Feb 1, 2007
Catching up on this journal out of order, let me first say that Gary’s hospital test went fine – at least as far as he’s telling me ;-). They did not let me go back with him, even though both of us asked several times for me to be allowed to do so (I confess it touched my heart when Gary gave it one last try: “So, she can’t come with me?”). Gary told me they did a two-man transfer on him to get him onto the x-ray table. Maybe at that point he was glad I wasn’t there, cuz I would have said, “No way, you wimp, we’re doing a depression transfer!” (Actually, I probably would have let him be a wimp – he said the table was very high, higher than any transfer we’ve ever attempted.) For weight shifts, they turned him from side to side. He had to do an IC for them, and then they shot dye into his arm and took their pictures of his urinary tract. We got to the hospital at about 10:30, and he came back out into the waiting room a little after noon. Then he wanted to go to the burger place nearly directly across from the hospital, saying he needed some solid food in him!
After taking him to school, I had just enough time to go home and have some lunch before racing off to the chiropractor. I have definitely had some pain reduction, especially during the day, though the pain still interferes with getting decent sleep. The chiropractor has given me some stretches and abdominal strengthening exercises and some exercises to help increase mobility of the pelvic region (I call them my “bump and grind” exercises).
Oh, by the way, speaking of wimps, Gary says he hopes people who read the blog don’t think he is one, given all the times I mention him crying about something ;-).
On Jan 27, I had a rather bizarro experience after finishing my walk. I’ve been parking at the end of a street a few blocks away, where there is a flat stretch of road. I walk down that road to where it dead ends (it wasn’t until I came to the south that I knew “dead end” was a verb) and then turn around and go back to my car. It takes me about an hour to take this at a stroll. That evening, there was a truck parked in the place I usually put my car, so I parked behind it. When I got back from my walk, a man was in the yard near my car, and he asked me if it was my car. I said it was. He identified himself as the owner of the house in front of which I had parked, and anticipating him, I asked if it was the case he didn’t like me parking in front of his house. He indicated this was the case. I said, no problem, I wouldn’t park there anymore. (I happen to know that legally I can park on the street there, but my purpose was not to antagonize anyone.) He mentioned there had been some problems at his home, which he didn’t want me to get involved in (whatever that meant), and I said again that it was no problem, that I had parked there just in order to take my walk, but that I wouldn’t park there again. On the drive home I decided I would park at a school about a block up from there.
So, I drive home, and about ten-fifteen minutes later, this cop is at my door asking me if the car in the garage is mine. I said it sure was. He then goes on to talk about how this guy is upset about my car being in front of his house, that he’d had a break-in at his home, and so on. The cop “assures” me that they’re not thinking I was involved in the break-in (meanwhile it’s going through my mind that I would have to be pretty stupid to break into this guy’s home and then regularly leave my getaway car parked in front of it while I take a walk) but that they didn’t know what I was doing in the area. I told the cop I was taking walks and that I had already told the owner – twice, and in what I thought was a friendly way – that I wouldn’t park in front of his house anymore. The cop then asks me if I couldn’t leave my car in the garage and walk around the blocks near my house. I’m thinking, “Huh? Since when are people restricted to walking around their homes?” But I say, no, that I have back problems and I can’t take the hills around my house, that I go to a flat area. He informs me I can go over to the university or to the high school track and walk there. I don’t say anything but I’m thinking, no way am I going to go traipsing clear across town when I can drive a few blocks away. The cop finishes by saying I haven’t done anything wrong, and leaves. I’m still wondering why he was saying all that stuff in the first place, unless it was to somehow intimidate me on the house owner’s behalf.
Upset, I went back into the bedroom and told Gary of the cop visit. Gary told me I should have come and got him when the cop came, and I wish I would have. I was very upset that night, and it still bothered me for days, first of all that that guy had called the cops on me after I’d talked to him and secondly that that cop was saying those things to me. My massage therapist gave me some perspective, however. She said that the guy had probably called my license plate into the cops long before the guy had talked to me, and the cop probably hadn’t known I had already talked to the guy. When he found that out, he probably felt obligated to find something to say, since he’d bothered to run my tag down and had come all the way out to my house. Vindictively, I hope the cop felt a real idiot, because he certainly ruined my night and had me upset for a few days. I literally shook each time I went by this guy’s house in order to take my walk. My massage therapist told me I should make a story out of this. She also told me I should take a bunch of photos of my car, and every time I walk by this guy’s house, I should slap a picture of my car on the guy’s curb. I nearly fell off the massage table laughing.
