Cheers!

For several years when we had our place at the beach in SC, we used to go to Pizza Hut with another couple. Although I rarely drink beer, I enjoy it in a frosted heavy glass mug. I like this type of mug so much that at the end of the meal I boldly asked if they would sell me one. Nope, they couldn’t, according to the waitress. Then they thought it over back in the kitchen and she said they could give me one and write it off as being broken. Ok, so I had my very own mug. Took it home in a paper bag so other customers couldn’t see and want one too!

I tried this again another time with different management at the same place with the same result! Now I had two of these mugs!

I brought them back to PA with us a couple of years ago. I’ve only used one at this time of year for the Sam Adams Octoberfest (in a bottle of course). I don’t like drinking out of a bottle now but that beer sure is great in the glass mug. I realize there are many other "Oktoberfest" beers but this one is fine for us.   

What I’m building up to here is what happened last night when the Mister asked me if I would like an Octoberfest and I agreed. He took the bottle top off and brought it to me at the dining room table with one of the frosted mugs. I started to pour it and…WHOOPS! My mug was overflowing! What??? I had a mess but the question was WHY? I thought I had frozen water in the mug at first, instead of giving it a rinse before putting it in the freezer. Nope. Look at the pictures. Which mug would you pour your beer into?

Joke’s on me! The Mister had put the mug on the table upside down and neither one of us realized it. Wasted some good beer, dear! 

New Year Blues

OK, it's a pity party for me. On the 30th of December I injured the shin of my leg when a large tempered glass cutting board fell forward and skinned my shin. It was purely a clumsy act on my part because I had put it there and then walked into it.

 Injury Story Link

It has been 9 days. During the first three the bandage stayed on but when removed, partially stuck. Ow! The following two days the new bandage stayed on but stuck again when I removed it! After that I left it uncovered two more days and hoped it would dry with only Neosporin applied around the injury. Two days ago I visited my doctor because the surrounding area was getting warm, tight  and pulling. I was afraid cellulitis was setting in. He gave me a 10 day antibiotic prescription and suggested I return if it wasn't looking better in three or four days. He said I did everything correctly as far as protecting it and treatment, but shin injuries are notoriously difficult areas to heal as there isn't much flesh there. He also suggested I elevate it as often as I can. That is not being done as it is already elevated 10-11 hours every 24 hour period during the combined hours of sleep and nap.  

Time will tell.....by the way it is difficult to wash my hair under the low level faucet in the kitchen sink as a full blown shower is still out of the question. I may have to call a plumber to have one of the higher types installed. 

Or maybe not! They are costly!!

WARNING!

        If you are queasy about looking at injuries, go no further.        

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Day 9 - Looking downward

Day 9 - Looking straightforward

(photo by the Mister)

Oops!

This morning on the way out to town for laundry duty, we saw this - a neighbor's truck had slipped down his driveway into his home.  After returning, I got the camera and we went to see it again. He explained to me that he had stopped at the top and got out to get his mail, then got back in, took it out of park and it suddenly slid down! His two very young children were in the back seat. No one was hurt. It was a bit tricky to get everyone out and inside the home.  Sometimes the ice on the roads and driveways can fool ya! He had no idea they were in such danger.

He is explaining to me how it happened.

We had the scanner on last night and heard of icy road conditions throughout the area. Early this morning the cinder truck came by spreading the stuff and we were thankful for that. The tow truck just arrived and pulled the damaged truck out and took it away. I wonder how the house made out. It didn't look like there was serious harm to it when I took the pictures.

Click on image to view larger

P.T. Camp

The summer is moving right along here in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania. I'm moving right along with it and not falling down again! Attitude in action.

Physical therapy should be called painful torture, but it sure is helping my shoulder movements. Of course, repetition and continuation after I leave the facility are still necessary. I have to remember not to go beyond my comfort level and resist forcing the stretches and movements. Sometimes I get too exuberant in my enthusiasm to attain my best restoration of range of motion. Today's therapy session was an example to remind me to slow down. It cannot be accomplished quickly.

The strengthening exercises of walking both hands up and down the wall to the highest height I can reach, and then walking them back down is the most difficult so far. The problem is that I don't have a wall on which to practice this one at home! My walls here are all rough flat logs. The doors are planks and unfinished. I tried it in front of the refrigerator but its height is short for the reach I need. Let's see.......there must be some other way....hmmmm.

I'm told that bone healing usually takes six to twelve weeks and that regaining full strength may take up to a year. Today is my 7th week anniversary of the fall. I'm just a beginner. Game ON!

Fall Down NOT Downfall

Glad to be back in the mountains! All going pretty well here. Ed is a bit overworked, learning new housekeeping and kitchen chores. (see story below.) Computer work is difficult for me now and, hopefully it will be easier in a few months.

