Stuff I Did in January

SUMMARY: Random photos 1st half January 2021

Probably not much different from the December 2020 one. But with more rioting.

(Many but not all photos have been seen on Facebook.)

Life continues as it general has, since April of 2020. Stay at home. Go nowhere. Wear a mask if I go somewhere other than nowhere. Walk with the dog. Stores try mightily to remind people not to be idiots.

New Year's morning selfie in the park behind my house with Mr. I Don't Do Photos.

Startin' the new year with the usual Mr. You Owe Me Something But
You Have to Figure Out  For Yourself What It Is.

Glamour Magazine version of New Year's morning.
At the park near my house.

Evening walk. 
Same location as the "...So, we walked at sunrise..." image in December.

Marie Callender's has sanitized pens 
and they won't take back their empty pie tins until A.P. (after pandemic).

Designed to be disposable, apparently.
Tiny screws requiring a screwdriver size that probably most folks don't have.
Everything comes apart into multiple pieces. 
I can't find replacement batteries in the stores so far.
And not sure I can get things entirely back together the same way anyway
(notice tape holding battery and contact in place?!).
Design companies, c'mon, it should be trivial to replace batteries!
OK, no more long captions.

Braved the nearly empty mall for one quick purchase (not at this store).
Every store had COVID "stand here" spacing decals outside their doors, and inside, too.

Sunset walk. Same place as "Evening Walk" above.

Dusk falls. 
Same place, same evening, 15 minutes later, standing 50 feet northeast.
When ya go so few places, ya gotta take different perspectives.
That's my secret to this glamorous travelogue.

Fast Times at Nowhere High: DayTimer refill pages arrive.
Usually I order in September, not January.
Usually I have things to write in it.
I'm sure any day now--
{fire up uplifting music and break into song}

Sunset from the car. 
The glamor continues.
I try to remember how to drive.
With luxury glamorous turkey feathers.

Remember Mr Fox No.12?
Showed off a beloved Christmas present but has mostly laid low this year.
Don't know why; I don't think foxes can catch COVID-19.

When the going gets tough, with insurrectionists in D.C. spurred on by the outgoing President,
the tough finally give up and go load up on boxes and boxes of crucial supplies because
it's going to be a long 14 days till the 20th and who knows what'll happen then.
At 50% off.

Guard dragon's old mask disintegrated.
Who knew all of this would go on long enough to need a replacement?

On the fridge. Someone's having a good ol' banana time.

Newspaper shows San Francisco city hall lit up red, white, and blue.
D.C. events are on everyone's minds.
I'm trying to be cheery here.

Zorro buried up to his chest, dig dig digging.
He'd better keep an eye on that croc, is all I can say.

Living with this view cemented my resolve to always live where
I can see sunsets and/or sunrises from my home.
Maybe next time without my neighbor's tree smack dab in the middle.
At least *I* have a dogwalk.

And this.

Chance to become a billionaire! 
With gritted teeth, I pry open the NO GAMBLING purse and remove $20.
Yay, I win $5 back! My lucky day!
Cannot pry open that purse again even though no one wins this round.

Sorry, anyone reading, and future me rereading this post,
right now it's all about the horror in the White House
and in the streets with 20,000 armed National Guard and other security forces lining up
and insufficient vaccine for COVID and death rates hitting new records.
But at least they kicked Trump off Twitter.

Now back to our usual warm and friendly blog... 

Phoned in my order. Fortunately I could bypass that line to pick it up.
COVID, no touching, no sitting.

My office develops blue spots! Whaaaaaa???


Oh...          
this....

In the traditional Cultural game of Bitey Face, those who have faces full of hard, sharp pointy objects have a distinct advantage over those who have faces full of soft, blunt fingers.Isn’t it then cheating for the one with hard sharp pointy objects to then bring his front grabbers into play, also?

A 4.2 quake not too far from home will get you *and* the dog to jump.
Gods: Hahahaha made you look!

Look. Nature.

What our friends think we do on our morning walks:
Maintain iron-fisted control over insurrectionist ground squirrels.

What we really do.

Finallee! I iz forced big danger-vans bringz us boxes!
Gud onez, too!

True Confessions: Yes I sometimes go shopping.
Needed one piddly thing from Office Max. Cost: $2. 
To order by mail: add $5 shipping.
To dash into store with my mask
when it's nearly empty during maximum COVID lockdown,
 risking my very life : Priceless. 
Yes: Price...Less.

Fun with Clouds with Dick and Jane.
See clouds arch.
Arch, clouds, arch.
Arch you glad I'm blogging for you?

Gods conjured a huge windstorm just to give Zorro what he always felt he deserved.
Finders keepers; unknown neighbors weepers?

With that-- and the Inauguration coming up at 9 tomorrow morning--I think I'll call this a good Half Month and save the rest of January for ...  sometime after January.

New Knee, Five-Day Diary (Was supposed to post Jan 24!)

SUMMARY: Another adventure in artificial human parts.

FYI Some of what follows might have been posted on Facebook first.


Saturday Jan 18: I will be stuck upstairs in my house for probably a couple of weeks. That means: Bedroom, bathroom, hallway.  Then mostly to the house for another couple of weeks. Then slowly more activity outdoors.  On a walker for some number of weeks; then walking with a cane for more numbers of weeks.

Morning before surgery. Standing on a ladder in the corner of my yard.
To my left, Martial Cottle Park. To my right, looking up my yard to my house.
That window below the chimney? That's where I'll be looking out for the next few weeks.
No ladder climbing!

So I need to make sure that my room is ready for me, that my house contains all that I'll need and that my stay-in caretakers will need (food? entertainment? Clean rooms? Clean linens? Etc.).

