Thursday, August 13, 2009

SOMETIMES IT IS SO MUCH FUN TO BE ME!

It's official. I have gone from 120 kilos to 93 since March. I don't recommend the method, but I'm not complaining. Rather the opposite! On Sunday I decided to get my leg shot with the wonderful cocktail of painkillers my ortho guy mixes up for me. I called him to see if he'd do it on Monday as I had that appointment with the gastro folks at Rambam hospital on Tuesday. He happily agreed and even sent the prescription for the cocktail by fax to my clinic so I could come with it and save time. I left early and managed to miss getting stuck in the construction traffic and got there in good time. Thing was, some brilliant Israeli driver parked his car just close enough over the line of the cripple parking space that I could have gotten the car in, but not have had enough room to get myself out. Not having the phone number of the clinic, but only the doc's, I called him and he came out to sort things. What a sweety. After a short visit, he shot my leg and I did my cripple ballet excercises to get the stuff moving.When I went back to the car, I called my friend Shani who lives very close to the clinic, and invited myself over. She's always begging me to visit. We had a lot of fun together in Rambam where we were in the same room. She already had another friend visiting her so she sent him to lead me to her house. We had a lovely laugh filled visit. Another gal arrived a while later. She had visited Shani evrey day at Rambam, so it was like old time week, until the neighbor from upstairs arrived and started talking. She just rattled on without stopping about what the cripple groups should have done. I went a little ballistic on her and asked if she wanted to stay stuck in shoulda coulda woulda, or hear what's realling going why and why things move so slowly. You can't go back and fix things like that from when they should have been done. In order to get things moving in the right direction, you have to start from now and build a solid base. There was a lot of yelling because she really doesn't listen to what anyone else says. She's so wrapped up in her stuff. It was kind of fun and I did get through to Shani. I left much later than I'd planned and the second friend lead me straight to the spot I needed to find my way to get home. I got home, with a totally pain free leg, confirmed with Dem Der for the trip to to gastro the next day and promptly fell asleep until 0600.I again had the best luck. Just as I was starting to take all my 'just in case they keep me in' stuff out to the car, Golan appeared. He shlepped it all out for me and drove Harley back to his place on the ramp after I got in the car. I met up with Dem Der and a friend of his he'd asked if I could take along to the train station in Haifa,as we go right by it. At some point along the way, Dem Der started in on the pretty much the same cripple stuff I dealt with the night before and I just wasn't in the mood. I asked him to drop the subject, but he just kept going on. I lost it and at a stop light where two cops were hanging out told him to either leave it or get out. Ok, he might be right that all those things should have been done, but they weren't and they won't get done overnight. Just let me have some peace an quiet to drive without getting into it all again. He finally shut up and all was well. We ended up in the worst taffic snarl I have ever seen at the hospital car park, but again got lucky and the attendent sorted a space for me right at the entrance to the building. We found the right place in good time and the doc took me as close to on time as you can get in this country. I liked him immediately. It took him about half a second to realize that I am not your every day garden vegetable Israeli patient who treats docs like gods. My answer to his question about the illnesses I suffer from probably tipped him off. I told him that I'm not really sick, I'm just a bunch of broken parts they don't keep spares for in the wharehouse! I also told him about the medical experiment I did on myself the previous night. I figured out a way to get the good folks at KFC to bring an order out to me, figuring that if it stayed down, the barf from that morning could be considered a fluke. It worked! After more questioning and finding out that I've been on NSAIDs for 10 years, he came to the conclusion that I most likely have a peptic ulcer caused by the NSAIDs and agravated by coumadin. He said to quit taking the NSAID, and come in for another edoscope in two weeks, and upped the Losec dosage. Sounds good to me, so I am now quite calm about the gut crap I've been through. It was good for something. I've gone from 120 kilos to 93. Not bad at all! After the appointment, Dem Der and I went to a MacDonald's on the way to his place to get his laundry to take to the guy who does it for him. After we left off the laundry I dropped him at a bus stop and came home. I barely had time to send two emails ad phone him and Shani that I got safely home before I just fell asleep.
Then, along rolled yesterday. I took all stuff from the Rambam doc to my doc at the clinic and he wrote out the scripts for the non NSAID he recommened and the new dose of Losec. After that I went to the agency I get my cleaning lady through, to pay for last month, and was told that she would be here between 1300 and 1400. I got in after a quick swing through the grocery store to pick up the ingredients for a cheese pie, at 1230. She never showed up. Damn and double triple damn.
Good old Peg wasn't as lucky with the KFC I foolishly let him have and he squitted all over again. This time I decided to clean it up while it was still wet. I got a wad of paper towels and toilet paper and bent down from the wheely to start mopping it up. I was so suprized that I could bend to floor that I almost fell face first into the mess! But I managed a last minute save and got the whole mess all nice and clean.
And that brings us to day. I went to the clinic to weigh myself. Wowsers! I've lost almost 62 lbs! I left the clinic grinning lile a mad woman and headed for the industrial area to get yet another Harley lock. On the way I saw a truck full of cute young men putting up flags(among them purple ones) for tonight's 60 years founding of Qiryat Shmonah celebration. I just had to stop and ask for a purple one. And they gave me one! They even used those plastic handcuff thingies so it wouldn't blow off. They were so sweet.