 I am healing. On May 25, I stubbed my left toe when following a neighbor to her back yard to see a bush of flowers. As we were walking in the grass along the paved sidewalk to get around her golf cart, I stepped up with my right foot, and tripped on the left, plunging me forward onto my right shoulder. I fell HARD! I heard cracking and crunching noises. I never had an instant to put out my arm to break the fall. So........after trips to two emergency rooms, I was sent home with pain medicine and an order for a CAT scan in 4 days. Of course, the hospital was jammed with life threatening emergencies and I sat on a gurney in a hall for several hours before seeing the trauma orthopedic surgeon. It was Memorial Day weekend besides being bike week!  Both emergency facilities took several x-rays (each wanted its own film).  The CAT scan was then viewed by another orthopedic surgeon at another facility. This doctor does shoulder joint replacements as his specialty. He would have had to do a reversal joint replacement - meaning that the top( head) of the fractured humerus would be replaced with a "socket" and the shoulder would be made into a ball. He also thought that the trauma surgeon who saw me first might be able to pin, rod and plate the humerus. Back to the first doctor. NO. He said there isn't enough dense bone mass on the fractured head to sustain an internal fixation for a successful repair and the reconstructive surgery most likely wouldn't hold up and another repair would probably have to be done.  Well........I had been in a tight immobilizing sling for over three weeks already and was ready to kill them both! The black arm was turning purple and yellow and the multiple breaks were healing (according to doc) because there was good blood flow to the injury. Since I had to make a decision on both recommendations I decided not to have any surgery and live with a permanent "range of motion" disability. Of course, it is my dominant arm, but my fingers work well and from the elbow down functionality is fine. Eight weeks of physical therapy, three times a week was ordered and I started immediately, accomplishing 5 sessions so far. I will be continuing PT here, reaching for the most function possible. The joint was also dislocated, due to the fractures, and will stay that way. I think I can deal with it. I'm NOT going to mention the pain and frustration because I actually feel fortunate that it wasn't my head or hip. So, I'm now entering the healing phase. HAD to cut off my long hair, but it was donated to the Locks of Love Cancer program and was 12 inches of a color they really loved. Gray hair was accepted and is sold to offset the manufacturing costs. That's good. There was NO WAY I could work with it long.

 June 26, 2012

  June 27, 2012

So now I will adapt and overcome. There was a saying in the PT facility that "The achievement of your goal is assured the moment you commit yourself." I am committed to functioning to the best of my ability. I'm even typing this fine, and have stacked two milk crates, topped with a board to move the mouse. My "helper" left hand moves my arm over to the lower level where my mouse now must be. Hooray!

Horse Puckey

When you make peanut butter milk chocolate fudge and it comes out too soft and sticky what do you say?

"HORSE PUCKEY!"

What do you do with the stuff?

You make....

HORSE PUCKEY!

How? Well you scrape up a gob and roll it, and roll it again in sugar!

And....then you have....

HORSE PUCKEY!! YUM!

And I Know Why........

First a rant............

This early morning I rushed to town with my two baskets of laundry to get it washed before the laundromat became crowded. I have been doing this since 1997 when we moved into the cabin.
I'm lucky to have nice weather today and they will dry on the line well. It's a beautiful day!

Usually, I stay in the small laundromat, reading, but this morning I decided to sit in my car while listening to the radio. The laundromat is 5 miles from our place at the lake and I don't often go into town except for laundry and grocery shopping chores. That may be why I never before noticed how many gas drilling trucks travel to, through and from our little town. They sure caught my attention with their oversized loads and number! And it is SUNDAY!

I observed these huge and invasive, to my thinking, carriers traveling fast and furious on the main avenue. They were all in transit hauling water, frack sand, frack fluids, fracking pumps, residual waste and more.

Some call them soup trucks or kettle trucks and I call them AWFUL. Their stacks emit black stuff to pollute my air. They're noisy. They cause damage to the roads. Some nearby counties have had their roads put off limits to natural gas drilling trucks by PennDOT until the roads are repaired.

The natural gas extraction in my area has grown and I don't like the activity at all. People jumped at the chance to earn money by leasing their land and now the cost is very evident.

In 1900, 1,827 people lived here, and in 1910, 1,914 people lived here. The population was 1,664 at the 2000 census. A 2007 estimate states that the population is 1,843. This town of Montrose was laid out in 1812 and incorporated as a borough on March 19, 1824. It sure seems a shame that it has changed so much in the name of "Progress."

The truck that was involved in yesterday's accident is owned by Casa Grande, Arizona-based Southeast Directional Drilling LLC according to the Times Tribune. I noticed that many of the tags are also from Texas, Wyoming and others.

Fatal Crash

By WBNG News

July 30, 2011

Updated Jul 30, 2011 at 5:18 PM EDT

Liberty Township, PA (WBNG Binghamton) A Susquehanna County man has died in a crash near the state line.

Pennsylvania State Police say 57 year-old John Jones of Brackney was killed when a Mack Truck used to haul natural gas drilling materials overturned on to his car.

The accident happened around 8:00 p.m. Friday night on Route 29 near the intersection of Laurel Lake Road in Liberty Township.

Jones' passenger was an unidentified seventeen year old. She sustained moderate injuries.

50 year-old James Hoffpauir of Montgomery, Texas was driving the truck for Southeast Directional Drilling, based in Arizona.

State Police are continuing their investigation.

Man Killed in Susquehanna County Crash

• By WNEP News

9:04 p.m. EDT, July 30, 2011

We now know the name of a man killed in a crash in Susquehanna County.

According to state police, John Jones III of Brackney died Friday night when a mack truck overturned on his vehicle.

It happened around 7:00 p.m. on Route 29, just north of Montrose.

The driver of the mack truck was injured.

Troopers are still investigating what led to that deadly crash in Susquehanna County.