Note on the Knee

Just a little follow-up on the saga of the knee.

It really felt so much better today...not perfect, just better. I decided at the last minute to go out for a few groceries and rushed to get my purse, keys, and me together for the trip. When I got to the grocery store and stepped out of the car I realized I'd put the brace on the wrong knee. Apparently the knee is doing better than I'd thought!!

The Knee

Don't think I write about my knee problem to get sympathy. It's just that I think it's a good idea to chronicle important events so that we can all learn from them.

My latest knee pain was caused by standing pretty much in place for 3 hours. The pain was constant and progressive from October 23rd and reached it's apex of intensity around November 25th. I used a combination of Aleve, cold packs, glucosamine, and a brace to try to bring the pain under control. The improvement was so gradual that I couldn't count on it but it really did improve.

I believe the brace and cold packs did the most good. Surprisingly, the pain in my knee was worse at night when I was in bed but I discovered that placing a pillow under it relieved the pain enough to allow me to sleep.

It's no secret that when you are a senior and do any damage to your knee that it's probably permanent so I know I'll continue to have problems. It will all have to be treated medically when I get back home in the spring but I plan to baby it till then.

I've done a lot of walking over the past couple of days using the brace and, uncomfortable as it is, it made walking for more than a couple of minutes possible. I bought it at Walmart for $15 and it's worth every penny.

A hint to the wise...don't stand in place for long with your knees locked. Apparently thats what caused the inflamation in my knee.

Keeping the Faith

I read something on the internet today that made me uneasy. Someone wrote vehemently against allowing religious students the opportunity to learn anything about atheistic beliefs.

I wondered why they were so afraid of differing ideas of theology since we are surrounded by them and there actually is no escape.

My only experience with something similar is when I was in New Orleans and visited a store that sold voodoo paraphernalia. I couldn't control my irrational fear of the sales people or the strange items sitting on the shelves and had to leave the store quickly. And I'm not even religious!

It was simply a fear of the unknown and it's ability to permeate my thinking that frightened me. Looking back on that episode I'm ashamed for my lapse of logic and I'm sorry I didn't use the opportunity to learn even a tiny bit about a brand new culture to me.

We should never be afraid to learn as long as we're adult enough to be able to pick and choose what we want to accept into our lives. It's the purpose of all schools to teach their students that alternate beliefs exist in the world and they aren't all bad. It shouldn't be taught that a person who follows a different religion or belief is a demon. Many atheists have higher moral standards than some priests.

There is good and evil in every religion. There is good and evil in each one of us and we have to choose which will rule our lives. I've always found that travelling the high road made my life easier and happier so it's been a simple choice for me. It wasn't a priest or minister or church that influenced me. It was common sense. We should use a little common sense when it comes to what we teach our children.

Reporting Child Porn

I read this morning that Manitoba is considering making it a crime for people to not report evidence of child porn. Call me naive, but I always assumed it was a illegal to not report a crime, especially one against children. It's frightening to think that the rest of our provinces don't have this law on the books.

Consider this, you witness a child being raped or physically abused and you choose to ignore it. Isn't that one of the worst crimes you could commit? Maybe I'm confusing legal culpability with moral culpability but they should both apply in cases like these.

A child who has been the victim of a sexual deviant will carry the scars in his/her psyche for the rest of their lives. If they're lucky they'll truly understand that they were innocent victims but many feel a sense of guilt or personal uncleanliness because of their abuse. If they're strong enough they will file charges with the police and hunt the pedophile down no matter how many years pass. And, if they're luckier still, their abuser will finally be forced to face the shame and consequences of what they've done.

I'm all for putting pedophiles in prison for life once they've been convicted. It's possible some learn self control after a while but the simple fact that they've harmed even one child makes them unfit and unworthy to live in society.

The country that takes a strong stand to eliminate pedophiles from society will earn every honor bestowed on it. I wish so much that Canada would lead the way.

Carole's Trailer

My friend, Carole, bought an old trailer here in the park and has spent almost every waking moment for the past 2 days cleaning it. She's been scrubbing from the ceiling to the floor in every room and finding some interesting things along the way. Under the bathroom sink is a little nest of weird looking fungus. It's kind of mustard colored and no-one here has ever seen anything like it. That's the trouble with being a northerner in the south because we don't recognize some of the perils. This stuff certainly looks like a "peril" and we need to find out exactly what it is. Our plan is to ask the pest control man because we figure he's seen everything. Also, he's a Floridian.

