Saturday, November 18, 2017

Little trials

I am cheap!  I don't like to pay a lot for a wristwatch, so I go to my favorite place - Amazon.  I can usually find one I like for about $10.  Then by the time I get tired of it, I don't mind replacing it!

Last week I was to take my daughter to an outpatient procedure.  I was getting dressed in the dressing area with the tile floor.  I was already not happy with the current watch I had because it was difficult to put on.  The band (metal) was one that would completely open, so clasping it with one hand was difficult.

As fate would have it, it dropped.  It landed crystal down.  I immediately assumed that the crystal would be shattered, but when I picked it up all appeared to be well.  It was in tack and still running, so I assumed all was just fine.

Since my granddaughter also wanted to be there for moral support for her mom but needed to be in school that afternoon, G took daughter and I rode with my granddaughter.  That means we were a bit later getting there since we had to drop the younger daughter at school at the same time my daughter was to be at the hospital.

We got into the room where Krissi was waiting for her procedure.  I looked at my watch to see how much longer we had until her scheduled procedure.  It was 8:05.  Ok - great.  We all four chatted for a while.  Things were moving along well, and I looked at my watch again.  It was 8:05!!

This watch I had was a fake chronograph.  Around those dials were little rings.  Apparently, when this watch dropped and landed on the tile, it dislodged one of those rings.  It was lodged between the 8 and the 5!!  The watch hand just jumped around a bit!

But then the real trial began.  I went online to shop for the replacement.  I first went to the discontinued watches.  Some were priced as low as 49 cents - but the shipping was usually about $5.  So I went to the regular ones to get my Prime shipping.  And here the trial begins.

I shopped on Friday afternoon and got my order in.  I was to get my watch on Sunday by 8pm.  BUT I knew I was in trouble when it went to Amazon's shipping.  Sunday 9pm - no watch.  I went to the orders page and there it was delivery was from two to four days later.  Watching the page for tracking, that watch bounced around Houston for two days before going out for delivery.

The watch DID finally arrive on Wednesday, but I am so disgusted with the change in their delivery policy.  If one questions something not making the two-day delivery, they say they cannot promise.  Well, that is supposed to be their selling point for being a Prime member. 

I am still buying from them - I got my daughter-in-law's lists for her kids.  Those came as they should, but I have one order still wandering someplace.  Amazon replaced it, but the inconvenience was still there.


Tuesday, November 07, 2017

Tale of Woe

Or how I am becoming a real Klutz!

First of all - holding to my determination to keep this blog politically free - I will only say I am so disturbed and disgusted by the events in South/Central Texas and the responses to it.


My sad tale begins two weeks ago.  We have a chest freezer that is not frost free, thus needing defrosting at times.  We had gotten about 2 years past defrosting, or so it seemed.

G kept making snarky remarks about it, so I told him that on this particular Monday we would do the task.  Plenty of fair warning - about four days.  So he unplugged this freezer on Sunday night so it would begin to loosen the frost that held the baskets like prisoners.

The morning was wearing on, and there was no movement on his part.  So I began taking things out of the freezer.  I was able to loosen a lot of the binding frost and start removing the baskets.  I put them around the breakfast room and into the attached den.  So where was the lord and master?

He had found an old briefcase and was sitting down going through it.  Then going to the shredder that was behind the breakfast table.  Of course, I was the one removing food from the freezer.

I wanted to make sure to try to organize the freezer as much as possible which is a task much like herding 50 cats.  I got the bright idea to use three laundry baskets to place the different proteins in.  One poultry, one pork and one for beef. 

I put them close to the utility room door so I would reach them easily.  But L&M was still shredding cr*p.  So they were too close to the door really, but I thought I had a reasonable path. 

When I was removing berries from one of the baskets still in the freezer, I had to go across where these baskets were into more of the den.  I thought I had cleared one of them well, but I didn't.  My three toes on my left foot got tangled, and I went down. HARD.  Remember - I have two titanium knees and am not supposed to even kneel.  I hit my on my right knee, and the pain was tremendous.

As fate would have it, there was a basket that had chicken breasts in it.  I immediately put one on that knee.  I became fast friends with that chicken breast, but finally decided that I really needed to get up. 

My biggest fear since having my knees replaces is falling.  The strength has never returned to my legs, and I really use more upper body strength to get up.  Well - remember the shoulder situation?  (And Marti - no I am not going to have either rotator cuff repair NOR replacement on them!!!)  Using the breakfast table and a chair, I was up.  Hurting, but up.  And then - I got to finish the freezer with minimal help.  Good thing I am not really a physically violent person - or, well let's just say G is still alive.

