A GRAND DECLARATION

I don't much care what the weather geeks and calendars say, as far as I am concerned, it is now officially summer. I base my declaration on the fact that both my air conditioners are set on 'cool', the blast door to the Liberry is open and the little fan in there is on. The fact that we have had many days that came close to 100 degrees and that I have yet to use the a/c matters not. I intend to muddle through as best I can with my big propeller, small fan and snow storm screen saver for as long as I can before resorting to the a/c. I quite like getting the lower electrickery bills.

I guess the biggest news here is that I am no longer an addict to oxycontin. I decided after that brief brush with withdrawl, and a lecture from my son, that I'd best get off the stuff while still on the relatively low dose of 20mg. I am finally off it and have started looking for something else as naxyn has again raised it's ugly head started me barfing. I went to my doctor yesterday, and he was pleased that I'm as good as off the stuff and gave me a prescription for something to try. So far, so good. It works on the pain and after 3 doses there have been no strange reactions. Way back when we started looking for a pain killer I went through at least 10 that either didn't touch the pain or gave me side effects, some of which were not even in the book. Then, we tried naxyn and it was just fine until 10 years later. Oh well. Being back at square one is not exactly fun, but the pain is even less fun, so, here we go again. I really do hope this new one will be the answer, and that I won't have any weird reactions to it. I'll take it until I'm sure one way or another.

Most folks just don't get how debilitating chronic pain can be. It doesn't

let you sleep while at the same time causing you to be tired all the time from fighting through it to do even the simplest things. It's hard to sit, lie down, or do anything else. Your body is never comfortable. Then, of course, there's the issues that go with being completely pain free. That is also not good because you don't just can't feel if something else has gone wrong. The trick is to keep the known pains down to a bearable level so new ones can be identified and dealt with.

Oh, to be able to go back to pain free days of youth. As that isn't about to happen any time soon, I'll just have to aim for that balance.

I had the most amazing luck with my cable company the other day. I absolutely adore Top Gear with Jeremy Clatckson, but the channel that carries that show was not part of my new deal with the cable company. I didn't get the part about having all the 'packages', but not that channel, so I called them for an explanation. After explaining it to me The Cable Guy asked why on earth I (a woman) would want that channel. He made a comment after I told him which show I wanted that had me explaining that I had been a partner in the first motorcycle garage up here which lead him to ask if I still ride. After I told him that these days I ride a collection of wheelies, a scooter and crippled cripple car, he gave me the channel for free for 3 months, after which it will cost me NIS 13 a month ($3.50) a small price to pay for Top Gear, and still within the savings of my new mobile phone deal! The very best thing of all is that my son will be here in 20 days with his wife and both kids. I haven't been this excited since the last time he was here. And it's getting closer by the hour. I'm still on day count down, but it won't be long before I go into an hourly countdown mode.

JUST WATCH THIS AND SHUT UP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOGG_osOoVg&feature=player_embedded

THE LONG HOT JOURNEY

Savta had an appointment with a top ENT doctor in one the big hospitals in the Tel Aviv area on June 2. I had planned on taking him Mrs. Savta before my poor car had it's rear bumper almost pulled off by some jerk who didn't even have the courtesy to leave a note. I've been putting off getting it fixed/replaced because I am still flat broke and my deductable is high, not to mention that my comprehensive insurance rates will go way up for the next three years if I do it under my policy. Golan did a brilliant job of securing the mess with plastic bands, and I know that there are lots of other little things in there holding the whole thing up. I just didn't feel like taking such a chance with both Mr and Mrs. Savta in the car on such a hot miserable day on such a long trip. Savta quite understood how I felt and decided to try to rent a car. Unfortunately we starting looking for a car for him to rent too late and I broke down and off we went. Three cripples in a cripple car that was itself somewhat crippled, on a hot muggy day with an a/c that wasn't working all that well. We discovered early on that my right side wing mirror was adjusted just right for me and also allowed Savta to keep and eye on the state of the bumper. There are several ways to get to Tel Aviv from up here. All of them go by several not over friendly Arab villages, and those villages were feeling even less friendly on that day. I did chose to take the way with the least number of villages. We were about half an hour out of town when I missed a turn. I breezed right by it and never even noticed. Savta was paying attention and I realized it myself a few seconds later and started looking for a place to turn back. I finally found one and got us back on track. They are working on roads all over the place and as I don't go to Tel Aviv all that often I don't really know all the changes. Luckily Savta does and he warned me when we were coming up to a change. Of course I messed up again but not really, I had wanted to turn left and get on road 4 but found myself on road 2 which was actually just fine. Thing is; that hospital is just off road 4 so we had to get off 2 and onto 4 which is not a problem at all. We finally got to the hospital and the great Parking Adventure started. After a lot of helpful directions on how to get to the gimp parking area we found the closest spot to the entrance was free so I grabbed it! That freaking hospital is a mini city in it's own right, and as some of the so called peace activists were there, so was the press. We somehow managed to get inside and find the right place which I swear was in the next city to the west after all the miles of corridors we had to traverse. The Doc saw Savta right away, and was intrigued by what he was has and wants to handle the case himself. This is one of the top ENT guys in the country and he wants to take care of Savta himself! That's great news. The bad news is that he has to go back in 3 weeks. I'm not sure I want a rerun of that trip again so soon. But I digress. On the way back to the car we made a loo stop and had coffee and water. After the Trek back to the car, poor Mrs. Savta had to wrestle the wheelies back in to their respective places. I spotted a guy walking by and asked him to help. Wouldn't you know it? He was the younger brother of one of Savta's childhood friends(after open heart surgery) and were their neighbors before the Savta's moved up here. Old home week in the car park! His car was parked in front of mine so, I waited for him to leave and moved out enough for Mrs. Savta to get the wheelies in more easily, and off we went homwards during the hottest time of day with a crap a/c. She wanted to stop on the way to visit a bit with their daughter and grandkids who live pretty much on the way but at that stage all I wanted was to get home, so home we went with a short stop at a roadside mall for a quick bone stretch. The farther north we went the cooler it got, then, at long last; Home Sweet Home. I dropped them off and finally got parked and in the house where I realized that every single muscle was screaming at me and that I was on the verge of dehydration. I got a 750ml bottle of water and climbed into bed with it and drank it down nice and slow. After a rest I even gave in and had a shower, got another bottle of water, took my meds and settled in for my Star Trek fix and went to sleep. Yesterday I spent the day recovering, after going to my mail box and finding my new credit which had to be activated at the bank, got my meds, fags, and home for a long rest. I'm just about rested now, and more hydrated. I will be going out soon for water. I don't drink tap water because the pipes are so old you can see the junk in the water. I, for sure will not be doing anything much for the next week or so. It takes this gimp a long time to recover from a day like that. The car came through just fine. And I am very busy thanking G-d for that.