Gimp House

IT'S BEEN QUITE A TRIP SO FAR

2011-07-07T14:52:00.000+03:00

Amazingly, we got me to the airport in plenty of time for my flight. After a farewell coffee with The Savtas I was whisked away by wheely driver and left to carry out my cigarrette smuggling plot. I bought 10 cartons, 5 of marlboro light for me and 5 Marlboro red for Jeff. I took the packages apart and stuffed the individual packs into my carry on bags, and they got through!Never mind the 3 cartons in my checked bags-giggles- The only problem was at LaG uardia, where the TSA stole the gifts . That for Jeff and Jonathan. I got to Portland a few minutes after Susie and we got the car and went to the hotel. That was a bit of an adventure! I was headed in the right direction but stopped at a huge place with a huge parking lot in to try to figure it out. A guy in a pick up stopped to ask if we were ok and tried to show us where the hotel was. He was very sweet and found two wrong ones. Then I found the right one quite by accident.
In the morning we went to Jeff's and found it after quite a few wrong turns. I made it up his porch steps but went ass over teakettle trying to get in the door. I landed on our bags and my crutch and burst out laughing. I used the steps to get up and got in. We had a lovely visit with Vicki until Jeff got home. Then the waterworks started. We laughed and cried and told old stories until it was time to head for Brunswick and find a hotel. We stopped at the Comfort Inn-no smoking-grrrrr- and took a room until Sunday. Ok. This coputer is driving me wild. More later.

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Posted By Purplegimp to A Gimps View From The North at 7/07/2011 05:01:00 AM

JUST THE FACTS, MA'AM

2011-06-11T02:47:00.002+03:00

So much to do and so little time to do it in. A month might seem like a lot of time to get things done before a long trip, but, for me, it's not. I used to be able to charge all over the place and get things done easily. Now that I have this stoopid miserable problem with my legs I have to time things so they don't swell up too much before I can get them up. I've been a bit concerned about the flight to Maine. I have a long wait at LaGuardia before the flight to Maine and have been trying to find leg extenders for my wheely. It's a problem if the wheely didn't come with them. Mine didn't. Savta and I decided to take our favorite helper, Jonathan with us to Haifa on Thursday to get my international driver's lisence, and to go to the FedEx office there to send something. Thursday morning duly rolled around, and I remembered that I still owed Sid, my wheely guy 3 thousand shekels for my other new one. It didn't get paid for on time and I told him that as soon as I could, I would pay for it. So, when I remembered it, I called to tell him that I wanted to come down next week, pay it and have him go over the wheely before the trip. I called and someone other than Sid answered, and told me that Sid had passed away a few months ago. Through my shock and tears I told what I wanted to do, and he said fine. In somewhat of a daze I picked up Savta and Jonathan and we headed out of town. Along the way, Savta and I discussed the whole thing, and decided to go to Raanana (where Sid's shop is) and pay the debt and do the lisence there. FedEx would have to wait another day. Part of the reason was that I have a dentist appointment on Sunday, and a meeting with a Knesset committee on Monday. See? No time. When we got there, I asked Chanan, who is running the shop now, if just maybe there were some leg extenders that would fit my wheely. He disappeared into the back room and reemerged with one in his hand that didn't fit. He went back and came out with one that fit! He spent well over an hour adjusting it to my leg, then, got the other one. They were obviously not for my wheely, but they fit! Wait time problem-solved! I happily paid him the old debt and for the leg extenders and off we went to get the lisence. When we got back to the car after that Savta couldn't find the cell phone he'd left in the car charger. Panic ensued until we finally found it under my seat. We stopped to eat about half way home. Partly because we were hungry and partly because my feet were on fire. The combination of my pressure stockings and the rubber floor mats in the car are a nightmare of Steven King proportions. I'll have to find a solution before I leave.

After I dropped everyone off, I came home, fell into bed and cried my eyes out. It's not every day that something like finding those leg extenders happens. Not only that, but for the first time since my leg issues started, I got home from a long drive like that with no swelling at all in either leg. Devine intervention? The Hand of G-d. No doubt in my mind.

THE PLAN THAT CAME TOGETHER

2011-06-05T09:30:00.000+03:00

Who thought that putting together a little jaunt like I'm going on at the end of the month would be such hard work? Brain work can be as tiring as physical labor. It really is. I spent the better part of four days at my travel agent's office putting all the flights and rental cars together. We only ran into one minor problem with Alaska Airlines, my nemesis from my last trip. In the end we got it sorted. The problem was with the wheely part, but we finally got that approved. There were more fun and games with the rental car. We started with Avis and got a total dolt who told us that I'd have to return car# 1 on day 28 because a month is too long. Then, he got really stupid about something else(their office in Portland is closed when I land there) and I very loudly told Jenni to forget Avis, that I wouldn't take an Avis car for free and to try Hertz. After she hung up with Avis, she shot me a grin of pure evilty and said that the Avis guy heard me. Fine. Things got off to a really bad start at Hertz. The first booking agent she got was rude and argumentative. This time it was Jenni's temper tantrum and she demanded to talk to a supervisor. When she finally got to the supervisor, it didn't take long to get the deal done, and it came to almost $1000 less than Avis, and there were no problems at all. I gave her a check for the cars and inquired about severance terms, as all that's left is to pick up the tickets and vouchers! At home I reserved the hotel for the first night. No way am I going to even think about driving from the airport in Portland to my brother's in Lewiston after a whole day flying. That is a very stoopid thing to do. I'm brain damaged, not stoopid! I had to use my in Israel only credit card for that, as my international one hasn't arrived yet. Funny thing about that card. I can use it to pay for things overseas, but I can't use it there in person. Handy for Amazon, my game and a few other things. So, my new card will owe my old one the cost of that room. I'm sure I'll figure out a way for the debt to paid. I've been in touch with most of my Maine friends and we have plans to meet up. Some are not in Maine, but, I'll see the ones who are on the east coast! Now, that's a plan that came together. You could even say that I'm on the Jazz!

MY LATEST CAUSE

2011-05-18T15:15:00.003+03:00

One fine sunny day last week, Savta and I were 'holding court' in our usual conference room, aka the mid level entrance to the mall in town. While enjoying the warm day over cigarettes, and friendly banter with he guards and paasers by, several of the local gimps came up and asked us what was going with a program they are all members of. The closest I can get to name of the project in English is The Support Community For the Disabled. That condenses down neatly to 2 words in Hebrew. The JDC started it a short time after the last Lebanon war in order to train those of us who were able and interested to be able to give real time answers to local disabled folks during a security emergency, war, or other emergency situation. Members were also supplied with medic alert/call buttons and phone numbers as well as the option to get greatly subsidised ambulance and medical service. There were bi monthly get togthers, seminars and movies as well as trips to various places that we don't often get a chance to go to because of mobility issues. We don't all have adapted vehicles. There were several projects carried out members that were 'commisioned' by the municipality, which in the end were proven to be nothing more than busy work devised to keep us busy and quiet while things just stayed the same. The JDC turns projects like this over to the 'locals' after three years, and only after securing the funds to continue from the government, which is supposed to channel the agreed upon amount to the company that runs the project. The transition was seemless in the other localities, but, not in Kiryat Shemonah, which was the flag ship of the whole program.

Savta and I promptly set out to find out was going on, and the information was at our finger tips with in minutes as one of the project's employees showed up at just the right moment. He told us that the company intends to close the project at the end of this month, whether or not they get paid what they owed. The do not and will not trust the municipality to uphold their end of the agreement and transfer the funds they contracted to pass on. This just wasn't acceptable to us and we called the other two members of ouur local group and contacted the press. The reult of one is in my previous post. I will post the newspaper article after I bully my HP scanner into working. Not all handicapped people are as fortunate as I in being relatively well educated and somewhat able to express myself, so here I am, finally posting about something important here. Tonight we are metting with a group of students at the local college who are interested in helping us. I even opened a Facebook for us. It's in Hebrew at the moment, but my page is the English one for anyone who might be interested.

BEEN A LITTLE BUSY

2011-05-18T11:39:00.002+03:00

Our local government is messing with us gimps again. I think this is clear enough even if you don't understand half a word of Hebrew

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEQP5f0rz-w

Graffiti

2011-04-14T09:00:00.001+03:00

It's done! My wall mural is done except for the varnish. That will be finished in a day or two.

It makes me grin like a fool every time I come home from that direction. I love it madly!

I HAVE A PURPLE SMILE

2011-04-05T13:41:00.001+03:00

Have I mentioned before how much I adore my dentists? Mr and Mrs. Dr. Painless did it again! My new teeth arrived and I couldn't be happier. Mr. Dr. Painless worked long and hard to get them to fit perfectly, and we had a slightly insane photo session when they were finally in! It's not everyday someone gets purple teeth! I haven't stopped smiling since they went in. And there are 2 more to go, on the other side. The tech who actually made got the color just right. I can't hardly wait to get started on the other side. It's so much fun going to this dentist! He and Mrs. Dr. Painless are just the best.

I'm taking the day off today because it's a little yucky outside and I'm taking Savta to see a doctor in Nazareth tomorrow. Two long car trips back to back can be exhausting for me, So, I'll play it smart and stay in today. Next Monday will be here soon enough. Monday is my day at the dentist's. The best day of the week!

THE JOKE WAS ON ME EXCEPT IT WAS NO JOKE

2011-03-22T01:02:00.000+02:00

Panic? Who? Me?

I managed to send myself into an emotional tail spin yesterday. I am quite used to getting notices from the courts here that this that or the other thing has had a lien taken out on it. I actually was foolish enough to think that those days were behind me after clearing up the debts Shmariah dumped on me. I was free and clear, or so I thought, until I went to the mail box yesterday and found a notice that informed me that my salary(I don't have a salary that can be attached. By law disabled benefits can not be taken for any reason other than owing social security back payments) had been attached by the court as a third party to the debt. Panic immediately set in and I called Homeless and ranted and raved about the whole thing. I understood it to mean that the company he owes 54 thousand and change($15,428) shekels to wanted me, as Shmaryah's ex employer to pay his debt them. It made no sense at all to me. I gave Homeless all the information from notice and he tracked down the lawyer who told him that I had it all backwards. That notice simply instructed me to not pay his salary to him, but rather to the court! Joke on me. I honestly thought they wanted ME to pay it! I have already written them a letter informing them that I no longer employ him, and very kindly included where they could find him! After the total panic I felt at first I can quite happily laught at myself. It really is over! That guy is a liar, coniving, thieving, debt dodger of the first order. I hope they catch him this time and lock him up for a good long time. If/when that happens, I'll know it really is over and stop looking over my shoulder and panicing when I see strange things in the mail.

PAINTING THE JERICO PROJECT AND BAD HABITS

2011-03-13T13:47:00.002+02:00

Moving right along with the Jerico Project. Golan started painting today while I was still sound asleep. I was up until almost 0600 after playing my game for way too long. I logged off at 0445 and was still awake until after 0500. I vaguely heard Golan painting and woke up at around 1130. Th difference in paint colours is amazing. This shade is more 'alive' than the old one. I love it

Things are going great guns at the dentist as well. He's finishing the right side tomorrow which will be nice, then we move to the craters on the left side. I just hope those go more easily than the right side crater did. Not that I mind going to this dentist. I quite enjoy having him excavating and building in my mouth. He is an absolute dear and has as warped a sense of humor as I do. That is always a big plus.

I seem to have developed a very bad habit of late. I've started leaving the house before my wake up coffee. That has rarely happened before, and I can't say I like it much. Thing is, I stay up so late that it's late by the time I get up and don't have much time to get things done before places close at 1300. Maybe I should go to bed earlier? I'll have to think on that one for a while. Morning coffee is a non negotiable clause in my contract with myself!

ThE JERICO PROJECT

2011-03-12T18:09:00.003+02:00

For the last week or so Golan and I have been working industriously on the Jerico Project. Two walls came tumbling down, but not because of a trumpet; it was a nice big sledge hammer that did it. I'd been thinking and pondrering for the longest time on how to sort the crowded kitchen issue for once and for all. Thing is, when Gimp House was renovated for me, I could still walk and the tiny closed in kitchen was perfect for me. Then, when I couldn't walk any more, an office chair in there was fine. It's not any more. The wheely to chair transfers get harder by the day. A radical solution was needed-The Jerico Project was born! After months of turning it every which way in my head, I suddenly 'saw' the answer. After a brief consultation with Golan about whether or not it could be done, and a short negotiation about cost, I hired Golan as project manager for The Jerico Project! The first day of the project was kind of a yucky day out and I was feeling not too great, so I just stayed in bed and slept through most of the demolition. I did wake up at one point long enough to tell him to stop everything and rebuild the walls because I forget to take a before picture. He almost put me to sleep permanently after that. I did take a couple of pictures that show where the walls were, but are no more. We ran into a minor problem with the washer and drier but came up with the answer quickly. Golan cut a few of the 'pantry' shelves and they slid right in. It might look a little strange, but Gimp House is all about what works for me. On Thursday night I had a vision of a trolley type thing on wheels that I could keep my mixer and crock pot on. On my way to the grocery store I swung through the Home Center store and saw the very thing! I decided that I would go back for it on Sunday as there was no way I could take it and the groceries home on Harley. First thing Sunday morning, I went back and told the guy I want THIS. He went off a few feet to get one in a box and I said, "No, this, not in a box". He went off to get the manager's permission, which, was a no brainer. I paid for it and a guy from paint brought it out and scud taped it to Harley, and I got it home just as Golan was coming over. It's absolutely perfect

Another minor hiccup came a long in the shape of the annual inspection by the housing authority. They come around once a year to make sure the place is still standing and the right number of people are living in it. Every year, the clerk who 'takes care' of the place comes alone. This time he had the district enginner and a boss in tow.

Hmmmm, you think maybe somebody told them I was tearing down walls? Not a doubt in my mind. Thing is we can do what we want to 'our' places, but have to return it to the way it was when we got it. I'm leaving Gimp House feet first, so who cares? There's also the fact that this place will stay on the books as a disabled flat and losing the walls will only make less work when the time comes. I did point out to Moshe the engineer that we left all the support columns and beams in place. All the other flats in this building took them down. All the tattletale had to do was ask me if I had and I would have shown him, but, oh, no, it's much more fun to do it that way. That was a waste of a phone call.

Quite a week

2011-01-31T10:16:00.003+02:00

It's been quite a week! My server finally got my gaming issues sorted, or so it seems. I couldn't log onto my game for close on to four months, unless I used my net stick. That set off warning bells that the trouble just might be with my server, and not my computer, which the game support types kept trying to tell me. After a chat with my ISP, I got a static gamer's IP and the problem was solved for two whole days, then, the whole thing started again. I got back onto them and told them in no uncertain terms that if it wasn't sorted PDQ, I'd switch to another ISP. That time they put me on to their gamer super tech guy who admitted that they were indeed at fault and that at least 3 other people who play the same game had complained, and that they had turned the issue over to their engineer types. So, I just kept trying to log on this computer and if it didn't work, went to the lap top. Then, one fine evening it worked! Now I can play pretty much when I want to and not worry about getting disconnected at the worst possible moment!

The bad news is that I have a bad case of the stupids. I let my myself gain some weight back and now my pressure stockings don't fit. My legs swell up like balloons if I sit here too long. Back to diet board. I don't have to lose much; maybe4or 5 kilos or so, then, I'm back in business. The swelling goes right down when I lie down, and I finally figured out how to get worst foot propped up here.

That seems to help. I also think I broke something in my knee. I did one of my weird twist and fall into the wheely moves and heard a snap there and felt a fierce stabbing, very sharp pain in my knee. I'm not too bothered by it as I don't walk in any event, and don't see any reason to rush to get it fixed. My pain med keeps it pain free. It will either heal itself, or not.

I spent a lot of time watching the European skating championships and they were amazing. There are lots of youngsters coming up in the ranks, and most of my favotites placed pretty much where I'd hoped. The very best was Sarah Meier from Switzerland. I've liked her ever since she started competing at Europeans and was hoping she'd take the gold this time, especially as it was to be her last competition, and at home. She did it with one of the best and best skated long programs I've ever seen. There wasn't a dry eye in the place, or in Gimp House, for that matter. I couldn't have been more pleased for her and I will miss her in future competitions.

I have a sick feeling that ice dance will soon be going the way of the dinosaurs. They've eliminated the compulsary dance and are just having a short, and long program. It seems to be getting more and more like pairs, and less and less and less like ice dance. That's too bad. Ice dance was always special, never mind that it was 'my' thing!

I finally found a place in town that sells purple pots to go with my purple frying pans! And that after being told that I'd never find them. Then, a friend sent a link to a place that sells only purple things. Gimp heaven.

DEAD ROTTING GONDOLIERS

2011-01-14T17:31:00.004+02:00

This whole dentristry thing seems like it might not have been the best idea I ever had. The really dumb part was stopping after Shmaryah ran through all my money. If I'd realized how bad restarting it in the middle would be, I'd have found a way to continue it and get it all done before I started with the whole rat poison thing. The oral surgeon who consulted on my mouth stated caregorically that going with our original plan which consisted of I don't know what was a very bad idea and strongly recommemned doing root canals and crowns and bridges, in effect, turning my mouth into a royal Interstate highway system. I'd rather have teeeh pulled than get root canals. Turns out I was right! The very first root canal didn't have any canals, but the tooth next to it turned out to not only have canals, but a dead gondolier in one of them that started to rot and made my cheek swell up like a balloon. After digging around in that first tooth, and still finding no canals, we came to the conclusion that it was the one next to it that was causing the trouble. Crazy thing is that it really didn't hurt much because I'm on naxyn and it masked the pain. If my cheek handn't swollen up I might never have known what was going on in there. Taking the tooth out should be lots of fun because we suspect a broken root. No. It is not going in a cast until it heals. It's coming out on Monday one way or another, and should supply me with lots more one liners about my teeth and Venician gondoliers in canals not to mention complicated road systems!

2011-01-04T19:16:00.002+02:00

What a day today was! I called Oshria as agreed. It turned out that they (husband, son, brother) were coming up here to go to the prehistoric museum on Kibbutz Mayan Baruch. We decided to meet up there, and of course I got there a few minutes before they did. She called and I drove around the corner to where she was. Seeing her again was a little like a hand grenade going off in my head. Lots of hand holding and smiling through tears, and best of all, when she saw me again, she really did remember the little brat that I was back then. When I heard her voice again after so many years memories came flooding back like a mini tsunami. I remembered clearly that at the end of that summer I wanted to go with her, but not home again. I recall being devasted that she was leaving. She sure did make quite an impression on a little Jewish girl from Maine. She was and still is the very best.

We traded abridged life stories of how we got to where we are today and could have gone on for hours if not days. The museum was fascinating, but I only really had eyes for her. Our time together was way too short for me, but she is here on a family visit, so I tore myself away and they went off to see the 'Jewish snow on Mt. Herman and I went to the Savta's for couscous, and got home not long ago. I'm having a hard time finding the exact words to describe how felt, so I'll just let the pictures say it all.

THE BIG DAY IS HERE

2011-01-04T10:34:00.002+02:00

I'm pretty much the only person I know who has a good time at the dentist. I actually look forward to going to him. His new name in Israel is Dr. Painless, and his wife (also a dentist) is now Mrs. Dr. Painless. My appointment was for yesterday at 1500, So Homless and I left early and went on a shopping expedition at the huge shopping complex not far from the clinic. At last, I have new phones with headsets that allow me to talk with both hands free. I also stocked up on lots of new replacement purples-pens, a diary, and new notebooks. I go through those notebooks at a frightening rate. I take notes on new things from the game to help fix them in my memory.The phone near the computer is up and running and just might have two numbers I use most from that line in it's memory.

I was on pins and needles all day waiting for my camp counselor to call. She finally did, and I am heading out for where they will be today in an hour or so. I am so excited I can barely stand it. I was so wound up last night at the very thought of seeing her again that I couldn't even think of bed much before 0230. And it here is; the big day, and I'm counting the minutes until the agreed that I'd call gets here. Why do clocks move so slowly? Only half an hour to go now.

Of course I used my foolproof stress/excitement cure until my eye lids started drooping. That is possible only because Moshe Savta got my log on issues sorted for once and for all, we think. I'm afraid to even think that it might really be fixed. One of the reasons I love tha game so much is that it requires my total concentration and there's no room for anything else in my poor damaged brain when I'm playing. I still don't trust the fix enough to even think about trying to do some of the more difficult things there yet, but maybe by the weekend. For the time being, I'm concentrating on periferral things in the game that are almost as important as moving my character ahead. That is quite challenging enough for now. It is now to get dressed and ready for my trip back to my childhood!

WHAT A WEEK

2011-01-01T13:41:00.000+02:00

Had a bit of a strange day on Wednesday. Homeless and I had a few things to do here, so he came to town in the morning.

When he got here, I went out to hop on Harley to meet him at the mall. No go juice. Empty batteries greeted me. Ok. No problem. Plan B. Homeless is here to help with the wheely, so into the car I went. Not a parking space to be had anywhere near the mall. Move to plan C. Go to Savta and get newly repaied Old Brand New Harley from him. At last. I finally got to the mall and we did all the stuff we'd planned on doing, and some shopping to boot. So, I took Old Harley back to Savta, got the car with all my bags in it and went back to the mall to get Homeless. Because I can get stuff in the house more easily when on Brand New Harley Too Jr. I told Homeless that if he would just take my stuff in and dump it on the bed for me, I'd take him home, and so it was. There was no way I could have done that on my own. It's all I can manage just getting from the post I lock the wheely to up to the door with my bag of holding, never mind more bags. I left home for this little jaunt at around 1100 and got back at 2130, only to discover that I had forgotten to take my morning meds which include my pain killer! Needless to say that was an early night and I went sraight to sleep and woke up early on Thursday morning, determined to get the issues with my game settled once and for all. Savta's son, Moshe had suggested getting a permanent IP, which I did to no avail. I kidnapped him to come here and sort it himself. It turned out that somehow the cable company had unilaterally changed it back. After close to 7 hours, we got it all sorted and I got on just fine yesterday. That was the problem all along. It seems that they don't really like giving out permanent IPs, and lost tons of customers who left them for that very reason, and not just over the same game I play, but other games as well. In the end they bought more dedicated IPs and have more available for gamers. Now, I can play when I want. Moshe is going to come over and tweak the computer even more on Sunday, though I'm not sure it's needed now. All I really want is for that game to work properly, but as he's in town, I might as well let him.

It was quite a week, what with getting my butt shot, and a root canal done on Tuesday, the day at the mall on Wednesday and computer fix marathon on Thursday. I was a bit of a busy gimp to put it mildly. I never would have gotten half as much done if I hadn't made the trip to get my butt shot.

Now that my bank account is finally mine again and all restrictions have been listed, I can breathe again. The bank has a rule that anyone with a lien against their account must get permission to withdraw cash even if their balance is very high. It's just one of those Israeli things. Now that everything is paid, no more permission asking to get my own money. What a joy it was yesterday to not have to wait that extra minute for the permission! And best of all, I start with a clean paid off credit card tomorrow. It was a long time coming, but, I made it.

One of the guys at the bank keeps telling me not to be foolish again (reference to the Shmaryah catastrophe) I keep telling him that I'm sure I will do more foolish things, but not repeat the old foolish ones. He just grins. At least this time, I was smart enough to put aside the equivalent of $25 thousand where I can't get to it easily. Not a bad safety net in addition to the savings account I already have in almost that amount.

