Cantankerous

can·tan·ker·ous/kanˈtaNGkərəs/

Adjective:

Bad-tempered, argumentative, and uncooperative.

This has been the word of the week at our house.  Actually, it has been the word of the past two weeks.  Mostly because I haven't felt well and I get a little irritable when I don't feel well.  The Murph has called me cantankerous all week.  And had fun doing it too!   He can see it in my face when I start getting irritable even though I try to fake that I'm not irritable because I don't like him being right all the time.

After the really bad episode at the doctor's office, I went home and was pretty desperate for meds.  I knew there were some expired antibiotics in the cabinet but was afraid to use them because I didn't want to take a chance on having super hero strength bacteria floating around in my body because they were able to resist a weakened antibiotic.

All bets were off when I got home from the doctor.  I was miserable and afraid to get accosted by another quack.  I have an appointment with a new pulmonary specialist in July so I just have to make it until then.  I don't trust any other doctors right now so there was only one desperate thing left to do.  Take the expired antibiotics.

After just one I immediately felt better.  So far everything is good.  I've had three and was even able to run long with the Running Nazi this morning.  I felt weak but was able to run 10 miles.  

This morning I wasn't the one being cantankerous.  The Running Nazi, let's just say, was not her normal self.  She was as cantankerous as hell!  I was so glad I had the perfect word to describe her.  (not to her face of course!)

Lemon balm - perfect for cantankerous behavior

I can only imagine what caused her cantankerous behavior.  I'm sure it has something to do with the fact she just started a new job a few weeks ago and she's had to be up by 4 a.m every week day morning and goes non-stop until close to midnight with lots of traveling.  She's only home on the weekends and has hardly any time to do anything much less work out.  Yep, it's no wonder she was cantankerous.

This particular cantankerous episode was (I think) directed at me somehow although she pretended it was the Murph.  Or rather the Murph's swimming pool.   Since neither the Murph nor I are working right now (this is temporary) and we have plenty of time to work out and stuff and I think she's a little huffy about that.  She asked me last week if I wanted to be her assistant and work maybe 10 hours a week making calls and computer "stuff".  She was all vague about exactly what I would have to do and that had me suspicious right away.  She can be pretty sneaky!

Anyway, the Murph and I decided that we are going to wait until the Fall to think about jobs again so I told her if she still needed someone in the Fall I would consider it.  I think that is what started all her cantankerousness because the next thing I know she asked me if we'd "fixed" the pool yet.  I told her the Murph had the water tested and it came back ok and all he needed was a little something to make the water less alkaline.  The water is anything but clear but the Murph insists that one of the filters isn't working and then there's that yellow gunk that I think is algae but the Murph says he knows what he's doing and he gets all defensive when I say anything negative about his pool or his pool handling skills.  So I keep my mouth shut.

The Running Nazi then launches into a blast about how easy pool care is and her pool is always crystal clear (and it is) despite the fact she works all the time and is never home. She told me what she thought the Murph needed to do and she didn't understand why since neither one of us work, how we couldn't somehow keep our pool clear and if something was wrong with the filtering system, why didn't the Murph get it repaired.   It was then that I had a feeling this was not about how clear our pool was.

I told her the Murph says the pool is clean, just not clear, and she said we should not get in the pool because we can get impetigo.  Then I told her the Murph says the pool is cleaner than a lake and people swim in lakes all the time and she said you can get impetigo in a lake too.  I agreed that the water didn't look too healthy and the Murph stands in it all the time.  I told him he was going to get a fungus on his privates if he didn't watch out.  He wasn't too concerned.  I don't get in the pool at all except on a float and I try not to touch the water.

After the little cantankerous tirade the Running Nazi apologized, said it really wasn't her business and she was just tired and irritable and she wouldn't blame me if I was mad at her because she would be mad if I had said those things to her.

I wasn't mad at all.  In fact, it was rather amusing.  I love it when I have companionship in my cantankerousness. It's even better when someone else is more cantankerous than me.  

When I got home I told the Murph some if the conversation.  I asked him if he ever back washed the pool (she told me that's what you're suppose to do and I wasn't sure the Murph's done that in a while).  He scoffed and said he KNEW how to take care of the pool.   I told him that the Running Nazi said it was easy to take care of a pool and her pool was always clear and that she said her two brother's had pools and theirs were always clear and had waterfalls too!

He said I didn't know what I was talking about.  He's the pool expert.

                                 The Running Nazi's Pool

                                            Our Pool

After I told him all this, he suddenly decided to put some chemicals in the pool (cement pond).  He said he "melted the pool" just now and threw in a sh**t load of algaecide and stirred it up and shocked it really good and oh yea, he sarcastically said he "learned how to backwash".  

None of this will probably work.  The pool's a hot mess!  (that was our last word of the week before cantankerous)