May 23, 2003

•      Grrrrrrr!!! I had my blog for Thursday evening pretty much finished. I've been at least starting them in my email editor, because I can use a font I really like... Black Chancery. For some reason, when I try to specify a font that isn't available in the Xanga choices, it never shows up. I guess that is part of my lacking HTML skills. I must not be using the correct phrasing. I can also manipulate the fonts within the writing, as I just did with HTML, which I couldn't get to work in the Xanga editor. Even though the command to change the font was there, the different font wouldn't show up. Anyway, I had it written, copy/pasted it into the xTools, then deleted the email composition. But I hadn't posted the blog (I wasn't quite finished editing & adding to it yet) & set to changing my Look & Feel. Ooooops!!! I clicked on the color selection to reset my search bar color. Gone with the whole blog, when the color selector loaded into the xTools' browser! Since I copied other things to my clipboard since, not saved or copied it elsewhere & didn't do a spellcheck on it, there was no way to recover it.
  

  
  

        Here I am rewriting the blog & I hear strange noises outside. Things being bumped or knocked around that my dogs had no way to get to. Except that Sherman, my Rhodesian Ridgeback who's pic I posted awhile back, tends to wander like a lummox around the yard if he gets loose. That is, if he doesn't head up the road somewhere. Yep! I go outside (after midnight) with a flashlight, calling out his name, my other puppy going nuts because he isn't playing with her, & he comes lumbering up to me. It seems the spring gave up on a clip hook I use to attach a huge swivel hook onto the chain, allowing the chain to slip off the hook.

  
  

       That dog has gone through more chains & hooks than I care to count! Since he paces at times, dragging his chain across the occasional lava rock sticking out of the dirt, the chain wears thin until it gets to the point where he snaps a link. Mind you, I'm using chain that is rated for about 650 pounds or more of tensile strength. The heavy conventional dog chain won't hold him more than a couple months at best. Those wear out quickly where the loops interconnect, right where there's more stress on the chain to begin with. So far, I've only had to switch ends of this chain so what drags on the ground changes.

  
  

        I'd prefer to attach Sherman's chain to a flexible tree limb, since that gives, taking stress away from the chain links & hooks, but I don't have any large enough flexible branches on my trees yet that wouldn't snap when the dogs lunge at the end of their chains. Sherman almost pulled down a poorly made carport that was here when I bought the place when 3 mean characters, who'd just stolen & crashed a pickup truck nearby, walked past my house. He wanted to get them badly! Maluhia, my puppy, has already stretched the cable I have her chain attached to, which is designed as a runner & she's still only 5 months old & nearly as big as Sherman! If it wasn't for the cable's slack, she'd probably snap it before long.

  
  

        When we returned from my son's doctor appointment this afternoon, as well as a bit of shopping in Hilo & lunch on the fly, Maluhia did what she normally does when the car is back in the driveway, where she's chained. She jumped at the car. She likes to go for rides & tends to jump at the car & get in the way when I'm backing out or pulling in. My son got out of the car, going over to her chain to try to keep her from jumping at the car. Unfortunately, he grabbed her chain just as she wrapped it slightly around my leg by going to my other side. When he pulled, the chain's hook snagged into my denim pants, gouging the crease of the outer side of my knee. I hollered, which got a quick response of "I'm sorry" from him. When he looked at what had happened, he asked if it was caught IN my skin, since the dog was stuck to my pants. I told him that it was just the pants, but that the hook had scratched my leg. He tried to unsnag the hook but wasn't having any luck. I backed it out of my pants myself, with him watching, since I had to run the hook the rest of the way through the pants, then back that off the hook.

  
  

        Once in the house, I changed clothes to something cooler (it was very muggy) & checked out the damage. It had bled a little, with the surface skin a bit like a road rash, but it's more bruised now... red & purple. I think both the dog & the kid were more upset than I was when it happened. I know she's just an exuberant puppy, but I am wondering what it will take to get her to settle down as well as to stop jumping up at the car & wrapping around us. She often prances back & forth in front of me, which has already tripped me once badly enough that I fell, injuring the heel of one hand. I need to move her out of the driveway, but don't really have a good spot to move her to right now.

  
  

        What's really odd is that when I first got her, she hated car rides. This may be because she & her littermates were brought into town to find homes for in the trunk of a car. Once I stopped letting her stay in the house, every time I go to the car she thinks she's going for a ride. I'd take her every time, but my little car gets hot in the sunlight very quickly. My front windows are off-track, so I can't roll them down very far or they can be lifted out, or even possibly pushed out by the dog. Not good! If my car had a sunroof, it wouldn't get so hot inside with the sunroof popped open. That's one thing I definitely miss about the Volvo I used to drive. Much cooler inside when it's been parked in the sun because of having more air volume since it is a stationwagon, so takes more to heat up & the sunroof left open allowed alot of the hot air to escape.

  
  

        Well, as for what this blog originally started out to be about... the trip to the doc. My son was disappointed when the doc told him his knee wasn't yet healed enough for the surgery. He wants it to be more flexible, bending further both directions than it currently will without causing much pain. So we go back in another week.

  
  

        The doc asked if there has been a decision made yet about going for the surgery or leaving it be. Since it is him who has to live with the results of the decision, I allowed my son to choose what route he wants to take. So when the doc asked, I said that he had decided awhile back & let him answer. They have to put in a request for authorization with the insurance carrier, which can sometimes take awhile. When I had my surgeries (non-VA approved), I had to go through this process. The woman who handles that in the medical clinic we use is really good about this stuff. She pushed the requests for my surgeries through quickly, even with having to deal with getting a denial from the VA first, since they're my primary provider. I'm sure she can have the authorization within a week or so for my son, once the request gets to her from the doctor. Incidentally, she's the same person who told us about this doctor we're seeing, who had done surgery on her daughter. She also has to get approvals for referrals.

  
  

       In the exam room we were sent to this time, I was glancing around at the stuff posted. I first read a 'Sesame Street Goes to the Doctor' poster. Above it, I noticed a certification from the Hawaii State Board of Medical Examiners. I assumed it was his, but upon reading it, I saw a woman's name as the recipient. I thought that maybe that was his wife, but then noticed the date the certificate was assigned... 1973, with the woman's age then of 43! Same last name. Hmmm... his mom? Sure enough, when I mentioned it to the nurse, she confirmed that it is his mom's certification, & that she's still around! That makes her 73 now. I don't think she's still practicing, but the thought of the doctor being proud enough of his mom to have her certificate in one of his exam rooms is neat!

  
  

       That nurse who dealt with us this time is a character. She's funny! I enjoy listening to people like her, with an innate ability to crack non-offensive jokes. She helped us set up the next appointment, telling us that next Thursday is booked already, but she'd still add us in. I suggested Wednesday, asking if that wasn't too early, forgetting that's the day he performs the surgeries. She suggested Friday, to which my son shook his head, saying Thursday. When he suggested 1 PM, she told him that's when all his post-operative patients come in who'd had surgery the day before... all scheduled around the same time. Yikes! She ended up setting his appointment for a time when there are two others coming in. She had apologized for the wait today when she led us to the exam room, which really wasn't long, & apologized for how long we'll probably wait next week. How many people would do that? The world needs more people like her in charge.

  • 8:13 am
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