I'm trying to do some things around the apartment in Boulder that won't put stress on my rotator cuff injury. I've been going to therapy two days a week for almost three weeks and don't seem to be making much progress. The therapist says I have to make an effort not to do anything that will further stress the injury, so I'm thinking little and low.
I thought I had been tapped to drive Olive and Kooky to Louisville to Kooky's dog groomer this morning, but she told me yesterday that the woman who has had the honor in the past, who had been ill, had volunteered to take her again. I was a little relieved because we were going to take
Olive's car and I really feel uncomfortable driving other people's
vehicles and I'm not sure she has the requisite insurance either. So, after I walked with Olive and Kooky this morning I had the entire day without appointments.
I continued painting on this lawn ornament...
I'm dabbing on watered down Patio Paint in Woodland Brown, Wrought Iron Black and Pot O' Gold Dore'. I think maybe one more go and I'll have it.
I like it so well, I'm going to do this other lawn ornament...
...and I've already used the brown and gold on this long gourd that I've been toting around for two years, having found it in an antique shop in a little town in northwest Missouri...
...It had got pretty skinned up in its travels. I'm going to drill a hole in the top, and in this incarnation, as a nod to the Indian theme I seem to have going on the balcony, I may try running some fairly long, sheer colorful ribbons (I'm thinking that marvelous French seam binding) through the hole as a hanger or just decoration. I may go a little heavier on the gold paint too. Don't worry, it will all come together!
Then I used some Gorilla Glue on the front stringer on this chair, which was loose...
...I hope that's enough weight. I know the glue works since it, affixed to a bit of trim, kept the front bumper of my car from falling off earlier in the spring and it had been applied almost a decade earlier!
What else? Oh, I had gone to Walmart in Longmont yesterday after therapy and purchased a 3M Command Brand hook for that other shower caddy that I bought Saturday at the Goodwill 50% off sale and got that (the hook) put up...
...I wanted to give it plenty of time to "set" although I think you really only have to wait one hour. I see, based on a coupon in the package, that they're now
making these in clear although I didn't notice the clear variety at
Walmart if they had them in stock. I'm going to get a clear one for my
apartment door next month so I can hang a wreath. These are the "damage-free" variety that can be pulled off so I'm sure management will like that.
And I spent quite a bit of time using the heated tip of the hot glue gun on that mixture of hot glue and strands of red gimp that remained on the back of this chair...
...and got an amazing amount of it off. This is what it looked like before...
I tried to sand the remains off and that doesn't seem to work at all. I'll give it one more go with the hot glue gun and then just figure the black paint will make it all disappear. Maybe some day I can get a new back put in this chair although I really don't think it's worth the expense. I certainly have been getting a lot of good out of it since I moved into the apartment though.
I brought the electric stapler down from the cabin the last time I was there and so should be able to get the fabric put on this chair seat and the balcony chair and settee seats within the next few days.
I also called in a work order this morning to have maintenance come and hang all of my decor out on the balcony. Yes, they'll actually do that for tenants. I think I've lived with things out there on the balcony long enough that I'm sure where I want things hung. When I first heard maintenance would do this I thought they'd just have to move in since it takes me forever to make up my mind where I want things and often, when I'm doing it myself, I move things after I've got them hung...."No, that needs to be at least an inch lower. Start over." I expect these guys will only put up with so much of that. At any rate, they'll be drilling into concrete block and I did that in the kitchen for a clock and it takes forever even with the right drill bit, so I'm really happy they're available to do it.
All for now...Teddee
I thought cortisone was supposed to really rev you up. I went for a follow-up visit yesterday for the injuries I received when I fell several weeks ago and was told, based on some simple strength tests, that I had strained my right rotator cuff. The physician's assistant in Orthopedics, affiliated with the Urgent Care facility I had gone to the day I fell, seemed fairly certain I had not torn the rotator cuff, which is good news, and says the pain I'm experiencing has nothing to do with the chipped shoulder bone. She prescribed a muscle relaxant, which Humana refused to cover so I didn't get it, and cortisone. I've taken the three tablets prescribed so far for the first day and really haven't noticed any difference...and, based on the last cortisone I enjoyed several years ago, I was really hoping to feel "shot from guns." But that was given by injection, so perhaps that's the difference. I recall feeling the best that following week that I'd felt since I was in my twenties! Lots of physical and mental energy. I was unaware of what I'd been given and asked for more and was, of course, told "No way." Too bad there isn't something legal, that's not debilitating in the long run, we could take as we age to regain that get up and go.
That said, I haven't had a bad couple of days. I left the cabin early yesterday and drove to the apartment in Boulder. I snapped a photo of the newly seeded grass that's coming up in the park just to the west of the building. They are watering furiously and it's looking great. What a delightful view of the Flatirons...