On Saturday of that week, we looked to be getting some fall/winter weather.  We have about 8 Hawaiin flower plants - Plumeria.  They can take a lot, but they do not like temps lower than 45.  So since they do well just unpotted or dug out if in the ground, that is what G was going to do.  But he needed help (hahahahaha - could have been MY chance).

I helped.  That is until I stepped down off the deck, and something felt like a tendon tore in my right thigh and hip.  But where do you go on a weekend that is covered by insurance and not cost $$$.   Not many, so I suffered,

It killed me to put a lot of weight on my right leg.  It sent me into spasms of pain.  AND we were scheduled to trek to the SSB on Wednesday.  Come Wednesday, Shadow decided to become a hidden cat.  Looking for him - like under beds, etc. aggravated my hip.  I was really in pain for 5 hours.

I wish this were the end of this story.  On Thursday we had to go into town to get Clyde his rattlesnake vaccine booster and used this trip to get groceries. 

In Texas, the opening of White Tail Deer Season is a BIG deal.  It brings LOTS of money in.  The hunters hit the little grocery store like a swarm of locusts, so on Thursday, they were preparing for this influx.

When I walked in, there were pallets of supplies EVERYWHERE.  It was difficult to get through the aisles, but the refrigerated sections along the sides and back were almost impassable.  I had to backtrack at one point in the back.  There was a man who was trying to get by, and I was going to try to move to an open spot to allow him to pass while I looked for my item.  I was backing into the end of an aisle that looked clear, but just as he was warning me, I was tripped by a single empty pallet at the end cap of that aisle.

You can imagine the rest.  Other than scraping the back of my left ankle pretty badly, I wasn't hurt.  In fact, my hip was better!! I don't know what happened, and other than some residual soreness I am better.  BUT I knew the problem was getting up. 

I was so terribly embarrassed.  I am not one to be able to accept help.  Since there is no rotational movement in these knees, it is hard to get set up.  To make a long story short, I finally got up.  The store is scared to death I will sue - which I won't.  Their insurance company has called home, but I haven't returned the call yet since we are still at the SSB, but it looks like things are OK.  For a while before this, I really was afraid I was going to need a hip replacement now, but I think I may escape that.

Yes - I have become a Klutz I guess!

Sunday, November 05, 2017

A Little Rusty

It has been almost a year since I have put words on paper here.  That doesn't mean I haven't been putting words into social media, but not here.

Almost a year.  TJ has been cremated and had a memorial service.  She was to be interred next to her parents' graves.  That is still hanging.  The ex says it's because Drew isn't ready yet.  I really thought it was because his present wife is not doing well physically - at all.

As far as Drew - he is a surprise.  I am not close to him at all.  If I ran into him on the street honestly I would not recognize him. But last month he sent a friend request for FaceBook.  I was shocked.

When I read his page, I found he was in rehab.  From what I saw of him the day we found TJ and the way he acted at the memorial service, it is not too soon.  His drug problem was really bad.

Apparently, he also has disconnected with the,e little sweetie he was with.  She was real pond scum, and I could tell she wouldn't be good for him.  Hopefully, he can turn his life around but after all these years ... It just seems doubtful.  He has been in rehab a couple of months.

Since I never wanted this blog to be political in any way - that is another reason I have been silent.  But here goes because I simply cannot keep it inside any longer.  I am overwhelmingly sickened at the way our country is going.  So there - I said it here.  Hopefully, that will be the only time I will post anything like this IF I keep writing. 

My grandchildren are, as usual, doing good things.  Katie is still doing great with her water polo.  She is striving to win her school competitions in both the butterfly AND breast this year.  She is driving - and that is a problem.  She has had three accidents since March - only one was her real fault.  But not good.

Reagan was playing Middle School football, which was his dream.  He badly sprained his ankle two weeks ago so football is over.  He still wants to play basketball.  The greatest thing he did though was to stand up to "baseball hero dad" to tell him he didn't want to play baseball last spring.  Finally.

The youngest, Karrington, is really into her gymnastics.  She will be our high school dance squad/cheerleader.

Brian's oldest, William, is strong into Boy Scouts.  He has always loved the outdoors, so scouting is his forte.

Delaney is another gymnastic kid.  She wanted a gymnastics pad for her birthday, and she uses it all the time,

Holden is playing basketball - at age 6.  I just HAVE to make one of his games.

It was recommended to me to get a shoulder replacement.  SO I found another ortho doc. The other shoulder has a small rotator cuff tear, so they both hurt.  Went to 4 PT sessions, and then the insurance gave out.

All told - the degenerative skeleton is killing me.  Soon I will just be a miserable blob of protoplasm!