Doctors

 I made it to the doctors today!

I was expecting to wait for ages as it's a very busy clinic, but after just 10 minutes wait, I was called in to get X-rays, another few minutes, and I was called to see the doctor!

The X-ray shows there is no space between my lower vertebrae. That means the nerve is being compressed, which is why it's so painful. The doctor suggested physiotherapy, which I did. That really helped a lot, even though the session was short, about 20 minutes, it was very thorough. After the session, I was pain-free for about half an hour! The therapist showed me some exercises to do at home, and said I should strengthen my core muscles to support my back!

I have some painkillers for a week, I hope they work!

I'm glad I know what is wrong and have a plan to fix it! I need to exercise more, really focus on building some muscle. At the moment, I exercise about 3 times a week, at least that's the goal, but I know that some weeks, if I get in one session, that's good!  I know it's important, but I find exercising to be so boring! That's not a good excuse to not do it, though!

I really need to get healthy. I have so many things that I have to do and even more that I want to do!

One thing I really want to do is travel! Next month, Hannah and I are planning on going to a city near here that has some lovely historic areas, and there's also an old school that has been converted into a museum. The problem is that there will be a lot of walking. Hannah said that from the station to the one place she wants to visit is just a 15-minute walk, according to Google Maps. I want to know who timed these walks because they aren't fifteen minutes for me!!! So, my short-term goal is to be able to walk for 15 minutes without being in too much pain! If I focus on these goals, then I think I can deal with boring exercise!

Another thing I'm dealing with is a new schedule. I get up early, about 5am! It's hard at the moment, but I know in another month or so it will be a lot easier!

The other morning, while I was making breakfast and obento lunch for Christopher, David was outside cutting some of the weeds. He was wearing this big, straw hat. As he passed by the window, Fluffy saw him and started to hiss at him. She didn't like the hat!

I managed to get a little video!

Fluffy protecting us!

Frustrated!

 There's so much to do, but I'm unable to do a lot of it!

My back is so painful! Even standing for 5 minutes is hard; I used to be able to stand and move around for about an hour before feeling any tinges!

I've had back problems since I was in my 20s. At all weights, from when I was 48kgs to my heaviest, over 100kgs, the late stages of my pregnancies were bad as well. Before, however, it would relieve itself after a month or so. I could then go a few years with no problems, then have another flare-up.

This time it has been too long! Since about June. At first, I thought it was my weight. But I've lost some weight, but the pain is worse!

Today I made obento and breakfast, washed dishes, tidied the kitchen a bit, stood for about an hour, and I wanted to scream, the pain was that intense! I took some painkillers and laid down, even sitting is getting to be painful! When I felt a bit better, I vacuumed one room and moved a few books, and after that, I was finished!

David cooked lunch. He made Taco Rice, a fusion of Mexican and Japanese cuisines! 

Nice lunch

He usually serves this on lettuce with some cheese, but we didn't have either. He used shredded cabbage instead of lettuce!

Tomorrow I'm going to the doctor! I need to see an orthopaedic doctor. I like the one in the other city, but wanted to find one near here!

I did a search on Google Maps. The results were interesting!

I searched in English, Google translated this and then gave a choice of a few clinics. The problem is that most of the clinics are chiropractors, which are good, but I want to find out what is wrong with my back. On Google Maps, the word chiropractor is translated as "Bonesetting House"! 

So tomorrow back to the other city, again! I hope I can get some answers and a way to manage this pain. I'm doing some exercises and stretches, I try to walk a bit, even just round the garden. But I really want to get things set up so we can get students. Our new flyers arrived, so maybe next week, David will start to put those out. Also, I want to go with Hannah to a nearby city to see the autumn leaves and visit a museum, a lot of walking, so I need to feel better!

Sports Day

 Today is another national holiday in Japan. Sports Day. This holiday is every year on the second Monday in October! 

This holiday was established in 1966 to commemorate the opening of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

This is the season of Undokai, Sports Day in elementary schools and Taiikusai, Sports Festival in junior high and high school. These are usually held on a Sunday near the national holiday! It's an all-day event and most parents, even grandparents, attend!

I found a few photos of David and Hannah's sports day. I have some of Mikey and Christopher, but they aren't on the computer!

I understand having sports day, but this is so intense. For two weeks, there is practice almost every day! 

My kids never really enjoyed it; the best part for them was the lunch that I had to make!

I'm glad that I don't have to deal with it any more! 

I know that in the UK, having a sports day in October might feel strange, but the weather is still like summer.

My New Cleaner

 This post contains an Amazon Affiliate Link.

One problem with having nine cats is the constant need to clean up "accidents". Most of the time, one of us can get to the cat pee quickly and clean it up right away. But sometimes, for example, overnight or if we've been out, these accidents are left for a few hours! If it's on the wooden floor, mopping up is easy to do, a few paper towels, hot water and a mop, followed by some kind of spray!

The problem is when it's on the carpet, tatami mats or sofa, as it soaks into the material. We have tried everything to get the smell out, but it's almost impossible.

