USMB Coffee Shop IV

[blackhawk]

 

[gallantwarrior]

Not really complicated these days, actually quite routine but yes it's painful. They've come a long way with it, in the "old days" they would literally replace the knee with a whole new section, now it's much less drastic. Here's what a full replacement looks like;

The parts are rated for 28 years with average usage, obviously less with heavy usage like serious sports competition, running, etc.
A partial would be only one side which is what they (and we) are hoping for but if the medial (inside) is also bad enough they'll do the whole thing because she's young enough that they don't want to have to go back in a couple of years down the road and redo it all.
It's what I need for both knees........ Mine are in much worse shape than hers but I have to wait for the VA to finally approve it........ They'll try everything else first including waiting for me to die before they have to do it........

Are they going to wait until you're in a wheelchair and have lost mobility? WTH is wrong with them? I find this kind of thing to be very aggravating, and there are no excuses.

Let's put it this way, I know a girl who's dad went in to the VA complaining of severe headaches, they told him to take aspirin and made an appointment to see his provider 3 months down the road, a week later he had a stroke........
Granted the VA care providers are generally understaffed, overworked and underpaid, most of the primary care providers are not MDs, they're Nurse Practitioners, Physicians Assistants, Medical Chiropractors, etc. Many are really good, not all are.
As for my issue it's the government, start at step one and proceed onward step by step to step one thousand, mostly based on medical practices from a couple of years (or decades) ago and never perform a procedure unless absolutely medically (or politically) necessary so yeah, they may be waiting for me to become wheelchair bound.

I don't think it's a very good idea for them to wait when it comes to something like that because they longer they wait, the more damage is done.

For all intent and purposes it's the government, it's how they work.

Lol! I hate the government!

What normal mortal does not?

 

[gallantwarrior]

Just got back from the beach where I take the dogs to walk. There were others there..with their cameras. Tide is so high, the trail is unwalkable. Someone said it was 15 feet higher than they have ever seen and it still has another hour to go to rise. And of course..instead of it being cooler weather with coats and uggs...everyone is still in flipflops and tank tops. It's upper 80's again today.

There was a canoe out there, banging against a tree that canoe would never meet in other circumstances. I went out and pulled it to shore the best I could. Looked new. No damages except some water on the inside from the waves and it banging against trees where the water has never been.

This is not good. Especially for homes right on the waterfront.

What is causing the high tide? Do ya'll have something headed your way?

Not that I know of. Local news says no storms, Patricia missed us in our area so it isn't the leftovers from that hurricane. I have noticed the past couple of months now that where I take the dogs..most of the time I can't take them to the shore because there is no shore. Low tide is now what high tide used to be. So now high tide is HIGHER tide. Homes along the bluffs have been shored up and every day another home owner is out there doing what can be done to protect the soil, sand and dirt and shrubs and trees from toppling in where it is eating it all from the waves.

Personally....I think the melting ice is raising the waters.

Can't be melting from here, we just got a light sprinkling of icy rain for the first time this year!

 

[gallantwarrior]

Halloween is this weekend. As a kid, Halloween was rivaled by Christmas as the most fun time of the year (and that's taking the last day of school into account).

This year, I bought 100 glow stick necklaces for the wee tykes. The necklaces are 22" in diameter and glow in purple, orange and green luminous chemicals. I also have seven bags of Reese Cups at hand. It started out as eight bags of Reese Cups, but...

My neighborhood crawls with kids. Although you wouldn't know it as so many of the wee bairn are occupied with video games and rarely pick up a game of baseball or tag any more. The luxurious Pimplebutt Estate is flanked by houses of 2,000 square feet or more arraigned on the hillside like the homes in San Francisco or ancient Machu Picchu. A kid could not do better for Halloween scavenging than my neighborhood.

Only a few years ago (and that's relative too because it was only forty or fifty years ago in reality) I was one of those kids canvassing the same neighborhoods for Trick-or-Treat. My brother lives in one of the 'better' houses for Halloween. By 'better' I mean one of those homes that had full sized candy bars every year. There were homes with spacious back yards a Halloweener could take a rest in, laying on the lawn, exchanging undesirable candy for something a little more chocolaty. Those were the days before local hospitals would offer x-ray services and the Trick-or-Treat hours extended into the night.

Today's Halloween had devolved into an adult holiday offering a chance to get drunk before the sanctioned days of New Year's Eve and St. Patrick's Day. It was, just in the days of my own faded youth, a children's holiday ripe with fresh apple cider, glazed doughnuts, bobbing for apples and home-made costumes. The store bought costumes featured a mask of molded plastic with a peculiar smell, a black elastic band with which to keep them on and eye holes that ensured you could not see out of them.

Daisy the Mutt thinks that each and every Trick-or-Treater is coming to visit her. She barks and cries and begs to greet all of them. There are too many to open the door for, so I post up ion the North Portico in a lawn chair and watch them come up and down the hill. So, I tie Daisy to her leash in belief that there she will stay, happy and contented. While, in reality, Daisy will chafe at the leash and insist she sits upon my lap to get the full treatment form the kids.

Have a happy and, above all, safe Halloween this year, coffee shoppers!

It seems to me that Halloween for the kids has become much more location specific and event oriented. We take the little one to one of a few particular subdivisions in the area that are known as good places for trick or treating. I don't know that we've ever even walked her to the few houses in our own little subdivision. There's also trunk or treat type events and our downtown does a Halloween day every year.

