It was a very normal day, my two-year anniversary. Normal in the sense that mundane events of my life were represented: I got up, showered, ate breakfast, went to work, took a break for lunch, completed my shift, came home, made dinner, ate it, went to bed.
A few things here and there were out of the "normal": I had to be at work a few minutes earlier to participate in a 2 hour training session meant to prepare us for upcoming changes to operations in the fall. Interesting stuff, I am looking forward to engaging fully with those changes. More and more, I am coming to see this job as part and parcel of my life here, not just something to make money at until I find a job similar to what I used to do in Jamaica, because that is highly unlikely. I do enjoy my work environment, the work I do is repetitive but the human element guarantees that it is never boring, and though chances for advancement are small to non-existent at this time, I think in the long-term there are possibilities.
Another not-so-normal occurrence is the inescapable conclusion that I have developed carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). I was familiar with this condition only in the vaguest possible way, a former manager was afflicted with it but I never cared enough to ask what the symptoms or treatments were. Around two weeks ago, though, I began to be plagued by an annoying tingling pain sensation in my right thumb, fore and middle fingers. At first I dismissed the sensation as possibly resulting from a minor infection of a puncture wound to my thumb caused by a sharp surface at work. When it spread to my fingers, and remained concentrated in the tips of all three, I thought perhaps I had scalded them one evening while doing the dishes by running the water too hot. When I noticed the sensation was actually especially bad in the wee hours when I would get up with Nipper to let him outside to toilet, I was baffled. The last straw was going to a workout with my personal trainer and finding that my usually stronger right hand had a painfully weaker grip somehow.
I conferred with a friend who is a certified radiologist, asked Google what were possible causes, and they both agreed on CTS. The more I read the symptoms described on WebMD, and the more my friend talked about the anatomy of the hand and why my wrist and fingers would feel as they did, the more convinced I was that they were perfectly correct. As of yesterday, I am wearing a wrist brace, especially while sleeping or using the computer, to relieve the pressure on the median nerve and hopefully return my hand to unencumbered working order.
It's beautiful outside most days these days. If you discount the blackflies and mosquitoes. Last Saturday, G decided it was safe to refresh the garden for this year, so we drove out to the garden centre to get some new plants. I chose to get a variety of herbs, as I have always wanted to have fresh herbs available. I picked out the plants according to the refrain of a song, for some reason I can't remember the movie I heard it in, but I cannot forget the line, "Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme". We could not get thyme as another customer bought all they had left at the time, but got the other three. In addition, we bought lemongrass (which we call fever grass in Jamaica) and basil. I barely managed to avoid being eaten alive by the mosquitoes, and complained to G the entire way home that mosquitoes in Jamaica did not attack during the daytime! Over the course of last weekend, he weeded the garden, planted my herbs and his shrubs and flowers, and I zapped the dandelions and crab grass with Weed-B-Gon. Between us we have dozens of insect bites, but we're quite happy with the garden and lawn.
In two weeks' time, it will officially be summer. I suppose eventually I will get used to the abbreviated spring here, and hope that summer is not often abbreviated like it was last year when the leaves were turning to fall colours as early as the first week in August! I suppose that should have been a warning about just how bad this past winter was going to be, but having not seen a winter that brutal in as much as a decade, even people like G who have lived in E.L. for longer than that were taken by surprise. As much as I like the changing of the seasons and consider it one of the best features of living in Canada, last winter was just brutally cold for days on end, to the point where I teetered on the edge of losing my joy in the season. As a consequence, I am consciously trying to revel in the spring (such as it is), summer and fall this year.
In leaving, I close with some of the beauties that sprung up in the garden this year:
