Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Not very spooky

In keeping with Halloween, here is my strange-not-spooky tale.  I was working late in the lab when I went down the hall to the vending machines for a Diet Coke.  I put in my change, pressed Diet Coke, and - nothing.  I muttered, and that was my last bit of change, when there was a kerlunk! from the Pepsi machine next to the Coke one, and out dropped a Diet Pepsi.  I looked around for the candid camera, or whatever, but there was no one there anywhere on that floor.  I took the Pepsi, said, "thank you" and went back to the lab.


Sunday, October 22, 2017

So Far to go

The knee specialist told me last week that my knee needs surgery to stabilize my knee cap; but once they see what is going on in there, they may remove the prosthesis entirely and put in another one, of a different type that will be secured to the two parts and be stable.  I won't know what the decision will be until I wake up.  If they have replaced the knee, I will be back at ground zero in terms of therapy, rehab, and exercises.  I am so so sorry I had this done, even though the doctor said after the replacement that the ends of my tibia (?) were becoming green and black as they deteriorated.  The specialist and my original doctor will do the surgery together.  They blame my fall at home for the poor progress.  Who would have thought a simple fall onto 3 inches of carpet and padding would be so dire?



Do you recognize this?

When I was married (at the ripe old age of 19) we didn't have enough money to "make a bean sandwich for a piss ant" as my mother-in-law once said.  So for a cheap evening, we went to a drive-in theater that was showing a marathon of spaghetti westerns by Clint Eastwood.  They were, "A Fistful of dollars", "A few dollars more" and "the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly".  They were called 'spaghetti'  because they were filmed in Spain (and not Italy as often said), and I crashed after the second one.   It wasn't until many years later that I saw the ending of the one I missed.  I think Clint made a princely sum of $15,000 for the first one, his first as the starring actor.

Once we had kids, movies were off the table, between admission prices, babysitters, snacks, dinner at a diner.  Of course now when I could go to any movie at all, there isn't much to watch.  The last movie I saw in the theater was "Avatar" and the 3-D effect left me with an excruciating headache.  And all the scenes where the perspective is a fall down for a long distance triggered my fear of heights.  All in all, not a 5 plus experience.

This an oldie but one of my favorites from Bloom  County.  No more Hare Krishnas in airports now, and no Bloom County either.





Thursday, October 05, 2017

Poco

Here is my beautiful Poco palomino from a long long long time ago.

Wednesday, October 04, 2017

Stamina

I got all showered and made up, and then my stupid knee started failing every stride, so I didn't get to go to my appt. with the financial guy.  Bummer!  As we used to say.  I spoke to the doctor - an actual doctor on the phone! and he is setting up an appointment with a knee specialist "this week".  His final admonishment was "don't fall" so I guess I had better be extra careful at least until I see the specialist.  I just hope there is a solution outside of more surgery.

The horse continues to show signs of a stroke, but she doesn't seem to be in pain or distress.  She still nickers at us, but no whiney with her tongue poking out of her mouth.  She can't  crib either, and has substituted flapping her tongue up and down.  Weird horse.  At least she can't scream at what she thinks is another horse when all she is hearing is kids with high voices yelling.

I am afraid we have a skunk visiting in the garage, this after trapping and releasing 3 possums.  You know what a skunk will do after the door slams shut.  And as soon as you pick up the crate again.  Please don't be a skunk, even a coon is OK.

When we lived in San Francisco, I boarded my palomino horse in Golden Gate Park, and my stall was one under the bleachers that faced the polo field.  From inside his stall I could see a triangular space way up high, and there was a family of coons that lived up there.  There were two ways to get out, one was to go down to the last stall and down the wall, and other was to plummet onto my horse as he stood there peacefully dosing. He did not appreciate them at all.  Finally I camped out and waited until the family exited for the night, and then I stuffed the opening and nesting site with chicken wire.  Nasty job.  I thought coons were cleanly animals, they even wash their food, but take it from me, their nests are filthy.  I wore a surgical mask and long gloves and a tyvex overall, gross.  And while I was at it, I stuffed chicken wire above the wall between my stall and the next to stop the pigeons from perching there and crapping all over the horses.  My horse wore a blanket to keep him clean, but it didn't cover his neck, so, ick.  A Palomino, if you don't know, is golden with white mane and tail, so dirt shows up really well.  I used to shampoo his mane and blow-dry it afterwards, I was in a bunch of photos I guess, with all the tourists strolling through.  Gosh I miss that horse,  had him shipped from SF to WV when we moved, and he lived until he was 22.  I wonder if the polo field and the stable are still there, it has been 38 years.