Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Inauspiciousness. Say that five times fast.

So, my New Year?   Did not get off to an auspicious start.  I hope yours was better.  I also hope that the previously mentioned inauspiciousness is not an omen for the rest of the year.  Because, if it is, I quit now.
Anyway, here is what happened. 
After the Christmas festivities ended, I found myself a bit loose-endish and my house more than a bit crowded.  The Small One had a giant new pottery wheel and a giant new dollhouse.  Where to put them?  The second half of our front room (which is a long narrow room) has been the sewing/Small One's crafty crap area for a few months.  What that means is that I have a desk with a sewing machine and a few untidy stacks of fabric on it.  And a knitting machine on the piano.  And The Small One has 2 bookshelves full of crafty crap.  Painting stuff, markers, crayons, pencils, paper, foamies, stickers, you name it, she probably has it.  Oh, and the floor was covered by some ratty carpet that never stayed clean, because you try to keep a carpet clean that a bunch of pre-schoolers use as an art space.  Not gonna happen.  Just sayin'. 
So, I got a bee in my bonnet about where on earth was the pottery wheel going to go where it would not cause havoc and despair on all things carpeted?  Nowhere.  Because there are only two uncarpeted rooms up here.  My room and the kitchen.  Yeah, no way.
I decided immediately to tear up the carpet in that room and expose the wood floor underneath.  Good idea!
Now, a few tidbits about my house.  
I live in a smallish town that was settled in 1853 (or thereabouts) by a bunch of Mormons sent on down from the Great Salt Lake City by Brigham Young.  They first settled in a fort, than moved out slowly to parcels of property round about said fort.  One dude settled on the plot of land on which I live.  He built a smallish log cabin over a soft rock foundation and set up his smithy.  As time wore on, he made more money and decided to enlarge said house.  Well, really, he knocked the cabin down and built an actual house.  The main room of the house was built over the soft rock cellar and the other two rooms built around.  This was in 1880-ish.  When he built the house, he didn't cheat.  Foot thick adobe walls finished with lathe and plaster.  9 foot ceilings.  And the floors.  Beautiful,old growth, heart pine floors. 
We found the first one when refinishing what was to be the nursery.  We intended to put hardwood floors in, but when we pulled up the carpet, we found VERY old linoleum, nailed to the floor and surrounded by a painted wood floor.  So, then we pulled up the linoleum, and Lo and Behold-a beautiful floor.
So, I figured that the wood probably extended into the other old rooms and asked the previous owner.  He confirmed my suspicions and I have been pestering TMOTH ever since to let me pull up the carpet in the "dining area".  He finally caved.
So, on Dec 29, I tore up the carpet, pulled up the nasty old linoleum, heaved up the nails and tack strip and was pleased with what I saw.  The next day, my tooth went haywire.  Bad.  Pain, oh, pain.  But I endured and began sanding the floor.  Got the main part of it done.  But the next day?  Ten times worse.  I could not handle the pain.  No dentists anywhere (it was New Year's Eve).  Finally, TMOTH called my GP at home and asked him to call in a prescription of LorTab so I could make it until Tuesday, when the dentists opened up again.
Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but they are not joking on that label when it says Do Not Drive or Operate Heavy Machinery While Using This Drug. 
I am such a lightweight.  Give me narcotics and I sort of float away.  While itching.  And talking non-stop. 
It is pathetic, really.  So, I was out for the count.  New Year's Eve?  No idea.  I was stoned.  Normally I watch the ball drop.  Nope.  Asleep by 10.  And I am pretty certain I slept the next 3 days.  Then I went and got the tooth pulled.  And slept for the next 7 days.  Seriously, I do not do painkillers well.
So, you can perhaps see what I mean about an inauspicious start to the new year? 
First, I pretty much missed it, because I was either drowning in pain or drowning in narcotics, neither of which were fun.
Second, my house was in TOTAL disarray, because the only place to put things that come out of the room are in other rooms.  Which kind of precludes using them.  Or cleaning them.
Third, dude, pain.  Enough said.
Fourth, very bad mood.  Due to the previous three items.
I am sure you get it.
Anyway, I have more or less recovered, although the use of my jaw joint as a fulcrum for prying out the tooth has caused me additional aches, especially since I have TMJ, and the room is nearly done. 
I will post some before and after pics so you can ooh and aah appropriately over my excellent taste in renovations/redecorations.
But not tonight.  Tonight, I think I may watch Downton Abbey.  And finish knitting my sock.

5 comments:

la said...

Oh poor you! I do remember the lightweight part. It is a good thing you are not an alcoholic...
Can't wait to see your floor.
BTW...I watched Downton Abbey and knitted a sock too!
We really need to get together...

Unknown said...

Dang! That straight up sucks :( I did a kidney stone over New Year's once. My BIL harassed me because I said I was "pretty sure" it was a kidney stone and he said if it was I would know it. I went to a urologist a few days later and I had not one, but 5 kidney stones. They just were chewing up my kidney instead of moving down where the classic pain comes. I stuck out my tongue at him. A lot.
I can't wait to see pictures of the new floor! I'm impressed you've managed to do it with all that pain and pain meds. Enjoy Downton Abbey and the sock!!!

Kaytee Postma said...

yeah for your floor! Nay for your tooth!

Linda Sappington said...

Did I ever tell you about the drugs prescribed to me when I broke my leg in Trinidad? Yum, yum. I knew I was in SERIOUS danger of a hard-to-break addiction when I found myself checking my watch every few minutes in hopes it was time to take another of those deliciously happy pills!!! I stopped after four days, but kept the pills I had not taken . . . you know, just in case! Oh, and did I say, I can't wait to see the floors?

lillysmum said...

That is funny, Linda. I HATE narcotics. I only took them if I absolutely couldn't bear the pain. They make me itch, they make me nauseous and I cannot stand the out of control feeling they give me. As soon as the pain subsided enough for ibuprofen to do the trick, the LorTab went bye-bye.