I fancy myself a little bit of a Jill-of-All-Trades. Plumbing is not one of those trades. Yesterday I found myself washing dishes and heard the distressing sound of water falling On things rather than Through pipes. What I saw when I opened the door was a soaked cabinet with almost all of its contents drenched. Now, it being a sink cabinet, hardly anything minded being doused, and a good half of it was nestled safely in the languishing dish rack I keep down there and not on the soaked cabinet floor. But I’m still on crutch/es and a big ol’ boot that restricts my movement and grace (what I have, that is). So, I emptied the cabinet and made sure everything was either wiped down or where it could dry before assessing the situation. There was evidence of where my lone mouse had set up shop many years ago along with a small trail of ants that had managed to survive the great culling from earlier this year. I didn’t clean the base of the cabinet because I was just out of spoons and my knees were killing me.
Lo and behold, the elbow pipe
that connected to the sink drain had come loose.
Now I’m NOT a plumber. I can do
some basics, but PVC piping is not one of them. Not a smidge. So, I put out a
call on Facebook in distress on how to fix this when it was a Sunday, and no hardware
stores were open. As it turned out, my loving brother-of-awesomeness helped me
through the (two minute) fix. That was it. Two minutes. Maybe three if you count
the creaking and cussing of me trying to get down to the sink level and back up
again. And now everything is drying out completely for the next couple weekends
before I jump the gun and end up with mold in there from putting things back on
damp wood. No thank you. At least it was not a long-term leak with mold galore
down there. I’ve had that happen in other houses and, man, is that a mess. And
that was my plumbing crisis, lots of cussing and fretting all for a quick fix.
I’ll take it.
And then there was the rest of
the weekend, and fallout from the brain rollercoaster and body twisting while
dealing with the sink.
I can get dumb and destructive. I
stress. I hurt. I eat. Add in some sleepiness without tiredness and you have a masterclass
recipe for self-destructive behavior. Such things as eating too much and
sleeping too much or too little—or in my case going to bed way too late and
waking up too late despite needing a regular schedule to stay something
approaching sane. Heck, I threw caution to the wind and decided that it would
be a good idea last week to just use the damnable CAM boot alone with no crutch
at all for a day. Dumb AND destructive. I wondered why last Friday I still hurt
when putting full pressure on the foot instead of blaming the sheer stupidity
and lack of following directions. I focused on being good this weekend after
that brief foray into dumb, with the exception of an unplanned house repair
job. And it has been this way for a while.
But the rest of the ingredients from that recipe are still there and making life difficult for focusing on anything. Like I have probably said before, there is only so much willpower available for one person. When there is too much there to deal with, something—and probably several things—has to give. In this case it is eating (and general use, but that is a given with me as the first thing to go).
As some of you know, I’m
following a keto diet and its been good for me and my health when I actually follow it, if nothing else than it keeps me out of the sweet treats. Yes, I know the drawbacks, and yes, I am willing to deal
with them and stay with this long term. When I am at least staying on track carb-wise I don’t gain weight. I
may not lose, but I don’t gain like I did earlier in the year and then have to
take it all back off. And I know how to
do this. I stopped tracking what I ate a month ago. I didn’t always religiously
track (though it does work better if I do), just so I could look back on
earlier in the day and realize that I had in fact had enough food. I think it
is time to get on that tracking train again since this stagnation is getting
old. But I have been staying on the low carb aspect pretty darn well while not
neglecting good things like veggies and fruits. And that is fine, but I am
eating far too much. Only I can do something about that. I’m not sure I’m ready
to act because I’m not sure I have the energy to do much more than make a
valiant week-long effort followed by a spectacular and disheartening defeat.
Been there. Done that. And right now I’m just holding on.
I did a good thing for myself and went ahead with my platelet donation today at the cost of not being able to use one crutch—but I always feel better mentally afterward. (Call it a form of unintended self-sabotage as well.) And I just need to hold on for four days. Then a vacation starts that will hopefully be low-stress and easy on both the budget and waistline. Both things will require that oh-so-precious willpower and that may or may not break the spoon bank. Especially when physically taxed and already going into this mentally taxed. We shall see. Wish me luck!
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