On the 28th, Gary ran through the logistics of using the raised toilet seat. It looks like it will be a fairly easy transfer onto it, as he has the height approximately equal to his wheelchair. The difficult part will be in leaning to the side on it for the twenty or so minutes required while performing the desired task. I looped the chain loops around a grab bar in the shower, and then he looped his arm through them, to give him stability while he leans, but he says he wants to use something else for that – he is afraid the loops might tear (I don’t really think they would), and that would be a disaster. He is going to try it out “for real” this coming weekend.
On the 28th, I also finally felt like I had my short fanfic story where I wanted it to be. I finally yielded to its pull, and as a result I felt like it finally came together. I was still anxious about posting it, however. The “test readers” I had asked from the RS Fic group for advice really seemed to enjoy the story, but it didn’t get as big a reception from my local critique group. In fact, after the first week’s work on it (I spent a little over three weeks on it), one of those members told me the story fell flat, which almost led me to throw it out. Gary, however, told me that just because that one person didn’t think it was funny didn’t mean it was funny – he thought it was funny. The other person in the group thought it was ready to be posted on the 26th, but there were still things I wasn’t satisfied with. But after working a few more days on it and running the final prospective version past the RSFic test readers, getting their comments and making some changes based on those comments, I felt an internal voice tell me, “Now, it’s ready.” So I posted it and anxiously awaited the reaction.
Boy, am I ever glad I didn’t throw it out! It got the biggest positive reaction of anything I’ve ever posted to the list (though it doesn’t, in my opinion, match the quality of the RS novel or another short piece I wrote). To enjoy it I think one would have to have a pretty solid knowledge of the characters of the series and as well some familiarity with fic writing. In fact the people who would get most out of it would be those who are immersed in the TV series and in the RSFic list, and if they had already seen the movie I had gotten the inspiration for the story from, that would probably further increase the enjoyment. A pretty small percentage of the population! But I felt really good about the response, I can tell you!
Catching up on this journal out of order, let me first say that Gary’s hospital test went fine – at least as far as he’s telling me ;-). They did not let me go back with him, even though both of us asked several times for me to be allowed to do so (I confess it touched my heart when Gary gave it one last try: “So, she can’t come with me?”). Gary told me they did a two-man transfer on him to get him onto the x-ray table. Maybe at that point he was glad I wasn’t there, cuz I would have said, “No way, you wimp, we’re doing a depression transfer!” (Actually, I probably would have let him be a wimp – he said the table was very high, higher than any transfer we’ve ever attempted.) For weight shifts, they turned him from side to side. He had to do an IC for them, and then they shot dye into his arm and took their pictures of his urinary tract. We got to the hospital at about 10:30, and he came back out into the waiting room a little after noon. Then he wanted to go to the burger place nearly directly across from the hospital, saying he needed some solid food in him!
After taking him to school, I had just enough time to go home and have some lunch before racing off to the chiropractor. I have definitely had some pain reduction, especially during the day, though the pain still interferes with getting decent sleep. The chiropractor has given me some stretches and abdominal strengthening exercises and some exercises to help increase mobility of the pelvic region (I call them my “bump and grind” exercises).
Oh, by the way, speaking of wimps, Gary says he hopes people who read the blog don’t think he is one, given all the times I mention him crying about something ;-).
On Jan 27, I had a rather bizarro experience after finishing my walk. I’ve been parking at the end of a street a few blocks away, where there is a flat stretch of road. I walk down that road to where it dead ends (it wasn’t until I came to the south that I knew “dead end” was a verb) and then turn around and go back to my car. It takes me about an hour to take this at a stroll. That evening, there was a truck parked in the place I usually put my car, so I parked behind it. When I got back from my walk, a man was in the yard near my car, and he asked me if it was my car. I said it was. He identified himself as the owner of the house in front of which I had parked, and anticipating him, I asked if it was the case he didn’t like me parking in front of his house. He indicated this was the case. I said, no problem, I wouldn’t park there anymore. (I happen to know that legally I can park on the street there, but my purpose was not to antagonize anyone.) He mentioned there had been some problems at his home, which he didn’t want me to get involved in (whatever that meant), and I said again that it was no problem, that I had parked there just in order to take my walk, but that I wouldn’t park there again. On the drive home I decided I would park at a school about a block up from there.