Bedside table with the necessities;
I'll use the large receptacle for constant ice water.
I'll drink a lot. 
Also Kindle is there; also styrofoam thingie on dresser for PT.

I have 4 days to get it all ready: Go.



P.S. I have already arranged with various relatives to stay with me to cover me 24-7 for 2 weeks, except for one night towards the end. TBD.

Tuesday a.m.: I had decided that I wouldn't board the dogs for the first couple of nights like I did for my hip replacement last year. Turns out that worrying about that kept me up a good portion of last night--because it was very useful to have them out of the way while getting things figured out and recovering initially from the surgery.  Called my agility instructors, who also do boarding, and ask whether they could manage it at the last minute. Oh, and Chip needs eye ointment and pills.  They say, sure, if I can bring them up Wed. morning. I say, sure, 9:00, see you then.

Partial list. VERY partial list.

6 p.m.  I get home from shopping and errands and discover that Kaiser has rescheduled my arrival time for tomorrow to 9 AM instead of 11. I call boarding back and say, uh, how about this evening? They very generously agree, although it means they have to do some prep work in the dark.  And fortunately my morning ride to the hospital is able to manage the 2 hour change, also.


Tuesday evening: Made a lot of progress on my list. I think it's sufficient. It's not ideal; never did sweep the stairs or kitchen or vacuum the guest room, for example.  Didn't help taking 2 hours out of the plan to take the dogs up to boarding.

Wed. a.m.  Didn't sleep all that well again.  I'm fine with the surgery: Can't wait to have the new knee. It's everythng else...

Arrive at 9 a.m.  There's a delay; surgeon had higher priority things come up, etc.

They give me an epidural to numb my right leg--but it turns out to be a challenge. Because of my recently acquired extreme lower-back scoliosis, it appears to have twisted so that injecting into the right side numbs the left leg! After several attempts, the solution is to roll me onto my right side instead of left, and then although left leg numbs first, the numbing agent moves into my right side because of gravity.  Clever.

I get an IV sedative.

Wake up a while later with a new knee.

Post-surgery. Tubes still attached to left arm (I think).
There's this cool thing in the recovery room--every bed has a "skylight"
with some photo looking up. Nice, because we're in the basement.

Physical Therapist wheels in her own step for testing.
(It folds down.) Tricky!

With delays and everything, and with my right leg not wanting to come un-numb, it's not until nearly 6 that the physical therapist can check whether I can stand and walk (with a walker) and go up and down a step. I can. Off home.

Sister #1, who took me to the place in the morning and stuck around nearby
until they released me around 6 that evening.
She came prepared with electronic gadgets for "working" (so she claims).

Mr Fox No. 12 examines the knee brace and the foam elevating wedge
while Human Mom consumes breakfast.

Thurs. a.m. I have a very sturdy velcro brace wrapped around my knee and at least a foot above and below. Expecting to wear it for several days at least to support the knee.  When I took it off midday for a nap, discovered that my initial dressing over the surgery site had filled with blood and was leaking through. Instructions said to replace with sterile gauze if that happened. Taking it off, looked like it was old blood and not still oozing, so no worries.

They sent me home with an ice machine, so I'm icing and elevating and taking pain meds and being subdued, dozy, generally happy.  Home  Physical Therapist calls to set up an appointment for  tomorrow and, wow, it's the same excellent one I had for my hip last year! Yay!

This is the wrap that *I* use over the dressing.

Friday: 

Therapist comes, goes through the first simple set of exercises with me. After the last one, she says, well, that was not just an exercise; it was a test. So your muscles are strong enough that you don't need to wear the brace! Yay!

She replaces the dressing, and there was a small bit of oozing between yesterday and today, but not much. Lookin' good.

Sister #2 and I investigate my emergency supply of tape and dressing.
Apparently for some reason I kept this tape roll. Possible to remember Jake by--
I've always played with my dogs with empty TP and paper towel cardboard tubes.
Then Jake figured out that there were cardboard tubes EVERYwhere if one looked around!

Florida Day 2

SUMMARY: Universal Resort: Harry Potter!

Backfill: Nov 17

See the post of the days preceding the trip, with a trip summary.

And here's yesterday.

Saturday

None of us have been here before. We take Uber with my rented disassembleable scooter and meet up with Sis #1 and spouse.

Universal Florida Resort/Parks! 

Main goal is the new Harry Potter universe, split between two parks. So we have a park-hopper pass (you can take the Hogwarts Express or walk) to go back and forth.

Walking through the brick wall at the station to get to Hogwarts Express.

It's very well done, realistic, feel like we're actually in Diagon Alley or other environs. Ride a couple of rides. Eat and snack. Shop.

Breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron. I have oatmeal flan for the first time ever, and fruit... so healthy!
And, ahem, of course, bacon.

Universal did a wondrous and magical job of putting us into Harry Potter's world! Some of the many photos I took--

Two sisters and Mallory hangin' with their wands in Diagon Alley

Dragon breathes fire at random intervals. I waited and waited but never got the camera onto it when the flames came out.

Gringots. The place is just about made of money.

Hippogriff

Mr. Fox chats it up with the driver and head of the Knight Bus.

Hogwarts!

Used magic wands to try to get all the magic-wand locations to do their things--it's tricky!

Healthy lunch: Shepherd's pie and salad! I'm trying hard to allow space in my calories for occasional junk food (i.e., sugar) during our stay.

I walk a bunch but very glad for the scooter. We tire out and the one park is closing early, so we take the boat across the lake to Sis #1's hotel, where we meet up with Bro-in-Law #2 and rental car.

Boat across the lake.

[dinner where?], then to our hotel for the rest of our stay (Shades of Green at WDW--this is my 3rd time at this military-owned/run resort, although it's very Disney-like), where Bro-in-law #2 has already checked us in and moved our luggage in. Great guy!