Wednesday, December 18, 2013

The fallout

We got about 6.5" of snow yesterday--light, powdery stuff, the kind of snow that makes me twitchy for skiing. Unfortunately my skiing days are over (bad knees, sketchy back) unless the resort has long, gentle runs down the sides of the mountain as they do out west--I'm thinking Vail and Beaver Creek in Colorado. If I ever get the chance to visit Banff, however, this Vermont girl will throw caution to the wind to experience one last glorious run. One recurring dream I have is a happy one: I'm skiing down a mountain from the very top, and I'm doing jumps, moguls, and sharp turns effortlessly. The dream is always so thrilling I'm a bit sad to wake up and creak out of bed in the morning.

Speaking of creaking: tonight I have my second outpatient physical therapy appointment in Concord. Monday night I had my initial evaluation and the PT seemed impressed by my recovery. When he asked me to bend at the waist and try to touch the floor with my fingers, I surprised him by getting my palms flat on the floor without bending my knees. "Gymnastics team in junior high," I explained. Which explained to him why my lower back has such a pronounced curve. He told me a lot of former gymnasts have this problem. The goal for these visits is to help me build my "core" to support my weakened spine.

Last night's snowstorm had my husband coming home after midnight. The commute out of Boston/Cambridge earlier in the evening was longer than two hours for some people, so he decided to wait it out. The 35-minute drive home took him about an hour, which wasn't so bad, but today he's working at home.

Which leads me to a question: do any of you have spouses who wait until a car craps out before taking it to the garage for fixing? My husband does this and it. Drives. Me. NUTS. For months, now, he's had this noise coming from the rear wheel wells. I asked him about it and suggested he take it in to our mechanic, but he insisted the problem wasn't a major one ... it was just a piece of metal flashing that would be expensive to remove and not fixing it wouldn't hurt the car. The noise has gotten louder and louder, so I've kept at him. ("Maybe you should bring it over today since you're working at home--I really think you have a brake problem," says I, multiple times. "No," says he, multiple times, "It's nothing.") It got to the point where when I had to drive to Connecticut for family stuff, I refused to take his car and rented one instead because I knew the problem was more than a loose piece of metal flashing.

Sure enough, when I woke up this morning he said the brake indicator lights had started flashing during his ride home  (meaning the car should not be driven at all!) so that's why he was staying at home today. Yes, I rolled my eyes because if he had taken the car in months ago like I asked him to do, the fix would probably be a lot less money than it will be now.

I used to have a wonderful mechanic who worked on my Volvo and we would always get to talking about this and that when I brought my car in. He always loved working on my car because I took such good care of it. (214,000 miles until an au pair totaled it, grrr.) He told me that his female customers were much better at getting problems checked out and keeping up with regular maintenance than men were. He said my husband was his typical male customer. Interesting! So I'm off to rent a car later this afternoon. At least I'll have wheels for a few days.

O has a short day today, and with DH home I won't get as much done as I'd hoped to. My co-author Linda and I are writing a new book, which I'm very excited about. It's called The Introverted Entrepreneur, about how introverts can develop, grow, and promote an online presence without crushing their souls. Both Linda and I are major introverts; I'm an INFP in Myers-Briggs parlance and off-the-charts introverted according to other psychological tests I've taken. We were talking about it and noted that we've succeeded by doing things our way, so we figured, Hey, there's probably a lot of introverts out there like us who would like to know how we built our brand despite our hermit-like proclivities. Let's write a book!

If you are an introvert and have an online presence (blogging, Etsy store, Internet marketing site), please contact me. I'd love to interview you for the book. :)

Tomorrow I plan to have some knitting to show off.

 

9 comments:

  1. Your book sounds great! I will cautiously raise my hand as I scrunch down lower in my seat and admit I am an introvert. Or, as I have self-diagnosed, a double introvert. I don't have a huge online presence - just my humble little blog, and now the children's book. But if I can be of any help let me know.

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  2. Excellent, Kristie! I was hoping you would raise your hand. No need to scrunch down, although I know what you mean. I'll be in contact after the holidays, and I promise I'll try to make the process painless. :)

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  3. Love the book idea. Men and cars, aaarrrggghh! My husband fixes alot of that himself but he always waits on things so much longer than I am comfortable with doing! It will be interesting to hear what is really causing that metal noise.

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  4. Yeah, what is it with these guys? Too funny that your husband fixes cars ... he should know better. ;) My last mechanic learned to take my word for what was wrong. Once I pointed out he should check my alternator, and he admitted later he didn't think it was alternator issue, but it was. The talent comes from a lifetime of driving "beaters," lol. Experience rules!

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  5. You're an INFP? I'm an INTJ -- so I guess we half agree!

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  6. That's the key to why we work so well together -- the FP and the TJ make the whole package!

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  7. p.s. S is an INTJ, too. [ETA: I was wrong. He said he's an INTP, and yes, definitely, he is! Absent-minded professor is apt descriptor.]

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  8. That's a great idea for a book! I'm an INTJ although if you met me you'd probably not take me for an N. However, I like to work alone, hate taking exercise classes etc. etc.

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  9. PS. Too bad about the skiing. I am headed out to Copper in Colorado but seek out the gentle runs more and more because of dodgy knees (ballet) and almost sketchy back. No one understands why it makes it difficult to ski.

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