Gripes

1.  I had an old WWII clamp-on adjustable fluorescent lamp.  Used 40 watts.  Loved it for decades.  Simple on/off switch on the top.  But it started to "hum" all the time.

So I replaced it with a similarly adjustable but LED lamp.  It doesn't "hum" and uses about 11 watts.  But it comes with 4 buttons to control light color, intensity, and each has several degrees of brightness.  I kind of hate it.

All I wanted was a non-humming light with an on/off button.

2.  I have a cat who loves to fire-hose pee standing up like marking territory.  I bought litterboxes with high sides.  Now he just stands taller and aims farther up.  It must be deliberate.  

3.  I have a bad hip.  My Dr says I should smoke and drink less.  Duh!  But that isn't fixing my hip.  

4.  I've been laying in bed (hip thing) too long.  I need to get more active again.  But the hip thing isn't going away.

5.  The Weather Channel (online) makes a big thing about timing of rain.  Right down to 15 minute increments for the current hour.  So, it was supposed to rain at 3 PM.  At 2 PM, I was outside hauling some 50/50 topsoil/compost to fill up 10 gallon buckets for tomatoes/corn/beans/flowers.  

I was mixing in a balanced slow-release organic fertilizer.  And suddenly torrents of rain pelted down on me.  I barely got the dry fertilizer and the lawn tractor (hauling the buckets in a trailer).  And I was soaked to the skin by the time I got inside.  

6.  No one other than big box stores, Amazon, or Walmart delivers  anything when promised.  My new eyeglasses are 3 days late.  My driver's license should have arrived 2 days ago.  Maybe Amazon has spoiled me.

7.  Doctor offices are just as bad.  After getting put in an exam room, I am told "The doctor will be with you in a few minutes.  30 minutes is not "a few".  One day after 90 minutes, I was reaching for the door when the doctor arrived.  They should just be more honest!  If the doctor is an hour behind, they know that.  So just tell us, right?  I now always have a crossword puzzle or a book with me.

8.  This is not a gripe.  But it applies to waiting.  The DMV or MVA, (or whatever your driver's license place is called) used to be notorious for making you sit around forever several different times.  Last week, I went there.  After 10 minutes in line at the entry booth, I was given a number.  My number was called before I could even sit down!  And the people were friendly.  I was out in another 10 minutes!

9.  I was required to accept a new cable box recently.  I hate the changes.  Now, every time I turn on the TV, I have to refuse "pay-for" movie service.  OR it says (seemingly randomly)  "press any button to go to channels".  Any button sends you to the button you pressed, not channels.  I only watch HD channels and HBO movies.  

10.  I'm becoming slightly paranoid about 2 things.  OK, not actually paranoid, but there are 2 things that amaze me routinely.  The first is that, no matter when I go out to see if the mail has arrived (and it isn't), the mailperson arrives by the time I get back to the house.  And since they are going down the opposite side of the street, it is 10 minutes before they get to me.  So I can stand there for 10 minutes and wait.  

The mail usually arrives noon to 2 PM.  Yesterday, at 5 PM, I checked the mail and there was none.  I no sooner got back to the garage, here they came!  I have joked to myself that they sit at the top of the hill and wait for me to check my mailbox before they continue on their route.  LOL!

The other thing is one traffic light.  It allows me to return to my neighborhood across a minor highway.  From where I am coming from, there is absolutely no timing connection with that light.  Traffic on the route home eliminates the possibility.  

But 90% of the time (more or less), every time I turn the corner of the back road, I see the light to cross the highway just turning yellow!  And the highways gets 3 minutes so I have to sit and wait and wait...

11.  Motorcycle Guy!  There is some guy down the street that drives his motorcycle up and down the street many times a day.  I think he is a teen who is not allowed to drive out of the neighborhood.  So most days, he drives back and forth on our street.  

He has a right to do that (if of legal age - which you can't tell with a helmet on) but the noise is irritating and goes right through my windows and walls.  I've gotten so I cringe every time I hear him going back and forth.

OK, enough of all that...

 

Annoyed Serious Gripe

 I shop at a Safeway store.  They have great produce and I love fresh veggies and fruits.  And it is not a busy store.  Checkout lines are usually just a few people.  But I have a gripe about one checkout woman.  And I've emailed the store about it but gotten no reply.  So I feel like complaining about it somewhere.