The icing on the cake will be in a few days. The camp counselor I finally found after a 50 year search is in Israel now, and supposed to be in a town about 20 minutes from here for a couple of days next week. That is going to be one damp reunion. I so can't wait to see her again after so many years. I already am starting to get choked up just thinking about it. Who? Me? Sentimental? You betcha!

WHY DOES THIS STUFF ONLY HAPPEN TO ME?

2010-12-05T09:51:00.003+02:00

There are times when I really do wonder about myself! I know for a fact that I posted a picture here of something very out of character for me to buy, never mind wear. I went looking for it this morning, but it was nowhere to be found! It wasn't anywhere on here, nor could I find it in any of the stuff transferred from the old computers. Then, I had a brainstorm and thought to look in the camera, and yup, there it was. Let's be clear about this. I only wear this garment when I am playing WoW, and, these days, with my warmest robe over it. It makes me feel quite strange while wearing it; nice strange, though.

I found out a few this week somethingsthat I wasn't really aware of before. One is that you can actually have a physical reaction to someone you've never met except for in a game. Quite interesting, that.

I also realized that the gum grunge I've had for a few months was in fact, eczema! Yes, Nechama, I do know that there's a first time for everything. I've had eczema just about every place else when in money induced stress, but getting it there was a first!

And last, but far from least, I discovered that I am better with computers than I thought! I got that blasted game working again, and rediscovered the guy my main character fell for so hard, after a few months of no contact. I must say that my fictitious character has phenomenally good taste in men.

AH YES

2010-11-07T10:50:00.001+02:00

It's over! The financial nightmare I got myself into is now officially over. Homeless worked wonders over the phone with the people I owed a small fortune to by getting them to reduced the interest on the original debt by huge, almost unbelievable amounts and all except 2 have been paid! It's an incredibly wonderful feeling to be free of that stone around my neck after so long!The last two I intend to fight. One is shmaryah's traffic tickets, the other isa back property tax that I am not liable for in any case. Those are not large, it's the principle of the thing. But all the rest are paid and gone forever! I spent two solid mornings at the bank gettting all the *id* dotted, *ts* crossed and all the payments sent out. When I left the bank on Thursday, I declared a holiday from the bank until Monday (tomorrow), when we will sort out the other things, like my account there and all that fun stuff. Right now it looks like I just might be able to buy my flat and just maybe get my Land Rover back. Two things for sure will be done this week. The Ford's butt will be fixed, and I'll get another new Harley, as well as fix the old one. In fact I just called Afikim, the scooter place and told my old pal at the service center that I want to fix Brand New Harley Too, and buy a new one without having to deal with Danny Lev, the guy who screwed me over when I bought my very first one in 1999, and was rude to Savta last week. MY demand that Danny Lev not be involved left her in a bit of a quandry, but, I think they'll figure out a way to keep us far apart so as not to lose the sale. I also told her quite happily that if worse comes to worst, I'll just get McGyver to take me to my dear late exhusband's kibbutz and have his classmate, Baruch sort it there!

The best part is that the main office knows that I am dead serious and a force to reckon with. When the woman in the group of 5 who rode scooters to Jerusalem tells them she wants, the chances of her getting it are pretty good. My only demand is to keep Danny Lev as far away from as possible. They know I mean business! This is going to be fun.

Savta was transfered to my old rehab hospital on Friday and the freaking idiots at the hospital in Safad wouldn't let him take his own wheely on the grounds that they have wheelies there. Um excuse you, stoopid person. You do not separate someone from their wheely and expect them to get along on a strange one. It just doesn't work like that. Our wheelies are as much a part of our bodies as our arms and legs and after so long they fit us like a glove. Poor Savta was so out of it with the pain and meds that he just went along with that lunacy. I sicced Homeless on that one too. He has the hospital in wired and I hope he makes a big enough deal of it to get them to take Savta his wheely. People who have never spent any time in a wheely just don't get it. But those of us live in them know. It takes a long time to adjust to a new every time we have to get one.

Cripple rules number one is do not even think about separating us from our chairs! Where I go, my wheely goes.

I just might go visit him there today. It's back to the bank and car repairs tomorrow! Right. That's sorted. Mrs. Savta and I are going to visit Savta this afternoon! As she can't leave until around 1400, I can try to get onto WoW. Have they ever made a mess of that game. Sometimes it works just fine, at others you just can't get on and it disconnects you from their servers whenever it wants. What a mess!

LOST TRACK AGAIN

2010-10-31T10:43:00.002+02:00

It's been one of those months again! When things start moving here, they make a speeding bullet look like it's in neutral, and time just gets away from me! I got a new 'super' computer because the game I play would not under any circumstances download a patch to the old one.

It took over two days to finish on the new one. Of course the game was still more glitchy than playable, but that's another whole story. My beloved geek came over to activate the new Windows and couldn't, so he put the ol;d computer back in place and took the new one to sort it's sorry butt. He's putting in a new and better CPU to compensate me for time lost! I was quite miserable at the thought of being without my game for several days, then made the discovery of the century. This computer came back on line with a Windows update notification to download service pack 3. I started jumping up and down in my chair because I remembered seeing someplace that the new patch requires SP 3 on XP machines. I installed and started the patch. It worked. Nowhere on any of the forums or tech pages did I see that as possible solution to the problem, and not one of the myriad tech types I talked with ever thought to ask if it was installed! Well, it is now, and I managed to get into my game. There are still some horrendous glitches, not the least of which is a very low frames per second rate of 4-9 and record breaking high latency rates of over 10000. That's right 10 thousand. But I could get on to play for a while before getting disconnected.

The other and even bigger distraction was getting all the places I owe small fortunes to thanks to Shmaryah to agree to a final settlement amount. I sicced Homeless on them, which meant I was getting calls from him all the time. Be that as it may, he did a great job and the big debts have been cut pretty much in half. That bit of business should be cleared up for once and for all this week. Then, I'll have my life and bank account back! I will admit that those are not the best excuses for not posting, but they are the reasons. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

One night last week, one of my high school pals threw out a question that started a fairly large group of os on a lovely stroll down Memory Lane, reminiscing about all the old places we remembered in town that are no more, and a few that still are. It was a wonderful way to spend an evening and it sure did make me miss them all and mostly my childhood. I've said it before and I'll say it again; my class at Brunswick High School was special. There was something about the town and the schools that made us into a great bunch of kids who still feel strong tugs on our heart strings when the past comes up. Very few of us had a mean bone in our bodies. In fact I can't think of anyone who did. (except maybe me), but I developed that here, not there.

I think part of it might have been because we were a Navy town and new kids were always showing up and others leaving. We locals just seemed to accept the new kids as if they had always been there. In fact, quite a few of them who left before graduation, still consider Brunswick their home town and BHS as their high school. Today I'm not even completely sure who the Navy kids were. They were/are all classmates to me, as well as to most of us.

Every time I get all nostalgic I have to remind myself that I can't go back. Oh, I can go back to Brunswick, all right, but not to my wonderful childhood. I take great comfort in being able to be in touch with so many of those great kids. They might all be as old and gray as I am, but, in my memory, we are still in our teens! Forever Young, to quote a song that has been co opted by Israeli advertising copy writers!

My pal from the Jerusalem on scooters jaunt was in a horrendous accident last Wednesday. A car ran into him at an intersection and sent him and his scooter flying. He came out of alive (thank G-d) and with a broken vertebra or two and a semi smashed pelvic bone. There's not a lot the docs can do for him as the breaks are not in easily accessible places for them to pin and plate (or so they say), so he's stuck in hospital on pain killers that don't help much. They are talking about months. Poor guy can't move a finger without pain. It looks like I'll be going up there to visit him frequently. The hardest part of my numerous stays in hospital was having so few visitors, but I learned early on that it was best to avoid that hospital and get to better ones that were farther and farther away each time I got a DVT!

I won't be going up today because I have sort an issue with my hated new mobile phone. I HATE IT. It never works when I need it to and the blue tooth 'ear' refuses to hold a charge, and the phone doesn't either. With my beloved Motorola Razor I could go a week between charges on both the phone and ear. I don't use it that often, but when I do, I need it to work. Have I mentioned that I hate the new one? Well, I do. And the idiot techies say they can't put my number back in my Razor because it uses a different system to the hated new one. I don't believe that for one minute and Homeless will sort that one day soon. One project at a time is almost more than I can handle with him! I guess I'd better get up there and sort the ear. All it needs is a new battery.

HAPPY HAPPY GIMP

2010-10-05T21:08:00.001+02:00

Here we are at Tuesday already. It started as a fairly strange week on Sunday. I ended up sleeping most of the day and only got up at 1530 or so! I have a feeling that I was so tired from the stress of waiting to hear from the lawyer about the final payment from Dad's estate. I'm not a money grubbing female by any stretch of the imagination. I just want to get out from under the mess I made by being so stupid as to believe one thing Shmaryah said and get it all paid off. The email withe details came last week on Wednesday before I had downloaded a PDF reader. So, I did that and almost passed out on the spot. It's all over except the shouting. Somehow I got the printer to print out one copy and took it and my absentee ballot along to get the former photo copied and the latter mailed. Wednesday evening was the start of one of our holidays that I loved as a kid. I got the WoW installment going and then the download that lead to getting this monster computer going. After the holiday I got back into the game after a week of being away. On Friday I got to thinking about all the fall holidays that I had enjoyed so much as a kid and decided to take a look around Facebook to see if I could find some of the major players from those days. I did, and we exchanged lovely catch up mails. He and his brothers might be all grown with grown kids of their own, but they will forever be the kids we were then to me!

I guess everything just hit sometime Sunday night and when I finally got to sleep, I just kept sleeping until I got all caught up. I'm still a night owl and it is not at all unusual for me to fall asleep at around 0300 and get up at 0900. It works for me. Then, on Monday night I fell asleep just after it got light out, around 0530 and Homeless started looking for me and got all ftutzed when I didn't answer any of the phones. I just didn't hear them. I was asleep. So he sent a mail and said that he almost called the cops to have them check on me. Good thing he didn't. The last thing anyone needs is a run in between me and cops before morning coffee! I finally dragged myself out of bed and instead of getting things properly sorted on the new super computer (yes, I do know that it's already long out of date) I just played WoW all day and most of the night. I might have gone out on a fag run. Oh, now I remember. I went to the bank and got enough money to pay for new batteries for Harley. Savta and McGyver were there too and they gave me an escortt to the battery place because I was carrying a fair amount of cash. So, there we were, three cripples riding along in a line, with me in the middle. How we would have handled a would be thief, I have no idea, except that McGyver has a stout stick close to hand for marauding dogs! It was kind of like the Great Trip to Jerusalem, minus 2. We reminisced about that while waiting for the batteries and entertained the other customers who were waiting for things there too! Much fun and silliness. Yay. Harley has new batteries and I don't have to worry about getting stuck with the old almost dead ones, which lasted for just over two years. An amazing feat in scooter terms!

Then, my character on WoW went and fell for a Paladin there and she's dragging me along with her. He's so sweet. I do wonder if anyone could really be like he seems to be? I guess time will tell. With my luck, he'll turn out to be even a bigger con man than Shmaryah. I do hope not.

So, all in all, I'm a very happy gimp this week, and life seems better than usual, which is saying a lot.

I CAN SAY I TOLD YOU SO TO MYSELF, RIGHT?

2010-10-03T10:25:00.002+02:00

I knew it! I just knew it! I told myself and I was right! It is going to take close to forever to get this new computer sorted the way I like it. On the upside, it did let me get back into my game, which was the sole purpose of getting this monster! This thing is faster than anything I've ever seen or even imagined. Even the move to Windows 7 has been pretty much painless despite dire warnings to the contrary. Windows is Windows! So far I am quite enjoying it and am ever so glad that I skipped Vista. I have quite enough tech issues without adding that to the list! It's a good thing that my memory is still pretty good and that I remember most of what was in the old one. I can add things as and when. And wonder of wonders miracle of miracles, my idiot annoying e mail prog actually configured itself with absolutely no problems. That saved me hours on the phone with my server trying to get it to work!

Good old Harley ran for over 2 years on the batteries I got him not long after the jaunt to Jerusalem! I don't know how they lasted that long with all the running around I do, but there it is. I just hope these will last as long. Herley batteries are not cheap. I did get a good deal on these because I didn't get them throght the company where they cosst twice as much as I paid for these! Now I can happily scoot around town without worrying that they will quit suddenly. Happy gimp with wheels-that's

2010-09-27T10:14:00.000+02:00

I don't know if I want to cry or laugh. That game I've been playing so much to keep a grip on what's left of my sanity needs a patch that refuses to download. I've done absolutely every single thing they suggested but it will not download. Last night, or rather this morning, I got their tech support on the phone again and it seems the critical elements of my OS are corrupt. Working on the principle that Gimp House is a corruption free zone, I have 2 options. One is to reformat and install my beloved XP, or become upwardly mobile (an interesting thought for a gimp) and go with Windows 7. My beloved geek is coming to clean up the corruption and put in Windows 7 tonight. He says I should have the computer back late tomorrow or early Wednesday. At least I'll have the lap top until then for mail and interweb. Today I'm going grocery shopping, and just hope that Harley doesn't misbehave too much. The store I shop at is pretty far away. I'd best get dressed and get on with that. I'm almost out of computer fags!

OOOPS I DID IT AGAIN

2010-09-21T15:26:00.001+02:00

Now I've really gone and done it! My last post was over a month ago. I don't even have a good excuse for it other than Time just gets away from me. No, wait! it's Bush's fault! I shouldn't even say that as a joke because bad as he was, he was far and away better than the joker now occupying the White House. I'd gladly blame him, but he doesn't deserve even that much attention from me!

I just get myself lost in my game and idiotic TV shows. I've even stumbled across a few new 'house' shows that almost satisfy my craving to see the interiors of houses. I don't even know what it is that causes me to be such a house freak. I just like to see different houses. I have two American shows, an Australian, two Brit and one Kiwi show that I DVR regularly. The DVR just records every show after you tell it to, so, I have a steady diet of house shows.

The High Holy Days came and went, and except for Yom Kippur, passed me by almost without notice. I went to the Savta's for the New Year, stayed home for Yom Kippur and fasted, except for half a yogurt with my meds. Succot I might go to the Savta's, then, stay in for most of the long weekend.

I'm starting to display symptoms of stress as the settling of Dad's estate drags on. An ache here, a pain there and a minor come back of eczema on my hands. It's been almost 2 months and I had hoped things would move faster, as it's already been through probate. From what I understand they are tracking down all the assets. That I don't really get. If I had been the executioner, I would have known where every single stock, bond and note was at all times. I'm also a bit concerned that what was left might have taken a big hit in value thanks to the Communist in Chief. I try really hard to not think about that, and spend a lot of time playing WoW because I'm so bad at it that it requires my full attention and there's no room to think of other things.

I'm also very sad that I missed my 40th high school reunion. I foolishly hoped against hope that the estate would be settled in time for me to go, but should have known better to even think for a nano second that it might. I'll just have my own mini reunion when I finally get there, and get there, I will!

I was so sad on the day of the reunion. I sat and looked at the list of friends who went and was so sad I wasn't there. I remember every single one of them so well. It would have been so very wonderful to see them all now, even if from a very different angle. I was one the taller girls in my class, but, now, from my wheely, I'm one of the shortest. That's ok. Enough of spilt milk!

Other than that, I'm quite happy and contented. I'm still here and quite enjoying myself in this life, now that I seem to have the pain med issue sorted, and the freaking pressure stockings are ok too. They aren't as hot as I feared they'd be and I can get the right one on and off now! Neither is easy, but I can do it.

Somehow things aren't the same without Peg. I miss him so much and even find myself yelling at him to move if I wake up for very late night, early morning loo run. I'm not anywhere close to ready for another dog. Maybe in a year or so. Pegasus and Ragamuffin were such special dogs. It was an honor to be their human.

NEVER GIVE UP

2010-08-12T10:11:00.000+03:00

Many long years ago, back when the earth and I were much younger, I went to a Jewish summer camp. I was all of 10 years old in 1960. I find it amazing that I remember so much from that summer 50 years ago. I can still clearly see the camp itself, learning to water ski, my bunk, and several of the other girls in it. My clearest, and best memory is of the counselor I had who was from Israel. I also clearly remember how devastated I was when camp was over that I'd probably never see her again. I had a snap shot of us on the archery range that I kept on my desk at home for years. I never forgot her name, and when I found myself in Israel, I started asking every single person I ran into with the same last name if there was a person in their family with that first name who had been a counselor at a camp in Maine. The answer was always "No". Not being one to give up, I searched her name at Facebook, and there she was! One look at her picture told me that, yes, after 50 years, I had indeed found her! So, of course I sent her an e mail, and surprise, surprise, she actually has a vague memory of having had a camper named Franne in her bunk! Wow.

Of course she's not in Israel these days, but lives in New York. From her mail back to me, we'll start playing catch up at the end of the month. I guess she's on vacation away from home now. This is one of the most amazingly wonderful things that happened in ever so long. I actually found her after 50 years! How cool is that? Oh, how I wish I still had that picture. I may not have the snap shot itself, but I do still have it clearly fixed in my memory. Brain damage? What brain damage? After finding her, the whole directionally challenged thing suddenly is no big deal. So, I used to be a human GPS, and now get lost in my own neighborhood. So what? I did find my childhood idol after 50 years. That pretty much makes up for it all.

Pegasus

2010-08-05T09:35:00.003+03:00

Poor Peg. Poor me. These are the last pictures taken of the darling. The first is after all lovely fluffy hair that can be seen in the second one was cut off. He'd been so sick over the past two or so weeks, that the inevitable decision had to be made yesterday. He knew and his ever so sad eyes said that it was indeed time for him to leave me and go to Ragamuffin. I'd bee waffling over it for all week, but yesterday, when I woke up, he was lying right next to his bowls ad made pee pee lying down. He didn't even have the strength to get up and go outside. After he did stand up, and laid back down, his head fell to the floor with a bang. I had a little talk with him, and called the vet. There really was no other thing to do. He was with me for close to 19 years, and it really was time. He knew it too. I took him off his chain, and he showed no interest in getting up to any of his usual antics, except that he did make one last attempt at getting to the kitchen bin. For the first time ever he failed to rearrange everything in all over the floor. He slunk back to the living room and looked longingly at his 'bed'. I somehow managed to get him up there. He wet it and got himself down again. Golan was in and out all day to check on things. The vet finally arrived at 1845 and was the final vote to do it. So, I got on my bed, he put Peg in my arms and gave him a shot to put him to sleep like before an operation so he wouldn't feel anything when he got his last shot. I talked to him while he drifted off, then, he for the last shot that stopped his heart, and broke mine. Somehow knowing that it was the right thing to do and the right time, doesn't help all that much.The only thing that almost does is thinking that he and Raggy are together again. They were such a pair. Both of them were four legged souls of pure love. All they wanted and gave was unconditional love. They did get it back from me. It's going be very sad and weepy here for a long time.It's clear to me that eventually I will get another dog. I don't know when. Those two appeared as if sent from Above. How many times can a miracle like that happen? I could go on for hours with Raggy and Peg stories, but the crying makes my head hurt, and squeezes my insides.They were both well loved and will be missed.

JUST STUFF

2010-08-02T10:01:00.002+03:00

I must admit that I have been in better moods than I am now. Things are moving at a snail's pace in Florida and I don't know what the hold up is. Dad's will is not connected to Marcelle's in any way other than being dependent on her passing, as it has already been through probate, things should be flying along. They aren't. And just for fun, my email isn't coming through. I know of at least 2 people who have sent mails that haven't gotten here. The computer is acting up with other things too. I think I see a reformat in the very near future.

Other than that, things are pretty much the same old same old. The only other thing of any interest is that I turned myself into an experimental lab rat! I figured that as I'm already taking rat poison (coumadin) and that there is some anecdotal evidence that vitamin E can do the job as well as the rat poison, I decided to try it and find out. My doctor was not excited about it but is going along with my whim. The worst part is getting up in the middle of the night to get my blood tested. Getting my arm to clinic before 0900 is so not my idea of fun. The possibility of maybe getting off the rat poison is more than enough incentive.

I also saw a neurologist yesterday about the worsening pain in my right leg and he prescribed something that is not an N SAID or controlled drug, but does require a special approval from someone. He sent that off and with just a little luck, the approval will be here tomorrow and it just might help. You know how bad the pain is when you start thinking about the nerves severed. When I found myself thinking about that, I knew I was in big trouble, so, went to the neurologist.

On the happy side of the ledger, I found my cousins on Facebook! That has me looking for an old picture that I know is hiding here somewhere. I saw it just the other day. Why do things like that always go and hide just when I want them? And why can I never find the disk I know they're on when I want it? I'll did it out of it's hidy hole and add it later in an edit to this post. I KNOW I have it, and I WILL FIND IT.

I'M ALMOST BACK (read first for pic explanation)

2010-07-16T10:08:00.011+03:00

Yes, well. Truer words were never spoken than that line about the best laid plans of men (and women)........I've had a slightly wild (understatement much?) two months. Aron, Liat and their kids were here for much too little time. They came over for Liat's sisters' wedding and it was lovely. I usually HATE events like that and avoid them like the plague, but I wasn't about to miss so much as one minute with them, so, I worked hard on my head to get it into shape to tolerate the event. In the end it was a huge waste of time. That wedding was the most enjoyable one I've ever been to.

Obviously seeing Aron and the kids was the highlight, and I have tons of pictures. I'll start with the one of the infamous hair cut on the sidewalk. My hair gal moved to a new place with stairs. Her brother is a genius who suggested that I park Harley across the doorway and that she stand there and do it! It worked.

Next project was to find a dress. I did and it's not strictly mine!

I hate that I can not stand up straight any more, but I guess that's just part of being a crippled gimp!

Aron and his family got to the wedding a little late thanks to their charter flight making them miss their connecting flight and they arrived very late, but arrive they did.

I'm still trying to sort a lot of things out in my head, so I'll just post my favorite picture of all. I got Adee a sippy glass just like one I have and her face says it all in this picture.

As it is quite impossible to get the pictures uploaded here in the correct order, I'll just stick them all in as they fall. It is most frustrating, and this is the 8th attempt.

A GRAND DECLARATION

2010-06-10T12:15:00.001+03:00

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

2010-06-04T14:10:00.000+03:00

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

THE LONG HOT JOURNEY

2010-06-03T10:29:00.000+03:00

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.

I DID IT! I FINNALY DID IT!

2010-05-29T11:01:00.000+03:00

After I don't know how many years of trying, I finally did it! My mother used to make the most delicious roast beef imaginable. I have spent I don't know how much money, and I don't know many hours, or attempts at making a roast that only came close to the ones she used to make. I went grocery shopping on Wednesday and the farthest thing from my mind was getting a roast! Then, I saw a hunk of meat in the fresh meat cooler and knew I had to have it! When it was finally delivered, and after the rest of the stuff was put away, I started, and am still somewhat in shock that it came closer to the ones Mom used make than I ever imagined I'd be able to make. It was as close to perfection as can be. It's nice and pinky in the middle and as tender as can be! Hey! I did it at last! I knew I was at least close when I made the first cut and that slice looked just right. Then, I tasted it, and had a bit of a crying jag that Mom hasn't been here to make her roasts since 1978. Granted I miss much more than her cooking. She was so amazing in so many ways. I will always miss her and, still talk to her every single day. And now I can make a roast that comes out as close to hers as can be. Yup! I finally did it.

