Sometimes I’m bad at being consistent in my personal life. And that impacts things like my hobbies. This blog and writing is a hobby. For now anyway. Maybe I will get to retire!

The quick update is that I closed on the cabin on October 30 at about 1pm. I moved in November 11th and woke up on my 50th birthday in my very first home…my cabin in the woods!! That picture, up there, is me in the morning of my 50th birthday taken in bed.

I did it!

It has been exhausting but I’m finally in an okay place, I think, for now, maybe?

Getting Settled In

Money is very tight right now because of some expenses that I had to spend now instead of next winter. Like a snowblower. I had to buy one. We are experiencing the kind of winters that I used to get as a kid here in Ontario this year. Right now I have 9 inches of fresh powder on top of ice. It melted one day and then flash froze. That is going to happen again this coming weekend. So a snowblower was purchased.

I also purchased an entire skid of hardwood pellets for my pellet stove. That was about $400 CAD which is supposed to last half a winter. But, I’m thinking I might not even need to use the entire skid. You see, after a week of use, my pellet stove just stopped igniting. It does all of the things and puts the pellets in the hopper. It just keeps dumping the pellets. It had been inspected Oct 20 before closing and I was given that receipt. I called up the company who inspected the stove. They transferred the warranty to me because it still has a couple of years left on it apparently. BUT they weren’t able to get out to see me until January 9th. So I’ve been without a pellet stove since mid November and it will be serviced this coming Friday.

Temperatures have been down in the -10’s to -20’s most of December but I’ve been okay. I picked up a couple of electric heaters and they are currently heating my downstairs. I have electric heat upstairs already. I got my hydro bill the other day and last month only cost me $100. I keep it at about 18C in here all day and let it get down to about 13C at night. This is cold enough for me to wear all of the cozy sweaters that I own but warm enough to not hurt my fingers and toes. So maybe my pellet stove just becomes a back up heat source for when I want to feel its heat. I’d get a discount on my house insurance if I had electric heat in the main floor.

I also bought a stove. I needed that before Christmas and it works nicely. I’m still getting used to it. The burners work differently and it has too many features I’ll probably never use. But I got to buy my first appliance. I’m such and adult now!

The kitties are mostly settled in. I still have to get their Litter Robot cleaned out and set up. It needs to be taken apart and have all of the sensors cleaned. I left it and now I can’t use it until it’s clean. So the kitties are using the litter in my bedroom. I don’t like it. But it makes it easier for Moss who is still pretty shy.

At least he comes downstairs and likes to hang out in the basement. I kept the cats out of the basement until a few days after the French drains were installed in the basement. Now he likes to be down there. I figure I’ll put their litter down there and keep food down there and on the main floor. That way, if Moss wants to hide because I have people over, he can do so in one room. Right now he is able to just hide in my room because everything is in here.

So I am settling in nicely. I love it out here. It’s so quiet. It’s so peaceful.

Moving out here has improved my health! I’ve lost a bunch of weight. I have no idea how much but it’s noticeable in my face and in how my clothes fit. Plus Dale mentioned it as well. I’ve been walking a lot, trying to go out daily. Well I was trying.

The Fall

Then Dec 16th happened.

The basement stairs got me. It was after work and I was taking things from the porch to the basement to prepare for Xmas. My heel caught on the second or third step and I fell, face first, down the stairs onto the cement floor. During the fall, my left leg managed to go through the back of the stairs (they are open backed) and I slid down a couple of them on my right shin. At some point, all of the falling drills that I did whilst playing Rugby paid off and I managed to turn myself onto the meaty portion of my hip/butt and try to protect my head. I didn’t have the neck strength to keep my head from hitting the concrete so I did end up cutting it pretty deeply. I remember the fall in slow motion. I remember hearing myself say full sentences: “You’re falling down the stairs. Don’t fight it. Just turn.”

It definitely hurt. I immediately swore repeatedly as I rolled over to my knees. As I did so, I felt something warm run down my neck. I touched my right hand to the back of my head and saw blood. It started to drip onto the floor and I just stood up, walked up the stairs to the kitchen. I stopped at the sink to grab a tea towel. I held it to my head and went up the next set of stairs to my office where my phone was. Then I called my builder friend who lives down the road and told him I had had an accident and was bleeding from my head. I asked if he could come see if I needed to go to the hospital.

Obviously I was in a bit of shock because yes you should go to the hospital if you cut your head open after falling 7 feet onto concrete.

