Ah, Spring. And pollen season. Of course, in some areas, with the climate changing the way it has been pollen season seems like it lasts longer than Spring and starts halfway through the Winter. I was out walking in my neighborhood one evening and came upon a very pretty view of walkway shaded by trees that were green with new growth, it had shed its petal and they were coving the walk. It was quite pretty. I even took a picture.
It was a very pretty sight. Though, it also reminded me of why I had been sneezing. About a week later we had some rain that was just enough to wash the pollen into puddles. And once again, I was reminded of why I was sneezy and my eyes were watery. Still, I am happy for the season, I like the warmer weather and once the trees quit dropping pollen on everything I will get to enjoy sitting on my balcony at lunch again.
I have been inspired to put some effort into upgrading my home. I will blame my Sister (as well as a year of working at home) for this. As part of that I decided to tidy up the living room. I still had things sitting in a corner from when I re-worked my office space. Mostly it was Lego stuff. One of the Lego items was the set of the VW Camper Van that I started last Summer. I had worked on it and then set it aside and hadn’t got back to it. I looked at it and decided that I would finish putting it together so I could reclaim my containers that I had bricks in them, and then I could get rid of the box. So that’s what I did. It only took a couple of days to finish it.
Next up on my upgrade track was the floor lamps in the living room. I have had two unmatched lamps for many years now. I could never really find something I liked. And one of them, because it had a clear glass “shade” I really didn’t like because the light was too harsh. I said something to my Sister about looking for lamps. I figured that since she recently got a bunch of new furniture she would have some ideas of where to look. She did and made a few suggestions. So now I have new lamps that match.
I’m working on additional upgrades as well. Some of it is furniture and some of it is lighting, and there is even some painting in there. One of the big things is that I’m having and electrician come in and replace a bunch of lights and the ceiling fans in the bedrooms. This is a project that I basically started two years ago when I got the lights. I finally decided to order the ceiling fans. At that point it was really a matter of finding an electrician. For that I checked with my Mother to find out who she used. I have that person scheduled to do the work while I’m on vacation. I will be home, I just don’t have to worry about if my computer doesn’t work while he is working in that room. I’m really excited about this.
Aside from some new furniture in the living room that is due to arrive in the next couple of weeks, the only other thing I can really report on is the paint in the bedroom. I think I have ranted before about the tan on my walls that I really hate. The last room to sport that color on the walls is my bedroom. And the tan is going away. I purchased the primer and the paint and got started. As if the tan weren’t bad enough just because of the color, as I was watching the new color dry, I realized it is not just the color I don’t like, it is the finish. The finish of the tan is eggshell. I always use a satin finish on my walls. I wonder if that partly explains why I have to dust my walls. The lint and dust seem to stick to it. I don’t remember living any place else where I had to do that. It’s really weird. Anyway, the painting in that room has begun. I’ll be doing that over a couple of weeks. As much as I would like to do the whole room in one weekend, I don’t see that happening. I have some fairly large furniture to shift around, and as my Sister pointed out, it is on carpet, so it will be a workout to move it. I’ll break up the work and probably paint the easy to get to walls first. And then, if I don’t have it done by the time I’m on vacation, I’ll finish up the other two walls then.
I made another change that has made a really big difference for me. Though, it is not in my environment. It is my footwear. Many, many years ago I ended up at a Podiatrist at the recommendation of the Acupuncturist. I was diagnosed with Plantar Fasciitis and given a list of recommended footwear brands, a few that made shoes in wide, as well as some affordable insoles as my ‘insurance wasn’t good enough for custom orthotics.’ It made a big difference. At some point, I strayed from those recommendations and had trouble again. More than once. I have sprung for the custom orthotics twice as that was the recommendation of the new healthcare personnel. Both times they have ultimately caused more pain than they were worth. I have even tried the zero drop shoes to get close as I could do the ‘barefoot’ idea. Most of the shoes would feel good at first and then I would find that something about them that was an issue for me. During this time, I have continued to suffer from a variety of injuries. From ongoing inside of the leg shin splints to a sacroiliac joint being pulled to high hamstring issues being the most recent.
As the hamstring issue improved, and I started back to Taekwondo, I started thinking about all the things I’ve done over the years, and some of what has really helped. I thought about the day I told one Podiatrist that I only wore the orthotics when I was seeing him. He asked what I wore at other times and I told him Crocs or cowboy boots. He said to just keep with that. So, I got some Crocs. And they started to help. I tried new tennis shoes that I went to a running store to get. But as comfortable as they are, they weren’t really working for my morning video boxing. I’m not a runner so the features that make the shoes great for running turned out to be totally unhelpful for me. However, while I was getting those tennis shoes the seed for what I finally did was planted.
I lamented that I miss the leather tennis shoes. The other person working that day, was looking at a catalog and announced that New Balance still makes a leather tennis shoe and they could order it for me. I filed the information. And then a couple of weeks later, after I had figured out that the new shoes aren’t ideal, I wondered if I could order those New Balance shoes online. It turns out I can. So, I did. I happen to have a few sets of the affordable orthotics that I ordered and hadn’t been using. Once the new shoes arrived, I started wearing them as is, and saw good improvement. I put the affordable orthotics in and what a huge difference. My joint issue is nearly gone and only intermittent and not very much at that. The high hamstring issue is getting much better. And the shin splints. Wow. I have relief that I haven’t had in years. Seriously. I do still feel them some after too much walking or sometimes after Taekwondo. And even then, they are nothing compared to how they did feel. The improvement is huge. And I find things continue to improve. My ankles now have a chance to get stronger which means my single leg balance is getting better. I can wear them while I video box and the support has helped a lot.
My new comfortable tennis shoes may be the same ones that are mentioned in the snobbish, ageist, judgmental articles that say things like ’10 things these people think are cool but they aren’t.’ Those articles really piss me off. The article or the author assumes everyone is only wearing things because they are cool. As opposed to maybe it is the best thing for that person’s body. So, they can poke fun at my Crocs, and they can poke fun at my leather New Balance tennis shoes, but there’s a good chance, I will still be able to walk on my own when I’m 90 while they will struggle when they are even just my age.
I’m finding that by fixing the situation with my feet, it is slowly improving other things in my body and that is a good thing. This is helping to free up my energy to do things like, paint my bedroom. A project that, like replacing the lights, I have wanted to do for two years. And as I get that done, and the furniture and finally some vacation time from the day job, I think I will once again have the energy and interest to get back to the art and music. Oh, and all those things I still need to learn for the day job.
Speaking of things I need to learn for the day job. I got some training on one of the items. Power BI. Some of our international colleagues are using it and so we are now looking into it for some of our reporting. As a Database Administrator, and as the Administrator for our Hyperion and Essbase data, it occurred to me that I needed to know at least how to use the application because I was going to be asked about how to connect to those things from Power BI. Fortunately, the day job came through with some introductory training for people that were interested. Which means, I’ve got that bit of stuff I need to learn done. And I can see where it would be useful for one of the other projects I have to work on which is great because as soon as I can free up from the current upgrade project, I’ll need to get back to learning PowerShell for that. And knowing that I have some things I want to do with what will come out of that project will help keep me working on it and not get too distracted. (SQUIRREL!)
And now I am off to dive into a PowerShell course and start to design a 24 move poomse for Taekwondo. Fortunately, I have about a year to design it and master it. All about that another time. Until the next time, enjoy the pictures.