Carole paid Florida Power to turn on her electricity so her room lights are working. Unfortunately, her air conditioner isn't. Today she enlisted the help of 2 neighbor men who tracked the power line from her air conditioner across 2 lot lines until they traced it to a meter. The power in that meter wasn't turned on so how come she has lights??? The meter is hers, though.

Now her air conditioner is working but we don't know who is paying for the power to the rest of the trailer. Oh, the mysteries of life in a trailer park.

A friend of mine bought a trailer here a couple of years ago and was told by the previous owner that he got free cable T.V. and had for many years. Sure enough, my friend also got free cable T.V. but her conscience bothered her too much and she notified the cable company and she now pays for her cable T.V. She's a better person than I am.

This park began as a campground many, many years ago so the underground plumbing and wiring is archaic. This could explain the strange electrical system in Carole's trailer.

One thing I've discovered in this park is that these trailers are more darn trouble than a brick house. They're flimsily made so we can't expect too much from them. Regardless, I love every moment of being here in my little dollhouse (which happens to have a leak that we're trying to trace). I wouldn't give it up for a half million dollar house in a boring gated community. And that's the truth!

Bad Dreams

Have you ever had a bad dream that was so real you woke up believing you'd been given a message? I had one such dream and spent yesterday evening waiting for it to come true.

The night before last I dreamt I was in a car on the highway at night. There were 3 other people in the car with me and the driver was William Shatner (Star Trek). This should have clued me into the fact that I was dreaming but it didn't. All of a sudden I realized we were driving the wrong way on the highway and headlights were coming our way. I urged "William" to pull to the side of the road quickly and then proceeded to calm him down so he wouldn't feel too guilty for his mistake.

Last evening I went out to dinner with 3 friends. We were on the highway at night and Ron Woods was the driver (a much nicer man than William Shatner). He made quite a few u-turns on the highway because his wife couldn't make him understand which Walmart we wanted to go to after dinner. Occasionally we were head on with oncoming traffic but it was all legal. In Florida you're allowed to make u-turns at intersections when on a turning light or even on a regular green light if the road is clear.

Just an interesting comment about the validity of our dreams.

Sunday Breakfast

340 days of the year my breakfast consists of a piece of fruit or, at best, a small bowl of cereal but when I'm in Florida we have a Sunday breakfst ritual. Sheila and I will drive up to a local restaurant early Sunday morning and meet up with a half dozen or so friends and have a "proper" breakfast. I'm never hungry for this but I'm big on rituals of any kind so this is something I do enjoy.

Sheila always has french toast. She is definitely a creature of habit. I used to enjoy my usual cheese omelet, toast, and home fries but after making a serious committment to healthier eating last summer my meal will change to poached eggs, toast, and home fries. Okay for a once a week in the winter breakfast.

I had a bit of a setback on my healthy eating yesterday. Fries have been a no-no since last March but I had some yesterday and this is why. My knee (the one I hurt dancing New Years Eve) has been paining me badly and I'd gone to Walmart to buy some stuff, including knee bandages. Halfway through the store my knee hurt so bad I could have cried so I went into the cafeteria so I could sit for a while. It was lunch time and they didn't sell baked potatoes there...just fries. I was in pain and hungry so I lost all sense of judgement and ordered the fries. It won't happen again but they were darned good.

I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do about this stupid knee. It had gotten almost back to normal up until October when my daughter, Kim, had her car accident and I had to stand in the Emergency room for 3 hours. It was the standing that caused the pain to flare up again and it hasn't subsided much since then. It makes me mad because I have lots of plans for this winter which include walking. I've decided that no matter how well the knee heals over the winter (if it does) I'm going to see my doctor in the spring and go through all the damn tests, exrays, and whatever else it takes to make it better.

Right now I'm off to my Florida Sunday morning breakfast.

Internet Service

I'm one of those internet users who travel the web in a fog. I have no idea how it works, why it works, what it's actually doing to my messages, or why it stops working. I am a captive to my server's whims.

