Sunday Evening Already?

I spent the weekend in heavy manual labor again. I brought work home from the office but never got to it, so tomorrow will be extra busy. Putting the house back together after Floor is nearly as bad as packing it up. No, actually, maybe it's worse, because it has the added element of cleaning all the DUST off EVERYTHING. Even the clothes in my closet are dusted, and I'm SO glad I bought some clothing bags for storing my nicer stuff before this began.

I love the floor. Best money I've spent. I'll love the kitchen when it's finally DONE and I get to USE it, but right now I just get to look at the cabinets in the semi-darkness, because the lighting isn't in, or the countertops, or the sink, or the faucet. I can't even put anything in the new cabinets, because the lower ones will be full of mess from the countertop installation, and the upper ones have to stay empty until the lighting is wired. They are purely decorative now. It's been nearly a month.

I'm fantasizing about cooking at this point. I'm dreaming of kale. I'm fantasizing about mushroom stroganoff, barbequed tofu, and a nice big burrito bowl. I miss my plant based diet.

I fell, no, leaped, off the plant-based wagon in the last few weeks, because doing dishes in a tiny bathroom sink, on the same bathroom vanity that held all my toiletries, the dog's medicine, AND the coffee maker - yeah, making nice healthy salads was a silly dream. I was down to one square foot of food prep space for the last couple of weeks, and that was coated in dust and grit. So I decided to go with the flow, and ate a lot of takeout and occasional fast food.

And I'm paying the price. One of the unexpected benefits of eating plant based was the disappearance of my knee pain and other signs of incipient arthritis. It was gone. My joints quit hurting. My knees still clicked because that's mechanical, and I am still building a new wardrobe of cute but flat and sensible shoes, but the pain was gone. It's back. The only change? Diet. I'm wearing the same shoes, sitting at the same desk, doing the same things, but I ate meat and cheese in convenient prepared meals, and yup, my knees ache again. And maybe it's my imagination, but I think I look older all of a sudden. I'm hoping it's reversible, because seriously, I'm aging like The Picture of Dorian Gray. For the last 30 days it's been too hot to walk, too hectic to take care of myself, too...just too everything. I am truly looking forward to returning to greens and beans, and maybe, just maybe, we'll drop out of the 90s in the next few weeks, and the humidity will give us a break, and I can walk in the mornings without passing out. Hoping for a countertop this week. Fingers crossed....