Cellar Scribblings

[CellarDweller]

Hiya BetterMost friends!!!!

How is everyone doing??

Last week was the week from Hell at work!

I was recently assigned a new RM to work for, so I have three instead of two.  My coworker also had a new RM assigned, so she also has three.  She was on vacation last week, so I had to cover the customer reqeusts for 6 RMs.  It was A LOT!

On top of that, there were 4 loans that closed that I had to handle because she wasn't there, so that added to the workload.

Finally, we got the confirmation that our office is closing on 12/15, and I will be 100% remote at that time.  However, that means that all of the paper files we have in the office have to be shredded or boxed up and sent out by then.  So there were two team members from other offices who were at my location for the whole week, there to help me with this, however, because of the extra workload I wasn't able to help much during the day.  I stayed there until 7:30pm (after arriving at 7:30am) to help on Tuesday and Wednesday.  They stayed until 10:00! 

On Thursday they told me to leave at about 6:00, and they finished with the boxing stuff by 8:00pm.  They came in on Friday to deal with some final stuff, and left to go home at 2:00.

This weekend my family went to a Halloween drive through attraction on a farm.  I made a playlist of horror movie theme music, and played it during the drive, it was very atmospheric and set a good mood for the season.

We were there last year too, and we stopped at the store afterwards, they sell fresh produce and baked goods.  I didn't get anything last year, as they only had full sized stuff, which would've gone to waste at my place.   This year, however, I was able to get a small package (5) of apple cider cinnamon donuts, rather than a full dozen.  I also found a single serving pumpkin spice cheesecake.   Mom and dad got a pumpkin pie, an apple pie, and a dozen apple cider donuts.

I still have two weeks worth of vacation time to use,  so I am taking the week of Thanksgiving, and will do some cooking for Thanksgiving dinner.   I'll make some mac & cheese,  cornbread casserole, and biscuits.

Mom will do the turkey breast, the sweet potatoes, cranberry, and corn on the cob.

[CellarDweller]

Hiya BetterMost friends!!!!

How is everyone doing??

So, let me tell you about my past 10 days.

 

Just giving an alert before, when you read the story, it will not get gross!  I will self-censor.   

On Wednesday the 22nd, I got out of the shower, and happened to look in the mirror.  I noticed a bump on my back.  It wasn't painful, and I had a cyst or two in my past, so I made a mental note to monitor this.

On Thursday, by evening the bump had turned painful and the skin red, so I though "Oh fun, a boil".   I slept poorly that night, no matter what way I settled, it was painful.  The next morning I signed on to the work computer, finished the early morning stuff as quickly as possible, and then drove to the local Urgent Care.   they saw me right away, and the doctor said that there was no head on the boil, and no drainage.   She prescribed a week's worth of antibiotics, and told me to use hot compresses.

I backed out of the Halloween party I was invited to on Saturday.

It is not easy to place and hold a hot compress on one's back.  Thankfully I have a heating pad, so I put it on a high setting, and kept it on my back.  I had to get used to sleeping with a T-shirt on to protect my bedsheets.   Needless to say, T-shirts were ruined.  I also cancelled for bowling on Tuesday

The prescription is set to run out today, and I wasn't satisfied with how it was looking, so I went back to the Urgent Care this morning after the early morning stuff was done.  They looked it over,  numbed me, and the boil has now been dealt with.  I have a new prescription for a different antibiotic that I start tomorrow. 

I feel better just knowing it's out.

No plans for tonight.  I'm staying home to watch the opening night of Skate Canada, and then I will continue my tradition of watching Halloween, and Halloween II on every Halloween night.

What are you all up to??

[serious crayons]

I've always wondered about boils. The only people I know who've suffered them are my neighbor when we were really young children and Job.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I had one when I was a baby, or so my mother always said. It had to be lanced. My mother always called it "a staph infection," but that's what usually causes a boil, infection with the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. I read about this stuff in my job; you can also google it.

You're fortunate it wasn't what is called MRSA (pronounced Mersa), for "methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus." That's bad. It's essentially a drug-resistant strain of Staph. It's very difficult to cure.

This concludes your medical lesson for today. 

[Front-Ranger]

I obtained a Professor McGonigle costume and was hoping to go trick-or-treating with my son and his family but it turns out they celebrated at the Children's Museum last weekend. And it's a chilly night so I'm staying in and working on a rebuke about the recission of the Public Lands Rule. That's scary enough for me. Plus, I'm going on a hike tomorrow starting early.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I obtained a Professor McGonigle costume and was hoping to go trick-or-treating with my son and his family but it turns out they celebrated at the Children's Museum last weekend. And it's a chilly night so I'm staying in and working on a rebuke about the recission of the Public Lands Rule. That's scary enough for me. Plus, I'm going on a hike tomorrow starting early.

I thought they didn't celebrate Halloween. 

[Sason]

Hope it heals quickly, Chuck!

You must be very limber, I'm not able to see my back in a mirror at all.

[serious crayons]

You must be very limber, I'm not able to see my back in a mirror at all.

Not even by standing with your back to a big mirror and holding up a little mirror?

Of course, Chuck's description implies the discovery was more accidental than that.

[CellarDweller]

Yes, it was an accident. 

I stepped out of the shower and dried off.  I turned and hung my towel on the towel rack, my back facing the mirror.  I can't remember why, but something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye, so I turned my neck and ended up looking towards the mirror.  The way my back was angled, I was able to see the bump.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Not even by standing with your back to a big mirror and holding up a little mirror?

I don't quite know what to call it or how to describe it, but my bathroom has a three-way mirror. That is, there is one large mirror over the washbasin and vanity, and one angled mirror on each side (the angled mirrors are actually the covers of the doors of two small medicine cabinets). These mirrors were in every unit and original to the building. A lot of people do away with them when they renovate their bathrooms. I kept mine for just that reason: you can look at yourself in one of the angled mirrors and see your back in the other angled mirror.

I mostly use them to check that my tie is under my collar on the back of my neck.