I’m tired.

So tired.

Which is actually one of the reasons I bit the bullet and saw the doctor a few days ago.

My husband and I have the same doctor, so we booked our appointments one after the other. My husband’s stuff got dealt with first. Some paperwork got misplaced, so we didn’t do some blood work he was supposed to do. We were thinking of doing it right after the appointments, but the doctor was more than half an hour late, and he had reached his limit even before the doctor arrived. Just that morning, we got a call from the hospital in the city, scheduling his angiogram and angriogram “pre-op”, which will be next week, so we could pass that info on to the doctor. My husband hasn’t heard from the pain clinic yet, so the doctor is going to call them again to see what’s going on.

Then it was my turn.

I brought a list.

These were all things that could not be dealt with at the time, but would need further action. The mystery pain in my side getting worse again. My right rotator cuff being hooped for some reason. The fatigue and lack of stamina (last year, I was able to work on clearing the trees for about 4 hours before I had to go inside. This year, I find I need to head inside after only about 2 hours). The fatigue is not just getting physically tired faster, but sleepy, too.

I have been drinking energy drinks pretty regularly. Usually just 1 in a day, though once in a rare while, I’ll have 2. At most, I’ll have 5 in a week, though usually it’s more like 3 in a week.

Other people drink coffee. I have an energy drink.

After going through my list, I got written up for some very extensive blood work, X-rays, an EKG, a CT scan and a prescription for physiotherapy for my shoulder.

I’ll wait for the results on the X-rays before I try the physio.

We both were to come back in 2 weeks to follow up on stuff, so we’ve got another double appointment made.

Since some of my blood tests required fasting, we headed home and came back to the lab the next morning.

Which was funny when my husband and I were both getting blood taken at the same time, and we were in chairs facing each other.

The lab staff know us by now.

My husband only had 2 vials taken.

I had 7.

Then I got the X-rays done. Three on my right shoulder, one on my left, and three chest X-rays. Then it was onto the table to get my left hip X-rayed twice, followed by the EKG.

It all went by rather quickly.

I’ll get a call or letter for the CT scan when they have an opening. That will be done in another city.

Meanwhile…

The day we went in to for the doctor’s appointment was the day after the plumber had come to check what was going on with our hot water tank, and we saw our vandal checking us out from the road on his quad.

So it was no surprise when I was talking to my Mom after our appointments and I began telling her about it that she informed me there was another incident. A “letter” left at her door that she found that morning. *sigh* He can’t get at me, so he goes after her.

I went to her place the next day to help her read some letters she got from the hospital she’ll be getting her CT scan at, and from her new doctor. While there, I also took pictures of the letter from our vandal she found.

Both sides.

The letter covered one side of the page completely, and ended abruptly. It almost seemed to be in mid sentence. But the other side didn’t have more of the letter on it. Instead, there was this wild drawing of a snarling canine (wolf? coyote? dog? We couldn’t tell), the word “eye” with an arrow pointing to the scribbled blotch of an eye, and a bunch of question marks around the word “eye.”

It was absolutely bizarre. My mother wasn’t even sure what it was. Are these teeth? Are those ears?

Now, it’s possible this was the sketch for a sculpture he’s working on, but even if it was, he included it with his letter. I’m sure there was supposed to be some sort of message to it. Was the snarling beast his symbolic rendition of my mother, destroying his life, as he claims? Or was it a depiction of himself, snarling at her?

We have no way of knowing.

We decided this was something that needed to be brought to the police. Since the jurisdictions changed, that meant our municipalities were now covered by the precinct nearer to us, so when I ended up in town yesterday for something else, I stopped by and talked to someone.

Well, it turns out that only our municipality has been switched. My mother’s municipality hasn’t changed. Her town is large enough to have its own RCMP office, though, so I was told to call them, since the incident happened at my mother’s, even though it involved me (the letter had some “interesting” things to say about me).

So that was on my to-do list today.

I made the call, was asked for more information, and it will all be passed on to an officer, who will look it over. If I don’t get a call back after the weekend, I’ll call back myself to follow up.

What a pain.

On top of this, we are still dealing with our hot water tank. It’s working, even if it’s still overheating the water. I called the number on the tank and talked to someone about the problem. I was told to take the label with the serial number off (he recommended a hair drier to make it easier to remove!) and take it in to the store it was purchased at.

Now, we didn’t buy the tank. Our plumber did. I did tell that to the guy I was talking to, but there was no mention of needing the original receipt.

Yet when I got to the store, I was told that they didn’t do warranty work, then told I would need the receipt anyhow. The manager I spoke to said I should give the label to the plumber, because he would have the receipt and could start the warranty process.

*sigh*

Instead of calling the plumber, today I called the company again, first.

You should have heard the deep, soul defeated sigh that came from the guy when I said the store told me they don’t do warranties.

After going back and forth about it, the guy put me on hold for a while, then came back with some good news.

We could skip that part of the process entirely.

He said to just get a new tank, then email the receipt to him, and they’ll cut us a check to cover the cost of the tank.

That will make things much faster and easier!

I called my plumber after that. He had hoped the warranty covered the cost of labour, too – he felt we shouldn’t be dinged for the cost of labour to replace a faulty tank. I had received an email from the company, so I would have the email address to sent the receipt to, so I wrote back and confirmed that only the tank was covered. Which is fine by me.

Budget is going to be tight next month, though!

Next week, the plumber will know better when he can come over with a new tank for us.

It’s been a pretty full few days.

No wonder I’m tired.

The Re-Farmer