Weekly Mileage #289 and Karate Graduation

Monday I was still feeling yucky, but definitely better than before. Congestion was still present and I don’t have much of a voice yet, but overall I feel better, so… progress. I didn’t take Max for a walk because it rained all weekend- Hurricane Ian (tropical storm Ian, I think? by the time it hit us) brought wind and rain as it headed north. Leaves were blown off the trees, but we had no power loss or damage, which is a benefit of living far enough inland to only get the fading edges of most big hurricanes as they head north.

I sent a couple emails, then procrastinated writing and sending the other emails and paying the bills by clearing out all my email inboxes. It was long overdue, and I did find a couple emails that needed responses, so it was actually a necessary task. The task from here on out will be staying on top of unsubscribing from unnecessary emails rather than just deleting them, like I’ve been doing. Maybe eventually my inboxes won’t fill up so fast?

Tuesday we did online music lessons since I was still feeling crummy. I still had congestion in my lungs and sinuses, and my voice was hoarse. It was a little better than before, but still a work in progress.

I took River to an orthodontist appointment then did some reorganizing of my shelves. I also dug out some leather scraps that I’d put in drawers and forgotten about. Once everything was visible, I was able to mostly sort materials, tools, items in progress, and finished items into bins and baskets. Once I finish that process, I’ll label them and it’ll be super easy to find what I need at a glance, as well as make full use of what I have on hand.

At karate class we turned in our black belt books for our brown stripes and now we just need one more attendance stripe and we’ll be good to graduate.

Wednesday I was feeling better, but congestion was still an issue in my sinuses and lungs. I’m not sure if it’s a bad cold, RSV, something else?

I had the MRI done to check the lump in my arm since it appeared suddenly. The best part was that we got the results super fast, even before I got home. The MRI was clear, and there are no issues with the lump- it’s just a lipoma. Now that we’ve got that established, I’m going to find some castor oil and start doing castor oil packs on it to see if I can get rid of it that way.

The MRI was interesting. I maybe had one when I was a teen- either that or a CT scan, I don’t remember which- of my sinuses. I’m a bit claustrophobic, so the tunnel was super fun. One of the techs put a folded towel over my eyes, and that made a huge difference. even if I opened my eyes I couldn’t see the tunnel 6″ over my face, so it didn’t feel like it was closing in on me.

The issue I did have though, was coughing. Part way through I got this tickle in the back of my throat and no matter how hard I tried, I could not keep from coughing. I tried to cough in between cycles (there were noisy cycles separated by silence), but inevitably the tickle was worse during the cycle and gone in between. The techs checked to see if I was ok, then brought me some water, but they didn’t have a straw, so I had to awkwardly stay in my half on my side, half on my back position, lift my head and try to get water down my throat instead of down my neck and shoulder. We ended up doing that twice, then they turned the air off, and that actually made the biggest difference.

I realized it was like when I was in the hospital after giving birth- I always developed a tickle in my throat from the constant dry air blowing. Of course, my congestion didn’t help the tickle, but wasn’t the main problem this time. I had hoped I’d be able to take a nap, but the cough nixed that plan. I did manage to zone out pretty good before and after the coughing, though, so I was close.

When I got home I had my accountability call and then I made a birthday cake for River’s birthday.

Thursday I had to bring the boys with us for the seminary carpool as Jeremy had a rare early morning meeting. One of the kids wasn’t there that morning, though even if he had been, I’d have had just enough seat belts, though the back seat would have been snug with three people. The boys occupied themselves running up and down the sidewalk outside the church while I worked on my computer.

In the evening we went to karate class, where we got our final attendance stripe, just in time for graduation on Friday.

Friday we skipped park day since I still wasn’t feeling great and wanted to conserve energy for the evening.

Our karate graduation was at the same time that Sunshine needed to leave for a Scout campout, so our friends picked her up at the graduation location (which is actually the same spot we used to meet for Scouts, pre-pandemic). Normally our graduations are Saturday mornings, but it was Friday evening this time since they were holding an all-school graduation in NC Saturday morning. They know not everyone will make it down there, so they have an early graduation for those staying local.

Saturday I didn’t sleep well most of the night, though when I did finally fall asleep I slept till noon, which is unheard of for me. It was not a super productive day, though at least I was feeling a bit better physically.

Jeremy picked up Sunshine and our friends’ girls from the Scout campout, but got lost on the way back. There’s no gps signal at the camp, so they guessed on the turn, and guessed wrong, which took them on a super long way home and they didn’t get back till late. Oops. Guess I should have driven after all.