Marsia's Diary

Thanks everyone! I think I'll look up neck and jaw relaxation exercises. We both grind our teeth for different reasons. I am wearing a mouth guard at night, which works well, but I'd rather learn not to grind! Today I was going to get so much done on the entry, but it was all difficult places to tape, like the little walls that are the thickness of the upper floor in the middle of the staircase. I also painted under the 1/4 turn spiral stairs, so did all sorts of weird stretches to reach everything. I was going to finish before being utterly exhausted when a big thunderstorm came through and knocked the power out, so I finished one area by camp lantern and had a nice shower. (It's such a nice perk of living in civilization to have water when the power goes out!) It was probably good to take it easier today because my hands are still sore from yesterday. I got outside a little and enjoyed the rain from the porch but mostly the day just zipped by. I read a bunch this morning, so I guess that's what happened to the time. My painting pants are falling off, so I can tell that I am getting more muscular because I only weigh about 5 pounds less than my top recent weight. Anyway, I'll feel really good if I can figure out safe ways to get the whole stairwell painted myself.
 
Shifting weight into more muscle is great. So much is more about fitness levels than scale numbers. I was actually at a similar weight to what I am now years ago when I was starting to get concerned about weight gain--but back then I was also really unfit. So now I see it all differently. It's not the scale number that can really tell us all about where we're at--it's so much more about whether we can move comfortably and stuff.
 
I should hope you already feel really good about how you've been able to do yourself! Not continuing on with mentally exhausting and possibly dangerous work when you're already exhausted is the right call either way.
 
Painting pants nearly falling off? Forget the scales, M. You are doing very well! I'm glad you are not pushing yourself to the point of having an accident. Reading is my ultimate relaxation. Don't push yourself too hard please M xo
 
Thanks everyone! I did take it easy the last couple of days and feel a lot better now. Got a coat of paint on the bottom story of the entry today, and feel really good because that was a lot of area - I am definitely getting faster, but next I need to clear out walls of boxes of books from the upper level of the entry, so that will go a lot slower. I feel good about getting my strength back, and it is nice to have a flatter, happier looking stomach and arms again! We went out this morning and forgot that it was the weekend, and were so happy going to a really festive cafe and having gluten free Nutella banana bread. It was so good, and it was great getting out and grocery shopping in the expensive store where they have good fresh veggies. I found really good sales. I also went to a really utilitarian grocery store close to home and realized that when I used to be poor in college, I'd buy tomato juice and make soup, and sure enough the tomato juice is still affordable, so I grabbed a few big cans. I love just throwing in random vegetables and chick peas and things. I bet it would work for making Spanish rice, too, with a little onion and herbs in it. I am so happy to be in bed. I painted the 3 areas today that took 3 days to paint the primer on previously, so I am very tired. I think I'll turn in and get up nice and early and see if I can't get my screen house looking nice again. I want to weed and get more of my beautiful soil in there so I can plant some things. Hopefully it actually cools down in the night!
 
I hope it does cool down at night for you. I opened the window at 4:30 and inside and out wete pretty much the same.
Yay for getting all that painting and then having some fun in town! Here tomato juice is more expensive than cans of pulp or crushed tomatoes but there is a joy in finding workarounds (as long as they aren't born of crushing necessity).
 
Wow, M! You must be getting very proficient with painting. I'm glad you took a couple of days off & your outing & your clever shopping sound good. Our local wholefood store is closing down next Friday. I have no idea why & I hope it's not because of ill health. It's a tough time for most businesses & their customers. I wish I was more financial at the moment but I will go tomorrow & do a small shop & pay cash. I have been shopping there since it opened over 30 years ago. I take containers & fill them & it involves so much less waste via packaging. The nearest wholefood place will be 40 km away. I'll find out tomorrow why it is closing but maybe someone will buy it & keep it going. I just realised this is your diary but I don't think you will mind if I leave this here :blush5:
I hope you have a lovely sleep after such a busy day & get to do some work in the screen house. It seems like a happy place for you xo
 
It's fun hearing about the progress of your work. You sound like you have very good energy keeping at it like that. Glad you had a good day at the shops with some great finds!
 
I hope you had a lovely, revitalising sleep Marsia and got your work on the screen house (I don't know what this is, by the way :D) started.
 
Thanks Llama, I hope it's cooled down for you now. That's rotten you are having to wake up at all hours to see if you can get your place cooler, and it doesn't even work!

Cate, that's sad about your Whole Foods. I hope someone does buy it, and I don't mind if you write about your experiences in my diary at all. I just view these as conversations, and I probably forget not to write too much in other people's diaries. :blush5: I am happy that my painting looks professional now and that my stamina is back to nearly normal finally. Liza, I am happy you don't mind me posting about my painting - I worried about sounding so boring just posting about painting every day, but it's a nice meditative thing to do really. It was just too muggy yesterday to garden so I did the last coat on the bottom of the entry and got all the tape off, and it makes the house look so much better. The color before was a dark tan with orange in it, and it was very low quality paint that felt chalkier than even the primer I used, and it was dark and not friendly in the entry. Now it's bright and welcoming. Painting this house is so striking because it was made with such good quality materials and such good design, but how it was painted really took away from that, so it's nice getting it back to normal.

