Once Again, My Mother Was Right

If you have read my blog for any length of time, you have been subjected to many of my mother's favorite sayings.  One of the ones we would hear most often growing up was "It's either an a** or an elbow with you, isn't it?"  This was said when for instance you just got over a cold and then sprained an ankle, or some combination like that. 

She was right.  

Of course, you all know of my long and varied times of getting over one illness or injury, just to have another show up.  It happens to everyone at one point or another, but in my most self-pitying moments, I feel like it only happens to me.  The day in October that I finally felt like I was truly recovered from pneumonia was the day I feel and broke my wrist.  A**, meet elbow.

At the moment, it's not *exactly* the same, but close enough.  When I fell and broke my wrist, I also broke two front teeth.  One had been previously broken a few years ago when I fell (I guess) and ended up with kidney cancer.  Last month, I was eating yogurt, and the temporary replacement that had been put on the one tooth in October came off.  Since I had maxed out my dental insurance, I was waiting until now for them to be able to do two crowns:  one for the broken tooth, and one for the implant in progress.  The dentist temporarily fixed the tooth, and all was well.  I have an appt this coming Thursday afternoon for the crown over the implant site.

And now that appt will also include temporarily fixing that same tooth, yet again.  Tonight I was eating soup and guess what?  Ugh.  I called to see if they wanted me to come in right away, or wait until Thursday.  (It will get a crown, but they can only do one at a time with my insurance and the implant is overdue.)  Which is fine, but it means that I have to spend a couple of very uncomfortable and self-conscious days until then.  And I have to give a tour on Wednesday at work, which makes it even more annoying.  Plus, the broken tooth keeps catching on my gum and that really hurts!

I know I'm lucky to have dental insurance, and the original crown on the tooth that broke off again would still be in place if I hadn't fallen in October, but really???  I'm so tired of all of this stuff, and I was just starting to feel like I was getting back to normal. 

An a** or an elbow.  Once again, my mother was right.  ;-)

A Bit of Progress - I'll Take It!

First of all, it appears I'm doing Blogmas - I just realized that so far, I've posted every day in December!  Which is fine, I just had not consciously planned to do that.  I guess it's like KALs - if I don't "officially" commit, it's not a big deal ...

Anyway, today was my visit with the orthopedic surgeon.  It's eight weeks ago that I fell and broke my wrist, and I've so far had four weeks of occupational therapy.  My x-rays showed that my wrist is healing very well, which is the best news if you ask me.  And, she told me that I can "wean off" the wrist brace, giving me specific instructions for when I *should definitely* wear it - but I can do that!  She was somewhat disappointed that I was not further along with movement after four weeks of OT, but was glad with what progress I have made.  The last time I saw her, she said, "At your next appt, I want to be able to shake your hand," and we did shake hands today, so she was pleased about that (as was I).  So now my OT can begin to include strengthening exercises, and I also think that not wearing the brace 24/7 will help with my range of movement. I am due to see her again in four weeks, but my appt is in 5 weeks, since she is not in the office on New Year's Eve.  ;-)

Still no knitting though - but I'll get there!

I used a Floating Day from work and just came home after my appt and OT, and I've spent a couple of hours getting out some decorations.  I know that some people clean their house and then decorate, but I do the opposite.  Getting everything out and placed causes a bit of a mess around here, and God forbid I clean before AND after - especially now when it takes me twice as long to do anything!  Today though I just unpacked some stuff and then ran out of steam.  That's fine, it's always a process anyway.

The weekend was nice, if low-key.  The Tim got us a Christmas tree, and by yesterday the lights were on it, so we have officially started the season!  That's always a good thing, if you ask me. 

And that is the news from here. I hope all of us have a good week.  If you are celebrating Hanukkah, I hope your holiday is lovely and full of light, with hope for the next year to come.

A Bit of Catch Up

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving plus 2 days!  I hope your day was enjoyable.  Ours was quiet and very pleasant, though The Tim crashed shortly after dinner, so in some ways it was also short!  But he had been doing every single thing for the day, and I don't blame him for being tired.  We are still enjoying leftovers, so it's all good.

