what a pain

— पांच हजार दो सौ इकतीस — I think I need to buy a backpack. I still really love my sparkly purple Banner Bag from a vendor at Pike Place Market, which I got with Christmas money from Dad and Sherri seven and a half years ago now—but, riding my bike with too much stuff in it and hanging from just one shoulder has really become a problem. I regularly get bouts of what feels like a pulled muscle in my upper back/shoulder, something I was convinced for months was due to sleeping on a pillow that was too thick; I even bought a memory foam pillow recently in response. But, in the wake of that pillow purchase, I discovered it still to be happening, and finally made the connection to the single-shoulder weight of my bag. I literally carried this bag the very same way for a good five years or more without this ever happening. All I can think is this is just my body getting old and less resilient. It probably wasn't ever good for my back to be riding my back with this kind of unevenly distributed weight. And today, my upper back behind my right shoulder hurts as much as it ever has, maybe more than ever. It's horrible, and intense and sustained enough that it's sporadically making me feel nauseated. Shobhit did give me a bit of hard massage with his fist into the muscle for a minute while I got ready in the bathroom this morning, and I was surprised to discover it helped a great deal. For a bit, anyway. Hence my new sights on a backpack. Shobhit already has a backpack he fairly regularly uses, but I don't want to just take that. Also it's kind of too big; I want something a bit smaller. I don't know where I should look for one but I need to start, and I need to go to some actual stores. This is not the kind of purchase I want to make blindly from Amazon. I really don't need an extra expense right now, but nor do I want to get something cheap. I suppose this would have to be looked at quite literally as an investment—if I seriously fuck up my shoulder, the costs in medical bills could be far greater in the long run. The shoulder bag is probably still fine for when I commute by transit. But I have got to stop wearing this thing while riding my bike. Something occurred to me literally as I was writing all of this. I should go to 20/20 Cycle first, the place I always go for fixes when I get a flat, for suggestions. It may even be a better idea to get a basket of some sort for my bike, so I don't have to wear the bag at all while riding. I do have a rack over my rear wheel, but affixing stuff to that using the bungee cord is always a pain in the ass. I actually did it just last Friday because I had brought my iPad for virtual lunch with Karen and it was too warm to wear my jacket, which thus also go put into the bag—the bag was just too heavy for wearing while riding and so I strapped it to the rack with the bungee cord. It was there slightly precariously thought and a basket of some kind is probably more secure. Either way, a new kind of bag or a basket, I can probably get authoritative advice from someone at the bike shop. — पांच हजार दो सौ इकतीस — — पांच हजार दो सौ इकतीस — In other news, Shobhit and I are facing some of the inconveniences of being longtime homeowners: we've been in the condo nearly 15 years now, and we've got a running list of plumbing issues that need solving. There's been a slow drip in the guest bathroom shower for ages, probably a few years. Water leaks out of the base of faucet handles in the master bathroom sinks if you press them just right. But most urgently, we have an ongoing leak under the kitchen sink. Like, I have a casserole dish under there right now to catch the dripping water any time the faucet is turned on. The kitchen sink issue has been going on for maybe a month, and we keep just putting off getting it taken care of. Shobhit actually had a plumber consultation visit last week, but he very much balked at the labor prices he was quoted to get it fixed—even suggesting maybe we could try repairing it ourselves. He sent me a link to a how-to video which, within the first minute showed several tools we don't have and would have to buy. I'm not sure I see the logic in purchasing tools we would rarely use in order to do a truly amateur job at something we may very well just fuck up further; we are not plumbers. I don't like that idea at all. I guess we need to buy a new faucet for a plumber to install for us regardless. We talked about going to Home Depot last night but then once dinner was done Shobhit no longer felt like going out, and suggested we go Wednesday night instead. I'm seeing a movie with Tracy tonight. I was considering another movie tomorrow evening, but, fine. This is another thing we need to get taken care of sooner than later. We made a paneer based dish last night that was very tasty. Shobhit finally got the flat on his car fixed yesterday—he had been mistaken about the front-left tire being flat; only the left-back one was; he had run over a nail that punctured the tire in the parking lot of City People's Gardening (at the site on Madison that will in a couple of years be replaced by a residential complex with yet another PCC store as its anchor tenant). That meant he had to get AAA to put the spare tire on for him (yet again; this just happened another time shortly before our Victoria trip), which at least allowed him to drive himself to Costco Tire Center instead of getting towed there as he thought he would need. And while he was at Costco he did some grocery shopping, including a ton of paneer cheese because it was on sale, and also a 2-pack of baguettes, one of which we baked to have with the paneer. I easily ate at least twice what I should have. As always, I need to get my shit together about portions. I should probably cut them all in half, if I ever want to get my weight back under control. It's starting to drive me crazy. I want to fit into clothes again that I've become too fat for. (I'm not fat at all, incidentally. Just expanded too much for some of my favorite shirts . . . with pants a lot tighter than they used to be.) My current weight struggles are now more than five years in the making, traced back to election night in 2016, when the election of President Fuckwit had me stress eating to a ridiculous degree, and from which I never fully recovered. What a pain in the ass. I probably wouldn't still have these issues if not for having been raised by a significantly overweight and over-eating mother. She's dead now, I can blame her all I want! I guess maybe I should also take some personal responsibility. — पांच हजार दो सौ इकतीस — [posted 12:29 pm]