Monday, March 7, 2022

The gimpy landowner

 Surgery went well! I'm gimpy but relatively pain-free, and I have no complaints other than to whine about the stitches. SO. TIGHT. But I get those out tomorrow, and frankly, I am more nervous about that than I was for the surgery. Tomorrow will be my first time driving in nearly two weeks, and I still have to wear a leg brace to sleep in and when I am up moving around. I also have crutches and I'd really like to throw those down on the driveway and drive over them a few times! My right shoulder, which hasn't been fixed yet, is trashed from them.

The two weeks leading up to surgery, I did an hour and half or more of exercises a day. Sit and Be Fit-a seated program for elderly or limited mobility peeps, Classical Stretch-a blend of deep stretches and movements that strengthen and provide flexibility, and seated yoga. And lots of walking! I wanted to be strong, but flexible, going in. And about a week before my surgery we got some hard medical news about Woodchuck, but he is undergoing treatments, which he started two days after the diagnosis because it was just that bad. He'll go once a month for the next 3 months and we'll see how the prognosis is.

I was at the facility and home within 4 hours, and never needed to take any pain meds once I was home. From what I know right now, it was the suspected hip impingement and the doctor told Woodchuck that he fixed it and this will take care of all of my pain. I started physical therapy 4 days after surgery and go there 2-3 times a week. Biggest thing is to remember no bending at the waist and no movement past 90 degrees on the right leg. Woodchuck was a great nurse during his time home with me and we re-watched the Harry Potter movies! It gave us a nice taste of what it will be like once he retires, minus the surgery recoveries! 

Sadly, there isn't much more to update about the land. Contractor struggles have ensued and ultimatums have been issued. You don't want me as your project manager, unless you actually want something done, that is. So Woodchuck and I are now both dealing with the guy in the hopes that with a little pressure from us both, he will finally come through. Last we heard, he was supposed to have been out there yesterday, after repeatedly not showing up when he said he would, but we don't have another update yet. Hubby stopped out there last Friday on his way home from picking up our youngest from college and left a fiery message for the contractor about nothing else being done. We are now 7 months behind schedule because of one person. In the words of Earl of Lemongrab: unacceptaaaabbbllle! (This character was on Adventure Time, BTW).

So while we continue to wrestle with the contractor to prep the land, we are pricing a pole barn (holy bleep, the price of lumber continues to make things ridiculous!), price the ICF block that Woodchuck wants to use to frame out the house (along with a bit of wood too), and we JUST got our first draft of the home design back from the designer for the main floor of the house. We didn't know what to expect! She did tell us that she never expects the first design to be approved and we can revise as much as we want. There are some things we like and things we don't. Trying to talk with Woodchuck about it though over text and phone just isn't ideal, so we'll talk more about it tonight when he's home.

I've started taking some online classes through Purdue about invasives. I missed last week due to surgery and I'm not sure yet about tonight. Yo, my ass hurts from sitting so much and I can't wait to walk around regularly again! I already knew a lot of what they are teaching anyway due to my awesome friend that I trained under. I am not looking forward to seeing what will be growing soon on the land that has been disturbed for building. I will probably have my hands full with the usuals and then some that weren't popping up before! That's part of the reason I don't want to go out there quite yet, because I'll want to work and that's a no-no for proper recovery.

As far as the job front, I am still out of it and that's ok! I am still having a blast working on art and preparing stock for my friends shoppe, but now also for the Bizarre Bazaar that we have officially been accepted back into this Fall! Frankly, we need months to prepare the pieces, and I like taking the detour from the Boho and natural pieces I typically make to dive headlong into the realm of LaStrange. It really is so freeing! My new pieces have freaked some people out, and made others laugh....which the laughter was my intended reaction, so I'm glad that it's coming through properly! Being held at the Porter County Expo Center in Valparaiso, Indiana.



I would love to work at a couple of local places, but one isn't hiring and the other I think I would only slow them down. I don't want to push myself too much too fast and undo what has been fixed and irritate what hasn't. But dang, I really miss getting a paycheck and moving around and I would love to work in nature again! Between being grounded physically and Winter, I'm getting a little fluffy. I just remind myself that the focus right now is not on weight loss (though I also don't want to go packing it on either!), it's on recovery. Once I'm recovered, I'll work at toning back up and losing the little bit of cushion my body saw fit to pad me with this Winter ;) If I am meant to work again this year, and where I am meant to land, will find me. I can still feel it, and that is still enough for me. 💚 )O(

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