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| A Bridge Too Far. It's at the end of my driveway" and is the only way in and out of the house. I cross my fingers every time I go over it! :) |
(With self-diagnosis, I've taken great care to follow Mark Twain's advice: "Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.")
In the meantime, my reaction to this development has been to "take things easy". Well, relatively easy, but I live alone, so taking things too easy would mean no chores would get done and I might starve to death (I might anyway.) Frankly, I feel like I'm walking on eggshells the whole time, but I do also realize that I have to maintain a careful balance between being idle and completely ceasing up and, doing too much and completely disabling myself in the process.
One of the ways I avoid being totally idle is because of Holly dawg, who needs her daily walks. She's also now at least 13 years old and, despite otherwise being strong and puppy-like still, has unfortunately become rather incontinent.
Yes, it could happen to any of us and I probably drool more than she does!
(It's also causing lots of additional laundry.) Anyway, to avoid too many "accidents" and keep her as comfortable as possible, I take her out at least hourly, if not more frequently. On the one hand, this does nothing to help my concentration or get any work done: on the other, the exercise - especially taken in small, frequent doses - probably hasn't harmed either of us.
Every morning, like clockwork, "we" also have a performance of #2s.
Except Fridays.
Our refuse collectors come early on Saturday mornings and, in winter, they may come while it's still dark. That's too early for me, no matter what the season. Also, I live 100 to 150 meters from the road (where the refuse is collected), across land that is an alternately dusty or muddy paddock, over a Barry Bucknell built concrete bridge with no railings (that spans a gorge) and, then down a very steep hill. It's unlit: no street lamps and very little other "light pollution." So I always take the trash down on Friday afternoons. Thank goodness that is DOWN hill when I'm hauling that trash, but this is probably one of the hardest challenges I face each week. And, yes the irony that I PAY for refuse "collection" and yet I have to struggle to "deliver" it that far to them, does indeed rankle quite a bit.
Anyhow, I take the Holly dog with me (virtually everywhere, as a guard dog), partly to "multi-task" one of her necessary walks along with the job of dumping the trash and, because she can help pull me back up the hill afterwards!
And every Friday on that trip, Holly dumps some extra trash of her own.
Does she associate the "dumping" action? Does she know what day of the week it is? I really don't know, because she eats the same each day, but I've tested: I've taken her down there on any other day of the week and she doesn't go! :-D
In the meantime, my reaction to this development has been to "take things easy". Well, relatively easy, but I live alone, so taking things too easy would mean no chores would get done and I might starve to death (I might anyway.) Frankly, I feel like I'm walking on eggshells the whole time, but I do also realize that I have to maintain a careful balance between being idle and completely ceasing up and, doing too much and completely disabling myself in the process.
One of the ways I avoid being totally idle is because of Holly dawg, who needs her daily walks. She's also now at least 13 years old and, despite otherwise being strong and puppy-like still, has unfortunately become rather incontinent.
Yes, it could happen to any of us and I probably drool more than she does!
(It's also causing lots of additional laundry.) Anyway, to avoid too many "accidents" and keep her as comfortable as possible, I take her out at least hourly, if not more frequently. On the one hand, this does nothing to help my concentration or get any work done: on the other, the exercise - especially taken in small, frequent doses - probably hasn't harmed either of us.
Every morning, like clockwork, "we" also have a performance of #2s.
Except Fridays.
Our refuse collectors come early on Saturday mornings and, in winter, they may come while it's still dark. That's too early for me, no matter what the season. Also, I live 100 to 150 meters from the road (where the refuse is collected), across land that is an alternately dusty or muddy paddock, over a Barry Bucknell built concrete bridge with no railings (that spans a gorge) and, then down a very steep hill. It's unlit: no street lamps and very little other "light pollution." So I always take the trash down on Friday afternoons. Thank goodness that is DOWN hill when I'm hauling that trash, but this is probably one of the hardest challenges I face each week. And, yes the irony that I PAY for refuse "collection" and yet I have to struggle to "deliver" it that far to them, does indeed rankle quite a bit.
Anyhow, I take the Holly dog with me (virtually everywhere, as a guard dog), partly to "multi-task" one of her necessary walks along with the job of dumping the trash and, because she can help pull me back up the hill afterwards!
And every Friday on that trip, Holly dumps some extra trash of her own.
Does she associate the "dumping" action? Does she know what day of the week it is? I really don't know, because she eats the same each day, but I've tested: I've taken her down there on any other day of the week and she doesn't go! :-D