Anyway, today is cooler, so hopefully a nice screen house and putter around day. Em, we just named our greenhouse that they put screens on a screen house. There really is no such thing. I think whoever built it wanted a little garden room that you could picnic in where you aren't eaten by mosquitos. The wildlife really likes it. I find so many lizards, toads, frogs, and occasional snakes in there, so it's probably not very mosquito-proof! I slept so well, thanks, Em.

Yesterday the alarm alerted me that there was a person at my bedroom window on the second story. After checking it out with a nice long painting pole in hand, it turned out to be a turkey buzzard on my roof happily walking around and looking in the window. It's funny, a few days ago, a big white egret flew from right to left past our picture windows and then a few minutes later a big black bird flew past left to right, and I bet it was this turkey buzzard. I overdid it yesterday painting, so everything is sore today. I plan to just get the house tidied up and bring in some good dirt to the screen house. When I opened the windows this morning, humidity came in and you can see a layer of moisture on the bathroom tile floors and the bathroom mirrors fogged up. But it's cooler finally!
 
Marsia said:
Yesterday the alarm alerted me that there was a person at my bedroom window on the second story. After checking it out with a nice long painting pole in hand, it turned out to be a turkey buzzard on my roof happily walking around and looking in the window.
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lol! That's so funny. Good he didn't come in though...do you have screens on the windows?
Marsia said:
I overdid it yesterday painting, so everything is sore today.
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I hope you can rest up a bit and recover nicely.
 
Glad to hear your intruder was of the avian variety! I hope all your painting work will make a big difference once the house gets back on the market - and that you get to keep most of the difference.
 
Liza, we have screens on all windows. The bugs here are like mini-Jurrasic Park specimen - huge flying cockroaches, bees and beetles of unimaginable variety, very enthusiastic mosquitos, giant biting ants, plus the little anule green lizards and tree frogs love sneaking in the house. Today I went down to the screen house and there was a daddy long legs spider convention on the pineapple sage. I could only capture a small clump of all of them in one pic:

small spiders.jpg
Llama, I wish you could see the video of the turkey buzzard peaking in the room. He was so curious and cute and waddly!

I think I caught a little summer cold from K. That or my immune system is not liking all the paint fumes. I tried going outside today, and it just wasn't nice and I am really tired, so I stayed in and folded clothes, did dishes, screwed in switch covers and tidied up after painting and listened to fun archeological shows. It's been threatening rain all day, and is sprinkling now. It's been glorious having a lazy day!! I am maintaining low weight, which makes me happy.
 
I looked up Turkey Buzzards. They're huge creatures! Did you laugh when you saw him? I think you have a few too many creatures wanting to get into your space than I would like.
Marsia said:
I think I caught a little summer cold from K. That or my immune system is not liking all the paint fumes. I tried going outside today, and it just wasn't nice and I am really tired, so I stayed in and folded clothes, did dishes, screwed in switch covers and tidied up after painting and listened to fun archeological shows. It's been threatening rain all day, and is sprinkling now. It's been glorious having a lazy day!! I am maintaining low weight, which makes me happy.
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I love hearing about your painting, M. I would love to have our house touched up but I'm sure I wouldn't be able to cope with paint fumes, even with low VOC paint.
It's lovely to hear that you had a lazy, happy day xoxo
 
When I saw the video, at first I was shocked that there really was someone on our roof, but then I saw that it was waddling and wondered why, and when it got closer, I saw it was definitely a funny vulture, and I laughed. It looked so inquisitive, and they are so funny when they walk. I think you'd have to go on vacation somewhere for a week or so and have your house painted while you were away. We've been really fighting the fumes because the high humidity makes it hard to get rid of them.
 
Turkey buzzards (vultures) look so funny waddling along. Our Tasmanian Native hens are like road runners & make me laugh whenever I see them. I'm glad they can't fly onto our roof though as they would drive me bonkers. We call them turbo chooks.
Do you think the paint fumes would be gone after a week? I have been so nervous about having any jobs done in our home as it feels like my safe haven. I would hate to have a strong reaction to anything in it.
 
Your Tasmanian Native hens look a lot like our wild turkeys, which I loved sharing the woods with at our last house. Road runners must be so fun to watch! I don't know enough about the zero VOC paints, but I bet you could call a contractor who does eco-builds and ask. I think you could alternatively do a natural wall plaster, though I think that is quite expensive unless you learned to apply it yourself. There are good articles on which brands of paint are zero VOC, and I know you need to be careful because not all the tints of a brand are also zero VOC.
 
Turbo chook make me chuckle: I'll have to look them up. I wouldn't trust what a builder had to say about the fumes caused by paint unless they had chemical sensitivities themselves. Not even because of the possibility of lying for sales but because people just don't get it. Didn't you mention your sister was on a forum for folks with the same issue? That would probably be the best place to ask
 
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