OF TVS, CELL PHONES AND ADDICTIONS

2010-05-27T09:08:00.002+03:00

This is another one of those things that really only can happen to me! As susual I completely misunderstood the deal my cable company was offering, (well, maybe not completely, but, I did get a major part of it all wrong. They have been advertising a fantastic deal for getting an HD digi box, faster interweb and heaven only knows what else, so I called to find out about it, and decided to go for it, because it costs almost exactly what I paying now,(NIS 10 more) and includes all the channels. There's just one minor glitch. You have to have a plasma or LCD TV. My LCD upped and died pretty close to 3 years from day I got it, so, I had a friend drag out one of my old 21" flat screens because I really can't justify getting a new one right now. Strange, but the picture on that is actually better than it was on the LCD. I'm told that it's because the LCD was rectangular and this one is square. I'm not going to argue about that. After calling Cable, I called my interweb server to find out how much more it will cost to go to 5mb instead of the 1.5 I've had for years; all the time thinking I had 2.5mb. It's only NIS 10 more a month. Ok. The next project was to go to my mobile phone company to find out they guy there, who sold me a new batery for my old phone, was yammering about my being able to save a lot of dosh by getting a new phone and changing my 'package'. I adore cell phones but was in no mood right then and there to get a new one! When I found that I wanted to find a way to save those NIS 15-20, I went up there and found out that I could save not NIS 10, 20 or even 30, but a whopping NIS 90 a month by getting a specific phone! There was one phone that I really liked that would have saved maybe NIS 10 a month, but as the whole point was to shave as much off as possible, I went for the one that saved NIS 90. Of course that's where the real trouble started. They got my phone book switched over just fine, and my 'wall paper' picture, but not my beloved ring tone. Ok, I'll just download it again from their site. I've only been signed up at their site for like 7 years with my username and password. Would the site let me in? Of course not. Even worse, they didn't even have a blue tooth ear in stock for me. None of my geeky pals have been able to get my motorola ear to connect with the new phone. It does recognise it by name, but will not connect. So, now, I have to wait for one to come in....grrr. I did manage to get a USB cable for the new phone. You'd kind of think that a new smart ass phone would come with one, right? Wrong! It doesn't even come with a little booklet that tells you how to use the phone and I could not find one at the cell company's site, or even the phone maufacturerer's site, unlike most of the other phones I have. They all came with 'How To' booklets and have them on line too. But not my new one! Ok ok, I do know how to do the basic stuff, but more advanced, less used functions are a slightly different story. One way or another I WILL get the ear sorted today, as well as the ring tone. I love my ring tone because it's the song Ofra Haza sang in the Eurovision song contest in Germany years ago, and won with. Every time I hear it, it's like sticking my finger (you know which one) in the Nazi's eyes and swirling around! (Thank you for that, S.E. Cupp!) The cable techy arrived in the middle of the night, 0745 to install the HD digi box only to discover that I don't have a set to install it on! I was pleased to see that it was the guy who almost had to move here a few years to keep everything working, who I really like! Ok, so TV stays the same as it is now. No big deal and I stay on the same plan except the interweb speed is supposed to go up at no extra cost because I didn't get the HD box. Works for me. Next call was to the server to tell them to up the speed NOW! That's another NIS 10 a month. Fine. I saved NIS 90 with the phone and even the ear won't eat that up over the 5 payments it adds to that bill! Thing is, I can't tell if the speed went up or not. The two little computers down in the corner next to the time still say the same speed they did before. It's starting to shape up to be another 'most of the day on the phone day' to find out about that. I also have to go out to the mobile shop to see if the new ear is here and get it connected, and go grocery shopping. Then, I fully intend to spend the rest of the day on WoW trying to get my poor ditzy priest up a level or two. I'm actually getting pretty good with her, having figured out best to play her with one hand and an index finger on my other hand. Many of my good friends there have been trying to help us (me and my priest) be more efficient, but they don't quite get the one hand + 1 finger thing. I tell them to sit on their left hand hand and try it. The few who have done that, suddenly get what I've been saying since I started there. It can be done, but it's mostly in the head.

A very strange thing happened during my sudden cold turkey withdrawal from Oxy. Something got shaken loose and my left hand is functioning a little better now. I've been working on it in the hopes of betting the fingers to do more. Time will tell. Oh, and maybe the biggest news of all is that I have decided to get off the oxy after the last chat I had on the phone with my son. He does know his drugs, which he should, being the adminstrive manager of a pharmacy. I should be off it by the time he gets he gets here at the end of next and he and my doc can figure out what to try next. I'm taking 1 naxyn in the morning now, and 1 oxy at night, in order to not go through what I went through when I ran out of in the middle of the month. The naxyn works just fine and there IS hope in my heart that, if I eat when I take it, it won't do to my stomach what it did with the help of aspirin, and coumadin not that long ago! So far, so good. Next time I get oxy, I'll go down to10 mg, and by the end of next month hope to off it completely. Oxy is very nasty stuff, other than being highly addictive, even it does pretty much stop the pain in it's tracks. There must be a non NSAID out there that does the same thing that I can take without odd side effects that isn't as addictive and bad for the body as oxy! Right? We'll know soon enough. I'm taking this nice and slow. So, there we have my news. Other than that, not much is new except our new baby. He's so cute. Another carbon copy of his daddy, who was an adorable baby.

THE WORST AND THE BEST or THE CONTINUING ADVENTURES OF A DRUG ADDICT GRANNY

2010-05-18T12:33:00.000+03:00

Ok, I'vehad my little cry and after I post this, will try to get some much needed sleep. I am feeling so blessed right now that it's amazing,

What brought this all on was a very, very, bad cash cruuch and even stoopider case of bad budgeting than any I've pulled off in a long, long time. I always try to make sure I have enough cash on hand to be able to buy my oxy pills which are really cheap but can only be gotten once in 10 days, instead of monthly like the rest of my meds. I ran out of oxy a little over a week ago but didn't panic because I have a very nice stash of Naxcyn in my meds darwer and the only reason I take oxy is because of the pain, and the damage the Naxyn did after 11 years of use. I have been very careful about not upping to the oxy dose by getting shot every three months. The shots are effecrive for less time each time, and the oxy really helps. I was doing just fine and had decided that I could get away with waiting to get the oxy. WRONG. I just went what were quite possibly three of the worst few days of my life. I started getting headaches that lasted for hours then just went away for no obvious reason, then, my left hand started to tremble all the time and my left leg had spasms, I couldn't sleep and was weepy all the time and having the strangest thouhts (even for me!) My right hand was starting with the tremors too, so, I did some checking on the interweb, and there was the answer! Withdrawal symptoms from an opiate! But, damn, no cash. It didn't take me long to figure out that there were at least 3 people in that mall who would happily loan me NIS20 until after the holiday. I threw on clothes and off I went to get the prescription, and my fix. I got up to the clinic just fine and was pleased as punch that they had finally finished the construction up there. My doc handed over the prescription with a sharp look at my twitching left hand and grinned at me. The trouble started when I wanted to get into the next floor down, where the pharmacy is. They were working there and there was no way over a shallow trench they had dug. One of the workmen finally sorted it and in I went only to forget to ask my friend there for the cash. I had to go in, do the paperwork and hope and pray that my credit card would work. It didn't, and as there were people in the pharmacy he couldn't let me have them like he did that other time. So, out I went a begging spree. First time lucky, and I got my fix and took it on the spot. By the time I finished at the fag store, I was already trembling less, so decided to go out to the other mall whee my card works on small amounts with no trouble. Go figure, and stocked up on cottage cheese, then to my other fag and Ben and Jerry's store, where I got more fags and told the owner what had been going on and got soundly told off for not asking him for the cash. Now, I'm home with everything I need and a much less twitchty hand. Just after I got in, I had a little weep of some odd kind of joy. I was so touched by how quickly Sharon who owns a clothing store stuck his hand his pocket and gave me the required NIS20 and told me not to worry about it. And the other Sharon for being so upset that I didn't ask him. Whew. An emotional see saw if ever there was one. One thing is for sure and that is that I will get the money the pizza shop guy owes owes me on Thursday and pay back Sharon 1. I hate the confrontations with the guy's father who is there instead of his son, the owner. This time I am ready for him, and will make him sort it on the spot one way or another. And now, dear friends, I am going to have a nap. The damn withdrawal gave me 3 sleepless nights and I am nackered beyond belief.

2010-05-11T17:03:00.004+03:00

Against my better advice to myself, I have over ridden the 'right' advice and decided to post before and after pictures of your favorite gimp! Before she lost weight and after she lost weight! I am looking somewhat murderous in the after picture because I had been just been discussing how unqualified clerks get away with overturning things doctors say we need, simply because they can. A lawyer had come up from Tel Aviv to help us with legal matters like that from the major gimp group in the country. The same laweyer who lit a fire under the chair of that idiot quack in my clinic who hadn't hired a qualified physical terrorist in a timely manner, several months ago. He finally did, and she came and also said that I need an electric chair, only to have it turned down by a 'social worker' in the Health Ministry. This lawyer chews them up and spits them out like they were watermelon seeds. The subject does not lrave me all smiles and sunshine and I have a tendency to run my fingers through my hair when agitated, as this picture so clearly shows. I also had most of the contents of the bag of holding on my lap!

A BIT OF HISTORICAL HISTORY

2010-05-09T13:00:00.003+03:00

I just got the most fantastic reminder of my personal history as a 'demonstrator' imaginable! When asked how I got involved in the protests I've participated in for disabled rights, I've told the story of how a friend and I took our high school out in protest over the Viet Nam war in 1970. Now, I can prove it to the sceptics, thanks to Sue, a classmate who saved the newspaper clipping of that demonstratio,n which appeared in the local paper in 1970, and again in 1985, when a retrospective was done on the year 1970. It's interesting to note that the expression on my face hasn't changed at all in my 40 years of protesting! I still look as fierce today, as I did then. The one thing I do wonder about, is why it looks like I have two black eyes. I don't recall having had a fight with any one at that time! It's kind of hard to see in this copy, in the

original, it's quite clear. Ah, the memories this brings back. In case it's not clear, that's me in front on the right with one of my favorite bags at my feet, and Lise Barratta on the left. I can identify most of the ones in the rows behind us. So, there you have it! Proof positive that I started demonstrating for causes I believed in way back then, 40 years ago. Never mind, that I grew up and am now not at all pleased with my choice of a first cause. I have moved much to the right since then. My father's reaction to this was, even stranger to me then. He was not a great supporter of that war, but, neither was he against it, as so many were then, but he was proud that his daughter went out and did something about an issue she felt strongly about at the time. Having my picture in the paper WAS a surprise to him, even though, as the Chairman of the School Board he was well aware of who was behind the walk out. Yeah, I did have a cool dad.

Good news and bad news

2010-05-01T13:03:00.003+03:00

What is wrong with people that they can't leave a note saying that they are sorry they just about ripped the bumper off your car after they just did that and drove away leaving headlamp glass shards on the road? Mrs. Savta and I have going to Safad every other day to visit Savta, and when we got back on Thursday evening, I parked in my space, and came in, as usual. There was nothing parked behind me, which I am sure about because I remember thinking how nice it was that was as I could just drive into my space without any maneuvering between cars, which is often the case. On Friday moning I went out, and did my usual Friday morning errands which did not include going anywhere near the rear of my car. Golan came in about an hour before the start of Shabbat to tell me that the bumper had almost been torn off and that there were glass shards on the street. I asked him to take a couple of pictures and called the cops who told me that I have to go to the cop shop to make a complaint in person. I decided to wait until tonight or Sunday morning because there is nothing they can do about it on the Sabbath, when I don't drive, in any event. I just hope that the cops will have at least enough pity on me to try and locate the car that did the damage through making phone calls to garages to find who got a headlamp repaired. If they do, and, by some miracle, find the driver, it will save me having to pay the deductible to get it fixed.

Savta had good news for us when we got there. The docs told him, that, after studying the last MRI and CTs, that he has a stone that developed an infection around it, and that it is not as close to the nerve as they originally had thought and that the operation will be much easier than they had feared. They are planning on doing it as soon as the infection clears up. That is really good news, because they had told him that it would be a tricky operation as the stone was on the nerve.
Golan said that he will secure the bumper so I can still drive the car. I just hope they didn't damage the trunk because BBC-Big Blue Chair is in there. We'll just have to check that before we go to the cop shop in the morning. I am not looking forward to that at all, as the local cop shop is not exactly gimp friendly, which is why Golan will be going with me. The intercom that you need to use to tell them why you want to come inside the compound is high on the gate post and I can't get to it. The front desk is behind an entrance blocked by a cement wall (rocket protection) and Harley doesn't fit in. The wheely does fit in, so I kind of need Golan to get it out, put together, and to push me inside. I am looking forward to the visit with Savta much more than I am to that.

GRANNY FRANNE 2!

2010-04-29T12:30:00.002+03:00

Savta was supposed to go for that exam in Tel Aviv on Monday. His limo (Ford Focus), chauffeur informed him that she would be glad to take him, and pretty much got her head into that groove. Sunday is a reular day here except for Christian Arabs for whom it is The Sabbath. I had pretty much forgotten that I had accepted an invitation from a friend I met through Jonathan to go on a dungeon quest Sunday night. It never entered my mind that it might take a very long time as dungeons can be complicated. Long story short-as I am such a crap priest/healer, I got myself some intense priest training from one of the best, and felt as ready as I could for the challenge of being the group's healer. One of the folks our hostess had invited didn't show up on time, so we invited two from our guild, then, found ourselves in the awkward position of having too many when her invitees arrived. We split into two groups and off we went. I didn't do too crap a job as the healer, but I did get myself deaded about seven or eight times, which is very not good. That made the whole thing go on until very very late and I finally got to bed at around 0430, and figured that I'd wake up in enough time to get Savta to Tel Aviv on time. Yeah, right. I woke up at 1100 in a panic and called Savta to tell him that we could still make it on time, only for him to tell me that he was in hospital and obviously couldn't go anywhere, and that he had tried to call all day long on Sunday, but I hadn't answered the phone. That was because I skipped putting my 'ear' on and connecting it to the phone, so, never even heard it ring. I was not at all pleased that the trip had to postponed for a second time for such a miserable (for Savta) reason. Poor Savta in hospital with a mysterious thing growing under his ear, all infected and painful because it's sitting right on a nerve. I promptly called Mrs. Savta and we made plans to go and visit him on Tuesday after I did my errands. That we did, with no problems at all, and had a lovely visit with both of their sons along for wheely duty! Savta will end up having that 'thing' removed at some point after the infection and swelling go away. It's one of those 'several options' operations.

Option 1: it's a complete success.

Option 2: it leaves him with a damaged facial nerve and a droopy

face.

Option 3: It's a catastrophic failure and he doesn't wake up.

As far as I'm concerned, options 2 and 3 are not options at all. Only option 1 is acceptable to me. The surgeon who does those operations there is excellent according to Homeless, who I trust with things like that, so, option 1 is realitsic. Mrs. Savta and I are going up for a supply run and visit later today.

I made the mistake of thinking that I'd be able to play a little WoW after getting home. Bad bad idea. I should never have even thought that thought. I again went to bed late after one of the more disastrous runs at WoW in the history of the game, but, woke up at a 'normal' time, whatever that is, and went out to do errands, like get my oxy prescription refilled, buy fags, and go grocery shopping. I decided to have the heavy stuff delivered (free above a certain amount) because it saves me the struggle of getting everything inside. The delivery guy brings it inside and puts it on my bed, which makes it much easier for me to handle. That's no cake walk in a wheely. I was desperate for a nap by the time I got home, but had to wait for the delivery that never arrived. At around 2115 I called the store to find out if the had sent my groceries to walk here by themselves, and was told that there had been a problem with the deliveries and that they had just left with them. Does it really matter what the problem was? Will knowing that make them (the groceries) get here any sooner? Of course not, so, I didn't bother asking. They finally got here at 2230, with a very good bottle of wine by way of an apology, and after putting it all away, I got a phone call from my son informing me that I'm Granny Franne again. This time to a bouncing baby boy, who will be named after his paternal grandfather. Thinking that would endow me with super gimp powers, I stoopidly logged into WoW, instead of being smart and going to sleep.Jonathan and I tried to do a non quest, but I kept getting deaded, and eventually decided, after falling off a cliff, that it really was bed time. I fell asleep at around 0230 and woke up today at 0800. Golan wandered in this morning just after I took my morning meds and wrestled my stocking on. He took Peg out, did his computer stuff, brought Peg back in, and I went back to sleep to wake up at 1110 for morning coffee. Now, I am being a good gimp and writing this post. I'll be going out for fags shortly and then, heading for Safad again with Mrs. Savta. I hope I'll be ok to play for a while tonight. In any event, Jonathan and I are going to do that non quest again on Saturday, and you can be sure I'll be well rested for that! Most important of all, was finding Aron's Facebook page. I should have known he'd have one, but never bothered looking. I did hear New Baby crying, and that set me off on a happiness weep of my own. Happiness over just about everything; being alive to savor the day, the ability to play WoW, and hearing from dear 'old' friends, and, mostly just being alive. My body might be a train wreck that already happened, but my mind is good, and my spitits are high. I'm a happy old gimp who is blessedly happy to just be here. And ever so thankful for every day.

PLAYING CATCH UP YET AGAIN

2010-04-21T12:21:00.000+03:00

Every single day I promise myself that I will update Gimp House TODAY, then, after the usual morning routine, I go out and get home all anxious to get into WoW, and promise myself, TOMORROW!. It looks like tomorrow is finally here. So much has happened that this might be a little long.

I have described what I have to go through to get out of the house and onto Harley before, but, please bear with me as I describe it yet again, as it is relevant to the sorry tale of running out of fags. As walking out to Harley is now impossible, I go out on, and lock the wheely to a rail on the ramp, transfer to Harley, and go! There's a whole routine before I get to that part, which starts with grabbing my glasses,and continues with picking up mobile phones, hat, bag of holding, and moving the keys to the other side of the door. Once all that is done, I'm ready to go out. One night, not too long ago, I ran out of fags, or so I thought, and decided to run out to the 24 hour store for a pack or two. As it was not a normal morning egress, everything that could, did, go wrong. I got my glasses phones and hat ok, got outside, and realized I had left the keys on the inside of the door, rolled back in for them, and locked the wheely(it gave me no end of trouble and took at least 10 tries before I got the lock through the wheel correctly) to the rail. Only when I was on Harley did I notice that my bag of holding with my wallet were still inside. Uh, oh. After all the trouble with the lock, I decided to skip the chair and 'walk (lurch) back in for it. To do that, I had to manuever the chair and Harley to make enough space to get to the door. That done, and bag of holding safely with me, I had a little weep, brought on by frustration at the mess I'd made over something I do daily with no trouble. The 24 hour store doesn't carry 'my' brand, so I asked for the cheapest they had. They had a super cheap brand that comes in packs of 40 anorexic fags, so I got 2 packs of those, figuring that if I like them, fine, if not, I'll go back to usual brand. I was not pleased in the least to discover an almost full pack, that would have gotten me through to morning, in the jacket pocket of my jammies! I like the new anorexic fags just fine and decided to smoke them at the computer, where I rarely get to finish one, especially if I'm playing WoW, and get my usual ones for in bed, the car and on Harley, where I smoke less anyway. So far the new fag plan has been working just fine, even if my regular fag shop has informed me that the importer is going stop importing that brand. I am busily building up a stock of both brands against the day.

Last week Savta had to go to Tel Aviv for a medical board exam to decide his eligibility for a specific benefit that he should have been approved for years ago. For him to get there, he needs his son to take a day off work, and money for gas. I really do wish I didn't need to accept it, but thanks to the next disaster, I do. So, off we went to Tel Aviv, only to get 10 minutes away and receive a call that the exam was being postponed. Why? Who knows? Who cares? So, about face, and home we went, empty handed, as it were. We did have a good time on the way there, joking and talking silly. They way back was mostly silent with Savta in semi shock, and Don McLean playing softly in the background.

My present cash crunch is a reult of my own stupidity. When Levana left the flower shop, I should have cancelled the auto pay the water bill was on. The new tenants said they had changed it themselves along with the electrickery, which had never been on auto pay. I got an NIS 85 water bill for the period they were renovating, which they refused to pay at the time claiming that they only took possession on 1 January, when they had in fact been there during the time of that bill. Then, I got the bill for Jan-Feb, which proves that they never did sort the water. They also are refusing to pay that, giving me the run around every time I go there. The water company doesn't much care. They got paid through the auto pay. They have things set up so that multiple addersses are paid through the same auto pay order which meant that I had to cancel it at the bank-NIS 40 and then, get a new one for just the house. So, they owe me, NIS 85 from Nov-Dec, 250 from Jan-Feb and 40 for the cancelation for a grand total of NIS 375. Granted, it's not a fortune, but for a gimp living on benefits, generous as they may be, it hurts. I have delayed getting the owner of the shop involved because he is elderly and not well. If it can be sorted without him, so much the better, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. Lavana has been trying through the owner's son, but, not gotten very far that way. When I go out shortly, I'll try one more time and if they still won't pay up, I will call the owner.

Yesterday was Independence Day here and I stayed in cursing WoW for doing server maintenance on Tuesdays. I watched a bunch of sappy old Israeli movies, and rested. I also spent more than a few futile hours trying to track down a friend who has suddenly disappeared in Sydney Australia with nary a word to any of her WoW friends, who are getting more concerned by the day. I don't mind if anyone wants to take a time out, but, just say so, so we won't worry. I have a few more ideas for running her to ground that I will try when I get back from town. Right after I post this.

A while back I asked that any of my classmates who read this, leave a comment, or contact me by mail. I was absolutely thrilled when one of them did just that! And, now we are playing catch up by e mail. I feel blessed to have been in such great class, especially when I hear from friends who were ahead of, or, behind me who are not in touch with any of their classmates because their classes were not as special as mine. Sure, there were cliques in my class, but, above and beyond that, we were mostly very friendly outside of those cliques. Even odd ball loners like me! BHS 1970 is one of the greatest classes of all time. And I am proud and feel blessed to be a member!

AN ODD DREAM

2010-04-02T11:02:00.001+03:00

Things got a little strange yesterday. The sleepy sleepies struck again, but in a milder form. The plan was to have a nap, then, get up and go to WoW at around 2100 after the news. The nap part went as planned, then, the phone rang. I must have been having a dream because I remember not wanting to answer the phone 'where I was'. I thought I was napping at a friend's house. Then, the phone rang again and I woke up just enough to reach out for the ear piece-cell phone-and answer it. It was Mrs. Savta calling to ask me to come up to their place for a Pesach BBQ. She said that I sound like she woke me up and asked me where I was. I told her that I was at a fiend's house (I thought I was) and that I didn't know when I'd finish up there and be able to leave. Thing is, I didn't want to tell her where I was napping, because it was at her house! I don't know what I was thinking, or even if I was! After the call, I looked around trying to figure out where I was, and I was at home in my own bed, with my own TV on! Talk about feeling foolish! Savta called a little later and said he'd bring me a plate with a selection of BBQ treats! He and his daughter arrived a little later with a plate holding enough BBQ goodies for at least a whole week! I don't often remember dreams, probably because I am rarely woken up in the middle of one. That one I do remember, even if I have no idea why I was not napping at home in it!

