Yesterday, for the first time since my panniculectomy surgery on June 9th, I tried planking again, but with straight arms instead balancing on my forearms. It seemed so easy that I stayed planked for 90 seconds, a full minute and a half. I was very proud of myself!
I felt I could have lasted longer had both of my hands cooperated fully, but the Dupuytrens Contracture in my right hand doesn’t allow me to open it fully to support myself on that side, so I had to compensate by using my left arm more for balance than my right, and my left arm got tired.
After that feat, I promptly forgot all about it.
I also walked four miles yesterday (and the day before), because the weather was nice.
Well! At about seven or eight p.m., I sat down to read a few chapters of a book. When I stood back up, I felt as if I’d been hit by a Mack truck. My body hurt from shoulders to feet. And I pondered, “Now, why would walking make my muscles feel like I’m suddenly 90 years old? I walk nearly every day!!!”
I had forgotten all about the planking!!!
I finally figured it out, but it took me a while.
And it took a 500 mg. dose of acetaminophen to keep me from crippling around like a geriatric near-centenarian!
I’m fine this morning, back to normal, zero pain. So it was a brief sojourn into physical torment, for which I’m very grateful!
In Other News
I added a second filter to my 55-gallon aquarium and did a thorough cleaning of the substrate yesterday morning. And I replaced about 30% of the water with fresh water. The tank looks fabulous this morning. The fish look like they’re swimming through air and the ghost shrimp are very visible now. I still have more than half of the 30 I bought a few weeks ago. They’re swimming all over the place.
The water is crystal clear.
What you see here is a reflection of light through my den window, not dirty water!
I added some Amazon sword and hornwort plants to the tank, too, to give the wee fish and shrimp and crayfish lots of places to hide. But the other fish I have in the tank aren’t chasers; they don’t hassle the wee ones. It’s quite a nice, peaceful ecosystem.
The rats got a new maze box condo yesterday, too. I was in Merry Maid mode and wanted to make everything pristine, so I concentrated on the critter and fish habitats.
The new rat maze high-rise condo.
That’s Miss Hightower in the window above.
(She always goes to the highest point, so that’s how she got her name.)
I have a beautiful new betta fish. I told you about her a blog post or so ago. Here are a couple “betta” images for you of her. She is just gorgeous!
But no photo does her justice.
In 3D real life, she is breathtaking!
It turns out that my “plain” (all one color and very smooth) pleco is quite the character. It has a distinct, spritely personality that is sorta comical. It darts from place to place as if it’s giddy. It has a sort of hippety hoppety spring to its step (er, swim) that is unique!
And then there’s my albino pleco Moby Dick. It’s the largest pleco. Here’s its underbelly.
And here is a pretty tree as viewed toward the rising sun
On Friday I collaborated with my new client via Zoom for about 45 minutes and got some additional marching orders, which thrilled me as I was all caught up with the earlier ones. So over the weekend I fulfilled the new order and sent it on for review. I was also assigned to come up with topics for December, including a poem, so I’m still pondering those. I have three poems so far but I’m not crazy about any of them, so I’m gonna keep writing ’til something makes me happy enough to submit it (and the other poems, in case the client likes them better). I was able to submit another $1K invoice to the client, as a result. They pay within three days nearly always, so I expect that to drop into my account in the next day or so. Nearly all of it will go right into savings. Yay!