I have a store-loyalty card.  You show it to the checkout cashier and they scan it immediately.  But there is one cashier who always says "I'll do that at the end". OK.   But she never remembers to do that.  The first time, OK, she was busy and forgot.  

When I pointed at my loyalty card sitting on the small surface next to her, she said I hadn't shown it to her.  Of course I had.  I had held it right up to her.  Well, fine, people get busy and forget things.

The next time I was in her line, same thing.  But this time I mentioned she had forgotten the last time.  She blew up.  "I never forget that" she said, and then forgot again.  I pointed out that it was the 2nd time.  She blamed me for not showing the card first (I had).

Today, I had to go through her station again (only express lane).  Again she said "I'll do that at the end".  I insisted she did.  She said she never forgets.

This time the same thing.  And she did not have a name label.  I said "I bet your name is "Patsy".  She asked how I knew.  I said because you do the same card-scan-avoidance everytime "for later".  I demanded she scan the card immediately.  And she seemed both aggrieved and angry.

But she did scan it.  In anger, and she practically threw my bags at me afterwards.

What is with some people?  All she has to do is scan cards when presented.  Everyone else does.

Griping

Hi - Anyone bored enough to trade being 50 or younger for 71?   I'm offerring good rates; I'll hardly charge anything in exchange for 20+ years of life-experience...

I'm beginning to feel like a clone in a sci-fi movie that is wearing out.  Don't worry, this is all just a gripe; not depression.  I'm happy enough with life not to feel depressed.  But things are creeping up on me.

I'm tired of the muscle cramps.  Oh sure, they happen sometimes even when you are younger when you over-exert yourself, and that is normal.  Around 60, they started getting a little more common, but still mostly when I did too much yardwork.  You hold a shovel tightly enough while digging, a cramp a few hours later isn't that odd.  I push myself a lot.

Living alone means having to do "necessary things" that would be better off with 2 people doing it.  

I suppose an equation would be:  Doing 2x times 2y projects times AgeZ = 2 cramps...  OUCH!

It is almost becoming a daily routine.  I go outside and do some yardwork.  I've gotten smart enough to take breaks after 1/2 hour, wear padded gloves, apply some muscle rub...  MOST days are OK.  But more often lately, preparing dinner a few hours later results in hand cramps as I grip knives to cut veggies and meat and hold a wok spatula, etc.  And if I apply a muscle ointment then, the knife handles are hard to hold.

And sometimes the surface muscles on one side of my ribs or the other will cramp.  That's the least ones.  Bending over slightly and waving my arms below me resolves that in a few minutes.  Definitely not heart problems.  Very surface and no dizziness or other discomfort.  

But night-time is getting worse.  There can be any of several kinds of muscle cramps when I lay in bed.  The least is when the ankle muscles "harden".  It doesn't actually hurt, but it is annoying.  Next are the calf muscles.  That hurts some, but I can stretch my foot back and forth and it stops in a minute.

The backside thigh muscles (hamstring?) are the bad ones.  I will suddenly wake up feeling a cramp that feels like the muscle will tear loose from the bone.  I have to walk around for 15-20 minutes before it stops.  Sometimes I'm lucky enough to be awake and feel the first pull and I jump out of bed before it gets worse.

I saw a basketball game once where a player had that cramp and use a rolling stick to press along the muscle like using a rolling pin.  I bought one.  It is hard to use on yourself...  So I walk around until it goes away.

There isn't much connection between yardwork and that cramp.  And it isn't like I sleep all pulled together with my legs pulled up tightly.  My cats sleep against me (which limits my movement sometimes), but it happens without them around me too.

I may get dehydrated.  I'm sometimes very good about drinking a lot of water, but then forget for a while.  But I typically get a lot of water from meals.  My first meal of the day typically is a sandwich with a mug of green tea, a mug of milk, some small amount of Coke, and celery, cucumber, carrot; so that's a fair amount of water.  After I work outside, I often drink a pint of water and-or Gatorade.  

Dinner and dessert involves a fair amount of water.  I eat a lot of fresh veggies and they are mostly water (meat is usually about 3 ozs).  Dessert is always assorted fresh fruit and lots of it.  Aside from keeping me from drinking that 3rd glass of wine, I'll enjoy a peach, a plum, a handful of grapes, some cherries, apple slices, some melon cubes, and  they are mostly water.  

