Month: August 2020

Broken Memories

Having this broken arm stirred memories and prompted realizations.

  1. My broken wrist, broken neck, and this broken arm, my only three breaks, involved the summer months. I wore the halo from June through August (yeah, in the Okinawa humidity — we lived off base and didn’t have A/C) and had the wrist pins and cast July and August (central Germany).
  2. Worst thing about the halo was that I dislodged it. I’d talked everyone into letting me return to work. Yes, I was clever, charming, and quick back then, a deadly combo. Barely at work for an hour, I sat down in a chair, leaned back, and flipped over. The halo held my head immobile with four screws. I’d managed to knock my head out of them. Blood everywhere. This was about eleven at night, the mid shift. Commander, paramedics, ambulance all arrive. My CC and the paramedics enter an argument; my CC wants to ride with me. They wouldn’t let him.
  3. After that night, wife, friends, boss, doc. were all of the opinion that I should just stay home.
  4. When my halo was removed, my head felt weirdly light. (Guess I was light headed…) My wife and friends said my head would start bobbing during the first few days. They worked hard not to laugh. I never noticed it.
  5. My CC then, Col. Mike Kerr, was one of my favorite commanders, but I was fortunate to have several good ones. He’d had twenty-four staples in his skull. This all happened in the Vietnam era. He was a forward ground controller, but had additional duties on base. There’d been a mortar attack. His job was to go out, find unexploded ordinance, mark it, and call it in. The enemy knew this routine, so they put snipers in trees just outside the base. One was shooting at Kerr, so Kerr hunted him down. Hand to hand combat ensued. Kerr received his injuries.
  6. My splint is off. My arm has shrunk. Dry skin and wrinkles abound. I’m wearing a removable wrist brace. Elbow movement is very good but hand, wrist, and fingers need work. The healing continues.

I believe I posted most of this stuff before.

Hope you’re all surviving and thriving, wherever you are. Wear your damn mask, please.

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Flooflore

Flooflore (floofinition) – Tales, customs, sayings, behavior, or dances preserved among animals as traditions.

In use: “Flooflore among some cat tribes claim that if humans are allowed to sleep through the night, a demon will occupy the human and stop them from treating the felines with the reverence desired, so cats wake humans at night to stop the demons.”

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Monday Mix

  1. Poor air quality today. Only a fool doesn’t pause to think, “But we’re not on fire. We’re not evacuating.” Even agnostic me thinks, “Come on, whatever power there is – God, Jehovah, Allah, Flying Spaghetti Monster, Universe. Help California.”
  2. The list of places, people, and animals requiring help continues to grow. Just a few short months ago, we held our breath as Australia burned. Now 77 fires in fifteen states are burning. California has lost 1,000,000 acres. Read of the sad situation on CNN.
  3. Need to indulge in a somber moment of reflection after reading that.
  4. Boy, there are so many good reads out. Masked and walking downtown (after picking up library books), we arrived at an Ashland book store, Bloomsbury, and ogled the window display and the plethora of offerings. It’s a sigh moment. I want to read more but I also want to write more. Doing more of either encourages more of both. It’s a vicious and delicious damn cycle.
  5. Being downtown on Saturday did nothing to assuage our rona worries. Town was very busy. Signs requiring masks while downtown were frequent and prominent. There wasn’t any enforcement, so groups of the great unmasked were regularly encountered. Not a surprise, given that 57% of Republicans think the current level of death from COVID-19 in the U.S. — almost 180,000 people in five months — is acceptable.
  6. Still not much better as a one-handed typist. Type a sentence, and then go back and fix all the typos. Going to the doc for a follow up. Fingers crossed (on right hand; that remains impossible on the left). He told me last time that could probably fit a removable splint today. Like I say, fingers crossed.
  7. Time to leave for the doc, so later, gator.
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Monday’s Theme Music

A song began streaming in my head for no apparent trigger for which I was conscious. It may have been influenced by a dream or an overheard word or sound. Here it is.

When I first heard this song in 1991, I thought, who is this? Extreme, it turned out. They’d had a previous acoustic hit with “More Than Words”. What really appealed to me in this song, “Hole Hearted”, was the guitar work.

Then I saw the video, and thought, what fun. They really seemed into the song, which is how music should be. I moves me when such joy manifested and put on display.

Give a listen. That is all.

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Another feline-inspired theme song.

Three cats floof-share me. Each is jealous and distrustful of the other two. Each require me to love on them and then feed them separately from the others. To make it so, they sit and watch my movements, then spring into action and attempt to herd me when they see an opportunity. This is happening as I’m waking up, using the bathroom, making breakfast, brewing coffee, etc.

Each time the floofbuttz make a move, they look up with a question: “Are you gonna go my way?”

Lenny Kravitz put the question, “Are You Gonna Go My Way”, into a muscular, guitar-heavy melody back in 1993. Given the lyrics, he may have had cats in mind when he composed it.

[Verse 1]
I was born long ago
I am the chosen I’m the one
I have come to save the day
And I won’t leave until I’m done
So that’s why you’ve got to try
You got to breathe and have some fun
Though I’m not paid I play this game
And I won’t stop until I’m done

[Chorus]
But what I really want to know is
Are you going to go my way ?
And I got to, got to know

h/t to Genius.com

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Floofnificant

Floofnificant (floofinition) – Something of particular interest or importance to an animal.

In use: “Keri didn’t see nor hear anything, but something was floofnificant to her cats because both stopped washing, listening and staring, causing Keri to slowly freak out.”

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Floofgarden

Floofgarden (floofinition) – Floof grunge rock (florunck) band formed in 1984 in Floofattle, Washington. Originally active from 1984 to 1997, the band achieved significant commercial and critical success.

In use: “Songs from Floofgarden’s debut album, Floofunknown, includes “Black Floof Sun”, “Floofman”, and “Fell on Floof Days”, which all achieved commercial success as hit singles.”

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