THE DAY AFTER

2010-04-01T10:51:00.000+03:00

On the day after the Seder it is traditional that all those who were at the Seder, gather for the noon meal. I was instructed to show up at around 1130, but as I didn't wake up until after 1200, I was a little late. They were ok with that because I did get there in the end. The boys were having a discussion on certain aspects of Jewish law concerning lighting 'fire' on the Sabbath and holidays, and were foolish enough to ask for my opinion on the subject. I was wise enough not to allow myself to be dragged into that one. Then, Savta and I got into a similar discussion that rapidly deteriorated into an emphatic exchange of "Yes" and "No" between us, much like little children. After one of my more emphatic "Nos" I stopped and told the 'boys' to pay close attention to how two grown adults have a serious discussion. At that, we all laughed until we almost cried.

Lunch was left overs from the night before, and every bit as good, maybe even better. I was starting to get sleepy, so I left early. After a nap, I was ready yo play WoW and stayed on playing until close to 0400. I woke up a little late and ran out to get two prescriptions filled that had run out. One was my oxy and I sure did need it. I had been using left overs from one I'd tried before giving up and going over to oxy. I made another cup of coffee to try and stay awake, but got hit by the sleepy sleepies real hard and gave in and had a four hor nap, after which, I had another coffee which didn't help at all, and I was back in bed asleep by 1900, and was woken up at 2230 by Golan taking Peg out. We chatted for a few minutes and I just drifted off to sleep again. I'm not sure what exactly caused that attack of the sleepy sleepies, but suspect that it was a combination of the late nights and taking a double dose of those pain pills. I'm a little better this morning, but still somewhat drowsy. Be that as it may; I'm now going to bring Peg in, then head up to Savta's. It's way too nice a day to not go out and enjoy it.

I have a request. Would any of my classmates who read this, please leave a comment so I'll know who it is? I have a hit meter and have gotten several from Brunswick. I'd really like to know who it was. Whoever you are, I am pleased that you interested enough to stop by and read what I've written. That's what a blog is for after all!

SEDER AT SAVTA'S

2010-04-01T10:12:00.004+03:00

Yes, I do have a picture of me in yet another article of clothing my son's sister left here. A dress this time, but you will have to wait until you get to the end to see it, unless you are a masochist and scroll down to it now!

The Pesach (Passover) Seder at Savta's was wonderful. They made me feel not like a guest, but, like a member in good standing of the family. Savta and Mrs. Savta were there, as were their two sons, including the one I brought home from Petach Tikva that night a few months ago. Their daughter, with her four kids were also there. The kids did get a little rowdy at times, but not insufferably so. I have said many times that Pesach is my all time favorite holiday, and, to me, one of the most awesome aspects is that millions of Jews are sitting around their tables and reading the same story with the exact same words, blessings and songs on the same evening, and have been doing that for thousands of years now. The food served at the meal part is probably different from geographic area to area, but they all have Matzot in common and four glasses of wine. The odd thing about those four glasses of wine is that it is rare to get drunk from them. Ok, my brother did once, but he was a little kid then. Each glass is supposed to drunk right down while leaning to the left, after the blessing over wine. On any other night of the year, one glass drunk like that would have me tipsy in no time at all. All I got from this year's was a very pleasant warm glow after each glass. Savta has one of the best reading voices I've heard in a long long time, which made listening to the story of our ancestors exodus from Egypt even more enjoyable than usual. The commentary he added was excellent as well. Then, Mrs. Savta's meal; words fail. It was so good that I could have kept on eating until I exploded, but, felt full way too soon. After the meal, but before the blessing after it, they have a family tradition that everyone at the table tells the story of a 'miracle' that has happened to them personally. I told about my mother's last Seder. Their reaction was one of awe. I am still awe struck when I remember it. At the very end we each took turns telling the others what we hope for them for the next year. I took the safe way out and wished for them all that G-d would bless them with what He felt would be best for them. It was nice to see their eyes get a little damp at that and Savta said that they had never been wished anything so wonderful before. Well, they are a very religious ultra orthodox family. And as such, don't miss so much as one letter in the Hagaddah (the book that tells the story of the exodus from Egypt). I got home at 0330 and slept until noon, and woke with that nice glowy feeling.

I LOVE PESACH

2010-03-29T15:35:00.002+03:00

Tonight is the start of my all time favorite holiday, Pesach, (Passover) and I'm looking forward with happy anticipation to tonight's Seder. I will be with Savta and his family for this most wonderful tradition and I can barely contain myself in anticipation. I have always loved Pesach for numerous reasons and have so many wonderful memories if Seders past that I'm not quite sure where to start. The first one I have an actual real memory of (not from family lore) is the one at my maternal grandparent's home in Portland when I was 9 and my brother was 6. A major part of the Seder is drinking four glasses of wine. Children are often given grape juice, but not at my grandparents. To them, if a child was old enough to be part of the Seder, they were old enough to have real wine. Of course the kids were not expected to drink the full glass as adults are, but at my grandparent's Seders we got the real thing. The memory I will always of that Seder is of Jeff's( my (brother) head splashing into his bowl of chicken soup with matzo balls, and I do mean splash! He had been sneaking sips of the second traditionally required glass of wine from the end of the blessing over it ,until the first course of the meal (the soup) was served, and he was tipsy to say the least, and I distinctly remember the splash because some of the hot soup splashed on to me. My father was allowed to carry him to my Uncle Ralph's childhood bedroom to sleep it off, and Mom rushed around cleaning up the mess. That's about all I remember from that particular Seder. It wasn't long after that, that we started having Seder's at our house with just about everyone in the extended family there. My grandparents, including Dad's father, Dad's brother, his wife, and 2 kids, Mom's brother, his wife, and their 2 kids, her brother, his wife and 2 kids, and of course the 4 of us. We were also sometimes joined by our Catholic next door neighbor who was fascinated by Jewish holiday traditions. Those Seders often bordered on the slightly rowdy side of decorem. We had a great time, even if there were years when things pretty much ended after the post meal blessing, which often lead to skipping the end of the required reading of the Haggadah and finished with the raukus singing of the requisit tradtional end of Seder songs. From the minute the Seder was over, I starting looking forwards to the next one.

After my mother became sick with cancer, we started having the Seders at my house. I loved getting ready and cooking for it, and all of the above mentioned cast of characters came to mine, as well. My mother's last Seder was particularly memorable for several reasons, among them, the full cast of characters, and my son's acrivities during what should have been his nap and the fight my cousin's son got into with him. During his nap time, Aron woke up early and went to the bathroom quietly so as not to call attention to his activity. I had forgotten to take the huge turkey out to thaw in time, so, gave it a lukewarm warm bath to help it on it's way to thawdom. For some odd reason, Aron thought it would be a good idea to help it along by wrapping it up in toilet paper, and somehow managed to do just that even though he and the turkey were close to the same weight! He then decided that it was time to shave, just like Daddy, and climbed onto the counter under the long mirror and squirted the area of his face in the mirror with a whole can of his daddy's shaving soap. (Think about that for a minute and it makes perfect sense as he was used to standing on that counter while 'helping' Daddy shave, and he'd watch in the mirror). He took the razor and cut his thumb. By the time he got to the top of the stairs with his bloody (literally) thumb I was at the bottom of the stairs, and there stood the little tyke holding his bloody thumb with his other hand, surrounded by the toilet paper with which he had carpeted the whole landing, while wrapping the turkey in it. The sight that greated my eyes as I went up and took him to the bathroom to clean and bandaid his thumb was more than enough to cause a grown woman to cry, wall to wall toilet paper and a carefully wrapped turkey in the bath tub, and a child's face sized mass of shaving cream already sliding down the mirror were the outstanding and obvious to the eyes sight that were met by close to hysterical laughter. It was funny, but the very last thing I needed not such a short time before a huge meal had to be prepared for the Seder that night. I got him cleaned up, unwrapped the turkey, then, gave it a nice long shower to finish thawing it, took it down to the kitchen, stuffed it, and got it in the oven just on time. All of the other dishes were coming along nicely and it was all done on time. The family arrived on time as well, and while everyone was visiting and catching up before we started the Seder, my cousin Nancy made a comment to the effect that her son was the first to be named after our grandfather on our father's side. Nope, sorry, but that would be my son, who her own father had circumcised and named after his own father with great emotion. While my mother was explaining that to her (she was even there, at the Brit) her son went over to mine and pushed him over. Aron, of course got up and returned the favor, while my mother ripped into his mother, in a completely uncharacterist way. My mom was always the peace maker, but she was not going to let this go unchallenged. The boys made up and things were explained to little Abe in terms he could understand.

To the Seder. The first part went smoothly and the meal was good, if I do say myself. There is always a full glass of wine on the Seder table for Elija The Prophet, and there is a point when the door is opened for him to come in. That year (the one of my mother's last Seder with us)just before the door was reached to be opened, we all felt a very gentle, barely perceptable cool wind, and saw the edges of the table cloth move, and every single one of us saw the level in the wine glass go down, and a few tiny drops spill onto the plate under the glass. No one will ever convince any one of us that Elijah was not there. The hairs still stand up on my arms when I remember that very special Seder. Since being in Israel, when the kids were younger we were usually invited to close friends and I even had several with those same friends. After I gimped out, I went to one at my daughter's, it was her first child's first one, then, was gimpnapped to one by a good friend who lives in Carmiel, about 45 minutes away. The Seder was at his sister in law's near Haifa. I have had one at Gimp House with that family from the last flat in my building, and had one with them at their house, then 2 on my own with just Peg, and last year with Ayala and Moshe and some of their relatives. This year Savta told me that I going to their place and got no argument from me. I'm just about ready to go there, and am excited about sharing it with them. Oh, my, yes, I do love Pesach and the Seder.

2010-03-21T17:05:00.001+02:00

And here we have a picture of the 'new'(for me) porch roof that was put up while I was out on Thursday by my son's wife's father and brother. I am having trouble (Who? Me?) finding the words to express what a wonderful surprise it was to come hom and find it all installed. Granted, as you can easily see, it is not exactly a wrork of art, but, it's not supposed to be. It's only function is to keep Harley dry during the winter rains as well as the wheely that I leave locked to the ramp rail when I go out on Harley. Some time before next winter Golan has sworn a solemn oath that he will Put up a sheet of plastic along the edge for better protection of the wheely. When I got home I was lost in a fog of sorts because my bank came through for me once again, and solved what could have been a nightmare of a situation with one of the several debts Shmaryah so kindly left me with. To say the least I wasn't paying much attention to what was going on around me and just rode Harley up the ramp and stopped him in his usual spot. When I put my hand out to grab the ramp rail for the thransfer from Harley to the wheely my had hit a post that wasn't there before, which caused me to look around and finally see the wonderful surprise Motty and Matan had made for me. I did feel more than a little sheepish that I hadn't noticed it as I rode up the ramp. (it's not exactly small and inconspicuous). But, my reaction when I did finally see it more than made up for that. After I take care of the Shmaryah problen in the morning, I'm going over to thank them a little belatedly.
The particular mess that Shmaryah left me to deal with (it was one he was supposed to take care of himself) turned into a huge problem for me. I got a notice from the court that if the debt wasn't paid by tomorrow,-Monday, I would no longer be able to use my credit card, write checks, renew my drivers lisence (valid until 2015) or my Israeli passport(expired, not that I have any plans to use it in the near future). After getting over the initial shock and calming down a bit, I decided to go the bank in the morning and ask 'The Boss of Me 'there if she had any ideas on how to save the situation. As hoped, she did, and will give the money to pay that one off in full, and to buy new batteries for Harley when these die which will be in the next few weeks. As I was out of oxy, and have known for at least a month that I need to up the dose, I got the prescription, the pills and fags, then home. I hate to think of what my mood would have been if not for my most wonderful banker......For the first time, the new dose of oxy hit me pretty hard. I was high as a kite and felt all foggy and floaty and sleepy. I ended up spending the rest of Friday and most of Sarurday resting in bed while Gimp House spun around me. I simply can not understand how addicts can possibly like that feeling. I emphatically did not, and today, has been much better as far as that goes except for the sleepiness. Human bodies do not take well to stress, nor to the sudden relief from it. I'll go to bed early tonight and hope it'll be even better tomorrow when I have so much to do.

TELEPHONES ALL DAY LONG

2010-03-16T09:02:00.002+02:00

What a fun day yesterday wasn't! Computer genius that I am (obviously not) I could not the e mail on this (my) computer configured to receive AND send. Somehow quite by accident, I got it right on the lap top which meant that I had to go it to answer mails. I ended up on the phone for at least 2 hours getting mine sorted, the Golan's account on the lap top. All are working just fine for now. The question is how long will it last?
Golan decided that he wants a Face book account and I told him to knock himself out and open one! His English is not great, but he did try and in the process made a total hash of things by confusing the passwords for that and his e mail account. Luckily I told my FB account to stay logged in, and just don't log out. I went a little ballistic when I got a mail from them telling me my new password. Somehow he had my FB page up and was trying to sign into my account with his password. Ok. Gimp to the rescue! I went to the lap top and started his account all over again and gave him a password guaranteed to annoy him, and checked 'stay logged in' for him! This morning when he wandered in, I explained it all to him and informed that he would have to start paying closer attention to what he's doing because I will not be his computer babysitter! I will help him with his profile and upload a decent picture of him, then, he's on his own.
I rather enjoy doing computer stuff and don't really mind spending almost a whole day doing stuff like routine maintainence if I had planned it for that day. It drives me wild to end up doing unplanned things. Luckily I had planned on getting the mails sorted and knew it would take a long time. At least it got done without a major melt down.
I'm not quite sure how I did it, but I got BOTH pressure stockings on yesterday and this morning as well. I have a problem with my right leg. Some of the muscles, tendons and such have atrophied to the point where I can no longer cross that leg over the left, like I can with the left. That makes putting on the right stocking really hard, but with many contortions I got it on. Today I am going to talk with the P.T. (physical torturer) at the clinic about how to get that leg working again. Part of the problem is in the hip area. No cartilage there at all. I'd better get moving on that so I can get onto WoW and maybe make some progress.

MORE HOSPITAL ADVENTURES

2010-03-14T09:12:00.002+02:00

Both computers are hinky again. I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Mine will not bring up blogger and this one was weird with it yesterday. I'm just about ready to go back to snail mail and throw them both out.
I got to the chosen hospital on Tuesday with Golan in tow,(the plan was that after we got me there he'd go visit his ex girlfriend who is till lingering, and get himself home by bus) having left just as the noise was starting across the path and in ER some bright bulb decided to stick me in an internal service rather than vascular. In the morning they started telling what I have, and I decided to to call Dr. Luberman after telling the only idjit quack that I went to THAT hospital because of Dr. Luberman. He was not overly pleased with my answer, so I went downstairs and outside and called Dr Luberman. I told him where I was and why. He said that they would send me home that day and that I was to be at the clinic in Haifa to see on Friday at 0900. When I got back upstairs, a resident caught me and with a very strange look on his face told me that my release papers were almost ready and that I could leave when I wanted. By then it was almost lunch time and a nurse suggested that I stay for lunch, in a very solicitous manner. I did and it didn't take long for me to realize that they were trying to figure out how I got to Dr. L. and why he intervened on my behalf. I was unsure when I called him if he'd remember me. He has thousands of patients, so, why should he remember me? He did, very clearly! After a fairly crap lunch I hung all my stuff on the wheely and headed out. We had found a parking space inside the lot closest to the emergency entrance and I parked rear first. A place opened up even closer so Golan went to move it and the guards told him he couldn't park there, so he parked face in. Pissed off? Who? Me? damn right! One of the guards came over to help with the wheely and was very sweet about helping me to get in. Another car had parked so close that I couldn't open the door all the way. Thank g-d I lost so much weight or I never would have gotten in. I got home and collopsed into bed. I called Savta and he told me that he had to get to Safad for an op on an abccess he got on his butt. Gimp Ambulance Service to the rescue. His son and I got him up there and they cut it out on Friday morning while I was on my way to see Dr. L. I left at 0615 because I was not sure I knew how to find that building. I found it just fine and was there and parked at 0800. The car park was deserted, so I hauled Wheelie's parts out and put them together all by myself and settled in to wait until closer to 0900. 2 elevators and wrong floors later, I rolled into the clinic at 0855, ans sat patiently waiting while everyone else complained about little time they each got with him. He came out to see if I had arrived and told me that I was next in. When I got in, he was very complimentary about my weight loss and looked at my poor feet. He said that I have post phlebitic something or other, and that it's common after a series of DVTs. Seems the veins lose their elasticity and turn into pipes that don't do much and that I need the pressure stockings on both feet and something called lymphatic massage. He was very sweet but could feel the natives outside waiting getting restless, so we finished up quickly. I don't know how I did it, but I got the wheely apart and in the back seat all by myself. On the way home I got stopped by a cop for a routine license check, and after I stopped almost on his foot, gave him my biggest grin and said, "I didn't do it YET" in English. He gave me a sharp look, then told me it was just a license check and looked at my license, then, sent me on my way with a grin. I spent most of Friday (after a quick fag run) and Sat in bed from sheer exhaustion. I have to go to the clinic and see my doc, then come home and muck around with my computer. I still almost get the giggles when I think of that phone call. Israelis treat docs like gods, but, as you know, I don't! Those docs and nurses must still be wondering about that. Having the head of another service call and tell you to release a patient can not be nice. But I love it!

YES IT IS THE LITTLE THINGS IN LIFE

2010-03-07T09:40:00.002+02:00

This morning I got to enjoy one of those seemingly insignificant things that really does make a differnce in how the day starts. I used up the last of the coffee in the jar in the late afternoon and started looking forward to opening a new jar. There are few things that smell as good as newly opened jar of coffee. Among them is newly mown grass, citrus blossoms in spring, and, of course lilacs blooming. I even have a sort of ceremony for openening the new jar. I open the cover very carefully, take of the inner seal with a very sharp knife, then smell it while the water comes almost to a boil. Then I bend a bit over the jar so as to sniff it while putting that first spoonful into the mug. I keep the spoon in the jar because there is a bit of a scarcity of spoons at Gimp House, so into the jar goes the spooon which stirs up the coffee again realeasing that most wonderful of scents You do know that boiling water scalds the coffee, don't you? Well, it does. Then, it's off to computer to do e mail until the coffee is cool enough to drink. I do take a sip or two while it's still way too hot just to savor that fresh brand new flavor, usually scalding my mouth. But, never badly. I'm just in a hurry to taste that wonderful flavor again.It's not something I want to over analyse, it's just such a nice thing that I am thankful to still be here to enjoy. The sad thing is that it's only this great for the first cup from new jar. Then, the delicious anticipation of opening the next new jar starts.
If you are a coffee lover, as I am, try using water that has only almost boiled and you will see for yourself the difference in the flavor of the coffee. If you use a coffee maker, take note that the water does not come to a full boil. It really does make a difference.
So, there we have a wonderful start to a new day that starts a new week. I can but hope that the rest of the day and week will be as good as the start this morning.
I have hope now that Savta's computer genius son will be able to sort the e mail on *my* computer. My geek is a hardware genius, but I'm actually better at software than he is, which is a bit of a cosmic joke as I always trouble getting my e mail programs to work right. At least I got it right on this one, though I have no idea how that happened.
We are going to have a scorching hot week, or so say the weather folks. In fact they told everyone to get the a/c ready. Yeah, right. It takes a long time to heat up the buildings here enough to need the a/c on cooling, even when it's over 80 outside. In fact, it was hot outside yesterday, but still very cool inside. It will be quite enough if I don't have use the a/c for heat this week.
My online stroke survivors group has some very very knowlegeble people who give the best advice on so many matters that affect us in a wide variety of things. When we five got back from the protest ride on scooters to Jerusalem, we promised ourselves a nice cold beer to celebrate. As I came home and pretty much went straight off for the first of seven hospitalisations, and came out on antibiotics, which do not like any kind of alcohol, all I could do was joing the guys while they had their celebratory beers and watch them. After every hospitalization, I asked if I could please have that beer now? And was told in no uncertain terms that I could not. They never explained why, just let me have another resounding no. So, here I am, a year and a half later still dreaming of that beer and heading right into a hot hot week, when a cold one is almost mandatory. I decided to ask the experts on the stroke survivor list if they maybe knew what the problem might be, and at last got the answer. It is not a very good idea for coumadin users to drink and it do odd things with oxy as well, but the general concensus was that one probably would be ok. So, The Five will gather this week to have *my* beer in celbration of an event that happened a year and a half ago. Wedenesday is supposed to be the hottest day of the week, so, check in on Thursday for a full report on how that long delayed beer was. So many wonderful things this week. Life is truly wonderful. Enjoy every minute of it for as long as you can. If I can, so can you!

NOT A GREAT WEEKEND

2010-03-02T17:00:00.002+02:00

I will be the first to admit that it could have been worse, much worse that it was. What happened? You ask. Oh, not much, I respond. My computer monitor up and died, as did my TV. My beloved geek was here a few hours later with a brand new, larger and better LCD monitor. While installing it he found out that the blasted thing needed a reformat. DAMN it just had one and I had just barely gotten it the way I like it, and here it needs another one. What a mess. So, that computer has a brand new monitor and Windows newly reinstalled, so, why does nothing except my game work right? It will not send e mails, or open web pages properly. And yes, it is a damn good thing that I have this and even though it might be a little slow, it sens mail and opens pages, if a bit slowly, but it opens them.
Then the real catastrophe happened. My newish LCD TV decided to imitate the monitor and died. Ok, fine, so it doesn't even turn on. O have 2 more! So there! The problem with that is that there was no one to get the spare out of Homeless' old room and switch it with the LCD. Golan hasn't shown his face for several days, so I called Benny, everyone's favorite 'gimp helper' He came about an hour ago and sorted the TV switch and now I at least have one to watch until I figure out a way to buy a new LCD. No rush at all. I'll get used to watching this one soon enough. I did find out that as long as WoW is working on "my" computer nothing else much matters. I just stayed up until I was falling asleep at the keyboard, and then, went to bed. Today is WoW's day to update their servers, so I won't be able to get my character any farther ahead than she is now. That is good in a way because instead of getting lost in the game, figuratively AND literally, I can catch up on things I've neglected in order to play. I can wash the dishes, fill my pill boxes and just do stuff I haven't.'had the time' to do. That game is the best and worst thing that has happened to me lately. It has my brain working in top gear, which spills over in to real life. I've learned so many little tricks there this week. It is a challenge that I rising to meet and I'm enjoying every minute there. I have met some absolutely lovely people there, who go out of their way to help me as much as they can. Now, if I could just remember to hit the enter key to bring up the chat box when want to say something, it would be nice. That really should be almost a reflex by now, but it isn't. Maybe one day soon it will be.
It's starting to get late, so, it's off to do dishes, then, sort the pills!

