Friday

 Struggling a bit with pain and infirmity at the moment. I got new running shoes but my knee is still really painful, so I am getting assessed for new orthotics and buying new boots also, which I would have done at some point anyway, but now I'm doing it not knowing if it will even fix things. I'm also having an issue with my ulnar nerve, which means the outside edge of my left arm and hand are inflamed. This means it's an issue trying to handle books and walk around the library, which, bluntly, sucks.

I got in to see my massage therapist yesterday and she went to town on my legs. I could feel that the muscles around my left knee were looser after. Later in the day I felt really achy and almost drunk, without having consumed alcohol or taken an accidental triple dose of any of my meds (I checked). It's possible it was just a reaction to the intensity of the massage and maybe a delayed reaction from the harrowing drive last Sunday, which I've kind of been waiting for. Since then I've just been really, really tired, and I just remembered that my doctor emailed me that my iron and B12 were low and she had sent some supplements to the pharmacy for me. Did the pharmacy notify me of this? They did not. Did I remember to ask about them when I was just there picking up prescriptions? I did not. I've also been alone in the house for almost two weeks exactly, which tends to make me feel a bit odd by the end.

To balance out the whining, an anecdote from after my massage, when I was driving around doing errands. There's an amazing woman in my neighbourhood who does outreach with unhoused people and collects donations of various kinds for the bags she hands out - packaged snacks, clean socks, blankets, etc. Last year in honour of Nicole's Tiny Secret Festive Season, I gave away Christmas soaps and little decorations on my Facebook community giving group. This was fun, but with the state of things this year I thought I would consciously collect more useful donations to drop off at this woman's donation point which is near my Wednesday school. On the way out to my massage I grabbed a pair of warm socks and mittens I had put aside, and then picked up some snacks while I was grocery shopping and bagged it all together.

It was bright and sunny, which was doubly noticeable because the sun hasn't been out for so long. As I drove into the townhouse complex and parked, there was a bright ray of sun directly on my windshield. I could see a dumpster in the space between two units. Then I thought I could see someone bent over going through the dumpster. This seemed like a horrifying thing to happen upon, although I did think I could just offer them my bag of food and mittens and socks. Then I realized no one was actually standing beside the dumpster but.... dear God, was someone IN the dumpster? But not struggling and not dead, because wasn't that an arm lolling out, with the fingers wiggling in a leisurely manner? 

No, it was not a person in the dumpster (thank fuck). It was a squirrel hanging full-length out of the dumpster preparing to jump down, which looked like an arm. It finally went, which broke the illusion. Then it took off before I could even offer it a mitten or a pepperoni stick. Rude.