injury recovery

Yay!!  Today I was "good to go" on the bus.  Slept on the heat pad last night which helped immensely.  Took tylenol before left home and then another one at noon time.  Worked great.  I walked around just like always.  There were a couple of twinges going up the steps, but not going down.  I bruised my tail bone so I expect it will be kinda sore for a week or so before it's gone completely, but at least I can walk and bend and stoop.    Got along without a super soft pillow on the chairs.  All is good.

I do have a black and blue spot on my knee and can't figure out how I got that.  I fell flat on my back, not my knees.  Might have gotten it when I crawled to the other ramp to get up. That ice was hard for crawling.
Only one knee is bruised, not the other one.  They both had equal crawling time.  It's only sore to touch, not for movement.

I'm just following in my Mother's footsteps.  She used to take tumbles and came out relatively unscathed.

Flesh Wound

Had to shovel snow today before I could get out.  Did the main ramp and a path to the garage.  Went to Senior lunch, got groceries, shoveled walk to front step at Town House, checked house, came home for Gma's lunch.  Then it was time to shovel the trailer ramp so I could get clean clothes for tomorrow. 

The ice in front of the ramp and I didn't see eye to eye.  That ice just pulled my feet out from under me and knocked me to the ground, flat on my back.  My head hit the snow pile, so that was good, but it got my chesire cat hat all wet.  Took a few minutes to get up and I crawled to the house ramp rail for better footing.  That damn ice is hard! And it hurt!  Threw some more snow over the ice so I could get traction and finished shoveling the ramp.  Got my clothes and changed into some dry stuff as well. 

Some stiffness set in later and I was moving kinda slow, but I was moving.  Couldn't sit for a long period of time as it stiffened up, so I kept getting up and down and walking around the house.  Tonight it's much better, but still have some sore spots.  Will probably have more by morning in different places.  Gma got upset because I fell down and she can't do anything to help.  I had to tell her because I wasn't moving very fast.  I can bend and stoop, and did a few leg swings and that worked.  Just as long as I don't move too fast or turn too sharply, I'm fine.

Had to go into town this evening to meet Gayle and used the seat heater.  Boy!  Did that ever feel good.  Gayle needed to get a box she had there and she did, so she shoveled my sidewalk for me and part of the driveway while she was killing time to go to Bible Study.  That worked out well as I wasn't going to do anymore shoveling for awhile.

Not sure how the bus ride to Cody is going to go, but I'll see in the morning.  I'm going to sleep on the heat pad tonight and that should help.  I've been sitting on a really soft pillow all afternoon.  Might have to take it with me for the bus tomorrow.  Will see.

Anyway it really isn't bad now, so I guess I'm going to live.

Author night - Pancake supper

Tonight was a busy night.  They had an author speak at the Library from 5-7 and the annual pre-Lenten pancake supper at St Andrews Church was from  5-7 as well.  The author is a retired CIA person and lives in Cody.  She has written a novel about a female operative, based on her own experiences.  She was a very interesting speaker.  I went up to get a book and have my picture taken with her, but was going to skip the talk and go to the supper, then home for ice cream with Gma.  She said she was only speaking from 5-5:30 and the rest was question and answer time, then she'd autograph books for those wishing to buy one.  So I decided to stay.  Got my book and had it autographed and got a picture before 5:00, so I was set. I did stay to hear her talk and a couple of questions, then left.  Got to the supper in time for a good parking hole.  They had a pretty fair crowd there.  Several had already been and gone and quite a few came after I did. 

I was home by 6:45, not too shabby. 

Check out her story in the Cody Enterprise http://www.codyenterprise.com/news/people/article_f302608a-b637-11e4-b135-bb1274b40aad.html

Hope that link will work. If not maybe I can copy and paste the article.

Museum program

Last night I went to a program at the Museum.  Northwest College was sponsoring a faculty jazz ensemble.  They had a local caterer furnish wine and beer with several kinds of hors d'ouvres.  Very good.  The music was GREAT!  They played six numbers.  There were five musicians, a trumpet, saxophone, guitar, bass, and drummer.  Each one announced a number.  One was from Stan Kenton, one from Dave Brubeck, two were improvisations from Bach, one from Charlie Mingus, and the last was more blues jazz from Cannonball Adderley. I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Great program and great food.

Didn't take any pics as the light isn't good in there anyway and besides, I forgot my camera.

However, I did ask about the Owl Creek/Butch Cassidy book.  Monday at Seniors, Joan brought me her copy of it.  She has read it and isn't all that familiar with that part of the country, so she just gave it to me.  Now I don't have to copy all the info about the Prices.  She had suggested that we might find a copy of it at the Thermopolis Museum.  I'll have to tell Joe & Joy.

Power Outage

We were without power from 7:50p.m. Thursday (5th) to 2:00a.m. Monday (9th).  Made for an interesting weekend.  Apparently the strong, wild winds blew down some power poles on Sage Creek in the Hoodoo area somewhere.  I don't know if a tree blew on the wire or if it just snapped a pole and the rest dominoed.  There were reports of anywhere from 18 to 13 poles down.  The person I talked to for Rocky Mountain Power said 13.  At any rate they had to get new poles from Powder River at Casper.  That was on Friday, then getting them up and running took the rest of the time.  They brought in extra crews and equipment, but the mud and muck, plus more strong winds made it very difficult.  The first time I called the recorded report said 1800 homes were without power.  Next time I called it was 800 without power and the last time I called it was 180.  So they were making progress.  I can only imagine what a nightmare that must have been putting up those poles and stringing wire in all that mess, bogging down in the mud and battling strong winds at the same time.  I am grateful that there are people that do that sort of work though. 

