Worrying Me Lately.

The Huguenot Bridge. Every morning I drive over an elderly bridge on my way to work. It's two lanes with no shoulder and the surface is more patches than pavement but it's got a nice view. At either end of the bridge are small signs that say "3 Ton Weight Limit" which sounds about right to me. But yesterday the city rolled out some gigantic blinky signs that are all, "NO, SERIOUSLY. 3 TON LIMIT FOR REALS. NOT KIDDING."

Whoa. Did...something... happen? Something I need to know about? Because I cannot imagine driving something that weights more than THREE TONS over a bridge like that. Even a single ton might be pushing it. Then I thought, wait, how much does my car weigh? Because I really haven't a clue. Turns out the average car weighs well over a ton, so really, a three ton vehicle could just be a medium-sized industrial truck. What the hell is going on with that bridge? It's being replaced (starting this fall) but for now, I worry.

My Back. I now know what people are complaining about when they say they put their back out and could barely move, so crippling was the pain. Here's a list of things I did last weekend that did not cause my back to go out:

- 1 hour of weight lifting followed by a spinning class
- dancing at a wedding in 4" wedge sandals
- 2 hours of mountain biking on technical trails

Here's what did cause my back to go out:

- Wandering around Marshalls. I was browsing the sleepwear when suddenly I thought, "Ow. My back really hurts." By the time I got to my car I could barely lower myself into the seat. It's feeling better now, but what the hell? Why did a discount retailer cause my back to spasm all to hell?

The Oil Spill. I'm so worried about this I can't really write about it but I will tell you this: When I'm forced to agree with that douchebag James Cameron? It's bad.

Chairs!

Hey look, I'm back again. Thanks for all the back-patting reassurance that you haven't all abandoned me. Now, I am happy to report that my weekend pretty much went according to plan, aside from an emergency Saturday afternoon trip to work to get my riding stuff which had been living under my desk for a month because I was too lazy to cart it home. This involved calling the campus police who were nice enough to let me into the building, but I suspect they didn't have much else going on and was happy to provide some distraction.

Anyway, on Saturday Nina came over and helped with my chairs, and by "helped" I mean she pretty much reupholstered them for me. She is really, really good at this stuff but her husband has banned her from rescuing any more chairs so she was happy to be part of my project. Lucky me!

Here's what they looked like when I bought them:

I only wish there were words to describe how truly and utterly filthy they were. I mean, when we pulled up the old fabric and batting? OH MY GOD. No words.

Are you ready for this? Here's what they look like NOW:

Holy shit, right? Amazing! What an incredible difference. The cost breakdown is something like this:

$10 for the chairs ($5 each)
$15 for various wood stain, cleaning stuff & glue
$15 for new foam and batting
$22 for a yard of fancy fabric

Total: $62 for two pretty damn nice chairs that look great in my living room.  Yay! Now, tell me what you did last weekend.