Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! The past two weeks I have been struggling with this terrible pain in my leg. Last week my doc diagnosed it as a relatively rare leg bursitis (inflammation of the bursa near my knee) and gave me an incredibly painful Injection of Fire right into the terribly painful area, which engendered some really nasty swear words from me for the five seconds it took for the Fire to be injected.
That was a week ago. The inflammation is less and the pain is incrementally getting better but until today I could walk only two blocks before I had to turn around and hobble painfully back. Today I was able to hobble three blocks (!) before turning back, sitting with ice on my elevated leg and taking another Tylenol. But three blocks is progress. Five days ago my leg was so painful to the touch that I couldn't bear to put lotion on it. Now I can, so there's a bit more progress as well.
Since I can't walk, I have been reading. A lot of junk, Harlan Coben and John Grisham to name two. But I read "Careers for Women" by Joanna Scott, a novel I enjoyed for several reasons: good characters developed over decades, some fine historical notes about Manhattan from 1958 - 2001 including a fictionalized look at the workings of the Port Authority, the same look at an aluminum plant that was modeled on several plants that dumped hazardous waste into rivers and lakes in the Midwest. The title is a sarcastic spin on just that: careers for women, which include secretary, prostitute, blackmailer, babysitter, mother, administrative manager, housewife and so many more. The prose is clear and clean, the timeline meanders a bit but that, to me, was part of its charm.
This is not a great book but it is certainly a very enjoyable read. Two thumbs up.
And I have had my belief in the restorative and medicinal properties of alcohol strengthened in the past several weeks. What pain Tylenol doesn't mitigate, a nice shot of whiskey definitely assists in the pain relieving task.
More on the trip to Oregon later. I promise.
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Been away too long
I just published a post that I wrote two weeks ago about the fire. I haven't written anything since that but here I am, back again.
Two things to discuss: Thanksgiving in Oregon last Saturday night and debilitating pain in my leg. Let's tackle the last one first.
On November 4,while walking my dog early in the morning, my left leg basically defied me and left me screaming in pain a block from my house. I am not a baby about pain, but this was 10+ on the pain scale. Every step I took was met with a scream. It took me ten minutes to walk (hobble, limp) the last block. Long story to short = Jenn took me to an appointment at 4:00 that afternoon to see a doctor. He diagnosed a Bakers Cyst. Fine, and I was told it should be less painful in a week or two. The pain did not get better, and my walking daily was reduced from about 5 miles a day to two blocks a day and even that was incredibly painful.
Today, with twenty days of pain and more than three weeks from that previous appointment, I was in the osteo doctor's office, a woman whom I have seen before and one that I like and trust. She had a different diagnosis, one that she said was really painful. Short story, I had two shots into my leg, one in my knee (not too painful) and one in the bursa below my knee which was incredibly painful. (I said FUCK several times on that injection.) We will see if it helps. It better.
I know that this is personal and no one really cares about anyone else's medical stuff or pain or injections, so I am totally fine knowing that no one read this far. It's just something I needed to get down on the page.
More on the trip to Oregon tomorrow. Or on Friday.
xo.
Two things to discuss: Thanksgiving in Oregon last Saturday night and debilitating pain in my leg. Let's tackle the last one first.
On November 4,while walking my dog early in the morning, my left leg basically defied me and left me screaming in pain a block from my house. I am not a baby about pain, but this was 10+ on the pain scale. Every step I took was met with a scream. It took me ten minutes to walk (hobble, limp) the last block. Long story to short = Jenn took me to an appointment at 4:00 that afternoon to see a doctor. He diagnosed a Bakers Cyst. Fine, and I was told it should be less painful in a week or two. The pain did not get better, and my walking daily was reduced from about 5 miles a day to two blocks a day and even that was incredibly painful.
Today, with twenty days of pain and more than three weeks from that previous appointment, I was in the osteo doctor's office, a woman whom I have seen before and one that I like and trust. She had a different diagnosis, one that she said was really painful. Short story, I had two shots into my leg, one in my knee (not too painful) and one in the bursa below my knee which was incredibly painful. (I said FUCK several times on that injection.) We will see if it helps. It better.
I know that this is personal and no one really cares about anyone else's medical stuff or pain or injections, so I am totally fine knowing that no one read this far. It's just something I needed to get down on the page.
More on the trip to Oregon tomorrow. Or on Friday.
xo.
The Fire: Epilogue, Part 3
We all knew this would happen, at least those with cynical hearts. Lawyers have descended on Santa Rosa and Sonoma County, lawyers from all over the U.S.A.. Lawyers who want to make money, who want people to sue everyone, who want a monetary piece of the pie, of the scraps of human grief, of the price of ashes.
Voices are being raised now, voices who need to blame someone for the loss of their home, their belongings, the things that anchored them to their world. The thought is that someone is to blame for this, and you can't fucking sue the wind, so let's sue someone else. Someone with deep pockets. Let's go after PGE and the city of Santa Rosa and the county of Sonoma. They should have fixed this BEFORE IT HAPPENED!
The fire raged from Calistoga to Santa Rosa, a distance of about 25 miles as the crow flies (but the fire didn't fly a direct route, it bounced all over the place as it determinedly torched everything it could) in about 3 hours. Tell me, tell the world, what could have been done in that time? No one knew it would be that horrific until the first few hours of Monday morning, October 9. At that point the wind was hurricane force and the fires (three began within 15 minutes of each other) created their own tornado force winds and vortices. Who could have mitigated that destruction? Would some kind of an alarm have helped? Or would that have simply made everyone in Sonoma County take to the roads to flee? There is no logic in that scenario. As there is no answer either.