So, I drive home, and about ten-fifteen minutes later, this cop is at my door asking me if the car in the garage is mine. I said it sure was. He then goes on to talk about how this guy is upset about my car being in front of his house, that he’d had a break-in at his home, and so on. The cop “assures” me that they’re not thinking I was involved in the break-in (meanwhile it’s going through my mind that I would have to be pretty stupid to break into this guy’s home and then regularly leave my getaway car parked in front of it while I take a walk) but that they didn’t know what I was doing in the area. I told the cop I was taking walks and that I had already told the owner – twice, and in what I thought was a friendly way – that I wouldn’t park in front of his house anymore. The cop then asks me if I couldn’t leave my car in the garage and walk around the blocks near my house. I’m thinking, “Huh? Since when are people restricted to walking around their homes?” But I say, no, that I have back problems and I can’t take the hills around my house, that I go to a flat area. He informs me I can go over to the university or to the high school track and walk there. I don’t say anything but I’m thinking, no way am I going to go traipsing clear across town when I can drive a few blocks away. The cop finishes by saying I haven’t done anything wrong, and leaves. I’m still wondering why he was saying all that stuff in the first place, unless it was to somehow intimidate me on the house owner’s behalf.
Upset, I went back into the bedroom and told Gary of the cop visit. Gary told me I should have come and got him when the cop came, and I wish I would have. I was very upset that night, and it still bothered me for days, first of all that that guy had called the cops on me after I’d talked to him and secondly that that cop was saying those things to me. My massage therapist gave me some perspective, however. She said that the guy had probably called my license plate into the cops long before the guy had talked to me, and the cop probably hadn’t known I had already talked to the guy. When he found that out, he probably felt obligated to find something to say, since he’d bothered to run my tag down and had come all the way out to my house. Vindictively, I hope the cop felt a real idiot, because he certainly ruined my night and had me upset for a few days. I literally shook each time I went by this guy’s house in order to take my walk. My massage therapist told me I should make a story out of this. She also told me I should take a bunch of photos of my car, and every time I walk by this guy’s house, I should slap a picture of my car on the guy’s curb. I nearly fell off the massage table laughing.
On the 28th, Gary ran through the logistics of using the raised toilet seat. It looks like it will be a fairly easy transfer onto it, as he has the height approximately equal to his wheelchair. The difficult part will be in leaning to the side on it for the twenty or so minutes required while performing the desired task. I looped the chain loops around a grab bar in the shower, and then he looped his arm through them, to give him stability while he leans, but he says he wants to use something else for that – he is afraid the loops might tear (I don’t really think they would), and that would be a disaster. He is going to try it out “for real” this coming weekend.
On the 28th, I also finally felt like I had my short fanfic story where I wanted it to be. I finally yielded to its pull, and as a result I felt like it finally came together. I was still anxious about posting it, however. The “test readers” I had asked from the RS Fic group for advice really seemed to enjoy the story, but it didn’t get as big a reception from my local critique group. In fact, after the first week’s work on it (I spent a little over three weeks on it), one of those members told me the story fell flat, which almost led me to throw it out. Gary, however, told me that just because that one person didn’t think it was funny didn’t mean it was funny – he thought it was funny. The other person in the group thought it was ready to be posted on the 26th, but there were still things I wasn’t satisfied with. But after working a few more days on it and running the final prospective version past the RSFic test readers, getting their comments and making some changes based on those comments, I felt an internal voice tell me, “Now, it’s ready.” So I posted it and anxiously awaited the reaction.
Boy, am I ever glad I didn’t throw it out! It got the biggest positive reaction of anything I’ve ever posted to the list (though it doesn’t, in my opinion, match the quality of the RS novel or another short piece I wrote). To enjoy it I think one would have to have a pretty solid knowledge of the characters of the series and as well some familiarity with fic writing. In fact the people who would get most out of it would be those who are immersed in the TV series and in the RSFic list, and if they had already seen the movie I had gotten the inspiration for the story from, that would probably further increase the enjoyment. A pretty small percentage of the population! But I felt really good about the response, I can tell you!
posted by Peg Daniels at 8:47 PM
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