updates and news items

1.) So I think I forgot to mention this, but the day of my surgery coincedentally was also the day of my dad's annual physical, booked the year before. Go figure. Since my dad had already cancelled the "extra" appointment they'd made for him in August because of his weight loss they were worried about (more about that later), he didn't want to reschedule it. I thought, when we realized that both these things were happening on the same day, he was going to ask my uncle to take him. But as the date got closer, I could tell he wasn't feeling comfortable about that. He wants someone to go in the room with him, and chances are, my uncle wouldn't do that. So since the Benevolent L had already asked me if I was going to need any help the day of, or after my surgery, and I had declined, I asked her, instead, if she'd take my dad to his appointment.

Now, that, that, is a friend. It's one thing to ask someone for a ride home from the hospital or to see that you make it into your bed post surgery, and it's another to ask them to accompany my dad anywhere. Nevertheless, she stepped up to the plate for me. And she actually got a kick out of my dad's doc, who is a very chatty sort. They discussed how wonderful I am, and they discussed the doctor's old college roommate who went into the same line of work as L, and oh, I guess several other topics. And my dad was pronounced fine. In fact, he not only put back on the weight he'd lost, he'd gained more. I knew this, even though we'd stopped with the home weighing. How did I know? Because he had a pair of pants that I'd bought him in the spring, a pair of pants with the tags still on, that he'd been saving for a special occasion, like, y'know, his physical. He did not try them on again until, yes, the night before his appointment at 10 pm or so. At which point they didn't button. Head->desk, as they say. So L had to take him to his appointment in old, crappy pants. (He does not like me to buy him clothes because, and I quote, "I'm going to die soon.") But with the weighing, they also measured him. And he has lost three inches in height from what he was as a young man, strengthening my resolve to buy some gravity boots and start hanging upside down 15 minutes a day. I cannot afford to lose three inches in height. I can't reach my top cabinets *now*.

2.) One of the things I'd been recently freaking out about, especially in panic attack mode, is that starting some time in August, probably during that long stretch of hot and humid weather we had, I noticed my basement was smelling particularly musty and disgusting, and on occasion, especially in the evenings, I could smell it through the door in the corner of my kitchen. Well, naturally, being me, I catastrophised this into "OMG, my cellar must be full of toxic mold and the EPA will condemn my house" or something. Of course there was no mold visible anywhere, there was no visible dampness anywhere (it's been ages, like years, since we got any water down there at all, not even in the torrential nonstop rains of June; my pump's been working soopah), and I made my dad clean some of his junk out, because I was afraid he had wet rags mildewing down there. I also cleaned the carpet on the stairs going down into the basement one day in an anxiety freak out, hitting myself in the head with the vacuum cleaner in the process (but we don't need to talk about that), because I was afraid it was the carpet that smelled bad.

And then, I did some research and found out you can buy portable basement dehumidifiers, read the reviews and testimonials about them (including fucking tons of people who said "my basement smelled disgustingly musty and then I started using this and now the stench is gone! woohoo!", and then ordered one that had good reviews and a nice sale price and free supersaver shipping from Amazon. It came this past Wednesday. Well, at that point I wasn't supposed to be lifting anything over ten pounds, so it stayed in its box. But last night I was up to taking it out of the box and hooking it up. When I started, the humidity level down there was 65% (according to the humidifier) and after running it for just the first hour, it was down to 60%, and I swear, it smelled fresher already. D confirmed this for me. It stayed at 60% for a long time--I can't help it, I kept running down to look, it was fascinating--but first thing this morning, after running all night it was 55%. From what I can glean on the internet, optimal humidity indoors is about 40%, so that's what I'm going to shoot for.

Anyway, I love my new toy and I can't wait to get home from work and see what it says the humidity is now!

3.) And just a quick question. Have any of you used 1-800-gotjunk? I've got a bunch of stuff that I really need to get rid of in the basement and the garage that can't go out on the curb, can't be donated to charity, is not really worth the hassle of freecycling, and that I have absolutely no way of getting to the dump (and that would need to be paid for to be dumped anyway). It seems fairly expensive, but also very convenient and easy (you can schedule it online as soon as next day, they give you a two hour window of time, you don't need to pack anything up or haul it out of the basement, etc, just point at it and say, "yeah, take that..." They seem to have a very good reputation (other than "oh, yeah, a little pricey"). I'm thinking that to suck it up and just pay them would take a big weight off my shoulders, capice? But if anyone's had personal experience, I'd love to know.

I think that's it for now.

xoxo