I may be alternating between hard work and sitting too much.  Daytime means outside or inside work;  evening means watching TV or being on the computer.  When I sit in the easy chair to make a lap for the cats, I put an ankle onto the other leg.  And shift legs when one feels stiff.  My right knee is getting worse.  Maybe I am warping my legs indulging The Mews.

Maybe I should start taking a walk down the street after drinking a pint of Gatorade.  And standing more instead of sitting.  I've been a "stander" in the past; sitting is new.  I was a "stander" in my office whenever I had the chance.  Really, I spent a lot of time on the telephone and got a long cord so I could pace back and forth.  Maybe it would be good to get back into that habit.

I feel too young to be old...

Gripe...

Physical Gripes

As always, I approach any complaints of mine by first recognizing that I am generally fortunate and others have worse complaints.  But mine are mine and they are the only ones *I* have ever experienced.  And so many ailments are impossible to compare; a person with a constant itch, a person with occasional migraines, and a person with sciatica can never really compare how they feel.

Me, I get muscle cramps in my legs, my hands and my upper rib side.  Not at the same time fortunately, but always by surprise and every few days or nights.

I understand the hand cramps, where all of a sudden my whole left hand will claw up.  It happens about 2 hours after I've been doing yardwork.  I'm technically right-handed, but I suspect I was a natural lefty as a child and was taught not to be.  That used to be common.  Regardless, I tend to do many things left-handed.  Like pulling weeds and sometimes in tool use.

I try not to overdo it.  But sometimes I'm fine working for hours and no problems; sometimes an hour work causes left-hand cramps.  And the cramps always start as I'm preparing dinner.  I like to prepare fresh food (lots of raw vegetable work), so there is a lot of knife-work involved.  And that's when the cramps start.

I'm considering the possibility that I actually don't get enough salt...  That may seem strange given modern eating habits, but I eat mostly fresh food  and don't add much salt to my food.  It's not especially deliberate, but I think I may start drinking more Gatorade (an electrolyte drink for anyone not familiar with it).

Then there are the ribside cramps.  I originally thought "heart problem", but they occur on both sides randomly.  Usually after I twist around too much.  So its not a heart threat.  Oddly, it used to occur mostly while I was kneeling on the floor cleaning the cat litter boxes.  I have to pound on my afflicted side and do "wall push-ups" to stretch the rib muscles.

And I got a surprise the past few months.  Because I twisted my right knee in April and kneeling became painful (a whole different problem) I started lifting the litter boxes onto my workbench

[Bizarre but true timing.  I just had a leg cramp and had to walk around for 15 minutes and stretched the right leg each step.  I took a small amount of salt and large glass of water.  It helped.]

and cleaning them up there.  It is actually MUCH easier that way and I will continue to do it that way even if/when my knee heals.  Lets me sweep away loose litter from around them too.

Usually, the leg cramps happen while I am laying in bed.  No reason I know; I'm just laying there motionless and it starts.  Always the right quadricep.  It feels like the muscle is going to tear loose from the bone.   

I suppose it was because I was weeding and planting in some crowded space so I had to squat awkwardly, so it happened while I was still awake.  But usually, I'll just be laying there in bed and it happens.  

Speaking of the right knee, it has been 3 months since I originally injured it.  I wish I had a good cause to blame but it is only stupid.  All my life, I have tended to sit with one ankle up on the opposite knee (both ways).  And I fidget!  So I shake my on-the-knee foot.  I have probably loosened my knee joints that way (though some thought says that OUGHT to strengthen the muscles there).

I can walk almost normally again, but I still can't put my right ankle on my left knee because it seems to twist the knee.  It has happened before but healed after a couple weeks.  I hope it is not permanent.  To kneel while doing yardwork, I have to wear knee pads.  You know those knee pads that carpet installers wear?  I use them.

I'm used to injuring myself and healing fast.  Or at least "eventually".  Years ago, I threw a rock at a groundhog and strained my rotator cuff.  Couldn't raise my arm above the shoulder for 2 months, but it healed just fine after that.

I think I had better start being more careful.  And some preventative exercises might be in order.  I have a bicycle, maybe I better start using it.  Or at least walking a mile a few days a week.

I sure don't want to be using a walker in 10 years.  Or taking medications either...