My new server is Tengo which is wireless. I don't know what that even means. Apparently my computer catches and sends messages via the air instead of along telephone lines. Tengo is high speed but many, many times the signal is too low for me to even get on the internet. This is an improvement over the telephone line??

With AOL I knew where everything I used was located. With Tengo I seem to need to go through Google. Wonder why? It's all a mystery to me.

On the plus side I can still surf the net, write e-mails and blogs, and send them off into the wild blue yonder. The internet is a magical and hugely interesting area to wander in...even if you're doing it blindly.

Black Friday

For some reason the Friday after Thanksgiving in the States is called "Black Friday". Stores open at midnight and crowds of people who have lined up for hours storm in to take advantage of sales. At home we call this event "Midnight Madness" and various stores hold a sale like this at various times of the year. I like our title better because it is more descriptive of the mindset of shoppers willing to behave like stampeding cattle in search of dubious bargains. There were even tales today of battles between supposed adults who had the nerve to try to butt into the front of the line. Talk about taking your life in your hands!

A few years back I joined a few friends and participated in the ritual. It was pitch black out and the parking lot looked like noon on a Saturday. We lined up with all the other cattle and waited until the doors opened. People were actually jumping over other people in their frenzy to reach their purchase of choice quickly. Heaven help the small and the weak because they could well end up trampled by the wild and the greedy.

I was after a 27" T.V. on sale for $80 (as I recall) and thought there was no way there'd be any left by the time my line wove it's turtle pace in that direction. But store buyers had made sure to have lots of stock and I toted my bargain back home. The experience was too unpleasant for me to ever do it again, though.

I love to bargain shop but prefer smaller crowds and fellow shoppers who haven't reverted to uncivilized animals.

American Thanksgiving

Today is the American Thanksgiving. Most of us will take for granted that it's just another holiday where we'll gorge ourselves on a specially large and festive meal but not me. I know how much I have to be thankful for this year.

My daughter, Kim, was in a car accident on October 23rd which left her with a severely broken foot. Surgery was required to put it all together again and she'll have a long, long period of therapy to bring her mobility back to near normal. But I am thankful beyond words that she wasn't killed in that accident.

Life is tenuous at best and none of us can ever know for sure where the next moment will find us. Some people scoff at those of us who constantly say our goodbye's with the added, "I love you", but we can't be positive that we'll have another chance to say those words. A hug, a kiss, and a declaration of love can heal the world.

I'm so thankful for my 3 precious daughters who have grown into darned good human beings. I'm thankful for the precious grandchildren they've given me. And I'm thankful for this new day which will be filled with friends, laughter, and , yes indeed, a dinner plate full of turkey with all the trimmings.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lizards

I have 2 lizards in my trailer. At least 2 that I know about!! Now I'm a lady who detests bugs in the house and it's difficult for me to come to terms with the fact that a couple of little creatures larger than most bugs are lurking somewhere under the furniture or curtains in this quite tiny little trailer. I'm not afraid of them but if one ever dared land on me I just might have heart failure.

Heaven knows how they get in but it's common here in Florida...and I've never heard of one touching a human being because they're really quite timid. With my luck, though, one will accidently walk across my face while I'm sleeping and that would snuff my life out as quickly as a knife in the heart.

Life really is full of perils, isn't it?

Home in Florida

Well, here I am back to my Florida trailer life and happy as pig in s___t! I had to have a few blood tests and a catscan to declare me safe to travel and all was just fine. I've got a few extra white blood cells that shouldn't be there but my doctors assured me it would be years before they gave me any trouble.

I arrived at the trailer early Sunday morning and settled right in. Friends stopped by for hugs and I even got over to the pool in the afternoon. The park looks lovely even though few people are here yet. Many wait until after Xmas to head south.

On Monday I went out to the shed to get my gardening tools and found the lock rusted shut. It was so frustrating because all I could use for trimming back wild shrubs and foliage were my kitchen scissors. Every man that ventured by was dragged over to try their luck at opening the darn lock but only one was successful. Cliff removed the whole double handle and took it home to saw off the lock. Then he came back and reassembled the whole thing. In this park we never have to search too hard for help when we need it.

Tuesday I did my planting and then spent the afternoon at the pool. Life is too short to waste it working when you have the opportunity to take your time. Tuesday evening was game night at the clubhouse but there were only 4 of us ladies playing Farkle and Rummicubes. The rest of our bunch will arrive before the new year.

