Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

In the past week I've:

- Moved from California to New Mexico
- Been diagnosed with a giant kidney stone

Unfortunately the second came directly before the first and so, a week later, it's still kicking my ass kidney.

Move date: Tuesday February 23.
On Saturday the 20th, I had serious pain in my flank (I was pretty sure it was kidney stone pain, I used to get them a lot). Went to urgent care. Asked doctor what they could do since I was flying on the 23rd. He said cancel my move until it was taken care of, that it wouldn't be safe to fly.

In a panic, I left. But it was too late to do any calling to cancel anything, so I just went to bed. Next morning pain was so bad, I went to the ER. I was hoping the on call urologist would do the procedure to blast it to bits, then I could get the follow up care done in NM. Nope. Urologist said I either stay and get it done (10 days or so with a stent in me, then get it removed, THEN I could move) or I could move and get the procedure done in NM. He said it would be safe to fly, and since he was the specialist, I went with his opinion. (In addition to my furniture being moved, my car was being shipped, my cat was flying with me, and I had already given up my apartment. Too much to cancel at the last minute.)

The CA urologist said that once I landed in NM I should go to an ER and they could do the procedure that same day. Unfortunately that turned out into a complicated mess. I picked the wrong hospital (the only one out of four that has no urologist on call). The NM ER doctor looked at me in the eye and asked "Why are you here? For a referral?". Ugh.

But what could I do? I took the referral... and then that office (another hospital) canceled it. The state of NM has no 14 day quarantine, but the hospitals do. Sigh. So they made me an appointment two weeks out, but if the pain gets too bad, I can go to their ER.

The move itself was stressful. While the flight was only three and a half hours long, there was a layover in the middle of it, and I was flying with my cat.

Things learned the hard way about New Mexico:
- Uber/Lyft has zero cars available after 9 PM. I spent an hour and a half in the airport trying to get a ride to the hotel, my cat having been in the carrying case for eight hours at that point.
- The difference in altitude will kick your ass. I get winded walking down a short hallway (I used to walk every day for almost an hour). I get so out of breath going up a single flight of stairs (and I live on the second floor).

Lifesaving things:
- Siri. Before smart phones existed, how did anyone get around in a new city? Paper maps? Reading them while driving? All I do is follow her directions and I can get where I'm going.

New Mexico:
- I picked this state because it's so much cheaper to live in than California, but I hadn't realized what that really meant. I had (stupidly) thought that it would be just a much cheaper California -- that it would look the same, the people would be the same, the services would be the same. But I was so very wrong.
- Smoking. OMG. In California, I saw someone smoking maybe once a year. Here every single person I see is either smoking or holding a pack. These apartments are supposed to be nonsmoking, but everyone just stands on their balcony and smoke. I can smell it in my apartment all the time.
- The mountains are great! So pretty!

I'm looking forward to seeing more of the area once I'm feeling better and the virus is more under control. I was looking forward to trying more new places to eat, but I'm sorry to say most of the food I've eaten so far has been from chains. (I'm usually too hurting or tired to venture.)

On book reviews: I haven't read a single page in a week or so. Kidney stone = being in bed hurts, and I do most of my reading in bed. Plus I kind of misplaced my Kindle (I'm nearly sure I saw it in my apartment somewhere, so it's not lost-lost).

Inspired by a post from hamsterwoman.

I live alone in a small apartment. My apartment complex is next door to an elementary school, and thus full of families. Most of the families are gone (where? I have no idea).

Usually this apartment complex is full of life. Kids run around, people walk dogs, there are mothers with kids everywhere. Now? I feel like the world has ended. I used to not be able to open my blinds, because I live on the ground floor and that would let too many people look in. Now I can leave them completely open.

I see maybe one or two people outside my windows most days. (My windows overlook the main sidewalk and the main green area, so people have to pass through if they're going to their apartments.) It really feels like the world has ended and I'm the only human left alive. Most of the time, there's nothing to even hear other than wind and birds.

I've always been happy living alone though, so that part doesn't bother me. I have a cat, and even before this happened I've been feeding crows. I see the crows a hundred times more than I see another human. (They come every hour or so calling for me to come out and feed them. Yes, I'm spoiling them to death.)

Like I said, I live in a small studio apartment. It's about four steps from my bed to my desk. Maybe six steps to my kitchen. So there's not much to go or do inside.

I've started taking walks most days, because I'm actually worried health-wise about doing nothing but sitting this long. I'm not an active person in general, but at least going into the office meant I walked to my car, around the floor, all that.

...crows are yelling for food right now. I enjoy going out to feed them, but I wash my hands every time I come in (not because of Corona, I'd do it anyway) and I feed them every hour or so, so that's a little hard on my skin.

My mother is holed up in Maine. On one hand, I wish we were closer to each other, but at least that's one of the safest places for her to be in. My sister lives in South Carolina with her husband and adult kids. No law of man or nature can control her, so no idea if she's being safe or not. Fingers crossed.

