Life Changes Pt. 2

The swelling in that foot has been much less lately so perhaps some genuine healing is taking place inside my right leg. I still have a limited range of motion in the knee but I do work on that every day. It bends just fine but so far I can't get it to straighten out. It seems to stall somewhere between 15 and 20 degrees shy of straight. I know the kneecap was displaced but I remember them shoving that back into the correct location. I also know that the actual knee joint is okay so the problem is somewhere else. My guess is a lot of scar tissue in the way but I'm not certain that is the correct answer. If it is then I'd also suspect that, at some point, I'm in for some minor surgery to have most of that removed. (Oh boy! More down time!)

As for progress on the new house it's at the cerebral level right now. After way too much hassle and blue streaks of such a level as to make sailors cover their ears and take shelter.... we elected to bail on the laminate flooring and go with ceramic tile. Everyone we talked with before hand assured us that if we could handle ceramic tile (which we could) then laminate flooring would be a piece of cake. Lying bastards! This crap is the biggest pain in the ass since invasion of giant killer hemorrhoids from outer space! Becky and I are comfortable working with the ceramic tile so we're cutting our losses. We have 48 unopened boxes of laminate left and Lowe's agreed to take them back so we could get tile. On the bright side the cost of the flooring just went from $1.80/sq ft to roughly $0.72/sq ft. Also tile is much more forgiving about the surface it is installed over. Things like being perfectly level don't matter nearly as much to tile. Anyway, our main goal was a floor that minimized the amount of allergens in the house and tile still qualifies for that. As a side issue it's also far easier to fix if something goes wrong. Ding a board in the laminate floor and they say "all you have to do is (Run like hell anytime you hear those words!) take up all the floor back to the damaged piece, remove and replace it, then simply relay the rest of the floor! With the stuff we have the odds are you'd break another dozen boards during the removal process. (once snapped together this stuff does NOT want to come apart!) Even if everything went well we'd still be looking at a full day or more to replace a single damaged board. If we break a tile somehow..... all you do is finish breaking the tile the rest of the way our, mix up a little thinset and spread that out.... drop in another tile and then have a beer while it sets up. Later on grout the four sides and you're done. Where else is part of the fixing process whacking the hell out of something with a big hammer and breaking it all to hell?

I think as a parting shot I'm going to briefly covers "Joe's 2 second rule." It has nothing to do with anything else I've talked about but what the hell.... it's my blog. Those who know me know I genuinely hate phones. Oh they have their place but like everything else they tend to be abused by far too many people and that's what chaps my ass. My phone is for MY convenience so most of the time when it rings it's someone attempting to invade my privacy and usually con me out of some money. When I answer the phone I say "This is Joe" and count: one thousand one, one thousand two.... and If, by that time, no one has managed to speak I hang up. I figure that if you're calling me then you'd damn sure better know why and be prepared to speak when I answer. If you're not then it's a damn short phone call for you.

Life Changes

I suppose a follow-up to that title might be "Appreciating the little things" if I had enough room for all of that. As always it's been a while since the last update and much has happened that needs to be let out. Two items share the spotlight today. #1 is that Becky and I are 99% moved into our own home now. (There are downsides to that which I will get to later) #2 is that I'm recovering from an encounter with a fire hydrant..... which the hydrant won.... no contest and no request, by me, for a rematch. (Details also to be gotten into later)

As for the house. Item #2 has put a serious kink in our progress since I have been unable to move about unaided since July 1st. What that really means is that we lost an entire month of work on the new house so it was not at all ready for us to occupy it when the time came. As a result we have a house in the early stages of a total remodel and it's also full of boxes of our stuff in every room and every spare nook and cranny. Once I can move about and do some work again it means that we'll have to, one by one, move all the stuff out of a room so we can complete all the work in that space. Then we get to fill it back up with stuff from another room and work on that until it's finished. And it goes on that way until the house is done. Basically rather than moving once we'll be moving about 7 times. (Light estimate)

There was a sliver lining to the move in that when Becky's friends heard my leg was messed up they volunteered to help us move. (Remember this IS Texas in the summer time!) So God bless each and every one of them for their time, effort and associated expences in helping when they could have just as easily stayed home and enjoyed the airconditioner and a movie. Of course with the Silver Lining also comes a dark cloud. (even though I'm not a liberal I still know that..... I just generally don't dwell upon it) In this case the dark cloud is that, while eager to help, they were not eager to listen to instructions (or follow them) and they did not seem to bring one speck of logic to the game. One might find a box labeled "Kitchen and linen closet" for example. And I cannot even begin to guess at the thought process behind that! I have nearly a dozen boxes simply labeled "Office" rather than something helpful like "bottom file cabinet drawer" or "Printer paper and envelopes". I need to send out an alamony check and I haven't a clue as to where my checkbook might be. (I suppose the thought process there was.... Heck... his leg is messed up so why would he need to be able to find a checkbook?) For Becky and I the standard joke reply to any querry about the location of a item is "It's in a box, somewhere!"

The sad part is that it's really not that funny. What's in a box, somewhere, is our lives not just stuff. It's all the little things we needed to do the routine things around the house. It's knowing where the hell a towel is so you can take a shower and then knowing where you can find some lotion or some underwear. It's things like putting the home office together and being able to locate every single cable and connector to do that except the freaking POWER cords! Who was the genius that decided those needed to go in another box apart from all the other cords? (Fortunately power cords are somewhat universal so when I locate the ones for the computers I can put them on the guitar amplifer and stereo..... which are missing them right now) Oh well. At least we are moved.

Topic #2 is a painful one at several levels for me. While my right leg is pretty messed up (tibia broken in two places and a 26 inch scar from upper thigh to lower calf plus a chunk missing from my knee) and hurts a bit now and then there are things that bother me more. Number one is the loss of the motorcycle I was riding at the time of the accident. At 28 years old it was a classic touring bike and I really enjoyed riding it. But the problem was the age. One simply cannot get parts for a bike that old without a lot of expence. Even something as basic as the light switch is almost impossible to find. So I was forced to let the impound yard keep it and sell it for scrap.

The next thing that bothers me a LOT is the major role the word "can't" has taken in my life lately. I'm not someone who is comfortable with that word and in general refuse to give it any place at all in my life. Now I'm forced to accept the fact that (for the time being) I can't drive a car, I can't go to work, I can't walk without crutches, I can't do a whole hell of a lot around the house to help out with the remodeling. Hell.... I can't even mow the damn yard.

I have managed to master the fine art of taking a bath by myself and got a system in place that permits me to handle the laundry. At least I can process the stuff through the washer and dryer even though I'm still not able to get the dirty stuff there or the clean stuff carried off. Running the vacuum is tricky but I manage that too.

For a little while I was in a wheel chair. I found that to be an experience that every American should have for about a week. When all of your parts work you never give a single thought to your everyday goings on. But when a chair has to do the "walking" for you it's amazing how much stuff you'll find almost impossible. In our old house I couldn't go into the kitchen any more because the gap between the cabinets was too narrow. Not a problem if you're walking but if your rolling you're stopped cold. Even at the V.A. Hospital (which ought to know better) I had to give a urine sample but found that they did not have handicap access to the only available restroom in that area. They had a handicap stall inside but no way to open and get through the damn main door! To add insult to that.... just a few feet from that restroom there is an outside patio so folks can smoke...... THAT has a big ol' button you can push to make the door open... but God help you if you have to pee! The crutches offer more mobility but it still takes both hands to operate them so you're pretty limited as to what you can do while using them.

There is more to this story but right now I'm tired and my right foot is swollen up to twice the size of it's counterpart. Time for me to go lay down and let things relax.