Every so often I’ll get a touch of sciatica—essentially, something in my lower back is getting compressed and it sends shooting pains down my left leg. I also have an issue with the left hip where something is getting compressed and it’s sending pain diagonally across the hip and pulling on something on the inner side of my left knee.

All of which is to say that I had a truly shitty night last night because my left knee kept throbbing like a rotten tooth no matter what position I slept in and absolutely nothing I had in the house was touching the pain. Luckily I already know what the cure for this is—I need to get up and walk more. I’ve been a bad girl and skipping my treadmill time and this is my punishment for it.

So as of today I’ll start hitting the treadmill daily because I would really like this compression to relax and let me sleep. There’s no way to put a standing desk in my office (and frankly that would cause me more pain as well) but I’m going to set an hourly alarm that will remind me to get up and move around for five minutes, which will also help.

Getting old is not for wimps, that’s a damned fact.

As you may know, Bob, my home office was originally intended to be a bedroom, which means that my office closet was set up as a bedroom closet with two shelves running the length of the closet and two hanger rods underneath in the supports (apparently whoever lived in that room wasn’t expected to hang anything long, but I digress).

Problem is, this does nothing for me. I don’t need hanger rods, and while the shelves are kinda useful I would much prefer to have additional shelves, slots, and cubbies where I could store tools, material, my assorted musical instruments, my serger, and other things I’d like to keep in my office.

Of course, all of that costs money, something I don’t have at the moment. But I think I’m going to start designing my ideal closet for the moment when I do have money. Hell, I don’t need modular systems—I can build my own if I rent a circular saw and a pocket screw jig.

Oh, to be able to store everything securely behind my closet doors. That honestly would be a dream come true.

The nice young man from the HVAC company got here around 10 AM, which was enough time for me to dust and spray a little air freshener (I vacuumed everything yesterday). He immediately got to work, and a half hour later we had a laundry list of things that needed to be fixed (which I already knew from the checkup visit back in March).

First and foremost, there was a leak in the downstairs unit’s condenser coil and it had lost coolant. Apparently coolant costs $675/three pounds and we needed 2.5 pounds. You do the math. In addition to that he was going to do a leak check and use leak sealant to (hopefully) seal any leaks, then blow out the drainage from the drip pans.

Which are apparently plumbed into our sewage system—the PVC pipes that lead outside are only emergency overflows. I had no idea. He wound up blowing out about two gallons of gunk and our master bath sink drain (which is where the downstairs unit’s drip pain drains into—I am so damn glad that I cleaned the master bath yesterday) is now clean as a whistle and will drain perfectly. We’d had problems with that line since we moved in and I’d snaked it out multiple times, but apparently there was a lot of buildup in the line leading from the drip pan. Bless his heart, that couldn’t have been pleasant.

And yes, he did indeed find a leak in the coil and applied sealant, then added the replacement coolant. I gritted my teeth and proffered a credit card for the total. Downstairs is now at a civilized temperature and the inside humidity (it was 60% this morning) is dropping like a rock, which is a goodness.

In related news I have to sell a buttload of jewelry and book covers, and will take any editing jobs going. But hey, at least we’re comfortable.

I don’t want to go into extreme detail here, so let’s just say that I woke up with an issue today that prompted a visit to the local Urgent Care place, Just To Make Sure. They confirmed my diagnosis and prescribed the meds that I would need to treat the issue, sending the scrips over to the pharmacist at my local Walgreens.

Who filled the scrips, sent me a text saying they were ready, and closed a minute later. Whee. To make matters even more fun the HVAC guys will be here tomorrow some time between 9 and 11 AM so I won’t be able to pick up said meds until they’re done.

Now, I will not die without these meds. I won’t even be majorly inconvenienced without them (mainly because I already had some on hand). But come on, don’t send a text saying “Yeah, you can come get your pills” and close up shop ONE MINUTE LATER. That’s just amateurish.

In the meantime I’m bracing myself for the repair costs that will be coming our way tomorrow. I’m hoping that it won’t be that bad, but we already know that this system is on its way out and there may be more things that have gone wrong than just a gunked-up drain line. Oh, well. We’ll pay for it somehow.