We were fine here.  Gma has a nice little propane heating stove which kept her house warm and comfy.  Just no fan to circulate the air.  She told me I could run around a circulate it.  Then she had me find the kerosene lamps.  They actually had kerosene in them.  We also had a drawer full of candles and a drawer full of flashlight batteries for the six flashlights I found.  So we were pretty well off.  Larry Rankine came by to tell us to be very conservative with the water and the water plant was also our of power.  I filled some jugs with water for drinking and cooking, just in case, but we didn't need them as we had pressure for the duration.  I did take all our refrigerator and freezer stuff to the Town House and made several trips back and forth for that kind of food.  Gma has an electric cook stove as well as a gas one.  So we used the gas one.  She is well prepared.  She has been through power outages before.  Come to think of it she lived at a time before power. 

Joe and Joy stopped to see us Friday on their way to Cody.  They arrived just as Larry was leaving so Joe had a good visit with him.  At that same time I had a phone call from the Chocolatier.  He had goodies for me for my birthday from the Hawaii Steeles.  Then Ed called and I cut him short.  Then Steve Willis called about some pictures he had sent me on a disc.  I cut him short too, but he found out what he needed to know.  Sheesh!  It's all or nothing.

Pat came for her Gma fix on Saturday so she got in on some of this pioneer living.  She stayed at the Town House overnight.  We also had Church Saturday evening with a carry in dinner and brief Parish Meeting.  Pat got in on that too.  Sunday was relatively quiet and peaceful even though we still didn't have power.  Pat left about 1:00p.m.  Said the wind wasn't as bad that day as when she came down on Sat.  Then when we woke up Monday morning we had power again.  After Senior lunch I brought back all the stuff from the Town House.

Many of the ranchers up river had generators for power, but lots had to haul water for their livestock.  I'm glad we don't have livestock.

Some of our friends in town were really concerned about Gma and wanted to help move her to town, but she wouldn't go.  The temps were rather warm - in the 40s so we were fine.  If it had been sub-zero temps I might have moved her whether she wanted to go or not, but as it was she didn't need to go. She was rather  vocal about it too.  She really would have a more difficult time in the Town House.  Its all unfamiliar territory and there are threshholds in every doorway that she would have to lift her walker over.  It wouldn't be too convenient for her anyway.  Better she could stay in her own home.
 

Groundhog Day

MY Groundhog saw all kinds of shadows everywhere as the sun was very big and shiny.  In the shade of the hill, however, he stepped in the snow which made his toes cold, so he just hopped back in his hole and snuggled down for another six weeks nap.

I had a very nice day.  Didn't do anything exciting.  Gma sang "Happy Birthday" to me at breakfast and we did our usual chores and had coffee break before I left for town to attend John Hogg's funeral service.  It was entirely conducted by the family and was very nice.  Julie did an awesome job.

Then I went to Senior lunch and as I walked in the door they all sang "Happy Birthday" to me.  That was a pleasant surprise.  I joked with the cooks about having a groundhog on the Feb birthday cake and they said they'd try.  WOW!  They are so good to me.  Gma bought me 10 lunch tickets for my birthday, then she bought my dinner today at the ElkHorn.  Had a shrimp dinner which I brought home and we shared.  Neither one of us can eat a whole dinner anymore.  It was sure good though and a nice change.

After lunch I met my friend at the town house as she had taken a couple of pictures I had and framed them for me.  She wanted to return them for my birthday.  They are beautiful now! Here's the before and after.

Check up time

Gma had her 2 week check up from her hospital stay.  She is fine.  She had the doctor and nurse in stitches (laughing). He asked what they told her at the hospital and she said they didn't tell her anything.  They just talked to me and ignored her. She said they checked out her heart and had her hooked up to all kinds of things all over, but it wasn't her heart. It was a pain down her side. They didn't pay any attention. He asked if she was afraid of dying or if that bothered her at all.  She said, No, of course not.  Everybody dies sooner or later so no need to worry about it. I think they might have thought she was depressed.  That seems to be a big thing right now. 

She did get another shot in her leg as it still bothers her.  Last time she was getting sharp pains down her leg and he gave her a shot which helped a little. Also prescribed some anti inflammatory cream to rub on it, which she said didn't help.  The pain was still there, but not the sharp shooting ones.  She wasn't sure if she could have another shot yet or not, and he said she could.  It might not help, but it wouldn't hurt either.  So she got one and today said her leg didn't hurt much at all, so maybe this one worked.  He did tell her it was Iliotibial Band Syndrome and gave us a paper with exercises on it to stretch it.  He wasn't sure if she could do any of them as they require some exertion, but there was one which might help if she can lean on a chair or couch and lean over.  But her stability isn't all that great, so we might have to improvise.  She did do her other leg exercises today.  She probably does need to do more moving around than what she has been doing lately.

Gayle Barnett came for a visit this morning and brought a really good chocolate treat.  It is more like bars and has chocolate chips and raisins.  I made real coffee for our coffee break and visit. 

We had a skiff of snow last night, so got a bit of manual labor in today as I had to sweep the ramps and my town steps.  Didn't get the sidewalk done today.  Maybe tomorrow.  Just the deer use the sidewalk anyway.