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!