Yesterday was also pretty uneventful, though I managed to get some things accomplished.  The Tim had to work, so I spent the day working on putting some clothes away as best I could, and walked over to a local toy store for a Christmas gift for my youngest great-nephew, since I was afraid if I waited, the ones I wanted would be sold out.  Then I watched a Christmas movie that was so bad and so cheesy, it was good, which was pleasing. 

I finally have a few houseplants that are doing OK.  I used to have so many plants, but the light in our house is not the best.  The remaining violets I had kept getting attacked by the Koodle.  So it finally occurred to me that since the plant stands I had were just too accessible, I needed something else.  I bought one of those bakers' racks, and have some plants on the top shelf.  It's in between two windows, but not near enough to either for leaping cats to be successful.  Plus, it looks nice and I'm pleased with it.

The skinny, tall plant is from an avocado pit.  It seems quite happy, so I'm just going with it and we'll see what happens.  I'm not sure how violets would do here, but might get one or two and test it out.

The plant stand also came in quite handy for this:

A few months ago, I treated myself to a yarny Advent Calendar from Sweet Sparrow Yarns.  Jaclyn from the Brooklyn Knitfolk podcast had opened a package each day last year in her Vlogmas series, and it looked like such fun and such pretty yarns that I decided to try it.  So I saved up and signed up as soon as the slots opened.  Then I promptly forgot about it, so that when the package arrived, it was fun all over again! 

Yesterday I wanted to cheer myself up after having frustrations with my hand/wrist exercises, so I opened the package and took everything out.  The envelopes had a red and white string attached so you could hang them like a garland.  So I attached it to the aforementioned plant stand, and I love how it looks! Now from December 1 through 24, no matter what else does or does not happen in any given day, I have a little envelope to open with a yarny surprise inside!  And it also includes a full-sized surprise skein of yarn to open on Christmas Day, which is just really exciting if you ask me.  I must confess though, that even just the little envelopes, all decorated with snowflakes and a number, on the red and white string, make me smile.

My occupational therapy has been moving along.  It is extremely difficult and very painful, but I am making small progress, so it's worth it.  I have been going twice a week, and then I have exercises to do 3 times a day at home as well.  I see the orthopedic surgeon again on December 3, so I'm curious to see what she'll have to say.  The therapist assigned to me is nice, but she was a little off-putting at first, since she seemed to have the personality of General George Patton.  But I think once she could tell I was really trying, things got better. 

Tomorrow I have a haircut appointment (long story, but isn't it always?), and then I want to make one stop on the way home.  Other than that, my day will be paying bills and watching either some podcasts or if I can find one, another cheesy Christmas movie.  If the weather is as pleasant as they are predicting, Hamlet and I will probably take a nice, longer-than-usual walk as well.  Then when The Tim gets home from work, we'll have dinner and a quiet evening, probably watching some of the shows we've recorded.  A nice way to end the holiday weekend, if you ask me.

I hope all of you have a good rest of the weekend as well.  Enjoy your leftovers, if you have any!

Fascism and Knitting

Two things that are NOT the same, by the way.

What a week this has been.  Ugh.  I am often dismayed/disappointed in my country and/or its leaders, but currently, I'm embarrassed and ashamed.  And I don't want to feel that way about my country.  I know people that I think are pretty horrible, who are narrow-minded and prejudiced, and who are suspicious of every single person who is not "American" like they are.  And you know what?  Those people are examples of good character compared to those in charge these days!  A friend in Ireland sent me an e-mail, saying, "I thought there were checks and balances?  What are they, and why aren't they being used?"  I've got no good answer right now.  But I'm not about to sit back and let this happen.  Fascism is never good.  Ever.  I'm one person, but I'm not alone, thank God.

(used with permission of the creator)

In order to keep myself from making myself sick, I have been actively working to do and think of other things.  Like how much I love animals, and my own kit kats in particular.  When one of them is purring in my lap, the world seems much better.

Also - knitting keeps my mind occupied with something happy.  Between the world these days, and the fact that I am not as mobile as I usually am, I'm knitting up a storm (well, at least for me).  And I'm making pretty good progress on the projects I mentioned in my last post.