Anyway! Interesting stats stolen from hamsterwoman:

Days since I've been to work:

God, I had to check and check and check again. We were ordered to work from home on Tuesday March 17th, though (thinking things were getting bad) I called in sick Monday the 16th. So it's only been 17 days counting the weekends. Two weeks and two days. It feels like MONTHS. I would have guessed it was at least five weeks now.

Greatest number of days in a row I spent wearing pajamas:

I love keeping that stat! I have no idea what my count is, the days blur together so much. The last few days I've put pants on to go take a walk (sleeping t-shirt covered by a jacket, so didn't change), but I know I've had a long run of not going out.

Number of shopping trips total:

Let's see, on the first day I went to Trader Joe's and the dollar store (I get my snacks there). I figured the grocery store would be insane. TJ still had a line out the door, but I was one of the first 30 or so people they let in.
Then I went more than a week before I went to the grocery store and dollar store again (eating so many snacks...).
On Saturday I went to a sub place (Jersey Mike's, first time ever going, but they were having a half-price sale).

I think that's it, though I have gotten delivery three times now (pizza twice and Chinese food once).

My life never seems interesting enough to post about. I go to work, go home, play video games all night, go to bed, then start all over the next day.

Health: I did something to my shoulder/arm almost a month ago, and after going downhill for a week, I wasn't able to lift it above shoulder height. It kept not getting better, so eventually I made a doctor appointment. Usually, if you're willing to see any doctor, you can get in the next day. This time it took me a whole week to get an appointment with a random doctor. By the time I got to see her, it was finally improving a little. She said it was tendonitis of the bicep. Usually she would give me a painkiller, but the ones I can take are limited and I didn't really want one anyway, so I skipped that. She referred me to physical therapy as well, but since I was getting better, I decided to wait on that, too.

A week later(ish) and it's about 80% better. I can lift it as high as the other arm, though it doesn't have the strength of it, so I'm just going to give it more time and keep stretching it.

TV: VIKINGS! VIKINGS! VIKINGS! I finally gave that show a try, and my god is it good. :D I'm almost done with the second season. I'm watching at least one episode a day, which is just such a great way to watch a show.

Unfortunately, totally my own fault, I read a big spoiler about something that happens to my favorite character, so that's kind of a downer. The small plus side: I can see all the signs leading up to it happening, I wouldn't have recognized them if I hadn't known the spoiler.

I watched the Blood Eagle ep right before going to bed the other night. I'm amazed I didn't have nightmares about it...

Is anyone else watching?

It's so odd, I've never experienced a DST like this one. I feel like I'm 8 or 9 hours off normal, not just one hour. All day I couldn't tell if it was morning, early afternoon, or evening, and worse than that, all day I wanted to eat.

It didn't help that I was up at 4 AM today... 5 AM is bad enough, especially on a weekend, but my body thought it was time to be up, so up I was.

Hopefully I'll be able to get adjusted tomorrow.

To pass the time today, I finally saw Spider-Man Homecoming. Completely loved it! It might not be in my top five Marvel movies, but I still enjoyed the whole thing. Now I'm itching to see the new Thor movie!

I had a two day work conference/training event/team building thing to go to up in San Francisco. The company was paying for hotel rooms for three days/two nights for everyone, but people who couldn't stay away that long (people with kids or pets or whatever) could travel back and forth instead.

I really, really didn't want to go to it. It'd be boring and long and lots of other reasons.

Since I can't leave my cat alone for three days, I elected to Uber back and forth each day.

I called my car, and for some reason it got canceled? I don't know if I canceled it by mistake or the driver did... he was right on the same road with me, then I got the popup window to rate the ride. Whatever. I ordered another Uber.

The second one was odd. I don't know if this had anything to do with anything, but he took almost five minutes to move at all, then he drove passed my road and way down the other way, stopping in a Starbucks (was he getting coffee? he could have turned around much sooner than that...). Anyway, he finally got to me and off we went.

A few minutes into the ride, and we got into an accident. We were going up a highway, so at normal highway speeds, and apparently there was an accident in front of us. Someone hit it, we hit them, someone (or two someones) hit us from behind. I was reading at the time, so I'm not completely sure what happened.

Luckily I had my seatbelt on. My Kindle went flying. (For much of the time, I was more worried about getting it back than anything else. It flew into the front seat somewhere, and I didn't want his car to be towed before I could find it.)

It took a long time standing on the side of the road for the cops to come (So Many Cops), then a few firetrucks, then some medics.

Thankfully one of the cops gave me a ride home (home-ish), because otherwise I'd be stuck there on the highway. He pulled over someone while I was in the back, and it was close enough to my apartment complex that I could walk, so I thanked him and left.

I never rode in the back of a cop car before! It was pretty interesting, so much to see. The cop was chatty as hell, too.

