Monday, March 23, 2009

Even though it's March....




I am beyond behind here!

Days have came and went. Christmas, New Year's, an ice storm and knee surgery. I've not visited "A Writer's Wish/Stuff From the Attic" in a long time, so I have a lot of ground to cover!

Christmas came and went, I had to work, but all in all, I tried not to let commercialism hamper the spirits. Let's face it, as long as there is advertising, we might as well figure Christmas will be thrown at us in September. Just remember the reason for the season. The new year came and went in the same fashion, I was at work.

At the end of January, residents in Northwest Arkansas and southern Missouri were slammed with ice and lots of it. At first, it seemed we could get by without too much, but as the day wore into the afternoon, it became apparent we were in trouble. When the power went out, we figured it was short term. When we called in the outage, a recording informed us it would be hours, then it became days.


Limbs snapped like gunshots in war, ice continued to fall. Everywhere around us the sounds of transformers blowing out and trees cracking under the weight of ice had us running to our windows each time. We thought it was unfair we were the only ones on our block not to have electricity. Our neighbors across and up and down the street had power. It was as though they all had every light on in their houses including the porch lights, rubbing it in our noses. A couple of the neighbor kids laughed at our misfortune, that is until a major power line snapped and not only blackened out the entire town, but other small towns up and down the grid. Who was the ones laughing now? As much as I wanted to, I couldn't because those neighbors had huge limbs falling on their house and vehicles.

Going to work was a strange experience. Yes, I had to work. The main plant didn't work, but someone has to be at the treatment plant 24/7/365, it doesn't matter if anyone works or not. I wasn't too excited about sitting in the dark either. Thank God I work day shift! It was dark when I went in at 6:45 in the morning and dark by 5:00pm. Armed with only a flashlight, I tried not to let my imagination get the best of me. Here I was inside that huge dark, quiet building, the only sounds were occasional drips of water and several unidentified thumps coming from dark corners where even a flashlight couldn't penetrate.

And cold! Even with several layers of clothing, insulated coveralls and a heavy coat, those icy fingers found their way in. Fortunately, the weather warmed, melting inches of ice. That was kind of cool, watching huge icicles fall from power lines and crash to the ground. I had to wear a hard-hat, the icicles were large enough to cause damage to a person's skull if one were to fall just right.

By the fifth day, I became tired of no electricity. Heating water for washing and coffee got to be a pain in the ass. I like to camp out, but I was ready for a hot shower. It never fails to humble me when the little things aren't there in my daily comforts.

The surrounding area looks like a tornado came through minus scattered debris. Now that Spring is here, it doesn't look so bad, as life comes forth, flowers, grass, and buds on trees. The twenty-year old willow tree in my back yard is the only major casualty we suffered from the '09 Ice Storm. Against my wanting to keep all of my lovely trees, we had most of them topped or brought down a couple of years ago, good thing too. I fear the results would have been disastrous. What I find unusual is the willow did not give up the ghost. The branches we still need to remove have sprouted new growth.

January spilled into February, on Ground Hog Day I went to see my family doctor. I've had problems with this nearly five years now and it was just getting worse. There were days I barely walked up to the parking lot because in addition to my sore feet, my knee swelled up.
Anyway, I had x-rays taken of the knee and an appointment with an Orthopedic specialist.
So far, I learn from my family doctor I have arthritis. This doesn't surprise me all that much. I have it in my hands, I have family members who have it. The specialist takes more x-rays and says I need an MRI. I never had one of those, but I am concerned. I've seen those commercials on TV about a dye which is injected, will I have this? Thankfully, no, I just had to lay still. I did okay until I could feel my leg wanting to move, but just as that feeling was becoming unbearable, the technician came in and it was over.

My next appointment with the specialist reveals I have a cyst and fluid build up, it reveals more arthritic issues too. An appointment is scheduled for surgery. He says it's a simple operation, remove a bone spur, the cyst, and drain the fluid. I'll feel good as new. Great. Let's get it over with so I can get back to life.
I get the operation done. The doctor tells my husband I have the knee of a seventy-six year old woman. The operation went well, it just took a little longer than expected. I had a huge chunk of cartilage hanging, they took that, shaved a bunch of the cartilage down, I had torn ligaments too. I am blaming that on a stupid stunt I did nearly thrity years ago, and time finally caught up with it. He also tells my husband chances are probable I will need knee replacement surgery in the next couple of years. Great. The only thing good was Vicodin (just kidding). It did help me sleep well. And fast acting! It took less than twenty minutes for me to start nodding out. I have one left and no refills, where's House when you need him? (Again, just kidding)


I am concerned about going back to work in water treatment. There are many obstacles, the floors are slick sometimes, I have to lift heavy bags and many hours of walking, stair climbing and standing. There are days where I have experienced no time for sitting down until the shift was almost over, or maybe for ten minutes, long enough to shove a little food in my head and then off I go. I have many things to think about concerning my job and have decided I need to get out of it. I do not see myself working there too much longer and fear it could have some serious repercussions later on, healthwise, that is. I am working on several things, but it will be sometime before those come to pass. I am excited about these prospects so hopefully something will come out of it.
And so, March is on it's way out, April first is next week. Both mine and my husband's birthday's are coming up. He turns fifty, I, forty-nine. I'll reflect on that later. Happy Spring!