Dry Needling (but only half)

I hurt my back a little when I was deadlifting this week. Nothing major, I'm just still getting used to my lifting straps and working in pounds. On the bright side, I still lifted 275# for a few rounds of 6. So that's new. 

Monday, I skipped VB to attend a Wound Care open house - pulling out all the free swag I could find, networking, and eating Cafe Rio (and bringing some to Rog). I went and watched him play basketball since I got out earlier than expected. 

This was also the same day that I was supposed to have 6 patients in Williams including a start of care (4 is a lot on a day like this), and then my tire went flat as soon as I arrived at patient #1's house. I spent an hour figuring out how to get my spare tire out, and by then, Rog arrived to help. I was only delayed by an hour because Rog switched cars with me and I ended up having 2 patients cancel. So it worked out. Barely. 

Needling. 

Tuesday and Wednesday were full days, work-wise. But Thursday was a doozy. I think our PTA must have backed out of his agreement to cover some of my people, because somehow I ended up with 6 patients including a start of care (only to be seen after 2:30), plus a presentation. It was a busy day with no breaks from 8:30 onward. I showed up at 2 for this presentation that nobody would give me details on - even when I arrived early and asked specifically what my role was and what I should be prepared for. Nada. Until they started the meeting and announced that I was leading the whole thing. 

Needless to say, I was annoyed. (Even more than when I saw my schedule the previous day). In that attitude, I headed out to my start (when normally I'd be on my way home) and found out she's a near-deaf Lebanese woman who refuses to wear her hearing aides and has many complications including 3 wounds and dementia. It was a long one. And because of construction on the highways, it was going to take me an hour to get home. 

Instead, Rog and I went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. (And I skipped my documentation because I already worked overtime and was mad and sweaty and hangry.) Good food, good company. And enough time for me to pack for the morning.

Dranks and Drunks.
JK, they're virgin. (The drinks, I mean).

Friday, I headed down to PHX for my upper body dry needling course. The course was good and these things always motivate me to learn more and be better and read research. Which I love. I stabbed and was stabbed and found all the sensitive areas on my upper body. Three days of fun that I'm still working to digest. And a group of ladies that was equally bent on getting things done, which is always nice. 

At night, Cenita and I hung out (and sometimes Colton). We went swimming and chatted and ate delicious food. Cen made us chicken + fettucini and focaccia bread and then introduced me to her fave Mexican place where I got a delicious burro and chocolate milkshake. The drinks are to die for. 10/10. Also love hanging with this chick who just has a good head on her shoulders and is still dang fun. 

Yahhd Salin'

I feel like we go on a fairly major adventure every other weekend. This was an in between week. Workout week 2/4 before I get a week for fun workouts only. I added in a boxing workout, since basketball was cancelled. And we had 12 for volleyball - which was a first in a while. 

We had a YW activity making soap and bracelets. I was in charge of the soap station (which was good, because we had to cruise through there). Also good because some of them picked really nasty combos and I tried to hedge that as much as possible. Still, if you get Ylang Ylang soap, throw it out. I did get to make my own triple layer lemon honey soap, which will hopefully be good. 

He loved this a lot. 

Friday, I was on crackhead energy and looking for a fight, so I started telling Rog that he had to do whatever I wanted and he immediately caved. So we went to a batting cage (and I was NOT good), I showed Rog REI, and then we got some ice cream and corn dogs. Probably best ice cream I've had in a while. 

My favorite part of hitting softballs was the following:

• Rog, having a great time
• Me: sorry your dad never let you play baseball
• Rog: yes he did
• Me: oh, sorry you weren't good
• Rog: I WAS good *immediately misses*

I like this occasionally. 

Rog was excited to yard sale with me on Saturday and we ended up finding a truck tool box, books, and bullets for $82. All things we would've bought eventually anyways for a SIGNIFICANT discount. My favorite. And we ended with brunch at The Place, grocery shopping, and some repair work at Valvoline. 

THEN, Rog's family wanted to do their monthly game day on Saturday. So I showed up, ate food, chatted for a while, then left. Apparently, Grandma said she hoped eventually I'd feel comfortable hanging out with their family. (If you're wondering, that's not the problem.)

I went home and painted and went to bed. And we had a lazy day on Sunday with naps and food and little chores and figuring stuff out for the week. It was needed. Rog was cranky because the weather wasn't good enough to go fishing and he missed out on hiking to put a new salt out because he spent eight hours playing games with his family. Ah well. 

Rodeo 2k23

The big news of the week is that the Flagstaff Rodeo came to town. It was nice to see Jason there and kind of catch up - it's hard since the chutes are right by the speakers, so it's hard to hear anything. But we had fun working and I met some new people who were fun - including his intern Kal and a doc from Sedona who brought her own binos to scope out a husband while she was there. 

Where he lives. 

Luckily, nobody was injured very badly at all. And Rog came Saturday night to hang out. We both got tshirts from the army for deadlifting and we got to see his cousins fall off a sheep immediately after being set on top - if you aren't familiar with mutton busting, look it up. I went home tired from 15h of extra work and with a new belt buckle. 

YW was delayed to do a Saturday trip to a swimming hole, and I missed it because of the rodeo - not mad. I was excited for the extra time to myself. 

Also where he lives. 