So anyway, once I got home, I went straight to my doctor. She was able to see me right away, sent me for X-rays, gave me painkillers. I'm not feeling too awful yet, but she said tomorrow I'm going to feel much worse. "Wish I would die" was her words to describe what my pain level will probably be.

So... I don't have to go to the conference today or tomorrow, but a darned high price for getting out of it. She said I'll probably be hurting bad for two full weeks, and perhaps beyond that.

Plus side: I could have been hurt a lot worse. It could have been my car. (Poor Uber driver!)

I haven't been sent a receipt from Uber yet, so I really hope they're not going to try to charge me for the trip.

I feel a little guilty for giving the driver one star, but man, the 'rate this ride' popup showed up on my phone while I was still standing on the side of the road. Maybe the accident wasn't his fault (I don't know), but I hit one star without thinking. Though I suppose if there's a reason to give one star, an accident is a good one...

It's funny to think what could have been. If that first Uber had showed up, I never would have gotten into an accident to begin with and this Uber driver would still have his car.

Edit: No issue on the being charged issue. They just sent me an email:

We received a message that you were involved in an accident on a recent trip. Your safety is deeply important to us and we wanted to check to see if you’re okay. We’re also following up with your driver.
Due to this experience, I’ve fully refunded your fare for this trip, which will apply to your original payment method in 3-5 business days. You'll also receive an updated receipt via email.

I was sitting at my desk when I saw motion out of my eye. I looked across the room, out the sliding glass window, and there was a giant hawk or falcon or something! Much bigger than my cat!



Look at the size of those talons!

A bunch of small birds (wrens or chickadees or something) have been breeding on my porch for days now, so I guess they finally attracted the predator.

I hope it comes back so I can get better pictures!

Okay, maybe not miles. In an effort at things, I'm trying to work up to that whole "walk 10,000 steps a day" thing. (I know for some of you out there, that's a joke. But for me, who is on a computer all day at work, then on a computer all day after work, it's not ever anything I've even gotten close to.) Apparently you can break that 10,000 steps down into as small of units as you want, so I'm breaking them down into 100 steps at a time. (The goal of this isn't to get your heart rate up, just to not be sedentary.)

Small steps. Not literal small steps. Small steps towards reaching 10,000 steps. Apparently walking in place counts just as much as walking to go somewhere, so I stand next to my computer and do 100 frequently. That's worked so far at home, but tomorrow I go back to the office, so I'm not sure how well that will go there...

And speaking of work, changes are a'brewing...

( Why would a company want to cut its workforce down by so much? )

In gaming news, the MMO I play (FFXIV) has an expansion coming out in June. Today was a four hour long preview of all the changes, all shown by the producer (man who saved the whole game). It was so fun and exciting to watch it all, especially since my whole guild watched it online together. It's such a cool, amazing experience to get excited over stuff with people from around the world. We have one person from Africa, one from South America, a bunch from across Europe, and lots from North America. All of us together, excited over this online thing. :)

This feels like the longest winter of my life. Coldest, too. With my very limited heat, it's usually mid 50s inside when I wake up/get home from work. Gets up to the low 60s after the heat has been on two or three hours. Nowadays, 66 inside feels toasty warm!

Come back soon, summer!

Two little things make a small post.

I was invited to a movie preview, first time that ever happened. Unfortunately it was for a movie that I had less than no interest in seeing. Title: Long Halftime Walk. The summary:

The film is told from the point of view of 19-year-old private Billy Lynn (newcomer Joe Alwyn) who, along with his fellow soldiers in Bravo Squad, becomes a hero after a harrowing Iraq battle and is brought home temporarily for a victory tour. Through flashbacks, culminating at the spectacular halftime show of the Thanksgiving Day football game, the film reveals what really happened to the squad - contrasting the realities of the war with America's perceptions.

Even if I could see it for free online, instead of actually having to go to a theater, I'd have no interest at all in seeing it. Less than none: It seems like a move I'd dislike. RL war. Sports. No thanks.

As the invitation was sent to me the same day as the preview, I wonder if other people canceled and they were trying to fill in spots? Either way, I didn't go, even though it was at my local theater.

The other minor thing amused me: New book I'm reading, the main character is 24 years old. My first reaction was to blink in surprise and wonder why the author made her so old! Then I had to laugh at myself -- clearly I've been reading way too many YA books!

I'd like to know how I pissed the weather gods off.

Two years I lived in an apartment with AC. In the last year, I did not need to use the AC even once for weather-related purposes.

Move to an apartment with no AC for THREE WEEKS, in the middle of FALL, and we have THREE heat waves! 95+ each time! Which means 100+ inside! When there was not even one hear wave all summer! I'm moving out on Monday, but Saturday is going to be 90+ and Sunday is going to be 95+. ARG.

Seriously, I must have pissed something off...

On Amazon Locker, it couldn't be easier. The most "challenging" part was spotting where it was located in the little store. Punch in a 5 digit code, door pops open, take box. I'd happily use it again, if needed!