I can only imagine the sorrow and the frustration and the anger that people have, those who lost their homes, about not getting a warning that the fire was on its way. But you can't go backwards and place blame that some warning system wasn't in place. Santa Rosa city and Sonoma County in general have no bell to ring to alert people that danger is ahead.
PGE works on their lines all the time, we have all witnessed their trucks cutting branches. But I predict that they will take the brunt of the blame and if they do, and if they are sued so egregiously as to bankrupt them, our entire utility system in Northern California will be at risk for the rest of our lives. If the government takes over the utilities, maintenance of the lines (gas and electric) will go the way of our roads: potholes, broken barriers and no safety nets.
It seems, at this point, that the fire was caused because of a force of nature. (Please, oh, please do not say "An act of god" because, really? What god would want this? A god of war?) Extremely high winds, downed power lines, and the rest is history. Place blame if you will and you might win monetarily, you might win a sound bite, but in the long run it is a wrongful stance. You might win some money but you will lose in the long run morally.
I know very few people read this blog so I am not worried about blowback. But there should be huge outrage if the blame is concentrated on one utility company. Wind + heat + more wind = fire. Could that have been prevented? In my opinion, No.
.
Voices are being raised now, voices who need to blame someone for the loss of their home, their belongings, the things that anchored them to their world. The thought is that someone is to blame for this, and you can't fucking sue the wind, so let's sue someone else. Someone with deep pockets. Let's go after PGE and the city of Santa Rosa and the county of Sonoma. They should have fixed this BEFORE IT HAPPENED!
The fire raged from Calistoga to Santa Rosa, a distance of about 25 miles as the crow flies (but the fire didn't fly a direct route, it bounced all over the place as it determinedly torched everything it could) in about 3 hours. Tell me, tell the world, what could have been done in that time? No one knew it would be that horrific until the first few hours of Monday morning, October 9. At that point the wind was hurricane force and the fires (three began within 15 minutes of each other) created their own tornado force winds and vortices. Who could have mitigated that destruction? Would some kind of an alarm have helped? Or would that have simply made everyone in Sonoma County take to the roads to flee? There is no logic in that scenario. As there is no answer either.
I can only imagine the sorrow and the frustration and the anger that people have, those who lost their homes, about not getting a warning that the fire was on its way. But you can't go backwards and place blame that some warning system wasn't in place. Santa Rosa city and Sonoma County in general have no bell to ring to alert people that danger is ahead.
PGE works on their lines all the time, we have all witnessed their trucks cutting branches. But I predict that they will take the brunt of the blame and if they do, and if they are sued so egregiously as to bankrupt them, our entire utility system in Northern California will be at risk for the rest of our lives. If the government takes over the utilities, maintenance of the lines (gas and electric) will go the way of our roads: potholes, broken barriers and no safety nets.
It seems, at this point, that the fire was caused because of a force of nature. (Please, oh, please do not say "An act of god" because, really? What god would want this? A god of war?) Extremely high winds, downed power lines, and the rest is history. Place blame if you will and you might win monetarily, you might win a sound bite, but in the long run it is a wrongful stance. You might win some money but you will lose in the long run morally.
I know very few people read this blog so I am not worried about blowback. But there should be huge outrage if the blame is concentrated on one utility company. Wind + heat + more wind = fire. Could that have been prevented? In my opinion, No.
.
Friday, November 3, 2017
The Fire: Epilogue, Part 2
For reasons that aren't clear to me, I went to see Coffey Park and Larkfield-Wikiup areas yesterday, neighborhoods in Santa Rosa that were completely destroyed by the fire. I think it was because I have been helping out a bit, running errands, doing research for someone who lost everything in the fire and thus it has been in the forefront of my mind this week. I felt like I owed something to see the destruction for myself. A silent, personal benediction of sort, I suppose.
As I said previously, it is so different than seeing the ruins on TV or in print. It is astounding that nothing is left. There are no homes or buildings "partly burned." They are either gone or still standing untouched. Blocks and blocks of gray, black and white, nothing else. Chimneys, twisted pieces of metal, cars that are practically melted. And yet, you turn your head and there is a patch of bright green grass, someone's front yard, shining like a new copper penny in the midst of all the sad, bitter ashes. Down two blocks is a white picket fence, still there, not even scorched, a mocking sentry to a house that no longer needs guarding.
Yes, cost of the fire is huge, the personal loss to thousands is impossible to put a price on and the recovery will take years. Seeing just a small scope of the ruins, that vision will stay with me for more than just years.
As I said previously, it is so different than seeing the ruins on TV or in print. It is astounding that nothing is left. There are no homes or buildings "partly burned." They are either gone or still standing untouched. Blocks and blocks of gray, black and white, nothing else. Chimneys, twisted pieces of metal, cars that are practically melted. And yet, you turn your head and there is a patch of bright green grass, someone's front yard, shining like a new copper penny in the midst of all the sad, bitter ashes. Down two blocks is a white picket fence, still there, not even scorched, a mocking sentry to a house that no longer needs guarding.
Yes, cost of the fire is huge, the personal loss to thousands is impossible to put a price on and the recovery will take years. Seeing just a small scope of the ruins, that vision will stay with me for more than just years.
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