A VERY LONG WEEK

2010-02-24T09:53:00.002+02:00

Again, my apologies to my two and a half faithful readers for not posting in so long. I can't exactly use my usual excuse of beeing too busy, because I really haven't been in the usual sense of doing tons of stuff outside. I have been somewhat naughty and played Wow for way too long and let just about everything else wait. There's also the fact that the pain is back with a vengeance, and I'm trying to figure out what to do about it. I will have to go see my sawbones next week sometime and see what he thinks about it. The last shot worked for a little more than a month which tells me that there is some serious damage there. Not that I didn't already know that. I do have bone grinding on bone, after all. I am fighting as hard as I can to not increase the dose of the oxy to 20mg which is still a very low dose. It does do it's job well enough to let me get out of bed in the morning without screaming, and waking up all the sleeping babies in the country. The pain also builds up while I'm sitting here at the computer, and the cripple ballet exercises just make it worse. I do those against DVTs, and those exercises plus the pressure stocking are doing their jobs so far. I am always moving my right leg around and making that foot go up and down almost constantly. I think that maybe, just maybe that miserable rotten pain is affecting me when I am at WoW. It's just there in the back ground, but I'm sure it has a part in my lousy playing these days. And I was doing so well just a week ago. The friend who sent me the game has been so great about helping me with it, but a natural teacher he is not. Then, one day he got it and managed to make me learn how to use one of my character's abilities in a way even I could understand. That was a first. I usually had to ask one of the gals how to do things because they knew to tell me to right/left click this, then do this, this, then that. Us females are just naturally better teachers than guys, which just might explain why there are more females teachers in the elementary schools than men. Of course there are some absolutely horrible female teachers, the good ones out number he bad ones, men too. I'm just pleased as can be that he got that through my thick head. He also taught me another very important trick that I often to forget to use because I tend to panic in certain situations. I'll have to work on that, as well as many other things.
Yesterday I needed a refill on my oxy, and the new doc gave it to me, instead of making me wait for my regular doc to be there the next day. I went down to the pharmacy, the pharmacist got the pills, and neither of my credit cards would accept a 13 shekel charge. Go figure. He let me take them, and I promised to bring the money today. He won't be there until tomorrow. Golan, very kindly agreed to loan me the 13 shehels, so I don't have to ask Savta for them. I have no doubt that he would have gon right in and paid within 5 minutes of being asked, even if he had to rob a bank to get it. It's easier for me to owe Golan as he is in and out of here all the time, and he knows I'll pay him back one way or another. I never get bothered by wandering around cashless. I got used to that back in Brunswick. There was pretty much nothing I couldn't charge there, and it's still mostly like that these days. In fact, that's how I got my very first computer! Nothing down and four or five monthly payments on 'pay day' like clock work. I never missed or was even 5 minutes late with those payments.
I saw Savta on Friday and mentioned that I was going to my butcher to get some chicken, and he asked how much it costs there. I told him that it doesn't matter as I get all my meat there because they have always been so good to me over late bills. I firmly believe in customer loyalty especially towards local businesses. Even more so to those that have been good to me. It absolutely drives me wild when folks go out of town for any kind of shopping. Keep it local, support your neighbors and town is my battle cry. Going out of town is like giving local merchants a slap in the face, and in most cases things cost pretty much the same here as they do outside and then, add in the fuel needed to get out of town.
The Olympics pretty much sucked for me this year. I set the DVR to record all the skating events and it screwed up just about all of them. I missed the starts of all the dance events and some of the men's. I took a lot of time last last night to sort out the Women's competitions and hope it gets it right this time. From what I did see of the dance, the results were spot on. The Canadian couple was the best, with the American #1s coming in right behind them. Our couple was great, and came in at 10th place, which is quite good. I felt bad for the French #1s who are just about my favorite ice dancers today. She had a baby only 4 months ago and you'd never suspect. He was skating with a monster brace on his knee. In spite of all that, they did a great job. I could watch them dance on ice all night.
As to the men, I adore Yvgeny Plushenko, but I also quite like Even Kysachek who beat out Plushenko for the gold. There are reports of Plushenko acting like an over grown jealous baby over the results, but Lysachek did skate marginally better than he did. Whinging and carrying on is not doing Plushenko one little bit of good. He was beaten fair and square. His skating is still a joy to watch. I don't know much about the North American women and am looking forward to seeing them. In spite of al the DVR glitches, I am also glad that we get skating on Eurosport and not an American channel. The American commentators were great skaters in their day and are knowlegable, but the Brit commentators are so much better, and a pure joy to listen to. I wish they'd send Dick Buttons and the other American commentators to leaarn how to do it from the Brits. The difference is glaring to anyone who has had the priviledge to hear the Brits after suffering through the Yanks. It's a night and day difference. Thankfully the Yank commentators don't have any affect on their skaters. They are GOOD. I think the most enjoyable thing for me is seeing the new up and coming skaters and watching some of the less newcomers rise in the rankings. It's also interesting to watch them peak, and start moving down in the rankings. The Brits and Israelis in Ice dance are still moving up, if a bit more slowly than I'd like. Some of my favorite men are on their way down. France's Brian Joubet totally blew it, which is fine with me. I just don't much like him, despite what the Brit commentators say about him. And I can't quite put my finger on why I don't like him. I do know that it's not because he is French because I adore the #1 one French dance team. So,it's not a French thing.
For the ladies, I hope the Georgian moves up. Her, I like a lot, as well as Sarah Meyer(sp?) the Swiss gal. She can spin like no one else, but that's no surprise. No one can spin like the Swiss and most skaters end up there sooner or later to learn to spin better. Stephan Lambiel's spins are out of this world too.
I so wish that there skating competitions broadcast all year long instead of just during major competitions. I can't see that happening any time soon. But I CAN wish.
Dance has changed so much that it's hard sometimes to see the difference between that and Pairs. I can't say I'm in favor of those changes. I also miss school figures. So, I'm a traditionalist who hates to see things like that change. I do like the 'newish' scoring system, even though there were a few times when it was obvious that the judges have learned to fiddle the system already. Granted not as blatently as under the old system, but, I guess no system is ever really fiddle proof.

THAT'S ONE WAY TO DO IT.

2010-02-14T12:03:00.002+02:00

Of course I went and did it again. Got night and day reversed, just the way I like it, and all in one great night of playing WoW until 0600. After accomplishing that with absolutely no effort, I slept until 0630, and spent the rest of the day/evening worrying about getting back to day time living. I could very happily go onto permanent Night Owl time and play WoW until day light every single night. What to do that there are things must be done during the day? (my ideal sleeping time). The issue was solved for me this morning at 0800. I got a call from the clinic informing me that the doctor from Home Care was on his way and needed to see me. Ok. Fine. Great in fact. I sat up, hauled on the pressure stocking, hit the loo, put Pegasus out, made coffee, answered e mails, brought Peg in, got dressed as only I can when in a hurry. On the first attempt, I put my pants on inside out, on the second, back to front, and as I didn't see the shirt close to hand, I left the jammy shirt on and put a put a sweater jacket pull over thing on over the jammy top, and headed for the clinic. He was actually nice to me for a change (we usually exchange words) and wrote up the final recommendation, which I have to get up to the Health Ministry office in Safad. Thankfully he wrote a very strong recommendation. I'll get it up there this week some time. I met up with Savta and we had a nice chat about this, and that, I came home and am having another morning coffee because the first one didn't really feel like a proper wake up coffee. How could it, considering the rush I was in?
Yesterday I had such a wonderful time on WoW. Jonathan ran me and my horsie ragged running all over the place to get me as many flight points as possible, and it was fantastic seeing all those areas I'd never seen before. After that, I joined up with another player from our group (guild) and we cleaned up a few things I still had to do. While doing that, a wee little character begged us to help him on his stuff, which we did. I signed off a little after0200 and went to bed quite satisfied with my progress. Now, I can go and clean up things left from yesterday and not worry about getting stuck on Night Owl time again. At least for now.

HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?

2010-02-13T17:13:00.002+02:00

It finally happened! I've been suckered in to WoW. I just love that game and the people I play it with are so great. I played so long yesterday that I ended up going to bed at 0600 and woke up today at 1630. I feel just fine as that is my natural time clock. Now, how on earth am I going to get back to what the rest of the world considers a normal internal time clock? I really haven't figured that out yet. I just might go with it for a few days as it feels so good and right for me.
I'm doing much better at that game than I ever thought I would. That's a most pleasant surprise for me. It looks easy enough some times, but it is anything but easy. I'm getting a lot more confident at too, almost recklessly so. That's ok though, because getting deaded there is no big deal. You just go get your corpse, get repaired, and continue.
There have been a few times when I feel like giving the friend who sent it to me a nice solid Gibbs like smack up the back of his head, but overall he really does deserve a big hug for getting me into it. He seems to have trouble figuring out the new 'crippled' me, but so do I at times. Time and crippleness can change a person so much. I'm still learning me too. He does seem to be starting to get his head around it a little better these days. That's no easy trick.
Last week he started in on me to get a horsie and I refused point blank. I felt that I just wasn't ready then. One fine day a letter landed in my mail box offereing me riding lessons and a good deal on a horsie. I decided to go for it and ended up with a nice brown mare. One of the gals taught me how to use it and I just love riding her to bits. I was accused last night of taking their (the gal's) advice over his. Not true. It's just that they are better at explaining things I don't know how to do by going through it step by step. That is hardly advice in the sense I think he means. Women are just better at that than men are. He started pushing the horsie thing. I thought about it and realized that he was right, so, on that one at least, I did take his advice. Kicking and screaming like a two year old having a tantrum, but I took it.
Not much has been going on other than that. I'm feeling ok, except for the finger I almost ripped the cuticle off of at Savta's last week. I keep catching it on things, but it is getting better. And there we have as comprehensive update as I can manage for now. Except that I found a WoW skin for WMP, and installed it. Now al I have to do is figure out how to save that DVD to my computer and how to post it here. I'll get on that project next week sometime. How hard can it be for a level 24 Human Priestess?

PRIMORDIAL SOUP AND GUM GRUNGE

2010-02-03T10:25:00.002+02:00

I have a pot of the most disgusting primordial soup sitting on the stove waiting for the cleaning lady. I made a lovely beef stew ages ago, and after the first two days had had more than enough of it. It sat for weeks taking up room in the fridge and growing a vile smelly foamy gunk on the top. I finally got around to taking it out to make room for something else. I half expect to see a monster crawl out of it at any moment. When will I learn to cook smaller amounts? Ach, don't bother answering that. The cleaning lady is already late, yet again, so it is likely that I will end up disposing of it myself. Oh, well. I've cleaned up worse, even if this is running a close second in the disgusting race.
I discovered the other day that I have some kind of gum grunge on my gums. I did a little thinking on it and decided that it could very well be just some kind of gum grunge that I've never had before and that ratther than go running to the doc all worried that it might be mouth cancer, I decided to try an antiseptic mouth wash. Witch Dr. Gimp was right again! The mouth wash is clearing it up. I do a swish rince twice a day and it's going away. When it's gone, I'll keep on swish rincing twice a day. The grunge didn't hurt or anything, it just was there, and now it's leaving. Good riddance.
Yesterday was a most amazing day. Savta needed to go to Petach Tikva, a city near Tel Aviv. His son, who lives there had to get some things out of his apartment NOW. So, yeah, I volunteered. After he told me what kind of emotional shape his wife was in, I decided to go over and try to calm her down and reassure her. When I left she was a little better. I picked up Savta and his other son (useful for shlepping) at a little after 1400 and we headed out of town.
I informed Savta in no uncertain terms that I fully intended to take the son we were going to rescue back with us as a surprise for his mother. Savta didn't think I had any chance to succeed in that part of the mission. We got there in good time and I did manage to get the kid(an adult now, but to parents always a kid) to agree to go back with us. So, there we were, 4 adults in my Ford Focus and the trunk stuffed full of things. To say the car was dragging it's ass is an all time understatement. On the way home, Mrs. Savta called the son who went with us, and we all had a great time loudly interjecting nonesense into the conversation. Then she said that she was going to call the other kid, assuming that he was at home all alone. We closed the car windows and were as quiet as mice so as not to give away the surprise. One of the boys went up to the house and got a wheely so I could be there to see Mrs. Savta's face when she realized we'd brought her baby home.I was afraid for a minute that she was going to faint. She looked at the guy standing next to me with a perfectly blank expression, then, she got it!! Tears, hugs and blessings all around. I felt so good that it's hard to express. Never mind making her day. I think I made her year. It wan't all that easy to convince him to come with us, but when he saw his mother's reaction, he finally got it. Boy sons can be so stoopid at times. Me? I'm chuffed as can be at how it all turned out.

MORE LUCK OF THE DUMB!

2010-01-26T19:36:00.002+02:00

I must admit that those DVTs were more than a little scary and I'm not really surprised that it took me as long as it did to come up with the logical solution. After the first DVT was diagnosed in Rambam Hospital in Haifa, I should have asked to go to B'nei Zion (Formerly Rothdchild Hospital) also in Haifa. The vascular surgeon there is one of the top two in that field in the country. In fact, he did my rotor rooter a few years ago. His #2 guy is the other one. After finally sitting myself down and giving myself a stern talking to, I decided that I really should get echo Doppler ultrasounds done on my legs and insisted on doing it at the diagnostic center in that hospital because he is the one who reads the tests and signs off on them. After days and days of torrential rain and cold I woke up to a day of a few clouds and much cold. At last. Time to go out. After getting all layered up, I took off on Harley to check my mail box. In it I found the most beautiful purple shawl, a ring with a purple stone, and a very cute key chain that a fellow stroke survivor sent me. Treasures to be sure.
Then, it was off to the clinic to get a refill on the oxy. Dontcha know? Get rid of one pain and another takes it's place. The only thing I can think of is that my left leg is jealous of my right leg, and is now making unreasonable demands on management. Ok. So, I'll feed it oxy. While waiting for my doc to finish with the patient who was already with him, I looked through the stack of mail and found the results from the echo Doppler. When the doc came out to get my card and ask what I needed, I handed it to him before I finished reading it. He came back out all smiles to announce that no evidence of DVTs was found. Those are moments when I never know whether to cry, laugh, or let out a whoop of joy. I opted for a big smile with damp on the verge of tears of happiness eyes. The minor swelling in my left foot is from that ankle injury, not a DVT. The small dose of rat poison, aka coumadin must be doing the trick. I do know that I can not go back to doing stoopid things like sitting at the computer for 26 hours playing WoW, or going on all day drives. With just a little caution I should be able to avoid getting more. Not to mention yet again; it's the coumadin stoopid. I can happily continue taking 2.5 mg forever, and being careful about not sitting still for too long.
What a great day!

A WEEK TO REMEMBER

2010-01-24T08:37:00.002+02:00

I will freely admit that I have been amiss about posting lately. Let's just blame that on WoW, shall we? That game can really suck you in.
Last week was actually one to write home about! I'd been wanting to see my orthopedist to get my butt shot again with his magic cocktail of pain killers, but, couldn't face going alone. Golan and I cooked up a plan to get me to the echo Doppler ultra sound on Monday, and him to his post op check up in Tiberius and later the next day, me to the butt shot. It worked quite well as plans like that sometimes do. I was told that my Doppler test was set for 1140 and we left early just in case. We got there an hour early, or so I thought. It turned out that the appointment was really for 1040, and we were a few minutes early for even that. The truly amazing thing was that I found a parking space as close to the entrance as is possible. Any closer, and we would have been inside! Wouldn't you know it? There was a problem with the paper work (typical) but a quick phone call to the clinic had the right one there by fax within minutes. Those ultra sounds are so routine that there is absolutely nothing to say about them. I had it, we left. Part of the deal was that we would stop at the hospice where an ex girlfriend of Golan's is dying. I prepared as much reading material as I could on my character at WoW so that I'd be happily occupied while waiting for Golan. He came out after an hour as promised and we headed off to find lunch. As it was raining, I opted to eat my lunch in the car while he ate his inside. Messing with wheelies in the rain just isn't worth it when all you want is a quick lunch, then, get home before the foot swells up. We made it just in time, and I put that stoopid foot up the minute we got in. Peg had left me huge 'punishment' in the living room. He tends to do that when my schedule changes and I'm gone longer than he thinks I should be. I ignored it, and rested up for a while.
Day two of the plan also went like clock work. We got Golan to his post op check up at Tiberius on time (he had two cysts removed from his lower lip, and was waiting for the biopsy reprt too. It was benign). He came out before I got much reading done (do you have any idea how much stuff there is on the interweb about the characters on WoW?) and, as we had 4 hours to kill before my appointment, decided to get some lunch in Acre which is an ancient city on the coast. Way back when I was young, healthy and strong, a friend and I used to walk to the harbor in Acre to lok at the view, shop and eat some great hummus. The key word is walk. I had my very first panic attack ever trying to drive there. The streets are very narrow and no has any patience for someone going slowly. I ended up telling Golan to just direct me out of there, which he did, and we headed for the next place up the coast. We drove by the waterfront, but nothing was open, so we kind of headed away from there. I suddenly saw an un numbered cripple parking space and stopped in it for a few minutes. I had decided that no ancient city traffic was going to stop me from havin lunch where my friend and I used to go, and told Golan that I need a few minutes to get my head around going back there. I swear, I have rarely seen anyone laugh so hard after I said that. He even got me laughing so hard I thought I'd never stop. Long story short; it worked. I got my view of the stormy sea and hummus, with plenty of time to get to the clinic for my shot. Again we were early and had to wait, as he only gets there at 1600. Due to the fortunate timing, I was first in. He had a full list, so, chit chat was minimal. He did say how great the new slimmer me looks. For the shot I need to lie on my stomach. I haven't done that since 1992, but with a lot of help from the nurse I managed it after she untangled my legs which I had some how spaghettisyzed. (don't ask). The doc had to probe around a bit to find the nerve bundle, and the relief from the pain was as close to instantaneous as can be. I did cripple ballet exercises for a few minutes, and with but lingering twinges, headed for home. By the time we got there, the residual pain in my hip was gone. Talk about a medical bulls eye! Guess what I found in the living room again? Yup! More Peg punishment. Again, I ignored it, planning to pick up the bigger pieces in the morning and letting the cleaning lady wassh up the drier harder parts.
When I woke up in the morning, I didn't have to do the whole take the oxy, wait, then, get up ceremony. Not only was the leg ok. The lower back pain was gone as well. I am having a hard time finding the words to express the wonder of it all. Now, all I have to do is keep track of how long it lasts this time. I have decided that even if it only lasts a month or so, it's well worth getting my butt shot that often.
I pretty much stayed in for the rest of the week. The cleaning lady came as planned, but wasn't really all there. I told her to spill soapy (floor soap) water on the hard parts, then, do the stuff she does before she washes the floor. She kind of didn't and I wasn't really paying attention. She took the bag of kitchen trash/garbage out of it's bin, but didn't replace it. She washed the floor, then, happily left without taking out the trash. She left that kitchen bag right next to Peg's chair. Well, yeah, of course he got into it and ate a bunch of raunchy stuff, then, squitted all over the nice clean floor. Ballistic? Who me? Record breaking understatement. The smell was so bad that I just cleaned it up myself. It wasn't really his fault that time. Boy, was I mad. I decided to wait until the next morning to tell her boss about it. Cool down time is good. I really don't know where her head was, but it for sure wasn't on her job. I also had to put all the dishes she'd 'washed' back in the sink to do over again. I'm far from a sterile freak, but, what was left on the plates was too much, even for me.
Last week was quite the week. Things are a little more settled down now, and I can go have some fun at my new game.

THE ONLY THING LEFT TO SAY IS WOW

2010-01-18T07:08:00.002+02:00

I'm not sure about this,but I think I haven't written yet about the computer game one of my best and dearest buddies from high school days sent me for my birthday/Hannukah/Christmas. When he told he wanted to send it to me, I was more than a little skeptical about it. Interweb games never really interested me. The game, WoW duly arrived and I installed it.I started playing with a lot of help from him and a few of his friends who also play.It was really hard at first because I didn't understand anything that was going on. The game set includes 4 books. I started reading them, and came up with 3 characters in 2 different areas of the game. I use one of them to learn,with help from just about everyone one to work on and learn from on my own. I'm slowly starting to figure things out. Wouldn't you know it? I chose one of the most difficult character types to be in the game. That particular one seems like the closest to who I really am, and even though I get frustrated when things don't always go the way I want them to and I often annoy the friend who sent it to me, I am loving every minute of it. My biggest problem is that the DVTs don't let me play for as long as I'd like to.
If you ever get the chance and feel like a challenge, I strongly recommend WoW. If my somewhat vague description has made you a little curious about the game, there is a ton and a half of stuff about it on the web. Just Google Wow and you'll find more there about it than you ever wanted to know.
Today I am going for an echo Doppler Ultrasound on my legs. Golan and I figured out a way to get each of us to medical things on Tuesday. I need to get my butt shot in the hopes of getting it exactly right this time and delaying raising the dose of oxtcontin. He needs a cyst removal looked at. The plan is that I drive him to the hospital in Tiberius for his check up, then, he goes with me to get shot. That's pretty much it for now. I spend way too much time keeping my legs up because the left one swells up so quickly.

NEW RULES TO LIVE BY

2010-01-14T12:43:00.002+02:00

Having dodged the DVT=go to hospital bullet, I have come up with a few new rules to live by. But, before I get to the rules; a bit about being luckier than I probably deserve. Way back when they first diagnosed the first DVT, the docs recommended that I start wearing pressure stockings. I was quite willing to wear them. There was just one little problem. They didn't fit on my legs, and I was in no mood to mess around with a made to order thing that cost at least NIS 2000, and would take months to get here. But things have changed since then, I've just had my fourth run in with DVTs and I've lost just over 60 lbs. I decided that the new plan of action would be to get the stockings, have an echo doppler untra sound done on my legs and see the vascular surgeon who cut my neck open. I am now wearing the stockings and have an appointment for the echo doppler on Monday. So far, so good. That brings us to the new rules.
1) stand up every hour and do cripple ballet exercises.
2)take a half hour break after every 2 hours to put feet up.
3) do not under any circumstances even begin to think about not taking the next DVT straight to hospital.
So, there we have them. My three new rules to live by. How many times can anyone coulnt on sheer blind dumb luck to get over a DVT? I got lucky once, and I'm not taking another chance.

BLIND DUMB LUCK

2010-01-12T14:12:00.002+02:00

There are times when I wonder if I will ever learn. I did something so stoopid Friday night that I am amazed at myelf. I got so caught up in WoW that I stayed at the computer until almost 0300. I woke up very late Seturday morning with another DVT. Just what I didn't need. I did stay in bed for most of the day, with only very short bathroom trips and even quicker stops here to answer e mails. I even got myself ready to go to hospital like a good girl. I was so slow Sunday morning that I missed morning clinic hours. "Fine", I told myself. "Get your butt in gear earlier and go tomorrow." I was actually up and ready to go when Savta called and said that he'd like to meet up with me and we decided to meet at the clinic. I got a little delayed in leaving thanks to a semi emergency loo stop. I was feeling more than a little crap and decided to not get dressed and headed out in my house coat.On the way I remembered that it was Monday and my doc does not work on Mondays."Ok" Thought me to myself, "I'll just wait another day so I won't have to explain the whole mess to the new doc at the clinic" Savta and I met up at about the half way point between Gimp House and the clinic, and came back here to sit in the sun and chat for a while. The very first thing he told me was that I didn't look at all well. No kidding? So, there we sat in the sun and chattered away, then, I stayed in the sun and chatted with a neighbor for a while, then, went to get the mail. I was feeling much better by the time I got in.
Today I did manage to get the clinic in the nick of time and the doc and I decided that I could skip the hospital this time and came up with a plan. If I have lost enough weight to fit into a stock pressure stocking size, I'll start using them like I was supposed to a year ago, and that I would get an echo doppler ultrasound done on my legs and go see the vascular doc who did my endarterctomy. He also suggested that I go to the store that sells the stockings to be sure they'd fit before giving me the authorization to buy them. I did exactly that, and the owner said, "No problem, they will fit you just fine" and complimented me on my weight loss. Little does he know how I did lose all this weight. I'm so glad it's gone even if the method is highly unrecommended. So, rather than wait until tomorrow, I'll go back to the clinic at 1600 to get the authorization. Might was well get that sorted as soon as possible.
I am well aware that I was just plain lucky this time, and have already told myself that next time, there will be no fooling around. I will take myself off to hospital and not count on blind dumb good luck. I will also never again stay at the computer for so many hours. That was just about the stupidest thing I have ever done. It's not like I don't know any better. I do, and will not do that again. Other than that, not much of note has happened.

