash to dump, dishes to wash...
[meat loaf pans are much easier to clean the next day...
even baked on ketchup comes off...]

returned pots and pans to put away...
[I haven't seen the blue pot so clean in years...
I'll have to find out how my friends got it so clean...]

J and I experimented, and discovered which breaker switch
in my new breaker box was for the DR/LR and threw it,
so he could swap out the old switches and plugs
for the new dark brown ones that match the new A & C plates...
without being electrocuted...turning off my Internet in the process...
[computer working, Internet not...very weird...]
took me a while to figure it out...and, of course, I got "upset"...
no steam out of the ears, but I was frustrated...

and I think that's when he saw an opening,
and that rotten devil started in on me...

first line of attack, frustration...
a good indication that I am becoming frustrated is when
I tell the computer,
or an other inanimate object, "I hate you ! "...
so expressive....
but adds to the level of sulphur in the air...
and that's NOT aromatherapy...

BTW....I just erased the sulphur in the air phrase,
3 times, trying to put in italics...
hmmmm....
[he will keep trying, won't he...]

onward, and as it soon became, sideways, then downward...
[ I'm putting a lot in italics now just for "him"... the king of spite & malice...
[and yes, I DO have a Cheshire Cat smile AND am "batting" my eyes...
hee,hee... good thing I have friends in high places...]

anyway, onward..and sideways...
so I wander into the DR/LR "debris field" to assist J,
who's done with the fixture replacement and on to installing the new plates,
which are A & C style hammered antique copper[looks bronzy...]
with a 4-square cutout in each corner through which the new paint will peak...
and on the red wall, they look SO COOL !
and really good on the tan walls too...

of course, they will have to come down for more painting...
but we used the old,
"we have to make sure that they fit over the new switches" excuse...
'cause we just wanted to see how good it would look...

then J took out the plug and capped the wires
for the old AC outlet, up above the new stained glass window...
doing it "hot", and paying...
and then patched the hole, so it would "disappear"...
then on to the last of the ceiling patching in the LR...

I live in an old house [80 years or so] and it's "settled"...
and it's NoCal, so we have earthquakes...so there are cracks in the plaster...
however, a couple of years ago, the roofers apparently walked on more
than the just the joists...because there are also places where it's clear
that the ceiling has tiny "bulges" that edge down, into my LR...
so those have to be addressed, as well as, MORE PREP !...

about this time XFED arrives, with a smaller box and a humongous box...
the latest delivery from the "old house restorers mania store"...
more drawer knobs...some plain copper outlet plates
for the ones that are too close to the baseboards for the A & C ones...
[they're behind cabinets anyway...]
..AND...
my rocking chair...my Mission style rocking chair with a leather seat...
I've wanted one ever since I first saw them in a catalog...
but they were WAY TOO MUCH money...
so I resisted...that is, until I saw this one...
for half the cost in the restorer's catalog...
true...it is a dark oak,
with a light brown leather seat...
the opposite of my other A & C chair,
but, I like it...
I adore a good rocking chair...
and this one is a big version...
of a chair my grandma had,
when I was a kid...

there was only one small obstacle to my complete rocking chair ecstasy...
it came as a kit...finished...but in pieces...
so what, I thought, I've put much of the other furniture together...
I had a lot of help with the big stuff, but I did the armchair, by myself...

of course, by myself, it's not hard...
with sulphur in your eyes, it's not so easy...
but I am nothing, if not stubborn..
and I like to do things that I still can, myself...

so as J is prepping and cleaning the floor in the hall,
I open the box...
the fact that I looked everywhereand couldn't find the utility knife,
should have tipped me off to the "fun", yet to come...
but "sulphur dude" was in stealth mode,
setting me up, and I just strolled right in...

after getting the box open
with my pocket knife and unpacking the contents,
I had a "bit" of anxiety...
but stubbornness won out and I forged ahead...
organizing the parts and hardware...
assembling my tools...

the first few pieces went together OK...
a bit of a hassle
for one with nine & a half fingers,
but I've been there before...

as I was attempting to bolt the back
to the bottom supports...
I encountered "turbulence"...
the last " T " bolt was just "spinning in the hole...
it wouldn't track into the "T" nut and tighten...
I tried for 5-10 minutes,
informing the "T" bolt that I hated it
and it's entire family and all future generations...
but it still wouldn't tighten...

so I took apart another "T" bolt and tried it...same problem...
now I have "time" invested...
my frustration level is rising...
and J asks if I "want help"...
my terse, monosyllabic, "NO" speaks volumes,
and he wisely withdraws, back into "prepland"...

at this point, I am furious...so I go into another room to cool off...
get lead astray by a stealthy devil and send a friend a goofy e-mail...
she is smart enough to hear the "false ring", and dismisses it out of hand...
so now, I am not only furious with the "chair gremlins",
I'm furious at myself for being "stupid" and "annoying" to my friends...

of course, at this point, a rational person asks for help,
so I start doing what I should have been doing all along...
praying for help...but , I'm still "mad"
and, after one last offer of help,
to which I mutter through clenched teeth,
"I'm going to do this myself, or DIE trying..."
J escapes to the church, and I soldier on...

I am now, becoming somewhat calmer...
and decide to take off the back and examine the hole...
I get a tiny flashlight and look in the, now empty, hole...
there is a chunk of wood blocking the bolt from the nut...
I remove it with tweezers and proceed to re-attach the back,
which now fits together easily...so, I'm feeling better...

at this point, Sneaky Pie jumps up on the stool I have the back leaning on
and proceeds to barf on the chair...
[never gives up, that sulphurous one...]
the sulphur stench almost masks the cat barf smell as I clean it up...
Sneaky goes over by the wall and barfs again...
and then, her mission complete, leaves...

so I alternate putting together chair parts,
making a fingernail really sore after using it too often as a substitute for a screwdriver...
and missing a call on my cell...
a wrong number that left a voicemail...
with a "blocked number" I can't call back...
this has been happening often
and I need to tell this guy,a hypnotist,
that I'm not "Julie"...
and she won't be making the appointment he just made,
because this isn't her phone...
it wasn't a couple of calls ago and STILL isn't...

so now, besides annoying people I know and like,
I've moved on to annoying and inconveniencing total strangers..
more sulphur...
but wafting into my consciousness now...

then, I have a flash of clarity about a situation that has been on my mind
and e-mail my friend...
only to discover the terse reply to the e-mail
she sent me about the "goofy" one...
the sulphur is THICK now...
and remembering some good advice...I pray...
then I re-read the e-mail and "decide", it'll be OK...we're OK
and, "I worry too much"...
[also good advice from my friend...hmmmm... maybe she should
go into the "advice for the sulphur-challenged" business....]

almost instantly, the stench vanishes...
I finish the chair... a couple of hitches, but no problems...
I sit in it carefully... and it fits me perfectly...
like another chair I sat in, for the first time, yesterday...

so, as the darkness thickens, I grab a jacket and my red scarf,
wrapping it twice around my neck against the chill,
and head out, to walk twice as far...

as my lungs fill with the cold air,
blowing out the last bits of sulphur
I stride quickly...
with no pain in my sciatic nerve or lower back...
and I feel the last traces of the frustration,
drain away... and I chuckle...

I may still "worry too much",
blithely miss the warning signs of "early onset sulphur poisoning",
annoy my friends with "goofy" stuff,
tell inanimate objects that they are objects of my scorn,
get mad,
be too stubborn for my own good
and generally "screw-up"...
but I AM a "work in progress"...
I'm still filling-in holes and working on problems...
and God, is SO good...