Blather, rinse, repeat

Let me tell you about this goddamn pool. So the guy came over on Tuesday and he agreed that it looked all kinds of wrong. Yet, he still couldn't figure out how to fix it. He said he'd drain it, so as not to put pressure on the sides, then look at the manual some more and come back to try to fix it on his day off. He put the pump in the pool and I said, "When will you be back? Tomorrow?" No, not until Saturday. I said, "Won't the liner dry out and tear by then?" He said it would be fine.

Yet everyone else who's ever had a pool said that this was the worst idea ever, especially in this heat. With only one foot of water, the liner was going to crack for sure, and then the wall really would get pulled down.

So here we are, a Thursday, and the pool is being refilled. Only to be drained again tomorrow night. Such an abhorrent waste of water, and such a huge water bill. If he doesn't show up Saturday, the whole thing is pretty much screwed. I am so mad right now. A lot of money went into this pool, and it's money that I could really actually use, you know? It's over 9000 degrees right now, and around here, it starts to get cool in the middle of August. >_<

Jo-chan got a job around the corner from here, so she's spending half-weeks here until university starts up again. Today was her first day. It's nice, having her around. Tonight we're celebrating her first day on the job with ice cream and a movie (and not swimming.)

I really freaking miss Kung Fu, y'all. I could go practice it in my yard, but A) over 9000 degrees and B) I've never been self-motivated. Mostly, I miss training with the people I train with. And also, yeah, training. I feel stiff and inflexible and like I'm losing all my muscle tone. However, I'm saving a lot of money. I have been jogging a few times a week (the heat doesn't bother me when I'm just jogging; it's a lot less taxing than KF,) but it's not the same. But, I really do need that money.

I did get some more blood test results back, and am glad to say that they were all really awesome. My homocysteine was in the normal range, but a little high for my nefarious purposes. The nurse practitioner said she was going to send me a prescription for a supplement (that I will throw away because the last time they gave me a prescription for a supplement, it had Red40 and saccharine in it. Really? Are you trying to give me cancer? The whole thing is such a racket.) I looked up what can cause elevated homocysteine and I read lots of things about "anger" and "hostility" LMAO. Maybe I'm hostile because people are dicking me around! Haha, no but it wasn't really elevated, in fact it was right in the middle, but still, the lower the better.

So I bought some folic acid today, after a lengthy discussion at the store with some rep who kept trying to tell me that I didn't need folic acid, I just needed her company's one-shot pill dealy thing which the store didn't have, but I should totally just "run down to Whole Foods" (forty miles away) and grab some there. I had found folic acid, but not the vegetarian kind and she was pretty sure that this store didn't have any of that anyway. Then she sat herself down—in the aisle--in front of the vegetarian folic acid that I had originally asked for. I reached around her and grabbed it anyway. Supposedly it lowers homocysteine, but that encounter made me feel, you know, somewhat hostile. ;D

Apart from all that, I released my three baby starlings today. The aviary is empty, but I have two little robins who are fledging, and tomorrow I'm getting a fledgling sparrow that someone kept for three weeks. I go through this every. Goddamn. Year. It's the same exact conversation. "I found this baby bird and I really want to do the right thing but I don't want to release him into my yard/don't know how to release him/I don't think he can fly but I really love him and I fed him some strange-ass thing since I found him, oh, and I've had him for like a month." GOD. Why do people do this? You have my goddamn phone number, why did you not call me the first day you found him?

HOSTILE.

I guess this entry could have been a lot more cheerful, sorry. ^_^

I went to the doc this morning. I didn't have to wait very long; maybe about 15 minutes. In the waiting room, some lady was screaming into her phone, some other person was yelling at the receptionist over a different doctor, and some other woman came in with pneumonia and decided to talk to everyone. Then she turned on the TV and put it really loud. God, I hate the doctor's office.

Anyway, once in the office, I asked the Dr. about the whole Sjogren's syndrome thing and he asked me a few questions, too. Like, dry eyes, dry mouth, stuff like that. I told him some of it, but again he was in a huge rush ("Sorry for the wait; my last patient was very sick and has to come back later too, so...") He poked around all my lymph nodes to make sure that the palpable ones hadn't gotten any bigger (they haven't.) I asked him to check out a new one I started to be able to feel in the hinge of my jaw. (I also started to notice that around the time that Adam Yauch passed from salivary gland cancer. That was a week-long panic attack.) He said that one was nothing to worry about.

He asked if I'd had blood tests recently. I told him I had, but hadn't got the results yet and I'd asked them to fax the results to him once they came in.

He said, "If you do have it, then it's very low-grade." He gave me a number for a rheumatologist and I was out the door in five minutes.

Now I'm kind of debating whether or not to pursue it. He didn't seem too worried about anything and said my symptoms were really mild. Do I really want to bother with another doctor? On the other hand, I keep thinking of all those stories you hear when someone goes to a doctor for some little, minor thing, gets a referral to a specialist "just to put your mind at ease" and they find some weird, random, House-like thing just in time. And then they say, "Thank goodness I decided to go!"

Maybe I'll wait for my blood test results, and if those are all peachy, I'll just forget about it unless it gets worse. I mean I have so many damn appointments, maybe that's the reasonable thing to do.

So tomorrow I have to take Haku to the vets, then Friday I have to take Haku (and me) to the chiropractor, then Monday I am having my first acupuncture session, and Thursday, another doctor, this one way the hell in Stonybrook. I'm pissed because I swore I'd never go back to that place after they gave me a ticket for parking in a regular parking lot. I even fought them like a bastard over it, but they said that if I didn't pay the fine, I wouldn't be able to register my car. So I was like, "Eff them, I'm never going there again for any reason," except, well, it's a massive hospital/school/tons of other things and I guess that was unrealistic. I'll probably have to pay the same amount as the fine just to park there for the day.

Eff them in the earhole, seriously.