IT TOOK LONG ENOUGH

2009-12-22T09:38:00.003+02:00

I've only been talking about it since the day I found that the jammy bottoms my son's sister left in her closet here fit me now! I came up with more excuses than usual to not have a picture taken in them. I really really don't like most(ok, all) of the pictures I've had taken over the past 11 or so years. Then, I decided to just get it over with and handed the camera to Golan last night and told him to shoot me. He did, and I actually am quite pleased with the way I look in them! Right. Now, you tell me how I look 60 lbs lighter.

See how much room there is in the legs? And never mind the chins. I also don't really want to talk about how much it hurt to force myself to stand up straight. Back when I was young, beautiful and able to walk, I had very good posture, but, now that my spine is distegrating, I'm kind of bent over when I stand up. I figured this out from the pictures I posted yesterday.The original plan for these jammy pictures was to have Pegasus in them too, but he wasn't having any of it and plopped himself down on the floor to my right. He's getting almost as good as I am at hiding from cameras. Smart doggy
Nothing much of any note happened yesterday, and here we are at Tuesday, waiting to see who/if anyone shows up for the weekly cleaning hour The kitchen is in pretty good shape for a change, so, I think we'll do the 'pantry' instead of dishes and stove top before we do the floor. Or, maybe, change the bed. I have about half an hour to cogitate on the international implications of the options!

ONE DAY I WILL FIGURE OUT A WAY

2009-12-21T08:33:00.004+02:00

I am doing this under protest. I really do not like having my picture taken, and I dislike posting it on the interweb even more. Yeah, I know I've posted more than a few here, but, in my defense, they were only to illlustrate events. I have now been convinced that losing 60 pounds IS an event that needs a picture posted. So, here's one, in illustration of the first time in close to 11 years that I bought a 'sweat suit' at a proper sized people store. Thanks to this picture I have discovered that I can not stand up straight any more. Oh, well, here I am 60 lbs. lighter.

The neckline of the top is a little crooked, but, then, so am I! Just try and imagine hauling around 60 lbs more. Scary, isn't it? There will be another picture coming along one of these days. It will illustrate the jammy bottoms I raided from my son's sister's closet, and the jammy bottoms are getting a little bigger! I am the world's champion spiller and there were coffee and soup spots on the thighs of the jammy bottoms, and I wasn't about to have a picture taken with those stains. I finally got them clean and am fast running out of excuses to not have the picture taken!
Nothing of earth shattering consequence has happened since my last post except that my son called, and they have another baby on the way. Ok, so, that isn't world shattering news, but it is pretty exciting to this gimpy old granny. I'm not sure when the new member of the family is due. I kind of forgot to ask because we got into the whole 'I do not want to know the baby's gender' thing My son's generation is used to everything NOW and just can't wait for much of anything. The sad thing is that because they can find out the gender in the early months, they will never know the delicious feeling of anticipation that parents of my generation had.I might be brain damaged and a little forgetful these days, but I do remember how much fun it was to wonder if it would be a boy or a girl and talking about names for either option. Back in those olden days, it was possible to find out the gender by amniocentesis(sp) but that was usually only done to check for suspected defects after an ultra sound or if there was a family history. Ultra sound was pretty primitive in those days and it was really hard to figure out what the baby would be. These days even a half blind person can see for themselves what it will be.That is good medically, but, it takes away all that wonderful anticipation. Yup, the NOW generation sure is missing out on one of the most wonderous experiences we of the 'medical dark ages' got to enjoy until the very end. Unless of course, you were married to my ex husband, and he was in the labor room with you. In that case the anticipation could last a little longer. When my son's sister was born, the baby catcher announced that she was a girl. Her father disagreed with that medical opinion and argued that, "No, It's a boy!" They went back and forth on that a few times until the poor, sore, wondering mother said that she'd go with the baby catcher on that as he has more experience in gener recognition! Poor Daddy finally figured out that, yes, it's a girl! Ah, the good old days. Of course I still like anticipating things. Just about anything. It's one of life's greatest pleasures for me.I wake up every morning thankful that I will be able to find out what the new day holds for me. Ok, sometimes I could be happier without some of the things, but, that's just the way it goes sometimes. Even then, I'm thankful for even those days.I just love being alive and able to function at all. Anticipation is, to me,one of the best parts of being alive. That, and curiosity.
I have a very close friend from early childhood whose bithday and old home phone number are indelible in my mind. I sent her an e card on her birthday and never got notification that she opened it. That got me to thinking that maybe I had the wrong e daay for her, and came up with the bright idea of contacting her through Facebook. It worked, and then, I found out that she had gone to Maine to help her mother who had broken her arm. So, yeah, of course I called. She had taken herself off to an interweb coffee house, so, wasn't home (duh). I did have a most wonderful chat with her mother. Boy did that ever take me back in time. It was a bittersweet reminder of my own mother, and after we hung up I got a little nostalgically weepy, but it was a very nice weepiness. Part of it was that she brought my mother and childhood back so clearly, and that I was talking to someone who had actually known me pretty much from the day I was born and my whole life history was pretty much known to her. It was wonderful, and I do know that my friend knows just how fortunate she is to still have her mother.I still ache all over missing my parents.But, I do still have my brother, and that's wonderful. I adore and admire that kid so much. And am ever so thankful that I still have him.

NOT THE HAPPIEST BIRTHDAY

2009-12-07T12:38:00.002+02:00

I've had, what? 58 birthdays so far and I remember very few of them. What I do remember from the last 9 or so is how happy I was to be here for them. Today easily qualifies as one of the worst ever. I was awake unti well after 0300, and was woken by the phone at 0830. Yes, this time I did answer the blue tooth, not a cigarette lighter. The minute I heard my friend Etty's voice, I knew what she was going to tell me. Her husband Yaacov passed away last Thursday and she couldn't reach me to tell me before the funeral. Etty and Yaacov were the only people that I stayed in touch with from Nazareth Elite after I moved here. There are few better friends than they. Yaacov had hands that could fix anything and a sense of humor that would have put most standupists to shame. He was one smart guy. The world is a sadder place without him in it. They are sitting Shiva at his mother's house near Tiberius, which means I can easily visit as there are no stairs to negotiate. I'm thinking of maybe going tomorrow.
The car needed to have it's annual inspection today. As I can't exactly get into the office myself, Golan went with me, and did that part. Then, I brought him back here and went back to go through the test. After the headlights were checked and I was informed that the car doesn't need glasses, I had to move up to a pit so they could check stuff from there. As soon as I stopped over the pit, I was overwhelmed and the tears started. It's just so sad that a guy who is only 60 years old gets a brain tumor and then dies. He had so much to live for. Both their sons are now married and have kids and are doing well in general. He was so proud of them and should have had more time to enjoy them. After a few weepy moments, I got control again and finished the test. The only thing wrong was the wiper blades but for NIS 30 they were changed on the spot and the car is good to go. Of course I had to take it back to that office I can't get into. The tester guy grabbed someone who was going in and asked him to sort it for me. He did, and even put the new sticker on for me. So, the car is good to go. It will get it's annual wash for passing the test tomorrow as it's kind of raining today. Now that that's all over with, I can get on with being sad. It certainly goes with the weather.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

2009-12-06T15:13:00.003+02:00

I don't much like my birthday any more. I used to like it a lot more when my father was still alive and sent that annual birthday/ Hannukah check. Not for the money, but because he remembered. I miss him all the time, but it's even worse at this time of the year.One thing that do like about my birthday is (are you ready for this?) that I am one year older than I was on my last one. With all the things that have gone wrong with me, I never quite expected to make it this far, but am quite pleased that I did. I bought myself a present this year and am trying to pretend to myself that it's from my father.

Isn't she cute? Golan is going to help hang her up someplace later. Gimp House doesn't exactly have a lot of spare floor space for her to take up, so, we'll just have to hang her.
Another thing I'm giving myself for birthday is to send an unused cell phone to a friend in The States. She really can't afford one right now, and I don't use this one, so why not?
All in all it's shaping up to be a fine birthday and I hope I have lots more! (wicked grin of evility)

I DID IT AGAIN

2009-12-06T08:49:00.002+02:00

It really is fun being me, or should I say funny? I never know what I'm going to do next! So far I've used my right ear as an ash tray, slammed my face in the fridge door, almost wiped dog poop off the floor with my face, driven Harley up the side of Gimp House and been dumped unceremoniously onto the ramp. But the latest doesn't fall short of the others except that it really posed no danger to me at all, which makes it all the funnier.
Every night when I climb into bed, I put my blue tooth 'ear' on the table next to 'my' side of the bed. The cell phones go on the other side of my bed and just lie there getting charged. The other morning the main cell phone rang and I reached for the blue tooth 'ear' to answer it. The phone was still ringing but I didn't hear anyone on the other end of the ear. I finally gave in and opened my eyes to find out what was wrong with the 'ear' and discovered that I was trying to answer a cigarette lighter that is similar in shape to the 'ear'. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, I decided that the best course of action was to just go back to sleep.
Now, who can honestly say that they know someone who has done even one of those things I've managed to do in the last six months or so?
Yes, it really is fun to be me. I never know what I'm going to do next. It's fun finding out, though.

THAT'S ONE WAY TO START A DAY

2009-11-27T09:26:00.002+02:00

It's an internationally known fact that I am total crap in the morning. There's a very strong element of stay away until I've my morning coffee to it. Who knows this better than good old Pegasus, who has been subjected to my morning fits for almost 20 years now? You'd think that after living in Gimp House since 2002 he's have the morning routine pretty strongly engrained. It really should be automatic. It's the same thing every single morning. I get up, go pee, get him and his lead sorted, roll to the door with him behind the wheely, open the door, then, unlatch the screen door, back up, let him go out ahead of me, hook him onto his nice long chain that is locked onto a ramp railing. Every day. Every single day. For some reason, known only to him, he didn't quite get the behind the chair part and his lead got wound around the left wheel of the wheely. Now, I'm in a wheely because I kind of can't walk. The chair can't go forward or backwards, I can't stand long enough to sort the lead. Uh oh. Trouble accompannied by lots of yelling, shouting and cussing. I did finally manage to wrestle the chair into the living room, and put the wheely's cushion on his 'bed', fold the wheely, tip it over and release the lead. I had released him from the lead before the wrestling part. Right. Lead in hand, wheely upright, cushion in place, and this time he gets it right, and I can go make my coffee and calm down.
He's pulled that trick before, but never gotten the lead wrapped around the wheel. If I have anything to say about it, he won't get another chance.
Old gimps can learn new tricks from old dogs.

THE ADDICTION PROGRAM

2009-11-22T09:24:00.003+02:00

My addiction training program worked out very nicely and my pharmacist said that he wished more people used it. According to him, most folks just want to get rid of their pain, and don't give any thought to what they are getting into.
*I* on the other hand, thought about it long and hard.(cue applause) I also didn't want to go through what went through back when we were looking for an NSAID and every single one I tried gave me impossible side affects without stopping the pain until we found that Naxcyn (naproxin) did the job. The fact that it eventually gave me a nice peptic ulcer is what lead me to trying several non NSAIDs, none of which worked for more than a dose or two. That's when I started thinking about moving into the world of addictive pain murderers, and asked the doc for one of the oxys. He gave me a prescription for 5mg of oxycontin, which most pharmacies don't keep on hand. The one I went to said that they would have some for me the next day. I promptly decided to take Naxcyn until it came in, which I did, figuring that one or two couldn't do much more damage to my stomach, and that I might finally get a good night's sleep. I did take one that night and the pain was gone within half an hour and I slept quite well that night.I took another in the morning, and again, no hurting. I picked up the 5mg and took the first one at around 1500, then, read the little mini book that comes with it. I should have done that first. It's quite specific about taking them at 12 hour intervals. So, I got to to delay taking the next one until I got the timing right. In fact, I started taking just one a day, instead of two. You really should work your way up the dosage ladder very slowly and pay close attention to your body and it's reactions. That first dose kept the pain down to a low roar until the next morning, and, most importantly, I didn't seem to have any bad reactions to it. I knew it would be ok. I finished the 5mg box in 11 days because after the first day, I decided to try the two a day regimen like the doc prescribed.
I asked him to up it to 10mg on the grounds that the pharmacy always has 10mg and higher in stock, and that it would wonderful to get rid of even more of the pain and I wasn't having any bad reactions to it. So, after the doc had a quick phone consultation with the pharmacist, who told him that he really didn't know when he'd get the 5mg in, and that he thought it was a very bad idea to have me taking Naxcyn while waiting, he agreed, and I went down to get it.
Thing about pain is that it has a purpose. It's to tell us that something is wrong. I was hoping that the 10mg would get the pain down to a very dull roar so that if anything else went wrong, as things tend to do with me, I'd know it. Pain killers don't discrimminate. They knock out pain, and too many times you can miss something important because you can't feel it. Right. The 10mg gets the pain right down to where I want it. I can feel that the pain is still there, but it really is much less and lets me get through the day easily and I am sleeping ever so much better at night. What a relief that is after the last year and a half!
So, my addiction training program was a great success. I have the pain under control, my body has not had any bad reactions to it, and I haven't had that buzz or high others had warned me about. And my pharmacist ( a great guy in any event) loved The Plan and said that he intends to start recommending it to newcomers to world of narcotics.
Works for me! And I highly recommend it to anyone contemplating entering the world of junkydom!

Tarzan Rope

2009-11-14T16:34:00.004+02:00

Some of us gimps have trouble getting up in bed. THe 'normal' ones amongst us install a proper trapeze contraption like they have in hospitals over their beds. Me, I install a tarzan rope that I bought in Maine, not knowing what in heaven's name it was. All I knew was that it was purple, so I bought it and when asked by several other shoppers what it was, simply told them that it doesn't matter what it was. It's purple and that's all I need to know about it.
I usually don't have trouble sitting up in bed and can to sit ups, pretty much forever. When I got sprung from my last hospitalization I had trouble sitting up because my stomach was sore from repated shots of Clexane. That was when I realized what the purple thing I'd bought in Maine was for; it's a Tarzan Rope. See?

It might look a little odd, but it works and it's not dangling in my face like a proper trapeze would! It sure did come in handy the morning after I forgot to take my meds, and my back did not want to hear about sitting up or anything else. It's even more fun if you can do a proper Tarzan call! That's really fun if someone else is in the house! Hmmm, my box spring is getting a little tatty. I've only had it since 1985, and moved 5 times since then, so I guess it's allowed to look like that.

ADDICT IN TRINING

2009-11-10T09:55:00.002+02:00

As usual, there is nothing 'average' or 'usual' with me medically! I've been happily cruising along on 2.5mg of rat poison daily and the clotting levels have been just fine. Then, Sunday rolled around, as it tends to every week or so, and I went and got a blood draining for a clotting level. It came as no surprise that my clinic's site refused to let me in to check the results. That was most annoying as I had a feeling that something would be way off. There was absolutely no leackage from the stick site. That's a first for me. There is usaully at least a small leak, but, not a drop on Sunday. Then, last evening I got a call from my doc telling me to not take any rat poison and to show up for a repeat draining today. My INR was 6, which is high, but makes absolutely no sense in light of the no leakage on Sunday. For once I followed doctor's oeders without arguing, and just came back from the repeat drainage, with strict orders to call my doc at 1700 for the results, which, if today's leakage is anything to go by, should be spot on.
I wonder, if as St. Gracie suggested, the levels might be cockeyed because of my new addict in training regimen? It's not like anything can be ruled out with me, but I have my doubts about that one. The only thing I can really attribute to addiction training is the case of the squits I suddenly developed on Sunday. According to other addict friends, constipation is what usually happens, so, what do i do? I go and develope the exact opposite. My cleaning lady is here now. When she finishes, I'm going back to the clinic to have a nice long chat with the doc about this stuff. I was in a rush to get out of there and back here so I wouldn't miss her. The state of the floor is embarrassing even to Pegasus. There are clumps of dried mud everywhere and scraps of paper that he liberated from the trash bin next to my bed. I just ignore it as I roll over and around it. Addicts in training are not expected to clean floors when they have a cleaning lady who actually shows up once a week or so!

WHO KNEW?

2009-11-07T09:42:00.002+02:00

It's amazing how cheap and easy it is to be become a 'legal' addict in Israel. We've pretty much run out of pain killer options, so my doc suggested that I try oxycontin. He did warn that it's highly addictive, (yeah, yeah, I know) as he was printing the prescription. I charged downstairs to my clinic's pharmacy, but they don't keep it in stock down there, so I had to go to a Superpharm (kind of like a Wallgreens) and they don't keep it there either. The head pharmacist did call around and found some that would be there the next day, but I had to get the prescription changed because he can't give out 20 of them in one go unless the doc specifies a reason for that much. So, yesterday morning, it was back to the doc who just gave me a new one that specified 2 per day for 10 days and that solved the problem. And they only cost NIS 13, which is around $3.25. I'm going to go nice and slow with it and start with 1 a day, like those vitamins. Cheap, innit? In the mean time my doc has sent off for official permanent approval for me to take it. That should be ok as my pain is my lower back which is slowly disintegrating, and left leg which needs both knee and hip joints replaced. They can't do that because you need the other leg to be able to go through rehab after the replacement and that leg is partialy paralyzed, so the replacements are a no go. My sawbones told me several years ago that it would be a matter of pain management. I took Naxyn (naproxen) for 10 years, then found that it caused a nice little ulcer which lead to all the nonesense with the coumadin. I did try a few other non NSAIDs which did nothing for the pain. So, here I am an addict in training! At least it's cheap.And after taking one, it works. It's also the lowest dose, 5mg.
I did finally get a solid night's sleep last night. Constant pain can do wicked things to a person. It really sucks about the ulcer because the Naxyn does work quite well. But, I am thankful that there is something else. It really doesn't matter if I do get addicted because there are really no ther options at this point.

OUCH

2009-11-04T15:20:00.002+02:00

Please don't ask how I manged to do this. Let's just leave it at; it takes a special talent that I apparently have. As I was manuevering Harley to get off the ramp and head into town, he suddenly took it into his head that it would be ever so much fun to dump me off his seat and onto the ramp. He had more success with that than I did with getting up from the ramp. There I sat, with my legs dangling over the edge of the ramp, waiting for one of the crew that's working in the flat across from mine to come out. After a few minutes, the foreman came out, with the foreman from the renovation of Gimp House. When I saw that Ali was there too, I knew all would well. The two foremen and another guy from the crew tried to get me up, but didn't succeed. Ali went off and found an nice strong board and got two more guys and after I'd scooted back to sit on the board, they managed to lever me up. I ended up with a scraped left ankle bone a sore right arm and the usual aches and pains in my back and right leg. They were so sweet, and waited until I got off the ramp with Harley. The 2 guys who really don't know me, wanted to help me back off the ramp, but Ali told them that I'm quite able to do that on my own.
I headed straight for the clinic to get my monthly meds and have a chat with the sugeon about that test he wants done, but that I can't get to too early in the morning. I also wanted the nurse to put something on the new scrape. I found my little bottle of spray bandage and she sprayed me, so, that's all set. The surgeon said that he'd sort out something with the test, and my regular doc had to leave, so we'll do the meds tomorrow. We also have an issue with my pain meds. THe last two I tried are useless. He said that if he gave me one of the oxys, there might be an addiction issue. Like that worries me? I've only been on pain meds for 11 years. Duh. He did say we'd sort it tomorrow. Ok, so I wait another day. It's just pain.
After that, I picked up a carton of fags, and went to my favorite grocery store to pick up a few things.
Now, I'm home and my bed is calling me. It'll have to wait until I get that cake I've been planning baked. When it's out of the oven, I will answer the call of the bed.

THE GREAT PAJAMA HEIST

2009-10-25T13:14:00.003+02:00

I have kind of taken over the large closet my ex daughter left behind when she got married. I assume that if she had wanted it, it would be long gone by now. She left a bunch of clothes in it. She never dreamed that I'd ever get thin enough to wear any of the things she left and even told me to get rid of my old clothes because I'd never ever fit into them again. Really?
It was a little chilly here the other night and I remembered that there were two pairs of satin jammies in that closet. I got them out, and guess what? They fit. I guess losing 60+ pounds had something to do with it. I still have a way to go before I get back to the point where my old clothes will fit properly, but I'm well on the way. So there.
Other than that, not much has been happening except that I managed to turn night into day again. It's enough to drive a body wild. By around 0300 my body aches to sleep, but I just can't. Then I do, and wake up late in the morning. Then I end up struggling not to doze off during the afternoon so that maybe I'll be able to sleep at night. That doesn't always work. It ain't easy being a night owl, but, I guess I'll just have to learn to live with it. It would be much easier if the rest of the world was more accommodating. I rather doubt that will ever happen.
Yes, that was a huge sigh you just heard.

HOW COULD I ALMOST FORGET?

2009-10-13T11:13:00.002+02:00

I came very close to forgetting that yesterday, Columbus Day in 1970 was the day I landed in Israel for the very first time and knew beyong a shadow of a doubt that I had found the place I was destined to live in.I do believe that everyone has a place for them. Some find it right in their back yards, others, the really lucky ones find it elsewhere quite by accident, like I did. To this day I'm not entirely sure where the idea to come here came from. Divine Inspiration, maybe? But, the minute I got off that plane, I knew I was in My Place. It took a lot longer to find the sprcific place here. I was sent to teach English in Kiryat Shmonah and knew very early on in the school year that this was the spot. Two days after school let out for the summer, I moved up here with kids, lock stock and barrel. I feel so blessed to have found my place. I can't even begin to imagine living any place else. I am well and truly home.

I SUPPOSE I SHOULD BE HAPPY....BUT

2009-10-12T22:16:00.003+02:00

After making an inept attempt at repairing my Windows operating system, and making a right mess of it, and getting the sweetest techie from the cable company in to fix my non working cable phone, my computer decided to pack it in. I'm still not quite sure what all was wrong with it, so I did the smart thing and got my geek in. He set up the laptop and I got it connected to the interweb, and off this one went in brand new Chevy ambulance to the Kiryat Shmonah Computer Hospital. There was a knock on the door at a little after noon and the computer was home and declared cured of all ills, viral and otherwise. Again I got it connected to the interweb, and started downloading all my stuff, like Firefox and Thunderbird. Thunderbird refuses to work correctly. It receives mail but cannot send. A very sweet guy from my server tried for ages by remote to get it to send, but it was stubborn in it's refusal. In the end we did get the detested Outlook Express to both send and receive. Now all I have to do is try and remember everyone's e addys. Yeah, right. I do have a pretty good memory of what my usual downloads were and have started rebuilding my favorites list. It should be finished in 10 years or so. It's going to be a long long night.
Susie, please, send me those stories again.

