A Muddled Mess

My health has been quite lousy since January. Sheila and I seem to be passing a cold and a stomach bug back and forth between us, over and over. These types of 'common colds' always send my mast cells into a hyperactive tailspin so I'm having great difficulty focusing on anything because my thought processes are a muddled mess!

I have a dozen different projects bouncing around in my head all at once. Most of these projects I actually want to accomplish... some I need to accomplish as soon as I am feeling well enough... and all of these projects are occupying my thoughts at any given moment.

If I'm not struggling with nausea and spending time in the bathroom, I'm struggling with pain and overwhelming fatigue. Sheila hasn't been much better lately. I feel as though I am spending all my time in bed, sleeping away the winter as projects keep backing up and my to-do list gets longer and longer.

My spinal injuries are terribly inflamed. I assume much of this problem is due to shoveling and clearing off our roof after our relatively few snowfalls. Even though we've had very little snow this winter, it doesn't take much to cause miserable inflammation throughout my spine. Shoveling and pushing and pulling snow will do it everytime!

I attempted to get a few projects accomplished yesterday. The weather was sunny and in the 30s so it was time to pull out the table saw and a few other power tools. I've been dying to get the flooring and toilet installed in our master bathroom (an emergency project that arose in early January) so I attempted this yesterday. We've really been missing our second toilet!

I pulled out the flooring and refreshed my memory on what needs to be done. I pulled out the table saw and some tools. At this point, I was so completely exhausted that I could hardly stand upright. My feet felt like lead bricks... my eyelids were heavy... my arms felt like a rag doll's arms. My breathing was labored. I hadn't even accomplished anything yet and I didn't even have enough energy left to put away all my tools!

I aborted the flooring and toilet project... again. I was simply too exhausted and feeling quite lousy again. There was a little project that needed to be accomplished as soon as possible though so I turned my attention to that while I had all these tools out and ready for use. This little project wouldn't require nearly as much energy as my original plan.

Our washing machine bit the dust a few weeks ago. Within a few days, we found out that the cost of repair is higher than buying a new washing machine on sale so we went on an internet search to find the best washing machine for well under the cost of the repair to the old washing machine. We could not afford the cost of this repair nor was it worth putting that kind of money into an 8 year old appliance so we needed to find a lower cost solution.

We found a washing machine on sale for a price far under the cost of repairing our old washing machine. Plus, this new washing machine is a better and larger washing machine than the one which just bit the dust in our laundry room. We agreed it was our best option... ordered it... and then found out two rather disappointing things... First, this new washing machine is far deeper than our old washing machine so I would need to adapt our solid wood base for this new washer... "ugggg... that would mean another little project I need to get accomplished"... then, we found out that the next available delivery date isn't until a month down the road! "Ugggg." 

It seems as though this winter has been spent either
in our bedroom or on the couch recovering.

So, while I had some tools out yesterday, I aborted the much larger project of installing a floor and toilet and I figured I should at least try to get our laundry room prepared for the new washing machine. The tools were out and ready to go so I needed to get something accomplished for a change.

I wandered back to our shed to find some lumber. Jostling around and carrying lumber did not improve my spinal pain at all. I pulled out the wood that would work... cut it to size... cut and removed some floor tile to make room for this new solid wood base extension... shaped it with my belt sander... painted it... and then installed it. Then I slowly put all the tools away as my spine screamed at me.  

Anyway, other than a couple of emergency projects... our electrical problem about five weeks ago and this washing machine problem... I have accomplished nothing since Christmas. I seem to do more sleeping than anything else. Even though I'm keeping myself busy while I am awake with reading, research, playing piano, and sketching ideas, I'm still quite bored and feeling quite unproductive.

In the meantime, all these projects that are on hold are a muddled mess of jumbled thoughts...  it is time for a nap...  again....