Winter came cold, hard and fast, blowing in with a huge snowstorm Oct 15. It meant the end of my transportation and enjoyment of my fitness classes out at the gyms. I am enjoying my workout DVD's and my elliptical at home and to spice things up splurged for the Exhilarate Zumba DVD set and its paying off in spades. The winter has never let up. Well below normal temps every day. My job as bridge club manager has never let up. Walking every day in this deep freeze. So many wealthy people fleeing to the warmer southern climates left very few of us volunteers to hold the fort. Ridiculous when 5 out of 6 people of your decision making board of directors goes south for the winter leaving us with only two check signees and all checks must be signed by two people. Being manager, I had to fill in a lot of gaps. Directing more games. Now the assistent teacher is going south so not only will I have to work the Monday morning game, I will have to go back out in the evening again. No biggie normally, I am fit and enjoy walking. But the bitterly cold face peeling wind I have experienced all winter is getting wearing. Lack of sleep due to waking up in pain is just plain making me fatiqued beyond imagination. I still keep up with two to three hours exercise daily as that is my only 'me' time. I had hopes the new medication would have worked, but I still wake up constantly. I am to increase the gabapentin today if I need it. The problem is I don't want to risk any of its side effects -weight gain, dizziness and fatigue all things I have struggled with.
So this morning I finished my exercise, 40 minutes elliptical intervals, 50 min kickboxing with weighted gloves and an intense 20 min Zumba Rush (can't get enough of it lol addict!!) All of a sudden, while chatting with Mom, I heard water running in my ceiling.

It didn't seem to be coming out anywhere for a while. It was in the corner of my bedroom. I looked around for the caretaker and he wasn't there. By the time I got back I saw it coming through the alarm fixture light and speaker, close to my bed. Ran for my dish washing pail, the only container I had. Then I managed to haul my bed out and further away from the drips, but didn't have far to go as I ran into the dresser.

I thought, whew, its just coming in the one place and never bothered opening my closet after checking quickly the first time when I heard it.
I didn't think to take photos until the worst of it was over and I had taken everything out of my closet by then, but not before most of my good jackets and clothing got soaked with that filthy brown water:

The caretaker poked holes in the ceiling in an effort to get the water out and to dry it out:

They tore the molding back also to air it out, both in my bedroom and across from the kitchen where I hang my winter jackets, which I discovered later had water on the floor -impossible to see in my dark apartment -I tried to stack some magazines there out of the way and promptly soaked them!!

So I spent most of the day hauling everything out of the closet, giving my good stuff to Mom take to the dry cleaners as there are none around here and she is hand washing the stuff they refused to clean. Amazing how much stuff you can pack into a closet!! Man do I need to declutter!!!! Then I had to clean up my poor exercise area, totally tracked up with the white junk from the ceiling and water from all the guys coming and going as well as me stacking things up. One guy came in with a little two pronged electronic gadget which he jammed into the ceiling in every place where water came in and in the kitchen where the caretaker and I heard dripping. It could tell if there was water in there and made a noise when it detected it! Fortunately, no water came through there though.
Why did this happen? A (place favorite cuss words here) person on the third floor left their window open in the -38 windchill temperatures and froze their heating pipes!! We are given two written notices every year about not doing this, so this person better have some good insurance because they will be getting my dry cleaning bill. I don't know what discipline the Housing Authority will lay on them for breaking a strict rule and causing so much damage.
So for the next THREE nights, I will be stuck with this industrial fan for a bedside companion. Gee, wonder how my sleep will go now?? I have nowhere else to sleep and can't sleep on the floor as I can't get up and down from it, but its just as noisy in my living room anyway, I will really have to crank up the volume on my DVD's to hear them!!

To illustrate how hard the wind blows here in my little dark north facing corner, I snapped photos of snow piled up:
The wind actually managed to push up the hard packed crusty snow away and to my apartment, leaving the ground almost bare:

Its actually like the surf is up against the windows, I get a mini tornado swirling in front of my window every time it blows:

Our building has a passive venting system where we all share vents. We have no uptake fans anywhere, not even in the bathroom. So when the wind blows, it backdrafts, actually pushing air from my neighbor's apartment back into mine, meaning I am getting her smoking air :( So I open my window to clear it out when I can, but will never freeze my pipes as I run the heat on high so the water will be moving. I close them when I am done exercising or clearing them out. Because of the very cold winter I have had to be cautious opening the window and did so briefly each time. The result is continuous blocked sinuses and difficulty breathing at night meaning loading up on inhalers and allergy meds. But I can't move from here, its too convenient. Only five blocks to the bridge club, across from a mall and most important, I have a health clinic where I can get my weekly humira injections and regular blood tests without having to travel. Having only two useful fingers (the thumb being dislocated) means I can't self inject. So add my RA pain in my back, elbow, fingers, quad and IT band from my hip replacement, toes, non stop work and going out -two sessions of bridge tomorrow- a novice wants to play with me Wed evenings and I so wish I could have refused but the one rule every master should have is always play with a novice when they ask, as its good for the club and we want to encourage them to keep coming out. So just when I thought things would settle down for me they have just starting ramping up again!! I think its only my very excellent vegetarian diet that is holding me away from hitting the wall. But boy, there are some days where that old recliner and PJ's and a big bowl of Mac N Cheese is looking pretty inviting!!! But I do know my body always feels better moving then sitting around. Especially now, as the back pain ramps up when ever I sit or lay down too long.
I guess I just have to get through it with a little help from my Spark friends!
Hugs,
Linda