MINDLESS MEANDERING OF MY MIND

2009-10-07T11:11:00.002+02:00

It's been one of those weeks so far and it looks like it just might continue that way for a while. My cleaning lady was supposed to come yesterday. I really needed her because the sink was full to over flowing with dishes, pots and pans. I discoverd that, yes, I can do them myself, but evrey time I do, I come away with another 'do it yourself home PT test' and that hurts! After all, why do I have a cleaning lady? To clean stuff I can't like the floor and now dishes.
Ok, so she didn't come yesterday. She's been with me just long enough for me to figure out that she wiuld probably appear today. She did. So, that's that. Dishes are done, floor is washed, and I'm a prisoner in the computer corner unless I want wheely marks on the nice clean floor!
I don't mind being a prisoner here because I can keep on with my new addiction-Bookworm. Last night I quit for the day at level 16 which is the highest I've ever gotten. We had some wet, noisy weather for a while and I was nervous that the lightening might cause the power to go out and I'd lose the game. Luck was with me and the power stayed on, and this morning I'm up to level 19, a new record. I do enjoy this game. I go to it every chance I get.
Now I have to decise if I want to go out or stay in for the rest of the day. I'll decide after I bring Peg in. The floor is dry enough now.
It's quite a nice day, but I think I'll stay in as I don't really have anything to do outside today.
A few months ago my partner in crime and I went on a little crusade against some local criminal types who had illegally taken over an abandoned building behind our houses and had started all kinds of illegal bulldozing and building. There is a stream between our houses and the property they took over. They used the stream as their own private dumping ground and caused it to back up and overflow it's banks in heavy rain which we had last night. Golan and I sent e mails to just about evryone in the country who might have an interest in putting a stop to the criminal activity going on there. Eventually we hit on the right person and one fine day the work was stopped in it's tracks by a court order. We tried to get one of the local newspapers interested, but the reporter refused to go near it and gave the head criminal our names. In the end the rival paper picked it up and low and behold, that first reporter got her ass fired.We had spoken to her boss about it several times and he wanted to do an expose on it. When the rival paper covered it, he realized that she had torpedoed the story for personal reasons. You don't do that to your editor and stay employed for long. Now both papers are in on the act!
Now all we have to do is get the stream bed cleaned up. Right now it's a breeding ground for mosquitoes as the water level has gone way back down to almost stagnant. There's Nile fever in the area, so, someone will be around to get it cleaned up. I'd go down there myself, but there's no way to get Harley down the bank, and the stream bed is not passsable either.I guess City Hall will have to handle it. If they don't we know exactly who to talk to to force their hand.

ONE OF THESE DAYS

2009-10-04T14:32:00.002+02:00

One of these days things will get done prperly the first time. Friday was not one of those days. I went to the clinic to get my meds for the month, and the doc only gave me half a month od 3 of them, so, back I went today to get the rest. I have four pill boxes that I fill up at the beginning of the month so I don't have to futz around opening ten different boxes of the meds in the morning and at night. I like it when I get it all done the first time. So, I was not pleased to discover that the doc didn't write twice a day for three of them so the computer would give me whole month's supply at the pharmacy. Today I went and got it sorted. Now I have to sit and fill the remaning boxes, and recheck the others.
After getting that sorted, I went down to the Industrial Zone, where my preferred supermarket and picked up few items. The gal at the check out told me that I can't write a check in purple ink. Oh yeah? All the law requires is ink, not pencil, and I've only been writing checks with purple ink for 20 years. I get so annoyed at these Russians who think they know everything. She was informed by her head cashier that I do and can write checks with my handy dandy purle pen and that it's prefectly legal. I think that next time I'll write in the Jewish date which is also legal here and watch her deal with that.
When I finally got home, I performed yet another PT(blood clotting time) test on myself as I went from Harley to the wheely. No big deal. I'd feel completely nakey if I didn't have at least several cuts and bruises.
And for my next trick, I think it's time to change into something more comfortable and do the dishes, make something to eat, and get my feet up.
Hell's bells! It's 92 degrees out there! Just saying; not complaining. It's nice and comfy in here.

SLOW GOING

2009-10-03T14:28:00.002+02:00

Things are moving very slowly, but, never the less, moving. The swelling in my legs from the DVTs is finally gone, as are 5 more kilos. I acrually managed to break the 90 kilo mark and get to a solid 98 kilo, which is far from being svelt, but is firmly out of all the BMI overweight categories. I have to admit that I celebrated with a Big Mac and a small iceream cone. Not exactly items high on me new diet list...but, hey, it was a celebration and I don't get to do that very often. I pretty much stick with my veg and fruit regime and break it up maybe twice a week with some meat, chicken or fish. It's kind of nice that due to the mess in my stomach I don't get hungry very often.
The really big news is that we found a pain killer that acrually works. The one the doc from Rambam suggested was worse than not taking anything, so my doc at the clinic gave me something else and it works. It works so well that after popping one at the clinic pharmacy, the pain was gone by the time I got home. And that night I slept from midnight until 0930, which was a first in I don't know how long. Of course, I went and over ate the next day and was up most of the night with a miserable stomach. Serves me right. Today I'm sticking to cukes and plums and maybe a few grapes. We'll see how the night goes. At least I'm not barfing now. I'd rather be up with a miserable stomach than barf.
I'm still trying to keep my feet up as the swelling does start again after I've been here for a few hours. In fact, it's time to get them up again. That's my excuse for not posting here as often as I'd like; and I'm sticking to it for as long as I can!

SO TIRED

2009-09-20T19:20:00.002+03:00

I guess it could really only happen to me! And, yes, I should have known better than to go to a demonstration in Jerusalem and go home on the same day. That only lead to more DVT fun and a week long hospitalization.
It was one of the lest pleasant hospital stays I've had to date. I studidly forgot to take my wheely cushion, which meant that I needed help to get up from the wheely. And I mean every time, including getting up from it to get into bed, go to the loo, and any other reason I had to go from sitting to sitting or lying on anything else. That was not pleasant.
The Clexane shots in the gut didn't start bothering me until I got home, and boy oh boy did it ever hurt. Still does a little. But, it's slowly getting better. Getting the shots is no big deal. They don't hurt at the time at all. But, then, shots and I are old friends and needles don't bother me in the least.
When I finally got home, I started to feel a lot better. No Place Like Home Syndrome. It's taken 5 days for the DVT caused swelling in both legs to finally go down. I stayed in bed most of the time, only coming to the computer when I had to get up to pee, and then, I only ripped through e mail at warp speed.
Today I am feeling much better in general. I went to sleep very late, then was woken up by a call from Dem Der at noon which I wasn't quick enough to answer. Then, I got a text from him, to which I replied "Thanks for waking me up. NOT." I promptly went back to sleep and woke up at 1715, with much less swelling and almost no pain in my feet. This is good.
They've got me back on coumadin and so far so good. Two of the factors that caused all the trouble before are gone, so, I'm hopeful that this time it will be ok.
The down side is that long trips are pretty much out the question for now. But that's ok because at this point I really don't feel like going anywhere farther from home than the clinic.

OUCH THIS IS BAD

2009-09-01T07:05:00.002+03:00

It's demonstration saeson again. That's just fine with me. There was a demonstration in Jerusalem against the insanity the Health Ministry puts us through to get the transport allowance and other things.
I put myself in the car at 0700 and headed out to Jerusalem with NIS 200 worth of gas in the tank. I knew it would be iffy on the way home.
At least it was pleasent weather wise there. It was an 'exclusive' demonstration. There were more than few who were not invited. Ok. I wasn't exactly invited, but they were more than happy that I came.
I really don't know my way around Jerusalem, but somehow I managed to find the demonstration easily. We were outside the Bank Of Israel entrance and one of the guys had a bull horn that could be heard all the way over to the Prime inister's office. We made lots of noise and the TV stations were all there.
At around 1530 we decided to pack it up. We are going to have an even bigger one next week if things don't start moving.
I managed to find my own way out of Jerusalem, and was concerned that I'd run out of gas. Silly me. I still have a quarter tank. I'm not sure what time I got home. I had to call Golan to help me get out of the car. Both my feet were swollen. In fact, I had to stop a few times to loosen the velcro straps on my sandals.
I pretty much fell into bed and slept right through until morning. I did a few errands that I wanted to get out of the way before today. Another endoscope at Rambam hospital. When I got home after the errands, I put my poor feet up and dropped off to sleep. When I woke up, my right shoulder was screaming in pain. I must have slept on it the wrong way. I haven't had pain like that since I don't remember when. I kept trying to drink water because I knew I was dehydrated. I don't know how I fell asleep so quickly last night, but I woke up this morning without that pain. It's just a mild ache now. I can live with it. I think I'll let Golan drive to Haifa today. I'm still not 100%.
I'm going to finish this post with a survey question. Does anyone want me to post a picture of me after the weight loss? I'm not promising I'll post it, just asking if anyone wants to see it.

SOMETIMES IT IS SO MUCH FUN TO BE ME!

2009-08-13T13:51:00.003+03:00

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!

INCLUDING THE KITCHEN SINK

2009-08-08T15:00:00.006+03:00

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?

MY POOR SINK

2009-08-07T11:13:00.005+03:00

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.

YEAH YEAH YEAH I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER

2009-08-06T14:38:00.003+03:00

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.

DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME

2009-08-01T00:16:00.000+03:00

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.

EVILITY STRIKES AGAIN

2009-07-30T12:06:00.002+03:00

It's a well known fact that I destest children, especially those of most of the parents in my neighborhood. Yesterday there was a meeting of those of us who are active in the accessibility for gimps group. During the second half of the meeting, after the 'out of towners' left, the locals stayed behind to go over a few more issues. A subsidised trip to Jerusalem has been organized for us, those who participate in the accessibility group. Turns out that two sets of parents want to take their kids along. After much discussion, they were given permission to take the kids. The person in charge of the trip brought it up in oreder to 'warn' the rest of us that there would be kids coming along. Me, being me, said very calmly that if THOSE kids are going I'm not. End of story, except that Lilach said that that was all she needed to not allow the kids to go. She said in no uncertain terms that the trip was arranged for us, and that if having kids along caused even one of us not to go, the kids were out. So, I guess I'm going.
I'm very sorry, but the mere thought of being stuck with those kids for a whole day just makes me sick.
I ended up going to Safad to pick up the money Dem Der owes on his phone bill. It's also a good idea to take the car for a jaunt. I put the phones with car keys at the foot of the bed, along with a pack of fags, my glasses from their spot by the TV, my bag of holding from it's hook, and picked up the phones and bag of holding, and out I went. Getting into the car is a well tuned ritual. I have to pull up to my gimp parking space sign pole so the rear wheel of Harley is almost touching it, pull up the snake lock, open it and run it through a rear wheel. Then I get up, open the car, toss the bag and phones in, and start the car. Then, I get the fags out of the bag and put them in a little pouch on the sun visor. I was not pleased to discover that the fags were nowhere to be found and figured that I'd just left on the bed. There was no one around I could ask to go in and get them, and I really didb't feel like going through the whole get out of the car (the same as getting in except in reverse order), and getting back in again, so I decided to go without. I had told Dem Der that I'd be leaving in half an hour before I did leave. He called to ask where I was and I told him. I also asked him to try and bum a few fags for me for the drive home. He also told me that he was waiting for the bus to take him to the market not far from his house. I told him I'd pick him up there. So far so good. Then he called to say that he hadn't been able to bum any fags, but he'd buy me a pack, what kind did I want? The cheapest, was the answer. By the time he called for 4th time to verify the brand, I'd had it. It's not exactly rocket sience. When some who asks to bum smokes says the cheapest brand, it should be obvious that she means exactly that. I do not like talking on the phone while driving even though all I have to do is hit on it's head(the phone) and listen and talk. It's still enough to feel that you are not paying 100 percent attention to the road. And a major part of that road is under construction, or, destruction. It's hard to tell. So he got a blast and I hung up. What I want to know is; why does it take me so long to learn? Poor Dem Der just wants to get it right, and will drive the strongest amongst us to self commitment to the local funny farm in the process. He just about drove me wild a while back at KFC. I told him exactly what to get, and they guy kept making suggestions and he'd run back to car to ask. I finally just told him again what I wanted and nothing else would do and to quit running back to check. He did the same thing one day when staying here under the alias of Homeless and he was making spaghetti. Do you want this, or that in it? Ok, I do understand that he means well and just wants to please. But there are limits. He's a good friend, and I appreciate his willingness to do things. It's just the obssesive attention to detail is way OTT. I hope I've learned my lesson this time.
I found a great way to fake myself and save on a/c use. I found a screen saver of a snow storm, complete with sound effects. The first time it came up, I was in the kitchen washing dishes. I stopped for a minute to try and figure out if I was finally losing my mind because I heard a snow storm and I new it was over 80 degrees outside. Then I saw the screen saver and knew I had a winner. I've gotten through two whole nights without the a/c.

WHO ME? BUSY?

2009-07-27T12:11:00.002+03:00

It's been a busy few weeks, to put it mildly. Trips to and from the clinic, and scattered meetings with the head honchos of the major gimp group in the country. Yes, indeed, the very one that I've refused to join ever since they hooked up with the Union. They've been up here a few times to talk with us, and we found out that some things we suspected were indeed true. Oh, well. It really doesn't matter at this stage as long as we learn from it. During one of the meetings, I threw an idea to the chairman, and when he came back two weeks later, he said that he is trying to put it together. It's not exactly a brand new idea, but more of a clarification of an older one. He wants credit for it? Fine. I know where it came from and so do the other four.
We've been having more frequent meetings of The Five, which is very good. Yesterday we all met at Hezi's house in the morning. Most evenings we are either at Moshe's or Alberto's. I enjoy the evening meeetings more as they are more social. The meeting at Hezi's was more formal and Moshe and Savta got into it so that no one else could get a word in edge wise. That is most annoying, and has to stop. One thing we all do agree on is that we have to get moving on a few things locally and stop waiting for our nominal hand holders to do anything. We have to do it ourselves because no one else will.
I finally got an appointment at the gastro clinic at Rambam Hospital in Haifa for Aug 11. Maybe they'll figure out what is wrong with me (aside from the usual sanity issues!)
I am now going to pay for my own stupidity. I woke up at 0700 to go to the loo and went back to sleep. The phone woke me up just after 1000, and Peg had squitted all over the living room floor. I really could have let him out, then, gone back sleep. Now I get to wash the whole mess up all by myself.

SOME THINGS YOU NEVER EVER WANTED TO KNOW

2009-07-09T18:56:00.002+03:00

I'll try to be as delicate as I can. While in hospital in Tiberius, the docs decided that I am constipated because I don't 'go' every day. My definition of constipated is not being able to go when you feel you have to. I remember clearly, my Uncle Doctor Kiddy Quack, aka, Uncle Maury, or The Yankee Clipper (he did circumscisions) telling my mother not to worry if us kids don't go every day, that what went in, will come out, and that that is one nuerotic obsession we don't need.
Right. So, while I've never gon every day, I can not remember a time when I had to go, but couldn't. Since March, things have been well and truly messed up in that department. Every single thing I ate came right back up, so nothing was getting through to make me go. Then I had the great shite bomb squits. Until yesterday, I was pretty much back to normal. I woke up feeling like I had to go. My morning coffee intensified that feeling, so I parked myself in the loo and waited. Nothing. Not a damn thing. I was up and down all day, had several coffees in the hope that they'd get things moving in the right direction. Nothing. I ended up staying in all day, just in case.
Things started off the same way today. While I was sitting there, it finally struck me that I was suffering from pschosomatic constipation, thanks to the docs in Tiberius. They put the idea in my head and my guts adopted it! So, I thought to myself, let's see if I can fake out my body. I got up and mixed up a glass of psyllium(Metamucil) and drank it right down and chased it with more water. It worked! I was out of the loo and off the bog in no time. I told my doc at the clinic about it and he had a good laugh over it with me.
I am quite pleased with myself

THIS TIME I'M READY

2009-07-02T16:11:00.003+03:00

It looks like I've finally learned my lesson. Tomorrow I go back to the hospital in Tiberius for yet another endoscopy. After finding myself admitted to the hospital with pretty much only the clothes on my back, the last time, if they decide to admit me I'll be ready for them. The car has a full tank, and just for good measure I had it washed. I have my meds, a whole carton of cigarettes, baby butt wipes, water, clean jammies, cell phone charger and stuff to read. As I am ready for them, it remains to be seen if they are ready for me. The way I figure it, if they want to hack and wack, I'll be staying, if they don't.......I get to come home. I vote for the latter, but am ready for the former!
While out collecting the last few odds and sods that I need, I swung into the clinic to find out how much I weigh now. They always want to know at hospitals. The good news is that I'm down another 5 kilos. Only 15 to go to get down to 'normal'. I'm not sure I want to be normal, even if it is healthier. I hate normal and average. I just might try to hold things one kilo above normal, just for my peace of mind!

IT TOOK LONG ENOUGH

2009-06-23T12:53:00.005+03:00

If it's not one thing, it's another. I went to the hospital in Tiberius for what should have been a routine endoscope. They couldn't do it because there was too much food left in my stomach to see anything. They sent me home with strict instructions for preparing for another one attempt on Sunday. I did everything they said, and more. This time they could see a little better even though there was still food in there. They decided that as there were signs of inflamation, edema and maybe something else (they took a biopsy) it was decided to send me upstairs to the surgical floor. Just what I didn't need. I kind of wasn't exactly ready for that. They gave me stuff that they thought might help get the stuff moving out of my stomach, and on Wednesday, after almost 4 days of fasting, sent me for a flouroscope. Still not empty. On Thursday they sent me home with strict instructions for yet another endoscope on July 3. This time I'm ready for them. I have a bag all ready just in case, with cell phone charger, fags, jammies, and a few other essentials. Being ready for them, they probably won't want to keep me.
The hospital in Tiberius is so much better than the one Safad that it's sacrelige to mention them in the same sentence. The staff is wonderful. The only bad part was no charger for the phone. Then I found out that one of the women in my room actually had one that fit my phone! I was back in business! As to fags, I bummed as many as I could and managed to get along that way. I was consoled by the fact that I wasn't the only one stuck without in the only hospital in the country that doesn't sell fags. So, here I am, back at home and running around like a mad woman with all kinds of gimp events to go to. I'm so busy that I didn't get around to looking at my burn until 0230 this morning.
The first picture is of the burn before treatment of any kind.

This is the burn after three months of treatment.

And this is the burn today. Almost all better.

Now all I have to do is put Eucerin on it several times a day. And the only things left to take care of are the hematological and gastro issues. I'm 99% convinced that Safad did my stomach in when they stuck that nose hose in to empty my stomach the last time I was there. Time and the hospital in Timerius will tell.
Holy Christmas trees in July! I have to get ready to go to another gimp even.

BUSY, WHO ME?

2009-06-11T13:20:00.002+03:00

I was a very good girl and followed the pre test instructions for the gastroscope and started what should have been a 12 hour fast 20 hours ahead of time. We even got there a little early. So, the test should have been just fine, right? WRONG. They got me up on a bed and all arranged the way they wanted me, asked why this test now. I showed the doc the CT results and she gave me a strange look. Then she gave me a go to sleep shot, then woke me up to tell me that she couldn't do the test because there was too much food in my stomach, and we'd have to try it again. Ok. This time I get to fast for almost 48 hours. Just broth and water. I started things yesterday with some apple sauce, and plan to make some cabbage soup later today.
I now have the paperwork for the next attempt on Sunday. The only bad thing about that is that I will have to miss the big demonstration. The big mall in town where my clinic and bank are is rebuilding only heaven knows what and the main entrance is blocked to everyone. Not that we could ever be sure to get in that way. Anyway, they built a wooden ramp for us to use and everything was just fine. Some bright bulb at city hall decided that the ramp was dangerous and gave the mall two options. Remove the ramp or build a safe one. They removed the ramp and it's been over a week since we've been able to get to the bank (the one I use) and supermarket on the ground floor. We decided that if they don't solve our problem by end of business tomorrow, we will demondtrate and close off access to the mall for everyone. The owner has counter hreatened that he will not allow us in on our scooters. Oops. Our scooters are defined by law as electric wheelies, so if he tries to do that, we'll be able to get a court order to close the mall. It's all too insane. As I'll have to leave for the test at about the same time as the demonstration, I'll just have to miss it.
Yesterday morning there was meeting of the Access Kiryat Shmonah group at the community center to prepare for an even we've been working on for several months. Then, in the evening we had a meeting with the two top people from one of the larger gimp groups.
I must say that it was quite nice, when, after I introduced myself, the spokesman for the group added that I'd been active in all the big demonstrations. That was a very nice ego boost. We had a good meeting and they will be up here again soon for a day long meeting.
I had a private chat with the chairman and threw out a few ideas that might be helpful. We'll see.
This morning three of us decided to go to the police and get a license for Sunday's demonstration. That involved a lot of waiting around in the sun until everyone arrived. The relevant cop is now pressuring the mall owner to get a ramp sorted and if he doesn't by our deadline, we close the entrances to the mall on Sunday. Except that I won't be there. I'll be getting a tube stuck down my throat.

YEAH YEAH YEAH

2009-06-09T09:54:00.002+03:00

Like I don't know that I've neglected my blog. It's just that I really don't feel much like writing. This has not been a good two or three weeks.Strange things happened. Liat wrote that she and Adee would be over here, but didn't say when. Alberto built a new pergola and had a porch roof thing that is perfect for my ramp. So, how to get it over here? Who has a pick up? After a few minutes of hard thought the answer popped into my head and I rode over to Liat's parents and asked her father if he could bring it for me. I also asked when the girls were coming and almost fainted when he told me that they are here now, but not in town. So, the big question is what happened that they didn't tell me, I had to find out by accident? As they were coming back to town late Thursday, I made a midmorning appearance there. Adee still wants nothing to do with me. It doesn't help at all that everytime she looks my way, the other granny jumps in to distract her. It's so far from subtle that no one can miss it. I did ask Liat if she could find an hour for just the three of us to be together and she agreed, and said that she'd call.I ended up having to keep my foot up because it swelled up on account of the stairs I had to manuever at their house. In the end I only got to see Adee twice. The last time Liat did get her to let me give her a kiss. They had a double birthday party for Adee and another little girl. Of course I wasn't invited.I just don't get it. Ok. So, her parents pay for the tickets for them to come over, and they stay with them. They couldn't let me know they were coming? I had to find out by accident that they were already here?
Then, just for added interest, the CT results were a little strange and the doc at my clinic went ballistic and had the endoscope moved from August to today. It seems that whatever they saw on the CT could be nothing, or very very bad. At least I get the results today. One thing we do know is that I have kidney stones. No biggy at this point. They don't bother me at all.
The only good news is very very good. We finally stumbled on something that works on the burn. It's getting better by the day.
So, dear, three faithful readers,don't worry if I disapear for a while.

