Rosko's View of the World

 I haven’t much faith in a Blackout Day doing a thing for us internet users, and if some folks think any senator is gonna change how they vote, they better look who pays the senators re-election bills… and as for ‘we the people’, well lets just say the common folk have no one in congress and won’t for quite a long time as it seems only law degrees qualify one for chance to run these days

Carley and I took a little trip today, good thing we weren’t gone any longer as a wicked wind came up for the last 10 miles home, and then after sunset the wind continues and the temperature has quickly gone below the minus on the thermometer, guess we’ll hibernate the next couple days

oh boy, are we celebrating. The resident airehead has turned TWELVE years old. not bad considering her awful life up to the 5th birthday. She’s ‘quietly’ snoozing on thee couch with her head across my feet, as if there was any othr position for her naps.

and of course we will tremble and get big eyed when anything spooks us today. ain’t life grand. it was plenty cool last night, kinda like a witches tit n a brass bra…ummmm interesting image if you know any pretty witches.

Well the 4th of April was the day they fused my lumbar section of the back which went pretty well seeing as less than 48 hours after I wheeled into the OR I was the way  walking out the front door. And like the neck fusion it wasn’t bad until I sneezed, and then do you know where exactly they worked and try not to sneeze again, but it is spring, oh I forgot, it’s tick season.  So along rolls the first part of May we started having pains.  I mean the kind where your laying on couch and can’t roll over because it hurts.  Lucky for me I had a follow-up appointment with the Neurological Surgeon in a week or so, I muttered, cussed, yelled OUCH and Ouie and few other ‘choice’ words until then.  And par for the course the ride over (without Carley as appt was late afternoon and it is starting to get warm then and thought it was overcast when I left, the 2 hour drive can change a lot of weather) the texas caddy seats took a lot of the pain out the system, added by a few pain pills taken slightly sooner together than normal. When Dr came in the room I told him if he had done my back first first he would have never touched my neck.  That seemed to get his attention rather quickly and as I described what was happening he almost but not quite smiled and said that didn’t have anything to do with the lumbar fusion but was in fact the sacroiliac joint. I said the what? So hepoke4d around and made it hurt and called in his scheduler to get in touch with VA and get the ‘shot’ to block the pain signal and inject some pain meds in the region to rule out it was the problem.  AND THEN. He tried to help me up off the table and about 8 inches off the table ‘we’ hit the exact bad spot and did I scream. Several people came running and Dr said tell the VA he’s definitely gonna need fusion as soon as possible. As we waited for pain to get back a dull roar he explained why it happened (originally planned to talk about with me sitting in chair)- short version is the neck/lumbar damage had let the spine lower itself slowly over time and ruin the joint and then when the neck fusion and lumbar fusion with the plates and cages and mega screws put things back where they were supposed to be, when the lumbar started to actually fuse the joint and pulled things up, the sacroiliac joint came back up to spot that had NERVES.  So between two nurse and the Dr, they finally got me off the table and upright. at which point I hobbled to truck and drove home without a run through  Sam’s even! – might be a first there. The NEXT afternoon (Thursday) the scheduler gal called and said VA had approved  both shot and surgery and THE SHOT was scheduled for next afternoon! talk about burning up air time trying to find someone not busy to drive me home after getting poked.  ps. sacroiliac joint fusion is June 20th, and yes the shot is doing it’s thing as promised…this will be third spinal fusion surgery in 150 days…us old war horses do break down, but at least they don’t take us out behind the barn anymore.

well yesterday was Carley and I’s first solo trek across the prairie to the VA clinic for the lab rats to take some blood. there was not much traffic and surprisingly the fused neck and lumbar didn’t seem to have much effect even though the range of neck swivel is greatly reduced. not much between here and there so didn’t have many places to worry about seeing cross traffic, but I could see just fine when needed. Was nice day, tad cool in morning, overcast for both ways, not that there was much time between to and fro. Miss Carley jumped into front seat while I was in clinic and when I told her jump in the back she gave me the old my leg hurts and I can’t, so I put Alberta into the back and Carley rode in front all curled in a ball for the jaunt home. However when we got home she had no problem at all using that leg to jump down and go see what changed while we were away, I been AireScammed Again. when will I ever learn? Didn’t see much action in fields, usually about now they’re full swing of corn seed planting.

oh the dreaded ticks are back and they just love these cool wet days, there were several that fell off Carley, I hadn’t started the daily check which you have to do even when you do the tick ‘medicine’, so every night Carley sits beside me and lets me go over square inch looking for yukkies. Knowing you dog and knowing wheres a bump in the leg and wheres a tick can save lots of nasty looks when you try to pull the wart under her arm pit off. tick season last until a couple days in a row of high 90 degrees which seems to send them off to tick hibernation.

with lumbar fusion couple weeks ago it will be another construction season without book shelves being built, so that wild hair up my decided to gather all the books and put them my ‘library’ at http://www.librarything.com/ and the paperbacks were closer and lighter and so they were first…well, they were lighter in the handfuls I was getting in accordance with the 10 pound limit and it seemed to take forever, but I reckon that might be due to over 1100 paperbacks stuffed here and there, and now I know I need more bookshelves. Now to get the rest of the books, slower as they weigh more per book, and I don’t think I got over 250 hardbacks, but then my estimate on paperbacks was WAY low.