Anyway, he came and stayed with me until the ambulance came. Then I was taken to the hospital. There, they didn’t have any emergency room beds so I had to wait in the entry way with my paramedics. They aren’t allowed to leave until they transfer custody to the hospital and the hospital can’t take custody until they have a bed. They have a bed shortage in Ontario. Thanks Doug Ford. And by “thanks” I really mean “fuck you”. Anyway, the doctors and nurses and all of the medical staff managed to get me out of there in about4 hours after doing a CT scan on my head and neck, xrays on my right shoulder, chest, right elbow, and both knees. My legs didn’t even hurt but I could see they were banged up. They didn’t clean the scrape on my knee. I think this is because I didn’t complain about it. They also ended up giving me 3 stitches in my head. My cut was very deep and about an inch and a half long. My scalp hurts at the edges of where the swelling was still.

Nothing was broken. Nothing was cracked. No concussion. I walked out of the emergency department and started to feel a bit of pain in my right knee/shin. It was decided that I would go to my mom’s overnight just as a precaution because I did hit my head and did get sick in the ambulance.

Around bedtime, the nerve pain started in my left leg. My left leg didn’t really even look hurt compared to my right leg. But there it was, burning, stabbing, thousands of tiny needles injecting fire under my skin. It would come over me in waves. My leg muscles would involuntarily flex. Eventually, I was able to sleep.

The next day, I did some work while my sister puttered around my place. She came to stay with me for a couple of days because I was having troubles walking and to make sure there were no signs of head injuries. My sister is a PSW (Personal Support Worker) and she works at an end of life facility. She tended to my ice packs, took pictures, did my housework, gave me pills every couple of hours, made me tea and toast.

I felt pretty good. I was even able to hobble around enough to make her and I some dinner in the air frier. But about an hour after dinner, my right leg started to twitch. I then went through 2 hours of the most excruciating pain I’ve ever been in. And it came in waves. I naturally started doing Lamaze breathing. Keep in mind that I’ve never had a child. It was the only way I could deal with the pain. Eventually, I was able to sleep. The next day, the doctor gave me a script for some codeine.

With the pain managed, I could rest and get better. I worked from my couch. Thankfully it was Xmas holidays and pretty much everyone at the company is off. I was the only person working on my team of 7. I don’t mind working the holidays because I work from home and I don’t have kids. Let people who have to travel far or who have kids get the time off. It’s not like it is busy at all. 5 tickets in two weeks and nothing at all to escalate.

There is definitely some tissue damage in my knees/shins. There are areas with hard bumps on them and swelling that won’t go away. The bruises are mostly gone but some of the sensation in my skin is also gone. The nerve pain isn’t bad anymore. I get a few twinges every now and then just to remind me that I fell. I go to the doctor tomorrow for a follow up on my legs to see if I need any ultra sounds or anything. They didn’t do any of those at the hospital.

I’m hoping the doctor will tell me to just start moving and driving again. I hate not being able to go get groceries on my own. Yes, I am currently out of snacks!!!!

The Guy

Things with Dale are going very, very well. I can honestly say that I have fallen in love with him. It feels so incredibly fast. We met in person Sept 20 for the first time. He then asked me out on a date for Oct 17. The date was phenomenal! I already wrote about that.

He has been to visit me 6 times now. The 7th will happen this coming weekend. He will be arriving on Thursday night and will be staying until Sunday afternoon. He has met my entire family because he was here for Christmas. He came with me on moving day. He helped me pack up the Belleville apartment and then move me and then clean the old place. He spent my first night in the cabin with me. He helped get set up for Xmas entertaining. He cleaned up when it was done. He snow-blowered the driveway for me because my legs aren’t working. None of these things I asked him to do. He offered. His love language is acts of service. I like it but I’m not used to it yet.

I love how he makes me feel when he calls me. And when he says my name. He likes to call me Beautiful and Sweetheart. I love when he calls me Sweetie and Sweetheart. I love when he calls me anything to be honest!! I virtually met his mom on Boxing Day. She lives in England so it was over Messenger. He made it nice and awkward at first for us both but we recovered. His mom wasn’t happy that this was the first she was hearing about it. To be fair, we are only 3 months in. We are counting our first date as the day we met in person. So yeah, 3 months in is a bit early when you think about that part but he and I have known each other online for a couple of years now. Not that we knew any of the deep stuff but we already knew where we both stood morally, religiously, politically, and socially. We knew that from social media. So while everything seems so sudden when we think about 7 weekends since Sept 20, to him and I, it feels a lot longer. It’s like we’ve caught up to people who have been dating for a year. At least that’s how it feels to me.

Ok. I’m going to bed. I’ll add pictures to this tomorrow!

(or a month later – Feb 2026 pStabs)