I've spent ages looking at different ideas to clean up the smell and stains, to prevent the cats from using that area as a toilet, but nothing has worked.

Before anybody says that we should have more litter boxes or keeping them clean. We have plenty of litter boxes; there are 10 boxes. They are scooped twice a day and refreshed once or twice a week!

One thing that was suggested was a wet/dry vacuum cleaner.

Again, I spent ages on the internet checking different models. I finally decided on this one from Amazon.

https://amzn.to/48YHge

Wet/Dry Vacuumer Cleaner

David ordered it for me, it came last night!

We set up this morning and had a go!

We only did one cushion on the sofa.

Basically, spray water on the cushion and then vacuum it off. I'll have to check later to see if the smell has gone. I hope so, as I was planning on using the sofa once the weather cools down!

One thing that I was surprised at was the noise. Our usual vacuum cleaner isn't that noisy! Cleared the cats out of the room!

I really hope this deals with this problem, as having the house smell bad drives me crazy!

I'll have to give everywhere a very good clean.

Next week we will get our leaflets for our school here! This time, David wants to start teaching, and he is willing to put in the work. Here's hoping that we can get some students!

Hot

 All through August and September, I told myself that come October, the weather would be nice. I imagined lovely warm days, where walking for a few minutes or cooking a meal wouldn't make me sweat! The first few days of October were nice, a bit hot, but okay. Yesterday and today, however, we were back to summer temperatures! Today the high was 33C here, 34C where Hannah is! One good thing is that the nights a cool, I actually woke up shivering the other night!

I actually made a start on the closet in my room!

I spent an hour sorting socks!

The sock problem.

Somehow, we end up with a massive collection of odd socks! I try so hard to keep them together when doing laundry, but we still end up with a lot of odd socks!

This is not a new problem. When we moved to the old house, about 16 years ago, I had 2 boxes and a basket full of odd socks! I remember spending time trying to sort them out, only to realise that I had moved these boxes of socks from two different houses! Why was I dragging around boxes of odd socks? To try to save a bit of money?  So after I sorted out as many as possible, I threw away the rest. I think I'll do the same this time. I'll have another look through, also I need to pull out all the stuff in the closet as I think there might be a few more at the very back, after that I'm going to throw them out! Or maybe roll some up into balls, put some catnip on them and let the cats play with them!

I have to make room in this closet for some of my books. One of the bookcases I'm using in my read nook is ready to collapse, so I need to store my books somewhere until I can get a new or second-hand bookcase!

I'm thinking of getting some for the room that we are going to teach in, but I need some with glass doors because of the cats! Once I have a bit of money, I'll have a look round!

A Bit Of Gardening

 Not me, but I did sweep up the dust that was left. David did a bit yesterday and today. He actually cleared the front of the property on the road! Looks a lot better; there were so many weeds growing out of the small wall!

I managed to get a short video of him yesterday!

This was October 9th! It's still hot here during the day, up to 30C. Thankfully, the nights are very cool. I didn't need a fan last night and haven't used the air conditioner for about a week. I hope the electric bill goes down a bit!

We went out to do a bit of shopping. I took a little video on the way back. I was trying to get the cosmos flowers that are in bloom now, but David was going a bit too fast to really see them. You can get an idea of what the area is like, fields, lots of fields!

It's nice but very isolating! 

I hope to get outside tomorrow and do a bit more! We will see!

How One Tire Almost Ruined The Day

 Tuesday and Wednesday, I go with Mikey to the other city to teach.

It's a 40-minute drive, if we are lucky and there's no traffic or bad weather. We leave a little early just to be on the safe side.

Wednesday's schedule is tight. Mikey has a class at a different community center from 5pm to 5:50, and his next class is from 6:10 at the usual community center.  To make sure that the kid isn't left waiting around if Mikey is late, I go to the usual community center and wait for him.  It helps relieve the time pressure off Mikey.

Yesterday, however, all our great plans came crashing down!

We left here at about 3:30, stopped at a store to pick up a couple of things and noticed that the rear driver's side tire was flat!

Flat Tire

I suggested going to a nearby gas station and putting air, then getting a new tire the next day. 

We stopped at a gas station, the staff tried to put air but the tire wouldn't inflate!

So we had to go to a repair shop and get the tire changed!

We got to the repair shop at about 3:50. Fortunately, it wasn't busy; out of 7 bays, only two were being used, so our car got seen to very quickly!

Fixing The Car

It didn't take long. We were back on the road about 4:15, but that meant that we didn't have time to drop me off and then go to the other community center, so I went with Mikey. We managed to get back to the usual community center just in time!

The repair shop suggested changing out the other tires. I told Mikey he should do that before winter. Mikey said that it's before winter now! Which is true, but it still feels like summer!

A few photos from yesterday. The clouds over the mountain were really incredible.

Looks like the clouds and mountains are one

I managed to see the full moon. Apparently, Monday was the best day to see the harvest moon, but it was too cloudy that day!

Lovely Moon