My new umbrella arrived, yeah!
Silly but it’s one of those things I’ve been meaning to get for ages. I love walking but the older I get the harder it is for me to control my core temperature and the easier I burn. Don’t ask me how but I’ve been known to blister, badly I might add, just sitting in the shade, facing a wall, with the swimming pool behind me.
Now I know you can get reflection burns from water but it was BEHIND me, so it had to reflect onto the wall and then on me. Seriously, wall burns???
Anyway this is a 50+ SPF, shinyish silver umbrella with a double canopy which means its pretty wind proof but I can use it in the rain too. Not that I’ll need the 50+ SPF protection then but you never know with me. Maybe next time I’ll get rain burn LOL. If you click on the link and it's out of stock (well I'm such a trend setter everyone wants one) then they have the Coolibar UPF 50+ Titanium Travel Umbrella – Sun Protective (Silver) which I almost bought but I got the compact version instead.
I gotta say I shall be glad to see the back of this day, you know how some mornings you get up and you just know, I mean, you really just k.n.o.w. it’s going to be one of those days? Yup well today was IT.
The provider I used to pay our foreign staff suddenly decided a month ago that it was not going to allow commercial payments anymore. I wouldn’t mind but they had the best, easiest software, bar none. Took me half a day tops to pay both US and foreign staff.
Today it took me all day, I kid you not, I started this at 9am, its now 10 past 5 and I just got done. Mistakes, lockouts, cancelled payments, didn’t matter what I did, it went wrong, I’m trying to get a new service set up called Ko-Kards, that’s been ‘interesting’ to say the least, and as more than half my staff didn’t get the cards I had to use Bank pay, Bill Pay, Western Union (UGHHHH!), PayPal. By the time I got done my head was swimming and it was pretty fuzzy to start with ;P
Never mind it kept my mind off my back, kinda, and the impending flight.
The itinerary arrived from Barcelona today, from midnight Monday the day we arrive I can eat nothing till the evening on Tuesday which will be after all my pre-op tests. That night I also can’t eat or drink anything after midnight till after my surgery which is the following afternoon. Come Thursday morning I'm going to be starving, jet lagged and in pain from the op. Sometimes I really have to think why I am going this as that's how I am most of the time anyway.
What’s cool is they pick us up from the airport, to me that’s a lifesaver, getting on trains or busses with suitcases and laptop rollaboards or paying through the nose for a taxi is not my idea of fun. Even if it is Tim playing packhorse and not me.
The next day, Tuesday however, they arrive at the apartment around 7:30am to take us to the hospital where the tests begin. Blood work, EKG, x-rays, consults with surgeons and anesthetists, etc ad nauseum. Looking forward to dinner that night though.
Then Wednesday morning at 7:30am they come and get us again to go back to the hospital, this time to be admitted and have the op in the afternoon. They are going to do three disks, L3/L4, L4/L5 and L5/S1. It takes about an hour per disk apparently plus the other cutting stuff they insist on doing along with the stitching, gluing and stapling afterwards means I could be in the for around 4+ hours.
It’s amazing how they can put you all back together with glue and staples, smoke and mirrors. As I will not be allowed to bend, twist or go move side to side afterwards I’m thinking about getting a T-shirt that says:
Do not fold, staple, or mutilate; oops TOO LATE!
Well, not long now. Today is almost over so that just leaves tomorrow and Saturday, 2 days till we fly out. Fingers crossed everyone that I get upgraded, mind you with all the Valium, pain pills and pain patches I am wearing how would I know the difference ;o)
Disclaimer: if you click on the link above for the umbrella and actually buy one, Amazon have generously agreed to give me about 20 cents in commission which is not added onto your costs. Now I have said that the FCC, FBI, FTC, IRS and any of the other 6000 government agencies out there should be happy.