Bad luck undone

Thanks to everyone for their kind comments of commiseration regarding all the bad luck we have had lately. As a way of bringing myself out of the doldrums, the following things have happened.

1. My new computer is up and running. Husband continues to download and add files and programs.

2. SIL is still in the process of retrieving the data from one of my old hard drives and hopefully will be successful in "finding" all my old pictures from this drive.

3. My dishwasher seems to be fixed. Our repairman came to the house as promised and installed a $13.50 part that cost us $75.00 to install. Our dishes are now clean and the washer no longer talks to us.

4. We bought a beautiful new microwave oven at Home Depot on Saturday when we went to get the new spigot. It is stainless steel to match my other appliances and does all kinds of nifty things. As a test, I placed a cup of cold water in the new microwave and ran it for three minutes. The handy-dandy safety sensor showed a skull and crossbones so I have now concluded that the sensor was bad and not the microwave. (So much for "reliable" sensors.) I now have two microwaves one of which is sitting on my kitchen table. As a test of how clever he was, husband was heating food in both of them last night at the same time and promptly threw a breaker switch. Ummm, does that mean they are both on the same circuit and should not be run at the same time?

5. The plumber never showed up to fix our spigot so we purchased the replacement parts at Home Depot and husband and darling daughter proceeded to change it out while I watched the kids. They did a good job and it actually works.

6. Husband is now over his medical problem. Now if I could only change his demeanor and attitude, then things would be better.

7. I have decided to wait to replace my Beta fish.

8. My car remains at the auto shop. All the antifreeze should have drained out by now so I can pay to replace it all when they get around to fixing it.

Meanwhile, nothing else bad has happened. Daughter and the girls are still at our house while they work on the wiring in her house. We are having fun with the kids and they are having a good time swimming in the pool, eating every five minutes, learning to play Yahtzee, work puzzles, play with Playdoh, watch movies, and having fun with Grandma and Grandpa. Daughter does not know if she's going home today or not. They are welcome to stay as long as necessary.

We were not able to swim yesterday because it was raining and we experienced thunderstorms all afternoon. It looks lovely this morning, so maybe we can get back in the pool this afternoon when I get back from therapy.

Hope your day is filled with love and happiness.

Clusters of Bad Luck

You know how "they" always say that bad things happen in groups of three? Don't believe it. In fact, I have proof positive that in our house bad luck can happen in clusters of five or six. If it's a really bad week, they can happen in even higher numbers. Consider the following instances of bad luck that have befallen us within the past several weeks:

1. I thought my computer monitor was bad so we bought a new computer. When we received the new computer, and husband set it all up, he determined that it was the (old) computer and not the monitor that was dying.

2. As he was trying to retrieve and transfer everything from my old computer to the new, he somehow was unable to transfer one of the large hard drives to the new computer. It just didn't want to work. During this transferring process, he lost the ability to retrieve ALL our stored pictures from the past six years or so. He gave the drive to our SIL who is a computer genius to see if he can retrieve the pictures.

3. On Monday of this week I went to feed my Beta fish that lives in a large vase on my kitchen table and discovered that he had gone to fishy heaven. Husband was kind enough to clean out the vase and give Beta a proper burial.

4. Our beautiful, relatively new, stainless steel dishwasher discovered that it could spell! And, it was trying to communicate with us by sending us a coded message that kept flashing "C-1" over and over. Since we couldn't find the book for the dishwasher and didn't know was "C-1" meant, I finally gave in and called for the repairman. He will be here at noon today. I hope it's something simple to fix, but who's kidding who here.

5. Yesterday morning, husband and I were standing out on the deck enjoying the morning when I saw a hose spewing a lot of water. I told husband and he insisted that he had turned off the spigot already. Upon checking, we discovered that the spigot was defective and the water could not be turned off. I finally gave in and called for the plumber. It is now Friday morning and no sign of the plumber. If he doesn't show up today, it's off to Home Depot for us so husband can get the parts and fix it himself. The bad news is the waterline under the house is located in a very low area of the crawl space so husband will have a terrible time wriggling in to get the work done. I hope the plumber shows up today, but who's kidding who here.

5. Husband and I were invited for lunch at our friends' house yesterday. It was a very pleasant outing and we spent several hours at their beautiful log cabin located in the woods. Very nice visit. I chatted with wifey who explained the intricacies of Swedish weaving while husband "fixed" their computer. I finally got tired and achy and we headed on home. After we pulled into the driveway, and I was hobbling to the front door, husband noticed a LOT of antifreeze pouring out of my van. I told husband to take it directly to our local friendly car guy and I went in to call him. Since I still am not able to drive, husband got a ride home from someone at the car shop. I hope it's nothing more than a broken hose or some other inexpensive fix, but who's kidding who here.

