Archives for June 2024

After trying to sleep in and failing and still being tipsy after five hours of sleep I did wrote morning pages but decided to skip yoga. I was a bit scared I’d fall over when attempting anything that would need balance.

It was pretty clear that nothing much would happen all day so I planned for it. I did tell someone, „Yeah, I’ll be doing nothing today. Just three loads of laundry, the usual dishes and such, planning the week, calling my mother on the phone, some knitting and Duolingo and watching something in the evening.”

Sure. Nothing.

Everything took much longer than usual, so I only started most of these things right around dinnertime. Lunch was something easy to make because my husband wasn’t in much better shape and wanted to make up for half a day lost to socializing and train rides:

My husband expected a friend to stop by but hadn’t checked his texts until the friend was overdue and he found the friend had canceled.

I was doing my usual impression of a limp dishrag on the kitchen bench when my husband came in with his usual, „It’s really warm outside and so cold in here you should open the windows.“ I always feel that all opening the windows achieves is to make it less comfortable and warm by introducing a draft into the room. My husband came from outside in the sun through the sun-filled very warm annex to the old part of the house that is built to be cool in summer.

So this time I decided to use the scientific method and just test our hypotheses.

I took pictures of the thermometers-cum-hygrometers in both the kitchen and the living room in 15-minute intervals.

The result?

We’re both right.

The temperature outside was around 22° C, a little warmer in the direct sun. The starting temperature inside was 21.2° C in the kitchen and 19.7° C in the living room right after opening one of the doors leading outside and partly opening both windows in the kitchen.

An hour later the temperature in the kitchen was 21.1° C in the kitchen and 20.1° C in the living room. So 0.1 degrees more in the kitchen and 0.4 in the living room.

Did it get warmer? Yes. Was it really that noticeable? Nope.

What was notable to “super-sensitive to every bit of air movement in the apartment“-me was the cross draft through the house. I’m the person who tells someone entering the kitchen to please close the door between our small hallway and the big communal one as well as the door between the kitchen and the small hall because I’m freezing.

„But I closed the door! You can’t sense the outside one, that’s just ridiculous!”

„So, why did I notice it then?” I couldn’t see the door and I did not listen for the sound of it either.

So, my husband and I were both right. For the warming up to actually have a noticeable effect the difference between the outside and the inside temperature needs to be bigger, though. And outside in the direct sun will be much warmer as will inside the annex with its huge windows that face south or to the sky.

To me the cross-draft feels worse, to him the bad air quality and coolness feel worse so we need to compromise.

After finally starting my day for real at dinnertime, just when I was about to get up and finally tackle the mountain of dishes both my husband and my son came into the kitchen to fry stuff for dinner. So I just hung up the second load of laundry for the day and went to watch something on TV.

The boy offered to do the dishes but was overwhelmed too, so I helped him dry them and put them away, we got talking and both went to bed too late.

Today will probably be another zero day because all my body and mind want is sleep. This will be fun!

I went to bed too late but slept well and woke up from the alarm well rested. My feet are more painful again, I guess that’s what I get for skipping the foot exercises two days in a row.

I di the complete morning routine and was only ten minutes late for making breakfast. Which meant my husband had to wait for me to finish brewing my tea before he could make his. (Yes, we are drinking different kinds of black tea in the morning, shh.)

We talked, I ripped clue 1 back and just when I was about to get started with the breakfast dishes the boy showed up and did them for me. Because he knew I had a lot to do and wanted to go grocery shopping. So I got out the door much earlier than expected (and later noticed that I had forgotten about giving my husband a haircut).

I got lucky on my bike ride because there was no rain, everything went smoothly and then we had an early lunch:

All week my husband has been pointedly asking if I like the food and I always said yes. Then he would ask me about the spices and herbs and I said that I was okay with them. And then was very surprised when I could name each and every on of them. Especially the ones I don’t like. This had cumin, black cumin, pimento and cinnamon all of which I don’t particularly care for. I mean, I love cinnamon in sweet things but could do without in my beans.

There was still a lot of time until my first student so I finally watched the video I had been meaning to watch since the day before for the class I had in the afternoon.

I taught only three student because one called in sick, then watched an online lecture, had a twenty minute break to eat:

While my dear husband was doing the dishes for me. For which I am really grateful. (The soup had too much dill and some Worcester sauce that is way too sour. But on the other hand I really shouldn’t complain since I get freshly cooked meals without much work on my part.)

Then the second lecture of the day while I kept making progress reknitting clue 1.

After that I went online a bit, started writing this post, then did Duolingo, actually did my foot exercises this time and went to bed.

Today there will be the bus ride to the orthopedist, getting a new notebook for morning pages, changing the sheets on my bed, lots of teaching and hopefully some cleaning as well. And then the weekend.

I woke up from the alarm after eight hours of sleep, yeah! And did my complete morning routine including yoga.
I had breakfast with my husband who was feeling awful and sick because of something he ate. I still wasn’t knitting because I have to make some knitting decisions first. The second clue of the Summer Mystery shawl came out and I think I will rip the first part back after all. (Who am I kidding, this was always the expected outcome.)

Despite feeling bad my husband still wanted me to cut his hair but I rescheduled for today because I had too much on my plate. I did a few dirty dishes while listening to my classical music piece of the day, did my usual online rounds and then went out to finally pick up my thyroid hormones from the pharmacy. Only, the pharmacist gave me the prescription I used to take, back when I still had a thyroid. Something had clearly gone wrong. When I told her she took the meds back and I set out to the doctor’s office. Good decision to go to the pharmacy I like and not the one nearest to our house because I was already halfway at the doctor’s. I also gave myself a pat on the back for switching to a doctor in walking distance instead of one two train stations away.

The staff at the doctor’s office was very apologetic. I had sent an email clearly stating the name, brand and dose of the hormones I need but they had apparently just thought, „thyroid medication“ and pulled the old one from my file. Which is understandable because I had never gotten the new meds from them, just from the clinic that first time. Still.

The put the new prescription on my card and made the doctor sign it off right away. The sign-off process usually gets done in the late afternoon but they made it specifically so I could go back to the pharmacy right away. Which I did. Phew.

My husband was pretty confused why picking up meds took that long.

After that I did some bodyweight training, bought yet another book and took a quick shower before lunch. Lunch was early again and since my husband wanted something that wouldn’t aggravate his fickle digestion we had potatoes, Brussel’s sprouts and bratwurst:

I did the dishes right after eating because I had so much time, then ate all the chocolate while playing silly iPad games and then I hung up the load of laundry my husband had started earlier.

Then I taught all the students. My husband only had one student that day (because of cancellations) while I had eight. With one cancellation as well.

The plan was to watch the rest of the course video in the evening and such but instead I just sat around for an hour, then talked with boy, then helped him get a package ready and held his hand while he was setting up his new phone and then I ordered a new phone case, display protection and charger. I am very proud that I could lay hands on that metal thingy you need to get the SIM card out on the first try. I’m not quite as proud to have forgotten to buy a new notebook for my morning pages.

Then I did Duolingo, started this post and went to bed at midnight. Bummer.