THE RESCUE CREW IS BACK

2009-05-06T08:28:00.003+03:00

I was happily sitting on the edge of my bed yesterday morning when McGyver, (Alberto) yelled from outside for me to get my butt in gear, we have workd to do! Someone had called him to tell him that there was a scooter that needed rescuing. While I was getting dressed, he went to get to get Moshe to join the rescue party.
The scooter in question had broken down on the street behind his house, which is a good 20 minute scoot from here. Moshe loaded his tool box onto his scooter, and off we went. When we arrived, we were faced with the oldest scooter any of us had ever seen. After a quick check we realized that there was no hope that it would ever run again. McGyver called the owner and so informed him. We got his permission to take the batteries and charger, and any other parts we might want. The batteries were not new. Well, they were new in 2007. We removed them and transported them to Mc's house, where he got the charger running. We'll know later today if the batteries are salvagable.
When his kids got home from school we all had a lovely lunch of couscous. It was great fun to be back in business again.
Mc is getting a new van soon and offered me his wheely lift box contraption. We call them Gottliebs after the company that makes and installs them.

He is now trying to get the company to give me a better price to install it. It was given to him, and he is giving it to me. All I have to do is come up with enough money to have it installed. We could probably do it ourselves, but, it really is a better idea to get it done by experts. With any luck, we'll get it done next week. He, Moshe, Golan and I are planning on going together and making a day of it.
That Gottlieb will give me a whole new level of independence. The wheely now lives in the trunk and I simply can not manage it on my own any more. That means that I have to have someone go with me whenever I go to one of my out of town doctors, or any place else. With the Gottlieb, I'll be able to have the wheely come down and go back up from right next to the driver's door! Won't that be loverly?

NEVER MIND THE NAKED CHEF

2009-05-03T12:40:00.004+03:00

Now we have the naked dog! Poor Pegasus hasn't had a bath or hair cut for at least two years. I made an appointment for him to get beautified today, and we just got back from the two things he hates most in the world. A car ride and bath/shave. The first thing we did when he came down all hairless was to go get him an ice cream cone at McDonald's, as promised. He scarfed it right down and is now recovering on the living room floor.
Before and after pictures.

They are the same dog! Golan had to help me get him in the car, and again, to get him out. He laughed at poor nakey Peg until I told Peg to just ignore him because he's jealous! At least now there won't be huge fur balls all over the house for a good long time, and he won't get mess stuck in his rear skirts.
I am feeling much better these days, but this little excursion kind of tired me out a little. Not that I had to much of anything except drive and wait, but, I'm still not quitte back to full strenhth. I'm getting there, but, still have a way to go.
I really don't know how it happened, but, for the first time in my adult life I made a stew that was edible. I've never managed to do that before, but, did make a pretty good one on Friday. Just a few chunks of beef, onions,garlic, carrots, potatoes, salt and pepper. It was quite good. Maybe for my next trick, I'll figure out how to cook rice! That will have to wait for a few days. I'm not up to the ultimate culinary challege quite yet.

DID IT AGAIN

2009-04-18T09:23:00.002+03:00

I don't know what's wrong with my doctor. He almost killed me again. If I were the paranoid type, I'd think it was on purpose.
I'd been feeling really bad since March 2. The bout of food poisoning that started then was just a trigger for what came later. I kept trying to figure out what the problem was and finally realized that it was the rat poison Coumadin! I decided that enough was enough and got myself hauled off to hospital very late on Monday night. The ER doc stated that it could not possibly be the Coumadin, and the doc on the floor stated unequivacably that it was that I sometimes take a few of my meds without eating. Then, the blood work came back! It was indeed the Coumadin. So much for those two residents. The fun part came on Tuesa=day night when I got my revenge on that ward which was the very one that had treated me so badly when I had my stroke in 1998. This part is more than a little gross, but, I quite enjoyed it as it put a screeching halt to that stupid resident trying to send me home!I was hit by the most urgent need to get to the bog, but didn't quite make it. I managed to fill my jammy bottoms with a mess worthy of, well, me, and leave not a little of it on the floor. They washed me up and tucked me into a nice clean bed in another room. I had no sooner settled in when the urge struck again and I raced for the bog, again just seconds too late. There I sat, surrounded by a huge puddle of mess on the floor while I filled the bog to overflowing. Dem Der called to see how I was doing, and I had to ask him to the nurses to rescue me as I was flooded in. I so wish I had thought to take a picture of the nurse's face when he opened the door! He raced off to get three other nurses to get me out of there. My last view of the bathroom as they backed me out was truly insane. Who would have thought you could fill a toilet to overflowing? Well, I did. In fact it looked like someone had set off a poop bomb in there. It was everywhere. The toilet was not only full, it was coated on the outside as well, and the floor. The nurses got me cleaned up again and put me in a nice lilac colored Depends. I must say that it was a most satisfying revenge on those same people who were so mean in 1998. I did feel bad for the guy who had to clean it up. None of it was his fault.
That was when they decided that it was indeed the Coumadin and because there was some blood in the sample they sent off, it was decided to stick a tube down my throat to empty my stomach to see if there was any blood there which might indicate that idiot resident was right too. Not a drop. So much for her. They started giving something IV that would bring down the poisonous levels of the rat poison, and sent me off for an abdominal ultra sound, which showed a gall stone that had nothing to do with any of it.They srung me on Thursday afternoon with a whole list of things to do and not do, and tests to have as and when. Now, I'm happily at home and savoring the happy memories of getting my own back at those horrid people! Maybe the next time they'll take me a little more seriously when I tell them someting. That was just the highlight of the week. There were lots of little triumphs as well. But, I'm home now and feeling better. No more nausea and on Monday my doc and I will sit down and redo all my meds as they added three more to the list. But no more rat poison! And no more late night barfing after taking that blasted Coumadin.

GUT FEELINGS

2009-04-04T12:55:00.002+03:00

On the bright side, the nausea has gone away. On the dark side, I just don't at all feel like eating. Eating doesn't upset my stomach any more, but it seems that a strange pain has moved into my gut under squatter's conditions. It's there all the time, just under the radar. Last night it felt like a huge snake slithering around. I wonder what that's about. I will take the issue to clinic on Sunday.
The really good news is that I've lost enough weight to be out of the obese category, and smack in the middle of the overweight one. Now all I have to do is lose enough to get into the normal category. That will be a day for celebration!
And just to make things interesting, the surgeon who looks at my burn evrey two weeks says it's gotten a little worse. That's just fine with me, because *I* know it's gotten a little better. It doesn't hurt like it used to and the itching of the surrounding area has prett much stopped. I wonder if that has anything to do with the new band aid type dressing I'm using coupled with being back in sandals because things have warmed up just enough to stop wearing those heavy winter sock slippers. Time will tell. I'm just happy that it's less bothersome these days.

VERY SICK GIMP

2009-03-22T10:26:00.002+02:00

I don't remember ever being this sick before. It's getting better, but, I'm not quite there yet. It all started on March 2 when Golan and I went to Acre to see my ortho doc, and stopped on the way home to eat a restaurant that he highly recommended. Lamb addict that I am, I had a lamb shislik. It wasn't very good, so I didn't finish it. I took the left overs home for Peg and he gobbled them right down. Come morning we both had the squits and by evening I had developed the worst case of nausea imaginable. All nught long I did sit ups from my semi reclining sleeping position to release the most unbelievable burps ever. Finally, at around, 0300, I managed to throw up. The next day, the very thought of food made me ill. This ritual went on for two weeks, and I have lost a lot of weight. This is good. One Thursday, I finally cried "Uncle", and went to the gastro guy at the clinic. He listened to my tale of woe and barf, then told me he was going to prescribe a pill that should get things moving in the right direction. He said that all the barfing might have reversed the natural downward route of food so that instead of continueing downward, it just came right back up. That made a kind of twisted sense to me as being something my body would do to me. I started taking the pills Thursday night, and they didn't work at all. Being the stubborn gimp that I am, I kept on with them Friday morning,and through Saturday and kept down a youghurt. I am cautiously optimistic about this, but still don't feel like eating anything. I know I have to, but don't want to. Never mind that there's nothing in the house to eat. I have to plan meals with these pills. I'm supposed to eat 45 minutes after taking the pill. I'm rying to work out a schedule of things to eat, that I can turn into a grocery shopping list. I'm still a little weak, but have to go grocery shopping soon.
So, if my three faithful readers have been wondering where I've been; I've been in bed. I'm back now.

THE USFSA HAS GONE TOO PC

2009-03-03T08:41:00.002+02:00

Political correctness can be taken to lengths never before dreamed of by the least likely organizations. The United States Figure Skating Association is now giving out four medals instead of the traditional three; Gold, Silver, Bronze and now Pewter. What will they do next? Start giving out medals according the wedding anniversary list in reverse order?

SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS

2009-02-28T19:19:00.005+02:00

This has been an incredible two months for me. I got to watch the European Figure Skating Champonships, the American ones and the Jr. World's. The American was on the same week as the European, but wasn't shown here until last week. It was fantastic to get a good picture of who will be competing in the World's next month. Seeing the Jrs was a rare treat because the Jrs are not usually broadcast at all.
WAtching the Srs on both Eurosport and ESPN so close together served to emphasize the difference in commentating skills between the ones on each network. ESPN usually has big name winners from the past commentating. Eurosports has has ex medalists and some are even coaches today. They are, however, much better commentaters than the ESPN crew. They really are good and are positive about all the skaters. They have some great patter that makes listening to them seem more personal somehow. It truly is a night and day difference. I'm glad that we will get World's through Eurosport. They make it ever so much more pleasant.
After watching the Europeans I wondered if the Americans would have anyone to give them a fight because they were fantastically good. Then, I got to see the Americans while the Europeans were still fresh in my mind. Worl's is going to be a breathtaking battle in most of the competitions. I can't wait for the miracle of TV to transport me to Los Angeles for the 2009 World Figure Skating Competition. Thank you Eurosport.

MORE ALONG THE SAME LINES AS THE LAST ONE SORT OF

2009-02-25T22:22:00.002+02:00

It hit me the other day that things have really changed in my outlook since the first days, weeks, and months after my stroke in 1998.
One of the first things I did after getting my first scooter was to get a proper mobile phone. I remember wondering if I would even live long enough to get to the end of the 36 month commitment period. I also remember wondering every time I made any kind of plans whether I'd still be around to carry them out. Having made it this far, 11 years post stroke, and almost 4 after the heart attack, I've gradually stopped wondering about making plans or thinking about making them for more than a month in advance. Don't get me wrong. I'm not taking anything for granted. I am perfectly well aware that I might not wake up on any given morning, and do give heart felt thanks when I do wake up. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I love my life. Being a gimp is better than not being. I wonder if that has anything to do with not having any expectations. I just somehow seem to charge ahead and deal with things as they come up. Living my life is a little like following a soap opera every day for 57 years. I always want to know what will happen next and how things will resolve themselves. I guess it would be fair to say that I am my own daytime soap opera.
Quirky? Did someone call me quirky?

ODD THOUGHTS OF LATE

2009-02-25T08:16:00.002+02:00

I sometimes wish that my mind would stop surprising me. Too much thinking is tiring. I realized not long ago certain of my body parts seem to have taken on lives of their own. They pretty much split into two categories. Those I once was proud of, and those that I always had semi phobic uneasy feelings about. I think that maybe proud is not the exact word I'm looking for. Pleased with might be better. I liked that my shoulders were straight across and even. They no longer are because the motorcycle katyusha run in has my left shoulder in a permanent droop that there is nothing to be done about. Never mind my once flat stomach. I'm dead serious. Never mind that.
I was always somewhat protective of my neck. I love turtle necks because they gave me what was obviously a false sense of safety there. So, of course I ended up having surgery there. The tops of my feet were always problematic partly because I have very high arches and the bones on the tops of my feet were very sensitive to any pressure. That made it very hard to find comfortable shoes and my skates had to be custom made. Right. So, now I have a burn right on the top of my left foot that is going to win a place in a record book for being the slowest healing burn in the history of the universe.
I just found it interesting that those very same places all have given me trouble over the last 10 or so years. At the end of the day, none of those things turned out to be a big deal, I just found myself thinking about them. Anyone who has the foolish idea that I might waste my mental energy thinking about 'normal' things had best be dissuaded immediately! Never been 'normal', never wanted to be 'normal' and never will be 'normal'. My natural state of quirkiness suits me just fine. Ah, Someone at one of my other blogs was kind enough to pay a compliment by saying that she finds my logic quirky, yet somehow sane. I can live with that!

IT'S BEEN ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE WEEKS

2009-02-23T09:32:00.002+02:00

You know those crazy up and down times? When the problems seem unsurmountable? Last week was pretty much like that. Harley's batteries need replacing. They are literally on their last legs and doing damage to the charger. A new pair of batteries cost 1300 shekels and change at the cheapest place in town. They cost well over 2000 at the factory. As usual, I'm skint and just don't have the dosh. I did what I usually do in these situations. I went to ask the 'boss of my money', the assistant manager of my bank what she thinks I should do. Her suggestion was to up the limit on my credit card. Then I had a flash of brilliance and remember a card that was last used when everything blew up in my face with my ill fated excursion into the business world with Shmaryah. The last time I tried to use that card, it was refused. I called the company and they said something about my bank. Now, that card is not bank issued. It's what they call here 'independent credit'. and has nothing to do with the bank. The monthly payments on that card have been going along just fine for at least two years, so I asked her, if maybe using that one might be a better idea, and she agree. I sped home and called the company and they told me that the card is just fine and there is no reason it shouldn't work. Talk about the luck of fools. I have over 3000 shekels credit to use on that card.
So, on Friday, Golan and I headed for the cheap battery store. They only had one, and I need a pair, so, I ordered a pair and they will let me know when they come in. In the meantime, I have enough go go juice to get to town a few more times.
On Friday I opened my wallet to get the credit card out to pay for an official paper that I need for the housing authority and discovered that my main card was missing. I went though every single thing in my bag of holding and it wasn't there. It's no big deal as it's pretty much at it's limit and can't be used to buy much of anything. I have another one with the same number, so, no biggy. I decided that it will either show up or not. Well, it did indeed turn up yesterday, at my cigarette store. So, that's ok. My guardian angel has been working over time. I am most grateful. Now I can buy the batteries for Harley and pay the 600 shekel court fee to file the thing against Shmaryah. Getting the judgement against him will solve a great many problems.
Oh, and, now that the oil has been changed in the car I can go to my orthopedic guy. If it ever stops raining, that is. Futzing around with the car and the wheely is no fun at all in the rain. Right now it looks like Wednesday might be ok. My secret weather source says there will be one day off from the rain, then it starts up again over the weekend and the next week. That's ok. I can get a lot done in one day.
So, it's been a good week, on the whole.

CLEANING,CAR REPAIRS AND THE GIMP

2009-02-16T00:36:00.004+02:00

Rachel, my cleaning lady was here this morning. We had decided the last time she was here to clean the open shelves in my wardrobe. To start she took everything out and just piled it up on the bed. We found lots of missing items, among them, the plate that used to be in my shoulder that I turned into a necklace, the DVD with the second and third sequels to Smokey and the Bandit. The first one is still missing which makes me a lot less unhappy at having ordered them again. We also found my bottle of Jean Nate that I knew I had, but couldn't find. I love that stuff and am really glad we found it. Rachel cleaned the shelves, then dusted each and every item before putting things back. It looks much better, and the found items are where I can get to them.
I also am pleased to announce that after way too much time, my car is sorted and ready to go again. I managed to get an oil filter and enough oil to do a much needed oil change on the car.After Rachem left, I hopped on to Harley and went to pick up the filter and oil. I had a feeling that inspite of having been plugged in all weekend that Harley's batteries didn't charge. I'm amazed that I made it there and back. I have a sick feeling that the charger is shot. The lights light up, but it doesn't whir like it's supposed to when charging. As I have to go out in the morning, I'll check the charge before leaving and if it isn't full, I'll just use Moshe's until McGyver can bring me the spare one. This is just what I don't need. Golan did the actual work with me supervising. I've seen some bad oil come out of engines, but this was disgusting. It felt bad too. Oh, well, it now has a brand new oil filter and new oil and is ready to travel. It was fun messing with the car, even if I couldn't do much. After all, an oil change is something I used to do myself as a matter of course. I've seen some bad oil come out of engines, but this was The original plan was to get it ready to go my orthopedist tomorrow, but it's going to rain all day, so, we'll do it on Thursday. It's miserable to go someplace in the car and mess with the wheely in the rain. Plus, I have to leave Harley chained to my parking space post in the rain, not to mention wade through a iniature ocean to get into the car because the rain water collects right by the driver's door. It can wait until Thursday. After a quick lunch I organized a bunch of papers that I have to give to my lawyer tomorrow. That took ages, but, now they are all neetly organized in a pretty purple binder thing. After that, there were even more papers and things that needed sorting, so I got on with that, and after much back and forthing to the spare room, finaly finished and crashed for a nap. And, now, it's 0100 and time for bed, after I answer a few e mails. I'm feeling quite satisfied that I got so much done.

I'M A GOOD CITIZEN, I AM

2009-02-10T11:04:00.002+02:00

I have now fullfilled my civic duty and voted for the 18th Knesset and a different Prime Minister. I can't exactly call the one I voter a new Prime Minister because the one I voted for has already held the position once, and I hope he'll get it again. I guess that makes him a new/old one.
The weather folks have been predicting a stormy day for today with lots of rain and high gusting winds. It's cloudy and cold, and there has been drizzle on and off, but no storm. Just goes to show Who really controls the weather! Unlike in the municiple elections, the vote for PM is not separate from that of Knesset, so I couldn't mess up like I did the last time. One slip goes in the envelope, and that's it.
From there, I went into town to get cigarettes and the guy where I buy them told them that they are having a special offer on my brand; a free carton for Shas voters. I could have lied and told him I'd vote Shas even though I'd already voted, but, I'd rather pay than say such a thing. Shas is pretty close to the last party I'd ever vote for. But it was fun for a few laughs.
Yesterday I ended up having a nice long nap and was awake long into the night.I was out for a little longer than expected. There was a meeting of The Five where we sorted a whole bunch of interpersonal issues which was a little draining, to say the least. After that, I checked my mail box and found that a DVD I'd ordered had arrived, so, off to the post office I went to pick it up. When I got home, I pretty much collapsed on the bed a fell asleep. I wanted to watch the DVD (Smokey and the Bandit on the lap top in bed, but the lap top was stuck and refused to turn itself off or do anything else so I watched it here. Golan came over to use the computer, so I went to bed to stay warm and discovered that the computer had unfrozen itself so I watched the two sequels. Then, my night time Fox News shows were preempted by Obummer of the jug ears and I went to DVR and watched a few recorded things. I really don't want to hear what he has to say as he's about as honest as the average Kadima Knesset member. In other words a pathological liar. More of that on my other blogs.
Tonight is going to be long and nerve wracking waiting for results. I might just watch my new DVDs again and leave one of our news stations on in the background without sound.

ANOTHER VICTORY FOR THE GOOD GUYS

2009-02-09T08:49:00.003+02:00

Golan came in during the evening with the news that the sewage issue has been resolved. I was not exactly surprised by that news. He went to city hall in person, Ayala called them and I sicced the national press on them. They didn't exactly have much of a choice. That's a good way to get things done around here. Hit them from several directions at once! I had an idea the other day for solving some of the congestion in my computer corner. Back during the 2006 war, Golan and I went to my friend's plant nursery and I bought a wood planter holder thing. It's just been sitting around here gathering dust and it struck me that it could be hung on the wall above the desk and be a good place for all the disks to live. Golan liked the idea and said he'd put it up for me as soon as he got his hands on a drill. He came over with brackets and a drill to put that up as well as a purple coat rack thing my friend Susie made and gave me when I was with her in the States. I told him that was great, but first we have a major emergency to deal with. Before anything we must find my ear. It was pretty much where I thought it would be, under my bed right where I was sitting to get dressed. I now have my ear back, the planter turned shelf, and coat rack up and in use. And here's the planter shelf in all it's glory!

And the really cool part is that I can reach it from where I sit! Being tall does have it's advantages. The only real drawback to being tall is that it's a long way down when I fall. But otherwise, it's advantageous for reaching those things on a high shelf in a kitchen cabinet and cleaning out cobwebs from ceiling corners! Tall is good.
I'm not posting the coat rack picture because it's covered with coats and jackets. You'll just have to take my word that it looks good and is purple. Thanks Susie.
For a day that started off kind of stinky, it sure did end on a very satisfying note.

WINTER HO HUMS

2009-02-08T14:11:00.004+02:00

If we are not going to have a proper winter with lots of rain and thunderstorms, maybe the weather would be kind enough to warm up to the point where it's at least as warm inside as it is outside? There is something just not right about coming inside from a nice semi warm, wintery sunny day to a meat locker kind of cold.No, no, no, I am not complaining about the weather, just mentioning it is all. I can stand it here for a few more minutes, then I'll change back into my nighty and robe with a sweater over the whole shebang.
Golan and I have a new project. There is a thing called a Kollel in Hebrew behind our houses. A kollel is a combination synagogue, study house where a group of Ultra orthodox men pray and study all day and usually get an allowance to support their families while they contribute to the community through prayer. One of the problems with this kollel is that it is run and used by the local criminal element. The building and land are owned by The Union. One fine day a group of these self proclaimed religious men showed up and started to renovate the building. The Union went to court to try to get them out, but as these men of The Word are anything but, they threatened The Union until it backed off and gave them the place by default. Since then, they have totally rebuilt the building, taken over a public bomb shelter, added bathrooms and a kitchen, fenced off the compound, and included privately owned land inside the fence. There is a stream just behind this area that they used as a rubbish tip, on the grounds that here has been so little rain that it doesn't matter if they turn it into a garbage dump. We have been wondering lately why the neighborhood smells so bad lately and naively thought it was just another sewer back up. But, no. It's a pipe that is dumping raw sewerage straight into the stream. Just a few meters downstream from the pipe is a lovely area near a foot bridge over the steam where people like to sit on hot summer evenings and let their children wade in the stream. That won't be happening next summer if that stinking mess doesn't get cleaned up PDQ.
Golan and I are on a crusade to stop the kollel from doing any more damage to the area. The bomb shelter they took over is now used as a sales office for illegal substances. Just what we need in this neighborhood. No one in a position to wants to take these thugs on. The head of the kollel has an inside track with the cops and informs on his competition so the cops leave him alone. Elected officials are scared of him for various reasons, among them the fact that he knows where a lot of skeletons are buried. Today was the last straw as far as I'm concerned. I took pictures of the freely flowing sewerage and called my favorite reporter for a nation E newspaper. He said he'd look into it. I'll call my other favorite reporter later to check up on it. If he didn't get anywhere, I have a nice long list of other favored reporters who just love stuff like this.
This is where it comes out.

Would you want to wade in this water, never mind let your kids?

I decided not to focus on objects that were being swept downstream by the current. I'm sure you can imagine that for yourselves. That water used to be clear. In fact, our local drinking water comes from the same stream, luckily very far upstream from here.
I think it's time to go change into something warmer and go on a search for my 'ear'. I had my blue tooth ear piece on when I got dressed but it disappeared during that process and didn't show up after a cursory search. I will find it now because it couldn't have just gotten up and walked away.Could it?