As I was pondering all our bad luck yesterday afternoon, I had a conversation with darling daughter who brought me up to date on their broken air conditioner situation. She said that in addition to having to buy a new air conditioner unit because the old one burned up, they must rewire their entire house. We were laughing at all the bad things that were happening in our house. What else could happen, I thought naively!

6. When we were out shopping in our nearest Wally-World superstore on Wednesday, I happened to scoot down the small appliance aisle and looked at new microwaves. I found a lovely stainless steel microwave/convection oven at a reasonable price and we decided that if we ever needed one, that's the kind I would get. Last evening, as I was reheating the leftover Chinese from Wednesday, I happened to look at the little card I always keep on the top of my microwave. This little card is a safety sensor to let you know if your microwave is emitting evil rays or something. I think I was a little shocked to discover that the sensor showed a skull and crossbones. Everyone knows that a skull and crossbones means poison and danger. In this case, the instructions on the card say if you see the skull and crossbones, don't think about using your microwave again ever. Can you see the tears streaming down my face?

7. Are you ready for the last item? Last Tuesday husband awoke feeling terribly sick. As he described his symptoms, I said you absolutely MUST get to the doctor today for some medication, otherwise you will be in sorry shape. He was lucky that I was able to get him an early appointment with the doctor on call that day. This was our regular family physician's surgery day and he isn't in the office seeing patients on Tuesdays. Anyway, my diagnosis was correct and husband was given a nice shot in the rear and a prescription. By afternoon, he was feeling much better. After all was said and done, husband said that this was the first UTI he had ever had in his life. I said, WHAT ELSE COULD HAPPEN? I had not reckoned on numbers 4, 5, and 6 yet.

So, my dear faithful readers, here it is Friday morning, and instead of getting up and showering just in case the plumber decides to show up and fix the leaking spigot, I'm sitting here blogging. Gads, I haven't even had a cuppa tea yet this morning. I'm afraid to walk into the kitchen and turn on the stove. Something bad might happen to it. Maybe I'll go for a bottle of water instead.

Springtime in Kentucky

Husband and I woke this morning to another glorious day in Kentucky. (No, this is not my yard that I'm showing you, but these trees are indiginous to Kentucky and this is how they look blooming in the springtime.)

After having our morning tea/coffee out on the back deck early this morning, we walked around the yard a bit looking at some of the flowers. My biggest frustration lately has been my inability to work out in the yard. As a way of easing this frustration, I am able to take my cane and point out weeds that need to be plucked. Thankfully, husband has been kind enough to lean over and pull these buggers up. He was going to mow this afternoon, or use the weedeater, then we decided to get a sample of the pool water and take it to the pool store for testing. We will then purchase the correct chemicals to ready the pool for swimming.

We already have the pool filled, the pump going, and the solar cover heating up the water. The pool water was 72 degrees F. this morning. As warm as it has been the past several days, we figure we can start swimming within two weeks. We can barely wait. I like the water at least 85 degrees F. and the warmer the better.

I had husband stop in at a nursery the other day and we had a nice time looking at plants and trees. We have picked out a nice Bald Cypress we would like to plant in the back yard. This tree loves water and that's good because the spot we have picked out to plant it in retains a lot of water when it rains.

This nursery also had a wonderful selection of perennials and herbs that we are interested in planting. Hopefully we can get back to the nursery to buy some of these lovely plants and husband will be able to get them in the ground very shortly.

We are getting ready for my therapy session this afternoon then we are off to the pool store. It really feels great to actually be doing things again and not just going to the doctor or therapy.

Happy Sunday to you ALL!

I woke up this beautiful sunny Sunday and wanted to share my good feelings with all my lovely blogfriends.

First, though, I wish to thank all of you (you KNOW who you are) who have continued to offer your good wishes for my recovery over the span of many miles. Even though I have not written much PK (after knee), I have thought about you all many, many times. Now that I'm in the healing phase, and becoming more active, I thought it was time to stop acting like an invalid and start doing things again like a normal human being.