This is sock #1 of my Winter Berry Socks, and as you can see, I only have the foot left before this will be finished.  I love the yarn, and the resulting socks will be wonderful to wear around the house when it's really cold outside, but after this pair, I'm NEVER EVER using this pattern again!  It's written in a really annoying, folksy way that makes the simplest of instructions difficult to understand.  I know it's been around for a while, and lots of people love it, but not me.  I'll probably power through knitting these just to be done with it!

My Bluegrass Baa-ble Hat is going better:

My only problem with this was that when I printed the pattern, it was hard to tell the difference in the shading of the squares for the colors, and it was so hard to even see because it printed out so small.  (I downloaded the pattern back when it was a freebie from Shetland Wool Week; maybe the paid-for version now available has better formatting.)  But The Tim enlarged the chart and fooled with some of it, so now I can see what I'm doing as well as figure out what's what.  The trickiest part so far for me was the rows where you used three colors, but I'm past that now, and back to two colors per row.  Phew!  I just hope it fits after all of this, but if not, I'll have a lovely gift for someone with a smaller head than mine ... ;-)

In other news, this was an "exciting" weekend for me!  I originally had an appt to get my hair cut the day after I got the cast on for my broken ankle, and I  had to cancel, not just because I was in bad shape, but because there are a bunch of steps to get to the salon.  So I optimistically rescheduled for yesterday.  The Tim dropped me off, and I made my way up the steps with my crutches to get my hair cut, then he gave me a ride home.  I feel so much better!  (You get good at steps quickly when you live in an old Philadelphia row home.)

Then about an hour ago, I made my way to the CVS around the corner and got some stuff I needed all on my own!  Granted, it took me about half an hour, and I made sure to come home and sit and have a cup of tea afterwards, but nonetheless it was a good feeling.

It truly is the little things, right?

Here's hoping we can all have a good week, even if only by finding the little things to enjoy.  Take care, everyone, and let's keep going.

The Last Gasp From the Last Year

Well here we are.  I did a good job yesterday of ignoring anything and everything related to the inauguration, though it felt weird since it has otherwise always been a day when I missed hardly anything.  I cannot think of a time when I consciously ignored every single thing about it.  I wondered if people back when Millard Fillmore was being inaugurated cared as much or as little.  (OK I know little about Millard Fillmore, but he is my go-to President when talking about ones that no one seemed to care about.  I mean, his name is MIL-LARD FILL-MORE!)

Anyway.

There's one part of 2016 that I wanted to share with you, and I'll do it now.  Here is a pictorial summary of the FOs for last year.

Nineteen items (with the last picture added for balance), which surprised me.  Pleasantly, but still surprising.  Does anyone else forget things they've knit in the course of a year, or is it just me?   Maybe since the few things in here that were for Harry's Hundred had already been donated, I forgot about them.  But in any case, that's pretty decent for me, since there were a couple of stretches where I didn't knit much at all.

On another note entirely I'm encouraged and pleased by the pictures and reports I'm seeing from the various marches.  Friends here in Philadelphia have posted lots of pictures, and it looks like an excellent turnout.  Most of my family is at the DC march, and that makes me so proud.  Here's a picture they posted on Facebook early this morning of part of the group - I call it my collection of nasty women and bad hombres. :-)

And a friend of mine who lives in Dublin, Ireland, said that they had a huge turnout there.  It makes my heart happy to see and know this.  I just hope we can keep the momentum going, since there's a chance it will be a long haul.

As for me today, I finished a book I was reading, put a pair of socks I finished knitting on blockers to photograph, and this morning The Tim took me out to breakfast so I'd have a chance to get out of the house.  I cannot tell you how nice it was this a.m. to be able not just to sleep later than usual, but to take me time getting up, showered, dressed, and ready for the day.  This past week was painfully exhausting, as I guess it will be for a while.

But the good news is that the cold/crud is starting to let go, albeit slowly, but I'll take it.  And of course, the cats are as pleased as ever that I'm still on crutches, because apparently there is nothing that has ever been more hilariously fun for them.  :-)

I hope your Saturday and the rest of your weekend is as enjoyable as possible.  We all deserve it!