Up in these latitudes, unless you are masquerading as a ski-bum or snow mobile driver, your parents take you to one of the local Halloween events. Almost every enclosed mall sponsors a "haunted house", many larger businesses with sufficient venue set something up, and Elks, Lions, VFW, and other similar associations also sponsor some activity for the tykes. It's usually too cold and/or snowy to go from door-to-door for more than a block or two (for the hardiest trick-or-treaters). While the snow is lacking the temps are now hovering right at, or just below, freezing.

 

[gallantwarrior]

Remind me to never take TWO vicodins again. They knocked me out, and i don't hurt right now, but the dreams were a bitch. I finally woke myself up and am now trying to stay awake cuz I don't want to go back into them again. I think I will watch the dawn for a change.

I won't take sleeping pills, even in the hospital, for the same reason. Terrible dreams I cannot wake myself up from.

Take two beers and wake up in the morning....

 

[Gracie]

I know what the problem was. I was poisoning myself with eating stuff I should not have been eating. I fasted yesterday, no sleep aids, no nothing. Slept well, but still had strange dreams...but at least they were not nightmare stuff. I think I was dream traveling again. I was a young male Cree indian...lost in Seattle area in a time frame not my own trying to find a portal to get home. Really weird.

Anyway....today I got a lot of stuff done and not fatiqued at all!

 

[Hossfly]

Carla_Danger

 

[gallantwarrior]

Going to take the little Cimarron Fire Arms, 1873 Winchester Trapper replica up to a gun show today and see if I can do a little horse trading. I figure it's worth $11-12 hundred. Might find a nice AR to trade for.

Yesterday I took the "estate tour" of Frank Lloyd Wright's, Taliesin. Frank Lloyd Wright | Taliesin Quite the place, and some very creepy history. Seven people died there as a result of it being set on fire and then people were hacked to death by an ax wielding black servant. I took my Olympus digital voice recorder in an attempt to get an EVP, but there were too many people and too much talking going on. They close it down for the winter. Today is actually the last tour for the year. I would love to go in there, alone, in the winter. I'm sure the spirits would come out to talk to you then...

Long ago, when I was studying architecture as a draftsman, I fell in love with FLW's designs. The man was a genius of blending natural features and stunning architecture.

 

[gallantwarrior]

Picked up the wife and all her new "accouterments", she's home now. The cats are giving her the cold shoulder, "how dare you abandon us" routine.......

The kitties will get over it. Hope she is comfortable and feeling well.

'Specially when they figure out she's partially immobile...

 

[gallantwarrior]

All caught up. My current batch of curds is ready to go into the drain and then the mold. Once that's done, I get chores finished and take a nap before work. It's hovering right at freezing here. Enough to make it slick and dangerous, but not enough to freeze the muck solid. One of my buddies is up at the property, cutting firewood. Gotta love a friend who considers chopping and splitting firewood therapeutic.
I have to build a barn before the end of next summer, I have limited funds and (currently) limited time. So, I decided a pole barn would be the best option, financially. Then it occurs to me, I have almost 200 acres of poles! My first thought after that is, get some draw knives to shape the poles. Then I think, find someone who will mill the poles (too expensive). Online research revealed several already manufactured rigs to convert a chainsaw into a mobile saw mill. After looking at several and reviewing user reviews, I'll probably go for the (rather expensive) option that will be easiest on my back. I'll not only be able to shape the heavier lumber, but the process will also provide the slatted boards I need for a pole barn. I need a bigger chain saw, though.

 

[Carla_Danger]

Carla_Danger

I love the bottom photo! Do you want yours licked...hehe!

Here's my Mason, with his Trump comb-over.

 

[Carla_Danger]

Carla_Danger

And here's my new pugs on film photo. In the first photo is Mason in his blue jeans, wearing a hat I made for him!

 

[blackhawk]

 

[Hossfly]

Thanks to Sally

 

[Gracie]

Damn right!!!

 

[Foxfyre]

Carla_Danger

I love the bottom photo! Do you want yours licked...hehe!

Here's my Mason, with his Trump comb-over.

View attachment 53681

Too funny Carla. There is just something about a pug anyway--they are special little dogs. And welcome to the Coffee Shop--I believe this is your first visit? And first timers receive a complimentary beverage as our invitation to drag up a chair and become one of the group:

 

[blackhawk]

Happy Halloween to all witches.

 

[Carla_Danger]

Carla_Danger

I love the bottom photo! Do you want yours licked...hehe!

Here's my Mason, with his Trump comb-over.

View attachment 53681

Too funny Carla. There is just something about a pug anyway--they are special little dogs. And welcome to the Coffee Shop--I believe this is your first visit? And first timers receive a complimentary beverage as our invitation to drag up a chair and become one of the group:

Thank you! That looks better than the tea I'm drinking!

 

[Foxfyre]

Carla_Danger

I love the bottom photo! Do you want yours licked...hehe!

Here's my Mason, with his Trump comb-over.

View attachment 53681

Too funny Carla. There is just something about a pug anyway--they are special little dogs. And welcome to the Coffee Shop--I believe this is your first visit? And first timers receive a complimentary beverage as our invitation to drag up a chair and become one of the group:

Thank you! That looks better than the tea I'm drinking!

I've been munching on Halloween candy and now am thinking something not sweet would taste really good.

 

[saveliberty]

Too...










many....










dogs...








here.






Must be tricks of freaks.