The Last Four Days

What can I say about the last four days?

Boring might be a good word.

I've been getting around on crutches, and now also using a walker.

The walker is from a Lebanon woman whose mother used it and is deceased.  In exchange, I gave her gas money and also helped her with cat food again as she is helping the park cats while I'm laid up.

Using the walker yesterday I was able to partially weed eat the front yard.  It had a lot of tall weeds.   The grass hasn't grown any, since I don't water the lawn.  I would lay the weed eater over the front of the walker, move it a couple feet, then weed eat out in front and beside the walker.  Not perfect but got most of the taller weeds down.  I don't want a scene here with neighbors complaining about my front lawn and believe me that's a big deal on this block--appearance of front lawn.

My weed eater is electric so its light weight.

Walkers I discovered are a whole lot easier than crutches.

Other than that small thing I haven't done a darn thing.

I tried calling people yesterday due to boredom.  I got ahold of my younger brother finally but he was busy and couldn't talk.   He is always so busy and has two bad knees himself that need replaced.  But will he ever get it done?  I don't know.

 There are so many different problems a knee can have, from arthritis, to cartilege and meniscus tears, to bursa breakdown or build up, to the ligament injuries from rupture or tear.  I probably, although I don't really know, have the latter, which might be one of the easier to heal/repair, unless the meniscus is also torn.  However the ligament tears produce immediate inability to function because they are rather crucial in holding everything together and quite painful when one of them lets go.  The usual sign of a ligament tear is an audible "pop", I read, and can be preceded by a lot of pain, too, so I imagine this is what happened.  I don't know, however.  This is what happened with my other knee three years ago.

 I had pain for a few months in that knee and then the sudden pop when I stepped up one step and turned on that knee.  It took months for that to heal.  I had no MRI or anything else to diagnose what was wrong and no guidance to help heal that.  I was finally referred to physical therapy but that therapist was a motormouth, who gave me no exercises, had no equipment, and was so inappropriate I thought I'd have to slug him, so I left it the second visit.    And good riddance. Useless.  I remember returning to the doctor after a month, when it was still so painful I could barely walk or sleep, and her eye roll, like why are you here.  She then told me it would be months to heal and basically not to bother her about it.  So that's why I'm so cynical about going to the doctor for anything like a knee problem and feel like I'm expected to figure it out myself.

My knee is still very sore and I had hoped for some reason it would be good to go if I just kept weight off it a few days.

I sure hope it heals and I'm not stuck here for too long.  It gets to me, the boredom and isolation.  It is what it is.

The increasing tensions in Portland with violent protests which turned deadly over the weekend make me uneasy.  The Portland mayor seems to encourange the protesters and violence in some ways.  By releasing those who destroy property and throw fireworks and everything else at police I guess is what I mean and not charging them.   There is a violent contingency that use protests as an excuse to wreak havoc.  This has always been the case in Portland, maybe other places also.  They are mostly young and white and just mean people who don't care about anything although they'll quickly claim they do, if arrested or confronted, by attaching to some sympathetic cause when cornered in their actions.

The Mayor up there is engaged in a war of words with the President now.  He blames the President for the violent protests when probably his feable reaction to the violence may be more to blame.  I don't really know. I don't claim the President doesn't incite unrest, he does, with his words. I fear the violence will be unleashed in a big way. So Portland is attracting now all those who want to behave that way, from all sides of the political spectrum.   If you want to fight, go to Portland, seems to be the message.  At least the violence has not extended down here and I'm thankful for that.  Most people want to live in peace and not have their towns and cities torn apart I would think.

I saw video of a mob of young BLM people, who appeared to be all white, surround two patrons at an outdoor restaurant, in New York maybe it was.  They demanded the two women raise their fists and declare black lives matter.  One did and the other didn't and she feared for her life.   She said she believes that black lives matter but there was something very wrong when a mob of people try to force her to say and do something.  And there is something very very wrong with that and good for her for not giving in to mob demand.  So to me now I see little difference in the far left and the far right.  Both want to force others to be exactly like them.  I think man alive do they not see their actions are exactly the opposite of democracy and free thought and seem more like those of Nazi's and henchmen of authoritarianism.

I'm done with both sides.

As for being unable to currently walk without crutches or the walker, I suppose its good in some ways to be forced to learn to adapt suddenly to circumstances beyond one's control.  Why no photos right now?  My phone's decline has accelerated and even two phone conversations can drain the battery so I'm not using it for photos anymore.   When I get with it, I'll use my regular camera and do it the old fashioned way (well, old fashioned is a relative term with electronics).