Wow, did it ever get cold & wet around here!! I'm back in my winter sweats & added wooly blanket when I watch TV. I could turn on the furnace again but it's not really cold enough for that. Just cool & damp. Even the feral cat wants to come inside.

I'm able to get up & down the ramp to my car once again - not without some problems though - twice is my limit before the old knee starts complaining & I have to be careful using the handrail since I picked up a big splinter in my palm on Sunday. The cat has been sitting on the corner where it's wider & sharpened her claws on the handrail. Thank you Fluffy. But never mind, it sure was nice to get to Rotten Ronnie's for a coffee & McMuffin AND down to my favorite café for a chicken Caesar salad. Now to get my hair cut & my Driver's license renewed!!

Don't mind saying that it feels like I've been released from jail. I have nowhere to go but I have the freedom to go there! Isn't that the silliest thing you ever heard??? 

One of my buddies dropped by on Sunday morning with a coffee - lovely man - he was an hour & a half standing in line for his Covid shot on Friday, then spent Saturday feeling nauseous & headachy. Woke up Sunday feeling fine. Crazy eh?? I just felt tired the next day when I got mine. Funny how we all react differently .  .  .  . Another friend dropped in this afternoon with a baked lasagna with meat balls in hand - and his tax stuff - he'd just heard via the grapevine that I'd fallen & was limping around. He's 69 & still works 2 nights a week delivering for an Italian café & 4 half days for Skip the Dishes. He loves it. Every time he visits, he brings Italian food which is great for a change. It's the only time I ever eat lasagna so I really enjoy it.

Knitting - no knitting. Can't see up close until I get my glasses adjusted. I may try the drugstore 'cheaters' to see if I can read with my fixed eye. Can't see anything without glasses with my unfixed eye. But I can spin, wind off yarn & make balls out of skeins. So, guess what I'll be doing?? 

Working on Walking

Dragged my sorry ass down the ramp to the car on Sunday with two bags of garbage attached to the hook on my O2 machine. Knee still sore but I did it anyway! Spent most of the afternoon resting with my feet up in preparation & was able to drive with NO PROBLEMS. Wish I could say the same for getting from the car to the first station inside .  .  .  it ain't easy with a cane AND a portable O2 machine on wheels. They saw me coming, waved me to the nearest chair & did everything from that chair. Nice folks. They kept me for a half hour after the shot instead of 15 minutes to make sure I was okay & I sailed out to my car & off to Church's Chicken for my take-out dinner. Got home with no problems, made it up the damn ramp, ate my dinner & was in bed before 9PM.

Next day I just felt tired & was sore at the injection site. That's it. Now to work at getting stronger so I can get my Driver's License renewed. Three weeks off my feet made me weaker than ever!! 

You can tell Spring is in the air - all the For Sale signs have sprung up in front yards all over the neighborhood!! I know I need to sell the shack but it's so nice around here for most of the year! And it's quiet unless the neighbors two doors down are partying. I just hate the thought of living in an apartment building with people surrounding me on all sides with noise & fumes. I think I now understand the 'cabin in the woods' mentality that older men get. 

I also really want to buy good dirt & fill up all the planters on the porch, maybe even that pair of size 14 rubber boots I bought for Marlow that only got worn twice, cherry tomatoes would do well in them!!! I want to hang up a basket of trailing plants in the corner & get another Snake plant to replace the one I lost in the move .  .  .  .  sigh

Knitting - no knitting going on right now but I am winding off all that white wool I spun in my old apartment. My giant bobbin holds a lot. Somewhere in my storage locker, there's about 10 huge skeins of the same wool - it's very sproingy, if you know what I mean, & loosely spun. I wanted to dye it all when I finished spinning it & knit it into a top-down, round yoked, cardigan. I even bought a Mother Mackenzie's dye kit & saved a whole lot of Kool Aid in a special Blue - Astro Blaster Blue, I believe. I can't knit until I get my second eye done since I will need reading glasses to see. My arms are just not long enough!!

I have a lovely bin of Romney roving I bought eons ago. It's kind of a dry, dark grey but spins up into a really nice color with a hint of blue. I just spray it with spinning oil & it spins like a dream. It seems to be spinning weather outside right now & I can see to do it without a problem.

Happy Birthday to Me

Today I am 70. Never dreamed I'd be this old when I was young. I still remember the days when the chant was - Never Trust Anyone Over 30! The same days when I couldn't get into Welding school without a Sponsor & guaranteed job because I was a woman. No bathrooms for women in the muffler shop, mechanic shop, welding shop .  .  .  .  .  And why wouldn't I want to go to secretarial school anyway??? 

Those were the days of Live Fast, Die Young. If you remember the 60s, you weren't there! Well, I was there. Working for $1.35 an hour at two jobs trying to save money to go to college since I couldn't be a Welder & my parents had 5 more kids to educate. 

But I'm not going to say I didn't have fun. I tried my hand at hitching around the country, you could get a job washing dishes anywhere! I couldn't drink the water on the Prairies but loved Alberta. Hated Toronto but the water & the islands were good. Missed the Maritimes, to my regret, because I always wanted to go there. Was warned out of Quebec in the early 70s & never made it back. Found out along the way that I needed roots & a home so I came back, kicked the duffle to the curb, got a job & went to college.

