2/22/16. The post where I talk about the new normal. And purses.

2/22/16: a little backstory about myself.  While my love of shoes is well known throughout the kingdom, that love does not extend to purses.  I see purses as a necessary evil - a way to drag my stuff from point A to point B. (And as you may recall from previous posts, I drag a lot of stuff from point A to point B.)  It pains me to spend money on them, so generally you will see me carrying whatever pleather or vinyl bag came as a free reward with my shoe purchase or was on the best sale at the local outlet mall.  

My Christmas gift from my parents-by-love changed all that. For the first time in my life, I am carrying a real, grownup purse.  One I actually fear might get stolen. Not for what is in it, but for the purse itself.  Fortunately for me, it is monogrammed, so only someone with my initials would steal it.  Why am I telling you this, you ask? Well, keep reading...it will make sense at some point.  I hope.

Now, back to my foot.  I feel like I have settled into my new normal over the last few months.  In terms of pain scale numbers, I'd say I spend about 85% of my time at a 2-3, 10% at a 4-6, and 5% at something greater than a 6.  If you had told me two years ago I would be feeling this great, I would not have believed you.  (Of course, if you had told me five years ago I would consider this "great", I also would not have believed you.)  The only real issue recently has been the alarming frequency with which HAL seems to turn itself off these days. After a few days in a row of mysterious shutdowns, I decided to do something about it.  

I contacted my assigned technician and she was stumped, so she referred me to the people who handle "tech support" for my device.  (Yes, I officially have "tech support" people.) The person on the phone listened to my story, did a little research while I was on hold, and then started troubleshooting.  Do I have a mechanical bed? Nope.  Have I bought any new appliances or electronics recently that might be interfering? Nope.  Have I been carrying around the magnet that was provided to turn off the device when the programmer isn't working or available?  Nope.  Have I started spending a lot of time in a new location that might have a magnetic security system?  Nope.  He was just about out of ideas, and we were starting to discuss the possibility that too much scar tissue had built up on the lead wires and was shorting out the device. (Sort of the equivalent of corroded battery cables, except that a surgical procedure would be required in this case. Not something that is covered by AAA.)  Then he thought of one more possibility. Do I have a purse with a magnetic closure? Nope...I mean, yes. My fancy new purse does in fact have a magnetic closure. A pretty heavy-duty one, now that I think about it. I got off the phone and did a little experiment. And yes, I can turn HAL on and off using the magnet on my purse.  Mystery solved.  In the interest of full disclosure, it happened a few times before I got the purse, but it has certainly been much more frequent since I started carrying it.

So I've learned a few lessons.  I need to be a lot more careful around magnets.  I need to always carry my new purse on my left side. And in the future, no purses with magnets.  Maybe those free pleather bags weren't so bad after all...