I wanted to get to the apartment early because I needed to color my hair and while that was processing I got a few things unpacked and put in the kitchen cupboards. It was a treat to be able to step into the shower and rinse out that hair color, I'll tell you. It is so difficult to get the product out when you're rinsing by hand in a wash pan. Additionally, you use a lot of water...good for at least one trip to the spring!
I just made it to my medical appointment, perhaps a mile north of the apartment. I really liked this physician's assistant. She seems to know her stuff, didn't keep me waiting, didn't seem rushed, and answered all my questions. She said if the lump remaining in my eyebrow is scar tissue in the muscle it may never go completely away. The numbness, which I also inquired about, does seem to be less today than it was even yesterday. She said the bruise remaining under my eye may take quite some time to completely dissipate. I was given some simple exercises to do for the next four weeks for the rotator cuff, at which time I'm to return.
After my appointment, I returned to the apartment and applied my makeup, which I hadn't had time to do earlier, then drove to meet my friend Paula for lunch. Yes, it was finally the second Wednesday of the month when we get our Social Security checks, but Paula agreed to go to Olive Garden again so I could use the $20 gift card I had been given by management after the restaurant charged my checking account twice for my lunch the last time. The food was good and we had a great visit but, once again, the service was not really up to snuff. I still have enough for another lunch on my gift card, but I'm not sure I'll ever get Paula to go back, so may have to go solo!
After lunch, I went to Walgreens to pick up my prescription, then headed back to Nederland where I stopped at Ace for the paint for the secretary (whoopee) and at B&F for Cheap Chicken and Wednesday's senior discount on a few groceries including more kibble for the foxes.
This morning I heated lots of water and did dishes out on the patio then decided to drag out the ugly table and try to do a better job of painting it than I'd done the other day inside the cabin when it was so windy...
I'd put the first coat on with a brush, but could see brush marks. Today I tried a roller and now I can see roller marks! It was really too hot, I think, and I was right in the sun. I may have to sand this a little and try again although, based on past experience..."It will never be noticed on a galloping horse at midnight..." and it's pretty much midnight in this cabin with all this charcoal brown paint! I noted today, according to Ace, this paint is called Prancing Pony.
I also decided to use Prancing Pony on this old cutting board that had been an atrocious 60s or 70s yellow with some equally atrocious Pennsylvania Dutch designs on the back...
Maybe eventually I'll stencil some subtle design on this so people can actually find it when it's hanging against an equally Painted Pony wall!
Then, on to what I expected to be the fun project...the secretary! I started out with the three drawer fronts...
This paint is Chestertown Buff, one of Benjamin Moore's Historic Colors. It's more intense than it appears in this shot. The one below is truer.
I had moved my painting around to the shade on the west side of the cabin, but the sun soon passed over the yard arm and I had to put up the umbrella. I had given the primer on these a light sanding, followed by a rub down with tack cloth, and the paint went on, by roller, quite smoothly. At one point, however, the very light breeze gave a little gust and I found myself picking out dandelion fuzz, and later gnats, from the wet paint, so this was not without challenges. I'm thinking of adding to my bucket list more creative expletives just to keep the neighbors entertained.
I went on from there to the secretary base. This is the piece I had attempted to prime with the spray Kilz, which went on so rough. I really had to sand it down, inside and out and clean it thoroughly with the tack cloth before I could even start to paint. I decided to paint the inside first...
...so put it on its back. This went quite well using a brush for the edges and corners then filling in with the roller. It is time consuming and brought back memories of painting the shelf unit back in the 80s that's now in storage, but has been such a useful piece of furniture in every place I've made a home since my first studio apartment in Chicago in about 1968!
It started to cloud up and I decided to call it a day, bring everything inside, clean up and drive back to Nederland and get ice--I'm starting to think this old cooler is not doing its job. The ice doesn't last long at all--and sugar so I could make syrup for the hummingbirds which have been without any at my feeder since the bear was last here.
One morning soon after that last night the bear managed to empty the sugar water out of the feeder, I was sitting at the picnic table having my morning coffee and a hummingbird flew close over my head...
Photo courtesy of Wild Bear Mountain Ecology Center, Nederland, Colorado
...descended toward the deck on the opposite side of the table and commenced this bizarre routine just a few inches off the deck, popping up and down very rapidly and turning figure eights in a very circumscribed area and just generally causing a stir! Then it rose to about table height, repeated the performance and flew off. I wasn't wearing anything colorful, so unless it was responding to the new tablecloth, I think it may have been trying to communicate that the feeder was empty! I love animals. Teddee
