My back/hips were doing much better this morning, so I woke up at 07:00 and took the opportunity to get things accomplished around the house, starting with a couple of loads of laundry and while it washed I did what is probably the last bit of spackeling on the drywall in the cellar loo. Then I went back to bed for an hour nap, and got up with Keldor just before 11:00.
We played a game of Qwirkle over breakfast, he won, again. We have played 593 games of Qwirkle since November 2022 when I introduced him to it. While it feels like we are well matched, and we take turns winning, and we have both won by a lot, or by a little, on the average he wins by about 6 points, and his total lead is now up to 1,994 points.
The plan is that when his lead reaches 2,000 (which could be as soon as the next time we play, if he wins) we start keeping score the opposite way, with him serving as my champion, and his points count for me, and vice versa. It will be interesting to see if he can then take that lead back to zero again. Clearly, I have had some good streaks in there, just not as many as he has.
After breakfast we accomplished a few more tasks, and decided to take away the remaining drywall scrap now that we have finished the last of the walls that needs it. Since we were heading to the tip anyway, we also took away the dehumidifier that came with the house that we never got working properly—it makes noise, but doesn’t gather water from the air, and the plastic garden sink/cabinet that came with the house. It has always been in bad shape, but the drawers were useful for holding things like laundry soap and other miscellaneous things in the laundry room. However, now that the laundry room has been divided in half to make the bathroom, we don’t really have room for that cabinet anymore.
We had wondered about perhaps keeping it for the planned barbecue area out back, as having a cold-water sink there could be useful, but really, it wasn’t in good shape, and it would take too much work to fix it up. So, off to the tip with it, too. Once we removed the baskets full of stuff (which we kept) it was light enough that we had no problems carrying it to the van, and lifting it in beside the bed.
At the tip, when we went to lift it out he went inside to lift out, and I stood outside, I leaned a little forward, and took hold of the frame. When I started to lift and back up something went very wrong in my back (or my hip again?). So we put it down, outside of the van, and I went and sat in the car, unable to find a position that didn’t hurt. So Keldor just picked it up and tossed it into the container (it wasn’t that heavy, only big enough to be awkward), and tossed the rest of the trash himself.
He then took his miserable partner home, fed me two each Alvadon and Ipren (the Swedish cure for all serious health issues), and did his best to encourage me to try walking it off, as movement is the recommended treatment for “ryggskott”. I then spent a number of miserable hours, alternating between trying to move and trying to find a comfortable position in which not to move. Neither of these was in any way pleasant, and thus, I was terrible company.
Keldor, on the other hand, was sweet and supportive, and even managed to find me an appointment at Rygg Akuten for 13:00 tomorrow. I am really fortunate to have such a wonderful partner.
Eventually I managed to get settled into bed in a position that didn’t really hurt and fell asleep at 18:00. I woke at 20:40 needing to pee, I got up, stood up fully straight and upright (for the first time since leaving the tip), and walked, without pain, to the loo. Oh how wonderful it is not to hurt!
I went to the living room, where Keldor was half asleep on the couch, with blacksmithing videos on in the background, and did a five-minute yoga session, with no need for any modifications, everything just worked. Then I persuaded him to get up off the couch, and we went to bed.
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