Good news and bad news

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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?

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

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!

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

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

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

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.