Hi, Maintenance!

It’s 2019 (already!) and people have made, and perhaps broken, their New Year’s resolutions. I didn’t make a specific, or at least easy-to-pin-down, resolution for the year, but there are definitely things I want to change about my life – hopefully for the better.

I’m terrible at keeping up with maintenance of any sort. I tend to do the bare minimum when it comes to upkeep, or only have things fixed or checked out when something has already gone wrong. My car, for instance… While I do take my car in for oil changes at Jiffy Lube, I don’t think I had ever taken it in for a general maintenance check in years. My car also got recalled for a cosmetic issue. I finally took it in over the Christmas holiday break to get serviced for real. Two thousand dollars later, Mazda fixed everything that was falling apart, things I wasn’t even aware of. However, I had waited too long to cash in the recall notice – it expired 6 months prior. My car is happy and healthy now, but the cosmetic issues will have to wait for another day, and several paychecks.

Maybe I should see a doctor..?

I also hate going to the dentist. Sure, I like the way my teeth feel after they’re cleaned, but I hate the scolding tone the dentists get when they tell me to floss more, or if they find a cavity. So I put off going until there’s an emergency, which I know is a terrible way to do things. Same with going to the chiropractor. I don’t go to make sure things are in line, but when they’re already out of whack and I’m in pain. I get facials when my face has already broken out and I’m frustrated, not as a preventative measure. The list goes on...

In a way, this extends to my cat, Sarge. He’s almost 17 and has small-cell lymphoma in his intestines. I have to give him steroids every night and chemo every other week. He hates it, and I don’t blame him. I want to be the best cat-mom I can be, but I always feel so bad giving him the medicine that sometimes I let him off the hook. His health is something I CANNOT slide on. He means the world to me and I want him happy and healthy for as long as possible.

My handsome Sarge

All this to say, I suppose if I had to pick a resolution for the year, it would be to keep up with the maintenance and preventative care of my car, body, cat, etc., before something goes terribly wrong. I’ve already been doing better with Sarge’s medication, much to his distaste, and I resorted to using my credit card to fix the guts of my car because it had to be done. Going forward, I want to make an actual effort to give myself the care I need to function properly, as I too often let it slide. I don’t want my back to hurt, I don’t want my face to break out, and I don’t want to have my teeth drilled. With all of life banging at the door, it’s doubly important to take care of the body we live in to make sure it can handle the insanity without completely falling apart.