Just an old wallpaper injury

As I mentioned, I've been removing wallpaper from my dining room, slowly but surely. It's kinda slow going, but I just do a little bit every weekend (or nearly). I can only do a certain amount anyway, because I mostly use my fingernails to remove the wet paper (I've tried wallpaper-removing chemicals, but a spray bottle of water seems to work best), and after a while my fingernails get sort of mushy like when you're in the bath. My ceilings are pretty high, and in this room there's wood paneling (white, thank goodness) up to about four feet, and there are four doorways and two windows and a china cabinet, so most of the work is done on a ladder. After a while my arms get tired. So doing it in small bits is good.

I put on music while I do it and sing along and have a good time. (Two Door Cinema Club and the new Radiohead album are probably always going to remind me of wallpaper removal. Metric won't, but only because I also listen to them incessantly in the car.) I do worry sometimes that I'll fall off the ladder because I have terrible balance, but I am very careful and I'm thinking about balancing all the time and I hold on.

I usually have all kinds of stuff stuck in my pockets or my pants: the scraper (I use it mostly for edges, where it's harder to get off because the wall surface is different for some reason), the iPhone, a nail file or a flathead screwdriver for getting corners, the scorer thing if I'm just starting on a wall, and the spray bottle, which I usually hook into my waistband. It's only fallen down, oh, about twelve times. And a plastic bag on my wrist that I put (most of) the paper in as I pull it off. It's really not at all a bad way to spend a weekend afternoon. Even though it's very musty (once the paper gets moist and I start peeling, you can really smell the smell of oldness) and after a while my hands get gluey.

A few weeks ago, on Monday I had this muscle ache in my calf. I wasn't sure why; I thought maybe I strained it somehow without realizing. No big deal.

A couple weeks ago, I had it again on a Monday, and I finally realized what it is: it's from standing on my tiptoes on the ladder. Or if not on my tiptoes, just standing tensely on the ladder and stretching up.

Today I did it for a long while, and there was QUITE a lot of next-to-the-ceiling wallpaper. I can already feel it in BOTH calves.

What all this means of course is that I never ever get any exercise and my muscles are made of Jell-O.

I have one and a half walls left. Getting ever closer to taupe!