Caddyshack Moment
Sundry Sunday
- Typing with one hand is a challenge. Fortunately, my right hand is dominant, and it’s okay. Also fortunately, this isn’t permanent. Tedious process, though. Seven hundred words a day is my current limit. Meanwhile, the muses are running amuck with story ideas. I considered (and haven’t discarded) the idea of writing with a pen in a notebook. Anything to keep the tales moving, hey?
- Haven’t been drinking coffee. First, wanted to rest and sleep. Second, read to avoid caffeine to promote healing broken bones. So, no coffee, no alcohol, and no chocolate. Had dropped the latter from my diet after I discovered what it does to my prostate. Thinking about drinking coffee tomorrow, as I’m weaning myself off the Percocet. Only had one Perc today, three yesterday. Four are prescribed.
- My walking has declined. Been spending most of my time abed. Reached eight thousand steps for the last three days, ten thousand on the last two. I have a long way to go.
- Poor spouse. She’s doing such a terrific job, doing everything, and complaining. This is my fifth trauma in our fifty years together (boyfriend and hubby). In order, cut off tip of my toe, mono, broken neck, dislocated wrist, and this. She should’ve vetted me better. In fairness, I had mono when stationed in the Philippines, and she wasn’t with me. One trauma a decade average; is that normal?
- The cats on that first night and morning were so sweet. I usually feed them. With daybreak, I asked my wife to do that, but the cats refused to go and eat. She brought the food in to them. Nope; they weren’t eating. Wasn’t till I got up a few hours later that they ate. Number one and two cat continued to stay with me through the day. Their loyalty and concern flatters me.
- I feel for the rest of America, enduring a heat wave. Our temps are brushing ninety in Ashland, quite bearable, as night temps fall into the mid-fifties.
A Few Things Friday
- Typing with one hand. Broke my radius and ulna on my left arm last Tuesday evening. (Yep, just two days after b-day 64.) Always appreciated having the requisite number of things in good working order. I appreciate two hands and arms afresh.
- Was a clean break. None of my wrist bones were damaged, and the wrist cartilage et al looked good. Broke this same wrist back in July, 1988. Required two pins to hold that in place till it healed. Having those pins removed at the end was an ordeal. One pin went through my hand bones, and the pin had become bent while residing in my bod.
- Time was passed at the ER by eavesdropping on others’ issues and complaints. Woman next door was 186 pound (hey, that’s what I weigh!), was less than five four (okay, a few inches shorter), and ninety-six years old (got me beat there). She was having problems breathing, her heart was beating too fast and out of rhythm. She also refused to wear a mask. They insisted: “Put it on or we cannot help you.” She was tested for COVID-19. Learned via a friend today that she was negative.
- Everyone was masked and social distancing was practiced, but one person wore it wrong. That happened to be my ortho surgeon.
- Didn’t require surgery. Lots of pain was involved in this (quoting my attending physician), “Gnarly trauma.” I was sedated, ortho doc reviewed the film, shoved my hand back in place, tweaked it some, splinted it, and put it in a cast. I’m on a Percocet diet, one every six hours. Didn’t have any the first night, though. Not a comfortable night.
- Spent fours at the ER. Actual procedure consumed about four minutes.
- How’d it happen? Either it was a rock climbing incident, a doe defending her fawn, or something else. Yeah, it was a poor dismount from a high place at home while effecting a repair. Should be in the cast one to two months.
The curse of 2020 has gotten a little more personal.
Sunday’s Theme Music
It’s a classic line: “Why don’t they do what they say, say what they mean?”
First, you have the POTUS backing the CDC, declaring people are supposed to wear masks (and his staff visiting with him are often required to wear masks, and have their temps taken every day), but then declares that he’s not wearing them. Mike Pence, one of the limpest Veeps in history, has been pilloried for not wearing masks when everyone else was wearing one, when told he should be wearing one, etc, while visiting places and making stops.
“Do what they say.”
Video revealings have people saying what they mean, turning on Blacks and other POC, screaming at them, “Go back where you came from, you don’t belong here,” calling them thugs, criminals, monkeys, and generally using the vilest language and deepest levels of hate that they can muster. When their words spread across the net (because we’re in the net age) and they’re ostracized and fired from jobs, they claim that’s not what they meant (they were just angry, afraid, blacked out, etc.). But it’s pretty clear that they mean what they say.
“One thing leads to another.”
And we certainly have seen that in evidence, haven’t we? Folks attend church, sporting events, bars, parties. Social distancing is shunned, masks are mocked, ridiculous claims are made (our air-conditioning filters will save you)…a few days later, people are in isolation, testing rona positive, and heading for hospitals.
Yet, we still have so many claiming that one thing doesn’t lead to another. They’re above the experts. Or, doesn’t matter. Business and the economy — making money — are more important. So the cases keep rising, and the deaths keep rising…
One thing leads to another.
Here’s the song by the Fixx, “One Thing Leads to Another”, from 1984.
Judging
I’m watching Hulu. I don’t pay to be advert free. The same commercials are often played. The one in play now is a Carl’s Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger. Breathe in the bacon, breathe out the bacon, is the basic play, while showing a cheeseburger close up. All I can think of when I watch it is, fifteen hundred mg of sodium (65% RDA), 34 grams of fat, 740 calories, and fifteen grams of sugar. Have some soda and fries with that.
Yeah, I’m fucking old, thinking about health over flavor and judging people who make that stuff, and the ones who eat it.
Medifloof
Medifloof (floofinition) – 1. Animal who cares for sick animals.
In use: “The big Saint Bernard was a natural medifloof, staying beside sick and injured cats, birds, and dogs, comforting, cleaning, and protecting them until they were recovered.”
2. Internet slang for veterinarian or animal medical assistants or techs.
In use: “PJ (Pearl Jam, sometimes just Pearl or Jam) was acting listless and not eating, which was worrisome for an animal who are eight to ten times a day, forcing Craig to take PJ to the medifloof.”
Sunday’s Theme Music
Tons of time songs were going through my head this morning. “Time Won’t Let Me”, “Too Much Time On My Hands”, “Does Anyone Know What Time It Is”, “Love Me Two Times”, ” “Time After Time”, “Time” (one by Alan Parsons and another one by Pink Floyd), “Time Is On My Side”, “Time In A Bottle”…you get the gist.
Then, weirdly, an old Oasis song (well, from 1994), “Live Forever” broke through. That, I decided, is today’s theme music. Most of us aren’t going to live forever. Oh, sure, there are probably some among who secretly live very long lives, like thousands of years, but that’s not forever, is it? And the machines among us, along with the angels and aliens, also live decently long, but even they don’t make it to ‘forever’ (which begs the questions, just how long is forever?) (which also prompts songs about forever into my music stream).
Despite our knowledge we’re going to die, most of us fight like hell to stay alive. That’s why we’re willing to practice distancing. I’m a fatalistic person toward death, myself, but I’m not interested in the pain and discomfort that I read that many endure with COVID-19.
So, here’s the music. That is all.
Michael Seidel, writer 