Ethan’s Journey

 Happy Halloween! Today was such a wonderful day. I enjoy having the windows open and feeling the breeze. My allergies hate it and have been trying to ruin my day for the last 24 hours with a nasty headache. Luckily, Claritin makes a significant difference. Ethan mentioned today that Halloween was way more fun when he was younger. I agree. It was more fun. The weather is perfect this year for the kids and their parents out collecting candy. I can remember freezing with the kids. But we survived and have the memories to prove it. Now…it’s just another day. I am part of the FUN committee (no joke) at work. We were given 30 minutes at our meeting today for FUN. Myself and the others organized to have a slide show of fun costumes and we voted funniest, scariest and cutest. Paul and I won the funniest as I shared our Deer in Headlights from a few years ago. We also had to guess everyone’s most irrational fear. That was fun because the irrational fears ranged from clowns in tiny cars, to...

 Where did October go?  Today was so pretty out. My windows were open and this evening I enjoyed hearing the bugs, frogs, and even an owl. My Sarah took a job about an hour away from her house. It is 11 minutes from my house. She works 2 12 hour shifts back to back. So she is going to be spending Wednesday nights here. I was so excited all day for her to get done with work. When she arrived we chatted. I do miss being in the clinic and working with the clients and their pets. My body just says “no thank you.” I have to find joy in other ways in the industry. Tonight, I had a girl that wants to start off in the field but she has minimal experience. I was able to find a clinic that is willing to give her a chance. She sounded young and nervous but very eager. I her interview is tomorrow. I asked her if she would like to have a mock interview to prepare for her day tomorrow and she said “yes”.  I spent about 40 minutes on the phone with her and I am hoping that tomorrow she ...

 I slept terrible last night. I just couldn’t sleep. There was really nothing on my mind. I was anxious or worried. Just “not tired”. But for hours on end. I ended up finally falling asleep around 4 am. At that point I had moved to the couch and was snuggling with Penny. Today went alright. I went to physical therapy. My back just feels bruised and like there is something out of place.  I did LOTS of stretching. She did some deep tissue work as well as she introduced the cups. She gets on top of the table and puts all her might into trying to get the softball sized knots out of my back.  Ouch! The cups actually weren’t terrible. But it may had been such a relief from the deep tissue work. I am making progress and standing a good part of my day again. I do take several breaks but WAY better than last week. Ethan finished his first mechanical assignment a day early. He was very proud that he had figured out a way to make the process he was doing a little more efficient....

 Today I was cranky! Everything was annoying me. Work annoyed me. Social media annoyed me. Penny annoyed me. Poor Penny. She excessively licks Paul. He allows it. It drives me crazy. The slurping noise of her tongue gliding over his hairy arms. Bleck! 🤮  In my annoyance it was best that I was home alone the majority of the day. Ethan got home and was in a good mood. He was chatting with me. Avery called to talk something through. As we were chatting, she was making me laugh. Family is good for that. I made a margarita and told Paul that I was cranky. The margarita hit the spot! My back is feeling small bits better everyday. I stood up to work part of the day today. I go back to physical therapy tomorrow. Hopefully it will be less torturous! Tonight, Paul and I were sitting on the couch. He was listening to me commenting on things that I was reading. We were discussing different things. I was pointing out the inconsistencies of this one article and he was on the same page. We ...

 Avery stopped by the house today. I like to think it was to visit me, specifically, but she had to pick up her teapot. She is so excited for her adult purchase. Prior to her arriving, she sent me the most “Alex P. Keaton” text. She was so excited that she was early voting. She was describing the people around her in line. All of them were older than her. She said they were having the most “old people” conversations. For example “someone was talking about their property taxes.” At certain ages you drift into the lane of discussing boring adult things with strangers. She is not there yet. It was a good moment to laugh about.  She went with me to pick up groceries. We chatted away in the car about different things. She doesn’t like the smell of her room mates used coffee grounds. At one point, I mentioned that I wished I had brought a beverage. Without missing a beat, she says “want me to spit in your mouth for you?” “NO!…..Avery Reese! Yuck!” She laughed and laughed. She likes ...

Got Ethan to the lab bright and early this morning. The sun was shining on all the beautiful colors of fall displayed on the branches of the trees.  Our wait wasn’t too bad. Only about 10-15 minutes. Ethan asked to go grab some donuts/apple fritters from the local family farm store. We added some cider. These are just so delicious! The donuts were still warm when we got home. That donut was gone so fast! I ate it like a wood chipper. The camper is now covered and hibernating for the winter. We had some pizza for dinner (donuts and pizza is the diet for champions).  My back is feeling a little bit better. It just feels bruised and sore to the touch. I did little bits and then would rest. I am feeling like I am making progress. That is encouraging. This back thing is not nearly as cool as a camel bite to the arm.

 I went back to physical therapy today. I was feeling some improvement. My physical therapist had me doing stretches and a little bit of strengthening.  I told her that I was still feeling tightness in some spots. She started doing the deep tissue work where she impales her thumb into knots in the muscles in my back.  She left bruises on my back from last time.  While this is quite uncomfortable, I had seen progress the last time and was hoping for more this time around.  She had remarked that she had never seen witnessed someone’s body react the way that mine did to those damn 5 planks. My body does not like to exercise. It is built for other things like walking dogs and sitting by campfires. My muscles were upset when I left and I had to keep stretching multiple times throughout the day. BUT I was up a little bit more this afternoon. I was standing to work a little bit with frequent rests. Ethan has been helpful around the house. He did some mowing yesterday. ...