No, I'm Not Dead

It's closer to ten than it is to nine, Saturday night, and I'm tired. I'm not blogging at length tonight. I'll try to get to it tomorrow--I mean, I want to--between cooking and laundry and dishes and blocking the shawl and whatever else it is I have to do.

Meanwhile, Thursday night I went to an open-house thing at the chiropractor's office, which is open to any interested people and required for new patients to attend. It was an all-about-chiropractic session, what I referred to when telling my mother about it as a "drink the kool-aid meeting", and it was pretty interesting. The chiropractor showed us this video, and I found it very interesting, and a good overview of what chiropractic is trying to do. Curious enough to spend seven minutes watching?

I did!

Winter Storm Watch--No, Strike That, Blizzard Watch

Looks like I won't be going to work on Friday, given that the current predictions are for 12-24 inches of snow from the storm coming our way. And by the way, they name all the storms now, apparently, and the names crack me up. This one is called ... dum-dum-dum ... Nemo. Nemo! Could they have picked a less threatening name? Why not just called it Snuggles or Fluffy? Does Nemo sound like he could cause havoc?

Anyway, color me perfectly happy to get the day off. I mean, shucks, if they gave me a laptop, I could work from home, but since they haven't, I have no choice! Such a shame. On a Friday, too.

So I'll go in tomorrow, work on this damned report that I am so sick of almost done with, and hopefully take a first look at the next one before the end of the day. Then, boom, out of there, to the chiropractor, and home to huddle up.

Speaking of the chiropractor, last night I had my first real adjustment, and it certainly is an interesting experience. I think it's because I'm used to specialists: the dentist stays with the teeth, the hairdresser with the hair, the eye doctor with the eyes, and so on. Naturally enough, given that chiropractic believes in what Douglas Adams called "the fundamental interconnectedness of all things," this doctor is all over the place. Not in any sort of creepy way, but it's just different. Bangs and pops, tools that feel like a no-puncture staple gun or sound like a floor sander ... it's just very different. I'm hopeful (still), and I'll be going a couple of times a week, so I think I get full credit for really trying it.

Unrelatedly, I will leave you with this quote:

"Respecting the difference between words is not about being pedantic or pompous or even perfectionist. It just means we can express ourselves more clearly."

~ John Humphrys, Lost for Words: The Mangling and Manipulating of the English Language 80 (2004).

Relaxing, Introspective, Saturday Night

In an interesting take on this blog's name, tonight I'm watching the Bruins game*, just finished reading a book, have been knitting, and there's a cat in the room. Granted, it's not the good cat, who's sleeping in the other room, but still, Herself is a cat. It counts.
*And every time they mention Dion Phaneuf, I hear this in my head.

I woke up this morning to find that she was sleeping by my back (in the sun, next to Carlos--it's no sign of affection for me, I know that), and I was finally able to capture her for a long, long overdue claw trimming. She'd been sticking to blankets, and I always worry she'll get too close to Carlos with one of those hooks. How nice to accomplish something before the sleep was out of my eyes! The trimming went well, for her, no blood or extra chaos, and I have a few weeks before the guilt starts building up again.

I was so fried last night. Such a week this has been! Not all bad, no, but a strain in many ways, and I needed something mindless. Happily for me, I settled down to watch a fun old movie that was on TCM just when I needed it. One of my favorite old movies to watch and re-watch is the Errol Flynn classic The Adventures of Robin Hood, with Olivia de Havilland and Basil Rathbone, but I hadn't seen another movie to feature the three* of them, Captain Blood, and it was a wonderful, entertaining thing to see.
*Though Rathbone's part here is a small one, unlike the omnipresence of Gisbourne in Robin Hood

I probably found it a lot more entertaining, or at least humorous, than they intended it to be, but what harm does that do? The mere fact that Errol Flynn is a doctor named Peter Blood--Doctor Blood, really?--and is convicted of treason for aiding a wounded rebel, and sent into slavery, and manages to escape and become a very successful pirate (hence the Captain Blood), well, it was wonderful. So if you ever need a good laugh, watch Errol Flynn, "carving a crimson career" as a pirate; I had a fine time. I also got some knitting done, which I'll show you soon.

As to this week? Well, let's see. The weather went from snow on Monday, to 60+ degrees Wednesday (I liked that part, of course), to well below freezing again by Friday. The Bruins went from wins Monday and Tuesday nights to an underwhelming loss Thursday that put more than one player on the injured list. Work went from end-of-month crazy to super-mega-crazy. And I saw a chiropractor, twice, as the next attempt to Do Something about the migraines begins. As I said, quite a week!

Here's how that last bit came about. On Sunday, someone recommended a wonderful local chiropractor. I went to his website Sunday night and filled out a form to request a consultation. When I turned my phone on as I left work Monday (I don't usually keep it turned on at work), I found a message from his office. I called back when I got home, and made an appointment--for the next night, how's that for service? They cleverly have morning hours, like 8-11 or so, then close until 3, and are open into the evening. How much easier does that make things for those of use working 9-5? So Much Easier! I wish all providers would do the same.

Anyway! The doctor and I discussed my health, and what chiropractic is all about (subluxation), and then he did an exam of my spine, which he said gave him some idea of where the problems lie. However, adjustment doesn't start until he sees x-rays, so he gave me a prescription to get those. And since they're done at a local hospital, which is (as a hospital tends to be) open around the clock, I went straight there Tuesday evening, and got them done right away. Why wait?

The closest experience I've had, in recent years anyway, is mammograms, with all the "stand here, a little that way, now hold still and don't breathe," but the very key difference is that x-rays don't hurt! I was thus able to be much more sanguine about the process, and much as I talk about my inability to stand still generally, it went pretty smoothly, and off I went with my CD of images. I called the office the next day to make an appointment, as they do not set up the x-ray review until you have your x-rays done, and who can blame them? So I made the appointment for Thursday evening, and dutifully went along after work again.

I had to wait a bit (and of course I was early, too, being me), so I got some good knitting in; the office has a seriously comfortable couch, I must say. They also had a monitor set up with a slide show of information about chiropractic for kids, and I was amused to see that being a klutz is a potential sign of misalignment, not to mention a constantly bouncing leg (something my brother was known for, as a teenager).

When it was my turn, the doctor went over the x-rays with me, and it was slightly creepy but mostly interesting, seeing my bones on the screen. He was not perturbed to point out a spot of spina bifida in my lower back; who knew I had a bone that didn't fuse the way it should? But he particularly pointed out the upper spine in the series taken of that area, which included poses with my standing with head tilted back and with chin down on chest. When you tilt the head down, spaces open between the vertebrae, and when you tip it back, the spaces should close, but mine didn't change much, from one to another. So that's something to work on!

He did only two adjustments Thursday night, so as not to overload the system at the start, and while it's an odd experience, it didn't hurt or even feel particularly like anything. Then I sat in the "tranquility room" for ten minutes with an ice pack on the back of my neck, before making another appointment for Tuesday, and heading home. I don't feel any different, and not having a headache since then could totally be a coincidence, but time will tell more. I'm cautiously hopeful, anyway.

Meanwhile, Her Highness has taken herself off somewhere, but His Lordship has come to keep me company, and we're going to watch the rest of the game together.

Carlos is so talented, he can watch with his eyes closed.