Happy Easter! It is Resurrection Monday and I am off. Pretty
much enjoying a three-day weekend but not really. It’s mostly boring. Right now
I am listening to a dog bark his fool head off in my apartment. For once, it’s
not my dog; it’s her best friend. We don’t know why he barks, he just does. Sometimes
it’s because his bowl is empty; sometimes it’s thunder or lightening, sometimes
he wants the toys to move and sometimes he wants the water bowl to be filled.
More often, it’s a mystery. It’s not too bad and he’s only here for a couple
hours a day to ease his boredom while his parents are out of town. Kudzu likes
having him around. She bosses him around and he’s patient enough to let her. It’s
a symbiotic relationship.
Kudzu is now running back and forth from the floor-to-ceiling
window in the kitchen, which has a little balcony thing that I leave open for
her, through the apartment and out the sliding glass door to the fence, barking
at full volume the whole time. The garden fence is a privacy fence so I can’t
see what she’s barking at, but the whole neighborhood knows her. I live in the
first apartment and the road sort of curves around, so she’ll see or hear
someone (and usually their girl dog) out one and basically chase them to the
other. It’s her exercise. Jax just looks bewildered.
Last week, the dogs tried to break me. We – Jax’s parents
and brother and me and Zu – were walking and suddenly both Zu and Jax veered
off and tripped me up. I crashed to the asphalt and curb. As I was falling,
what someone told me crossed my mind: “We have to be careful when walking our
dogs because if we fall, it takes longer to recover.”
Landed on my knee, elbow and wrist. Owie. I initially
finished the walk with no major problems, but by the end of the night, the back
of my knee was hurting. I hadn’t felt a pop like when I tore my PCL, but I was worried
I’d wake up in massive pain from my knee.
That didn’t happen. Instead, my rib area was sore and I woke
up at 2 a.m. with a severe bout of vomiting and diarrhea. Sweats, dizziness and
the whole enchiladas. And my rib cage hurt. However, I’d also finished a jar of
alfredo sauce that I had opened the week before, so I wasn’t sure what had made
me sick – the pain or the sauce. And the dizziness could have also been a residual
effect from the morning, when I somehow slammed the corner of a door into my
eyebrow.
Let’s just say last Saturday wasn’t my day. I even had a
low-grade fever and I wasn’t hungry and didn’t want to risk eating anything. So
I was also completely fatigued but I wasn’t sure what was what. By Sunday, I
was hungry again but my rib cage hurt like the Dickins and I was short of
breath. I had some fake Tylenol PM and got some sleep, though.
Monday’s X-ray was negative so my rib is probably just
bruised but more than a week later I’m still in pain. Hiccups and sneezing aren’t
recommended, either. But there’s nothing that can be done so I’m just trying to
stay comfortable.
I’ve been glad for the extra day of rest. I’ve had both dogs
over after a late afternoon walk and then a movie. Jax was particularly into
The Passion of the Christ but not so much Steel Magnolias.
I was happy Easter arrived because I gave up Cokes for Lent. Boy, that was rough but I stuck to it. I did cave and had two Sprites over the course of the 40 days, but one of those was Saturday when I was sick. I did pretty good and am going to try to stay off them for the most part. However, it was quite lovely Sunday night to finally be cable to open up a cold one.