In Which I Try To Figure Out Why I Leave the House; or, To Quote My Mother, "Oh For God's Sake!"

Seriously, I just have to wonder sometimes.

This coming weekend is the Women's March on Washington.  When it was first announced, I really wanted to go, but I knew it would be a tricky thing for me financially. Then they announced that there would be a march in Philadelphia as well.  I was so excited, and signed up right away!  I was thrilled that I would have a chance to do something active to show that I was not a supporter of the ascendancy of the Orange One.  Some friends were also planning to go, and whether or not we went together, I was just happy that so many were participating.

I encouraged people to sign up.  I supported the whole Pussy Hat idea though it's not my cup of tea.  I kept thinking that the whole experience would make me feel like I was and could be doing *something* even if it was not everything I could or would hope to do.

But as it turns out, while everyone else is at the various marches, I'll be at home, able to support them in spirit only.  You may be asking yourself, "WTF, Bridget?  Why the change in plans?"

Let me introduce you to The Broken Ankle of Doom.

Or, as it is more commonly known, my own right ankle.  Which is now broken.  Because why not?

Last Wednesday, I was walking home from work, and walked past a bunch of the workers building the new(er) Comcast Building (as soon Philadelphia will likely become Comcastadelphia, but I digress).  One of the men bumped into me, and I turned my ankle.  It hurt, but it often hurts when you turn your ankle.  I continued home, did some stuff that evening, and when I went to go to bed, I noticed that my ankle was really swollen.  I put an ice pack on it overnight.

In the morning, it was even more swollen and incredibly sore.  So I determined that I should have it looked at, in case it was a really bad sprain.  Rather than spend tons of time at the ER, I decided to stop at the Urgent Care place on the way to work.  Where they took x-rays and determined that I had a broken ankle.  (Thanks, Comcast.)  They put a temporary splint on it and told me to get a permanent cast within 24-48 hours.

I called the place they suggested, which is a really well-known orthopedic institution, and was told they could see me on TUESDAY (remember, I was calling on Thursday).  I told them that the Urgent Care place said I should get it set and cast within 24-48 hours, and the woman on the phone said, "Oh, they always say that, it doesn't matter."  This just rubbed me the wrong way, so I called the orthopedist I'd seen for a problem a few years back, and her office scheduled me on Friday morning.

The good news:  it's a clean break, and in alignment.  The dr said it was the best possible outcome, and would mean it would be very unlikely that I would have to have surgery.  Also because of that, she put a walking boot on it, so I can still take a shower (for which I - and anyone else around me - am truly grateful!).  I'll wear it for four weeks, they'll do more x-rays to see if it's healing properly, and then if all is well, I'll wear it again for 2-4 more weeks.  She also said as time goes on, I will likely be able to switch from crutches to a cane.

So though I am depressed and frustrated about the whole thing, I'm also incredibly grateful and relieved that it is not as bad as it could have been.

Today was my first day back to work (we had MLK Day off), and it was pretty brutal.  Not the least because none of the elevators in the building were operational. Which is not a completely uncommon occurrence.  And I had to go back today, or be placed on temporary leave and not be paid.  Ugh.  I managed, but what a mess!

ALL I WAS DOING WAS WALKING HOME FROM WORK.  So I have to ask myself, WHY do I leave the house???  Sigh.  I can hear my mother saying not just "Oh for God's sake!" but also hear one of her favorite expressions, "It's either an *ss or an elbow."

So that this is not a complete self-pitying post, I can say that at least I've been able to finish two books I was reading, and the pair of socks I am knitting for myself are nearly finished!  Not that I'll be able to wear them anytime soon, but I was kinda thinking of doing the thing where you try to knit a pair of socks each month, but put them away and don't start wearing them until next year.

And the crutches have been a joy for the cats, so there's that.  Now instead of just weaving in and out of my legs as I walk, they can also weave in and out of the crutches!  And Jack is having a wonderful time attacking them and knocking them over while they are propped up next to the bed overnight.

And when you think about it, isn't all worth it, if you can entertain family members?

For any of you marching this weekend, Godspeed.  I'll be there in spirit at least.