They were just pulling into the stadium car park when I was on the way home and they all hi fived me and waved Then I went to my favorite kitchen stuff store and got two pretty pots(with pretty purple flowers, duh) with the kind of handles I prefer, and new knife. When I got here, I called Golan to see if he was in the area and asked him to come and take a few pictures of the flag draped Harley. He did and even came in and sorted some water bottles right into the freezer so I'll have a supply at hand for the week. Oh, yes indeed. It sure can be fun being me, and screw anyone who has a problem with it!

Saturday, August 08, 2009

INCLUDING THE KITCHEN SINK


Right! It only took an hour and a half, but I can once again see the bottom of my sink (what's left of it). Before and after pictures fot your viewing pleasure.You might not be able to see much of a difference because what's left of the counter has so much stuff on it, but, I sure can.
Anyone want to play Find the Differences?

Friday, August 07, 2009

MY POOR SINK

Knowing perfectly well that no one would believe me if I just described the state of my kitchen sink, I decided to proof of what I am about to write.




Right. My kitchen was designed for me to be comfortable working in it. Small as it is, everything is within easy reach. I love my wee tiny kitchen. Thing is, it is now full of things that need to be washed. We have lots and lots of tiny little earthquakes which cause the marble counters to crack because they are jammed into the walls on both ends and have absolutely no room to flex, even if marble could flex. A triangular piece broke off the other day. I've been trying to get the housing authority to sort it for close on to a year. They came to look at it once, except for the one who has to see it and approve the replacement. My dishes, pots and pans have piled up because the quakes made the pipes loose around the joints which caused the water to spray out of all the joints.
Yesterday the fix it man of our gimp community came around and changed the pipes to a newfangled flex pipe. Now I can wash the dishes, if I ever stop procastinating!
'After' pictures will follow.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

YEAH YEAH YEAH I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER

Yes, I really did want to go on that trip to Jerusalem. There were several reasons I wanted to go. The other four of The Five were all going and we usually have fun just being together, and it was the first anniversary of the trip to Jerusalem on our scooters and my burn! I also really wanted to go back to the Israel Museum. I was there years ago and have wanted to go back ever since.
So, I decided to go and block out the kids as much as possible.
We were supposed to leave at 0800 from the Community Center. We were all there on time, but the freaking bus was half an hour late. It takes time to get all the wheelies onto the bus, so we left almost an hour late, and got to the museum an hour later than planned. While we were looking at one of the exhibits, the gals in charge got a call from the restaurant that said that we have to hurry up. That put an end to seeing any more of the museum. I was so furious with the restaurant that I refused to eat there. As it turned out there was no real reason to hurry.
Our next stop was Mini Israel, which is a miniature of pretty much the whole country. I had absolutely no intersest in seeing that, as I've seen most of it in the original. I stayed behind while the others went off look around. I used the little crippled ladies room and had a lunch of an Ice cream cone. I was perfectly happy watching the people who came in. At least there was no time pressure there and I could people watch to my heart's content.
We finally left at around 2000 and got back to the Community Center at 2300 or so. The kids were restless on the way home. They had actually been pretty good up until then. The one who did manage to annoy me was Savta's wife. She is the Jewish equvalent of a born again Christian and is always talking about it and what we are supposed to do and why. She spent hours telling the gals in the seat across the aisle what to do. It drove me feaking wild and she is now known to me as The Missionary, which is the epitome of rude as Judaism does not have missionaries. She started on me at one point, but I managed to escape without insulting her too badly. On the way home she started playing some very loud religious type music on an I Pod or something. I was on the verge of shoving it down her throat when she turned it off. I just wanted a little quiet to rest. If it wasn't her and that music, it was the kids whining "When will we be home?"
So, yes, I should stuck to my guns and noy gone. I spent the day yesterday mostly sleeping.
My sink issue has been somewhat resolved. Resolved enough that I can do the dishes until they come to change the counter and sink. I'll get started on the dishes later.Maybe.

Saturday, August 01, 2009

DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME

Sometimes I can't help but wonder why I do stupid things. Take today. I actually had a fairly good night's sleep and woke up at a reasonable hour, got through my morning routine and went out to get fags and something to cook for today and tomorrow. I wasn't sure what I wanted, but when I saw nice big juicy turkey tits in the butcher's shop I decided that my internationally unknown turkey tit salad was just thing. I got the meat, and rolled into the supermarket for celery (I discovered at home that the celery was in fact lettuce-oops) and scallions, then, I picked up the local papers and came home to make that salad. I hate working in a kitchen that has undone dishes and stuff in the sink, so I positioned my kitchen chair just the way I like it and turned on the water. I was less than pleased when it drained out of the pipes onto my feet and the floor. It being Friday, there was nothing to do and I wasn't about to start messing around with the pipes myself, so I ended up making my turkey tit salad with unwashed dishes and my feet in a wading pool. I got the salad all made, and ready to go into the fridge. As I opened the fridge door I remembered that a friend had written this morning that the mammogram she had yesterday was like closing herself in a fridge door. While trying to control my mirth, I promptly closed the fridge door on my face. OUCH.7 hours later my face is still sore.