Today I did laundry and then went over to the clubhouse to peal potatoes and cut up bread for stuffing. The men always work in the kitchen cutting up turkey for our Thanksgiving meal tomorrow. The ladies peal the veggies but there was one man who joined us. It seems more like home when a group of people volunteer to prepare the feast. And that's one of the reasons why this place feels so much like a home away from home.

After lunch I'll be off to the pool again but right now I'm going to list a few things on Ebay if I can still remember how to do it.

Life is good!

Hospital Care

Well, Kim is still in the hospital...feeling a little weak from blood loss but ever so anxious to get home. The problem is she has to be evaluated by a physical therapist before they let her leave. The bigger problem is that none of the nurses or doctors in her ward knew that no therapists were available Saturday, Sunday, or Monday but told us each day that one would see her on those days and then she'd be released to go home.

My question is...why wouldn't the nursing staff know these things?

Also, Kim is on Percoset (spelled right??) for pain and she got her meds an hour late on Sunday because there were none in the ward. Shouldn't there be someone in charge of seeing that the wards are supplied with enough pain medication for their patients?

And...I watched another patient in Kim's room ring 6 times for a bed pan before it was brought to her. A bloody shame!

Whenever I went up to the nurse's station it was packed with people. Some were on computers but many were just standing around talking. This could well explain the lack of nurses tending to patients.

All of this is happening in just one of our city hospitals and I didn't see this inefficiency in the other hospital that Kim was first in. It's scary to see how absolutely helpless a patient is when they are unable to care for themselves.

We need to see improvement in our health system because the present state is unacceptable.

The Nervous Mom

Kim had to stay another night in hospital because her blood pressure dropped significantly during surgery and it's left her quite weak.

I think I'm getting on her nerves with my worry, suggestions, and presence. Granted, we've spent an awful lot of time together since her accident and I am the world's worst worrier. I think I'll have to make an extreme effort to keep my big mouth shut and give her some space.

Mothers never stop worrying about their children but we have to keep reminding ourselves that when our children become adults we need to back off a bit.

We're hoping they let her out today so wish us luck.

Kim's Surgery

Kim had her foot surgery yesterday and it apparently went quite well except for a minor bleeding problem that kept her in the hospital overnight. She's been through so much this year...lost her husband in August and now this.

She has such a wonderful attitude about life. She's a truly good soul and there aren't many in this world like her. I hope the worst part of her injury is over and she can now begin healing and getting back to a normal life soon.

Her son, Nicholas, has been a godsend throughout the loss of David and taking care of the business end of Kim's injury. He's only 23 years old but an absolute rock to lean on when trouble hits. Matthew, on the other hand, has been his usual ditsy self. He has a heart of gold and cares deeply for his mother and just about everyone else but he's spent far too much time buggering up my computer while visiting his mother. She stayed with me while waiting for surgery.

Anyway, we're hoping Kim can come home today and get started on that healing process. I'll keep everyone updated.

By the way, does anyone know how I can get rid of Matthew's MSN messages which keep popping up on my computer?????

I'm Back...for a bit!

I'm still not on the internet properly. No paid server but I'm apparently piggybacking on someone else's wireless service. My grandson showed me how and I feel like a thief.

Circumstances have prevented me from leaving for Florida as planned so here I sit with an illegal internet connection until I know if and when I can leave.

A routine blood test showed an increase in my lymphocytes so extra tests were scheduled for November 14th with the results supplied on November 22nd. I almost wanted to ignore the problem and leave for Florida anyway but fate has a way of stepping in. My oldest daughter, Kim, was in a car accident on October 23rd which broke her foot quite severely. "Fate" knew I'd never leave home until Kim was on the mend. Since I had to stay here for her I decided to go ahead with the tests.

Kim has surgery tomorrow to have screws inserted in her foot to try to put all the broken bones back in alignment. It's serious surgery which will keep her off the foot for 2 months and then she'll have therapy for many months after. She'll probably have pain or discomfort for the rest of her life, damn it. The accident was caused by a van running a red light and hitting her little Saturn sporty car. We consider her lucky to be alive.

Any way, we'll plod our way through whatever we have to. Life is never fair or easy but we'll do what needs to be done. We are family and we have much to be thankful for.