Second, I am typing this post on my brand-new computer. Isn't it pretty? You can't see it? Sorry. Husband is still setting it up and hasn't quite gotten all the programs downloaded yet. Otherwise I would just take a picture of my 20-inch widescreen flat monitor, beautiful black keyboard, and sleek computer with the silver front, black sides, and red light on the front panel behind the Dell name. That way you could see it for yourself. I wanted to keep my old keyboard (because I'm used to it), but the new wouldn't talk to the old so I must get used to typing on this new keyboard. It's almost like typing on a laptop -- and you know how weird that feels. Anyway, I love my computer and think it's the best Mother's Day gift I have ever received. Thanks, husband.

This past week has also been a week of major firsts.

• I was able to get down the two steps to the back deck by myself. I was also able to get back up the steps to go into the house.
  
• I was able to go shopping with the family last week and walk through the store with my walker.
  
• I was able to clean my kitchen and load the dishwasher.
• I cleaned the kitty litter for the first time in over a month (wasn't husband glad!).
  
• I was able to cook a meal and sit down on a regular kitchen chair to eat it.
• I was able to bend over and tie my shoelaces for the first time.
• I purchased a cane and am now using it to ambulate throughout the house.
• I am now agile enough to get in and out bed, the van, and the bath bench by myself most of the time.
• Husband and I were able to shop for groceries on Friday (the people in the store thought I had moved out of town because they hadn't seen me for over a month-and-a-half).
  

I'm sure there are other firsts but I thought these were the most significant. You know that none of these would be possible without the continued assistance of husband. He has done things for me that were above and beyond the call of duty. I'm happy I don't have to call him to help me get out of bed in the middle of the night. He would still do it if I asked. Daughter has been also been wonderful. She has come to help out every week or so and we so enjoy seeing the granddaughters during these visits. There is nothing sweeter in the world than having two sleepy, warm little girls climb into bed with you early in the morning and give hugs and kisses to their grandma. Finally, thanks to my good friend Saundra and her husband Sherman. I don't know if they will read this or not, but I wanted them to know that they have helped in so many ways without asking. In fact, they are coming over this afternoon so Sherman can help husband take the winter cover off the pool. You couldn't ask for better friends than that.

Well, it's time for me to get off the computer and start getting ready for company. I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday spent in happiness.

What else can happen?

I know I promised the other day that I would post more often. But, something terrible has happened. My computer monitor is dying, poor thing. I know you can read this, but my view is grey with lots of dark grey streaks. I can actually hear my computer gasping its last breaths.

As a result of this tragedy, I asked husband to go online yesterday to order a new monitor. My computer is so old that there's nothing available for this model computer except a really cheap monitor or a real expensive one. It's actually cheaper to buy a new computer. So, he's giving me a nice Mother's Day present this year. My new fancy Dell will be delivered around the 24th (or sooner I hope). In the meantime, I'm having a terrible time viewing anything. So, before the entire system crashes, he is rushing to download all my files onto his laptop. He's copying all my links, pictures, files, and anything else that's really important to me. It's wonderful to have an inhouse IT guy at my disposal.

I wanted to send along happy Mother's Day wishes to all my blogpals. I hope you receive lots of love and attention on this special day. If you will be apart from your children, I know they are thinking of you and wishing they were with you. If your children will be spending the day with you tomorrow, I hope you enjoy every precious minute.

Vacation's over

I was ordered by husband this morning to get out of my sick bed and start writing in my blog again. Today is the one-month anniversary since I got ready to have my knee cut open and large titanium and plastic replacement parts inserted. So, he says that enough is enough. I guess he's tired of waiting on me hand and foot.

As you can imagine, this past month has been a measure of tiny progress steps and sometimes setbacks. There has been pain, there have been tears, there has been a lot of sweat and effort, and there has been frustration. Progress is being measured by degrees of extension and flexion.

Most of all, however, there has been an overwhelming number of friends and family who encouraged me every step of the way, offered help in any number of ways, sent words of love and kindness, and some who even cooked meals for us. We will never forget these acts of kindness. Your e-mails and phone calls have kept me grounded. They let me know that there is still joy in this world amidst the pain of physical therapy.

Some things I have learned this past month:

It's difficult learning to get out of bed at night to go to the bathroom without waking up husband to help.

It's excrutiating learning to bend your knee when it has been cut and turned inside out.

It's embarassing to expose your bottom to total strangers when nature calls (and they give you large doses of Milk of Mag and stool softeners).

It's easy to lose weight when husband cooks your meals.

Pain killers can be your friend and your enemy.

TED hose, ice, leg imobilizers, walkers, commode chairs, and other sickroom paraphernalia get tiresome after a while.

Since progress is being measured by degrees, I am waiting for the temperature outside to get warm enough so we can open the pool and I can start swimming again.