Here I am 50 years later - the world has really changed in my lifetime! TV in your car now - when I was a kid, some of us actually had TV but it wasn't in color! And it came in a big cabinet & signed off the air every evening. Radios still had to be plugged in until Transistors hit the market when I was around 12 - battery operated! Woohoo - a kid's dream, no more crystal sets. Remember phones with a partyline?? The whole neighborhood got to listen in when your boyfriend called. Everyone still drove standard transmissions too until my aunty got an automatic imported. She had a Pushbutton gear changer on the dash. Nowadays cars park themselves. And every house has a computer .  .  .  

I'm still taking college courses with Coursera. That is if I can co-ordinate the eye balls & the brain with hands & feet. Speaking of body parts, my leg is a lot better although my ankle is still sore & knee unstable enough that I won't climb over my bathtub for a shower even with the seat in there. I haven't been down the ramp to the garbage yet but I think I'll make a trip today. And try getting into the car since I have my Covid shot booked for Sunday. 

Big Game Hunting . . . . Wheelchair

Wheelchair or Transport chair, that is the question! or sell my car & buy a van with hydraulic lift & scooter? My knee still isn't well. I still can't stand at the sink & wash dishes. One of my pals suggested I just buy a good folding wheelchair because I'm not going to grow a new body any time soon & I should be prepared. He has a point. It's not easy to get a wheelchair when you can't go see it & try it out. I need the Big Girl chair with a wider ass & no one has one in the shop. The spiffy lighter - 33 lbs - one I want is backordered. I want one that folds with one click removable foot rests, backordered. The heavy steel one found at the airport is in stock but costs $300 more & is almost 60lbs. I don't want to take out my back stowing a wheelchair in the van.

This past week I had to cancel two medical appointments because I can't walk well enough to get to them. Renting a wheelchair is almost impossible on short notice & my doctor has to arrange a loaner with the Red Cross in advance. That is, if they have one. She called today & is arranging to send the portable Lab people to sample my blood & hopefully, give me my Covid shot. She is also willing to see me about my leg but I'll go next week if it doesn't get better - I figure I SHOULD be able to walk by then!! But I did suggest some good drugs would help but all she'd offer is Naproxen - nasty stuff burns my gut!! Back to Tylenol Arthritis, I guess .  .  .  .  Hopefully all this is just a bad  memory by May04 when I see the eye surgeon once more.

Today - Saturday - Mike dropped off a big bottle of Tylenol Arthritis on Thursday. It made a big difference in my pain level. I am now able to walk a lot easier although I can't walk for very long or down that damned ramp to my car or garbage can. It does dull the pain in my hip & knee so I can get up & down a whole lot easier. Maybe I can get something into the slow cooker today. I'm pretty tired of sandwiches & cold food that I can carry in a plastic bag. Hopefully life will be better this coming week because I'm looking forward to going for a drive even if it's only to fill the gas tank or get a coffee! Anywhere but here is fine with me!!

Sunday morning coming round

 WooHoo - Easter Sunday! And I'm still upright - well, sort of. I was on my feet too much yesterday & can barely walk today. I did manage a couple of trips to the fridge on top of everything else yesterday - I wanted meat & red peppers on my bread & cheese. You can really get tired of cold fast food breakfast sandwiches quickly. It was lovely at the time but a rotisserie chicken would've hit the spot last night. I did manage to cut the peppers into strips for a nice crunchy moment after I dropped the remote on the floor.

Today, I think I'll stay in bed & listen to audiobooks on my old IPod .  .  .  . & wish for some good dope for the discomfort .  .  .  .  

Still Hobbling

Well, I survived the day after the fall. I would've cheerfully gone to the hospital any time that day if it wasn't for Covid. One of my pals called me in the evening of that day & told me he would be around in the morning with some goodies from Tim Horton's. I was thrilled. Two days after my nose dive & my entire side is still  painful but not as much as the day after & everything moves a little better. I spent a lot of time in bed flexing my thigh & moving my ankle around to loosen everything up. Ron brought enough chicken strips & breakfast sandwiches to feed me for the day!!! But the hot coffee was the best part. I could've kissed him. I was able to get to my recliner in the evening for a little TV.

At midnight, all the power went out with a bang. I was in my recliner on my house O2 when everything failed - the whole neighborhood was black!! I had to find my house machine - I have a 150' of hose, shut off the alarm, get my portable machine, check the O2 level in the tank & get it to my bed so I could breathe. Good thing I had the cell phone in my sweatshirt pouch so I had a light. One more lesson learned - buy flashlights for each room!

Today, on Good Friday, I'm still sore enough that I can't walk too far, stand too long or carry anything hot but I can move around a whole lot easier than yesterday. My knee is round again, instead of square. I definitely did the most damage to my right knee & calf muscles but moving them kept them loose. Both knees are very tender where I landed but every day I can move a little better. Hopefully I'll be back to normal soon because I have an Optometrist appointment on April 6th to get my glasses adjusted.

It never rains but it pours .  .  .  .  .