Rog spent the extra few nights/mornings without me at the lake, fishing. It's all he thinks about. Fishing, and who's going to get what tags for deer hunting (draw is in 2 weeks, so hold your breath). 

Post-Supai

 We got back from Supai on Monday and the rest of the day consisted of just eating and sleeping. I was pretty much fine by Tuesday, despite a lot of heavy hiking. I was, however, not ready to commit to my new gym yet, so I took a week off to catch up on sleep and mentally prepare. 

(Turns out this was a good idea. Every interaction I've had with this gym has made me angry, but I need them, at least in the short term, to do what I want. The bonus is that they have a pool, so I can add swimming back into the routine.)

I had some talks with my guy Jason about working the rodeo next week as well as tentative plans for future employment, when the time is right. I don't foresee me leaving immediately, but within 1-2 years is a possibility.

Otherwise, I did some work on side gigs, like my PT notes. I'm kind of annoyed that there are starting to be other PT note sellers pop up, but whatever. None of them are doing what I'm doing. And I'm constantly adding more options, so I feel good about that. 

Rog and I went shopping for some work boots. This will be his first pair of cowboy boots and we opted for steel-toe for the durability factor. Let's hope they last longer than the last ones. 

In other news, we're back on the reading/listening grind. Rog is waiting for Kelly to randomly purchase a hundred more credits so he can get onto his TBR list. He loves the physical part of his job and knows enough that he's usually by himself for most of the day and will crank out books really fast. We're working on a library card so he can get more books this way. 

Saturday, Rog told me he was going to do some chores (so I couldn't give him any) and that he wouldn't tell me what they were (so I couldn't get mad if he didn't do them). Hilarious. If taking a nap was the one chore he planned, he definitely did that. Then he went fishing. 

Havasupai

We had our final week of Summit gym, including a boxing class. I played volleyball with a group. My boss agreed to pay for an online CEU membership of my choosing. And I supervised the YW paint rocks (not sure where that idea came from, but it wasn't the YW). None of that is really important though. 

The trip of a lifetime. Let me explain: this is a part of the Grand Canyon on the Supai reservation with beautiful waterfalls and clear blue water. The only way to get there (nowadays) is to enter a lottery system and pray, pay $400 a head, and backpack your way down 12 miles of steep canyon covered with loose gravel. 

The Top. 

This year is the first year since Covid that they've allowed visitors, so these people have been waiting 3 years to use their tickets and even then, some people are still getting delayed another year to limit the number of people in the area. Three years ago, I met Roger's cousin's brother-in-law, Ken, who had 8 tickets for the end of May and I have been hounding him ever since to include me if anyone drops out. 

And they did. Because we weren't sure until about a month in advance that the group would actually be able to go this year, cancellations were somewhat last minute and we ended up with a group of 7, instead of 8. 

Some slippery ladders. 

We met up with the group at 9pm Thursday night and camped in our vehicles so we could be on the trail by 5:15am for an 11-12 mile hike down the canyon. I had my nice camera and tripod with me and Roger had most of our gear (to even out weight), but we were hefting a lot more than the 30lb packs everyone else was sporting. But we made it and with minimal blisters, to a campsite right between 2 streams and out of the way by 9:20am (Ken estimated we'd get here by 1pm). 

Our favorite fall.

We hiked down a treacherous path to Mooney Falls for some exploring and swimming. The hike down goes through the rock on some rough hewn stairs to a chain system with poorly made ladders, sticks with notches in them, and rock - and all of this was wet, muddy, and slippery. 

Mooney

But it was worth it. The canyon is heavy on calcium and has a bunch of cool rock formations and tons of little waterfalls. 

On the way to Beaver. 

The next day, we did another long hike, this time only carrying lunch, water, and camera gear (for me). It's about 3 miles downstream to beaver falls, this time walking through grape vineyards, blistering sun, and again, sketchy ladder systems. 

Beaver Falls

We played around at the falls and I got to talk to Steve, who is a photographer and apparently handled the Vegas market on bachelorettes for a while. Mooney was on the way back to camp, so we stopped there for a few minutes again, before making it back to camp for dinner. 

Upper Beaver Falls

Day 3 was a shorter, steeper hike back towards the Supai village to check out the smaller falls - Fifty Footer, Little Navajo, Hidden Falls. 

Fifty Footer. Narrower since the recent floods. 

We played around some more. It was the perfect temperature to swim and then warm up in the sun, and then jump back in. 

We think this is Hidden Falls. 

We ended at Havasu Falls, the most famous (and the easiest to get to, especially with camera gear), taking a small detour to a closed mineshaft before playing in the water some more. 

Havasu Falls. 

Day 4 was exit day. We were up and out of camp by 5:15am. Some of our party was getting the chopper out of there (but usually it doesn't run until 12 or 1, so we opted for the faster, hiking option). We waited at the village because we were carrying some of their gear up for them, but ended up leaving it with some friends also ready for the chopper. It was a long 11 miles back to the top, and really only killed me in the last half mile or so. But we got out and ate literally everything in sight for the next 24 hours. The saltier, the better. 

I haven't edited the pics really, but here's an idea of what it was like. Obviously, even edited photos won't do it justice. It was beautiful and a unique experience that was surprisingly challenging for the hype. I'm 100% glad that I bugged Ken into letting me and Rog attend and now I've got a new challenge to bother him about ;)