Perpetual Ruminations

Tuesday

My first day off this week, and it's about over. It was a pretty good day, but a full day. We got up early, around five and had to be in Brookings by eight. The directions we were given were not right, but they got us close to the imaging center, and the receptionist at the building we went to directed us to the hospital next door where the imaging was actually being done at.

Poor Rhonda couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight, because she needed to have an empty stomach and bladder for the ultra-sound. She said it was pretty painful, even though the technician told her most women prefer the type of ultra-sound they did. But, it was soon over and from there we went to Perkins, so I could get her some coffee and some breakfast. I had not eaten anything before we left, so we were both hungry. I did have a cup of coffee before we left, and I also took one with me.

My mouth was pretty sore this morning, but nothing like it was with the infected tooth still in. My side, on the other hand, was quite painful. I'm not sure what I did to it, but it's been hurting the last two days now. Rhonda and I thought it may be my kidney that was hurting, possibly a kidney stone, but today after our nap, she messaged the area, and the kidney seems fine. My back, hip, and leg had knots in the muscles, and I'm thinking that's the whole problem. I know I have been sleeping on the opposite side that I usually do, since my tooth has been acting up, and it was after sleeping on my right side all night that it started hurting.

Another thing that has been going on is my right shoulder, or actually the arm at the shoulder and just below. The muscle keeps twitching and jumping.  This has been going on since the side pain has started, and again, I don't know what or why. It's not painful, but it's kind of irritating, and I don't have near the strength in the upper arm I should. I suppose I slept on that side for a couple of nights and have both the hip and the shoulder out of whack.

Anyway, back to my day. We got back from Brookings a little later than expected, but only because we took some back roads home and made it a bit more scenic. Once we got home, we decided to go back to bed and sleep for a couple more hours. I slept very sound, and felt better after I woke up. I had a nice message from Rhonda while we waited for the coffee to brew, then enjoyed a couple of cups of coffee together.

We discussed the plans for the rest of the day while we sipped our coffee, and planned out the evening. We would mow a little around the house and patio, then run into town and pick up a few things. Once we returned home, we would get a fire going out on the patio, and I would cook some steaks over an open wood fire while Rhonda whipped us up some macaroni salad.

That was the plan, but it changed as we went along. We started out fine, and soon had the area around the house mowed all the way back to the street. I wanted to get the ditches mowed, just in case we got more rain. They have been flooded and we have not been able to keep them mowed, but it had dried enough to mow them good today. After I finished down there, Rhonda worked on some trimming around the trees, so I worked up in the yard, getting more mowed there. I had been feeling better after my message, but mowing kind of did me in, and it was pretty painful, so I decided to finish up the mowing and only have it hurt for one day, instead of having it get hurting again tomorrow, too.

This put us behind schedule, and too late to run into town, so we changed the menu to boiled potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower in cheese sauce, and beef tips in gravy. We also discovered that our cooking tripod does not fit over the fire ring anymore. We had changed it around when we redid the patio, and we also put concrete lattice in the front of the fire ring, closing it in. The tripod is just a bit too big to fit inside the closer, but not big enough to span across it. Oh well, we can still use it camping and I can rig up a frame for holding an old grill grate over the fire ring to cook on. Of course, we also have a nice charcoal grill we can cook on, too.

Once dinner was done we ate, then it was just a matter of getting my entry written before it got too late. Now, it's time to go sit out and enjoy the fire, drink a couple of bottles of beer, then head off to bed. Hopefully tomorrow, my hip and shoulder will be feeling better, the way my jaw and mouth are after having that bum tooth pulled out.