Mom has another surgery tomorrow. This makes six surgeries in about 13 months (two of them major), however she did go from late August until now without any, so I'm glad she has had that time to bounce back from the difficult spring and summer she had last year. This surgery is for a torn rotator cuff in her shoulder. She also has burcitis and has been in a lot of pain with the combination of problems. It's so hard to see her keep going through one painful thing after another. I'm finally beginning to come out of denial about the fact that Mom and Dad are 75 and 77 this year, and they are slowing down. My larger-than-life heroes are human, and not immune to the aging process. They have each fallen twice in the last year, and they are both getting to be more and more forgetful. The fact that they are both still working does wonders, I think, for keeping their brains working so well, but I can see the changes occurring. I can potentially see the three of us getting a place together eventually, so I can be there to help them out. But right now, I am concentracing on Mom's surgery going well and her being able to use her right arm again, and not be in the kind of pain she has been in. It's wearing her out.

I have a feng shui book somewhere, and I remembered when I first read it that it mentioned the direction one's head points when sleeping, and how that can affect the quality of sleep. I had noticed that I slept better if I turned around and slept with my head at the foot of my bed (north), so I thought I'd try moving the whole bed. The problem is, it's impossible to put the bed anywhere in that room so that my head can point north. The only other thing I could do was turn it so it pointed west, which meant blocking the sliding glass doors. I tried it for a few weeks, and I have slept better than I did before, and I had some really wacko, crazy dreams for a couple weeks. That has slowed down some, but I am still having more vivid dreams than I was before I moved it. I don't want to keep blocking the doors, though, because I'm going to want to be using the balcony soon to barbecue and stuff, and plant some flowers. So, I have decided to do what I was thinking about off and on for awhile. It's a big undertaking, and I'm not sure how equipped I am for it physically, but I am thinking the benefits will be worth it. I'm going to switch my office (The Room) with my bedroom. It means not having a bathroom off the bedroom anymore, but the hallway bathroom is just a couple feet from the office door, and the hallway bathroom is much more convenient for fixing hair and such. The master bath is arranged so poorly. The door opens in, and it's in the way if you want to stand at the sink, so I have to close it to brush my teeth or comb my hair. The wall is right there up against the vanity counter, and I'm always banging it with my elbows. The hallway bath door is on the side, and I can leave it open and use the space in the open doorway for my elbows if I am moving a lot. And I don't have to feel like I am bending and twisting just to see the mirror. So, the pros outweigh the cons there. The office is slightly smaller than the bedroom, but without the sliding glass doors and bathroom door taking chunks out of the wall space, it allows for much more variety in furniture placement, and feels bigger because of that. Also, the most logical place to put the bed in that room is with the head pointing north. I used to use that room when Roommate lived with me, and I do remember sleeping better when my bed was in that position. I've figured out how to arrange the office in the master bedroom so that I can open the curtains to the balcony and look outside easily while I'm sitting at the desk writing. I think that will be nice.

I'm kind of excited. I have to do this in stages, though. First I need to move some things around in the living room so that the gazelle-not (it's actually called a sky glider) isn't in the middle of the room. Then I need to get some more of those big plastic bins and put all the loose items and books and stuff from the office into them, and start stacking them against the wall in the dining area, then take the computer down and put the pieces in the dining area, move the file cabinets, etc., until all that is left in the office is empty furniture. I'll ask Dad if he'll help me move the furniture out to the living room and then help move the bedroom furniture in, then we can put the office furniture in the master bedroom. I can go through the boxes one by one and put stuff away and all that by myself afterward.

It'll be good to do this now, too, at this time of year, because I can incorporate it into a spring cleaning, feng shui sort of project, and make everything feel all nice and new.

That's mainly what's on my mind today. Mom and moving furniture.

More later.