I think everything that can be said about Obama’s inauguration has already been said, so I won’t say much other than that I watched it, thought his speech was excellent and like many others was left with the feeling that things may now start to change for the better. He won’t be able to do all that is needed, but my hope is that he will inspire others.
Yesterday we had a bit of a panic. At lunchtime I noticed that Jez wasn’t using her leg at all. She’d had a bit longer walk (but one she’d done before) in the morning so I couldn’t work out what was wrong. Then, while I was picking up some bathroom brochures in my sitting room she put her paws on the window sill and tried to look out. So I told her to get down, and went to move a few bits as I wanted to put something in front of the window to stop her doing it again. I picked up the small occasional table at the side of the sofa and a leg fell off – broken right through at the top. All I can think is that she got on the sofa and tried to get onto the window sill (she hasn’t been allowed up there since her operation and I’ve removed her means of access) and slipped. She must have thumped down onto the edge of the table, breaking the leg.
Little tartlet!
So I rested her for the remainder of the day (which meant she got Chris up twice in the night as she wasn’t tired) and gave her a painkiller (I’d stopped giving them to her at night). Today her leg is obviously still a bit sore, but she is using it again so I don’t think any real damage has been done.
I phoned her surgeon’s practice again this morning as after a week I still hadn’t heard from him. Looks like my message got lost. Anyway, I told them I was really worried about her. The limping is a lot better and I believe her leg has recovered well from her operation (which was 5 week ago now), but as soon as she breaks into a trot she continually skips steps, which is the classic sign of a knee slipping out of joint. So I have been trying to resign myself to the fact that she will always have a problem and we will have to restrict walks etc.
Anyway, the vet phoned me back pretty quickly and I had along chat with him, after which I am a lot happier. From what I told him he thinks she is progressing well. He doesn’t think the skipping is indicative of her knee slipping as she doesn’t do it when she walks. So he thinks it will get better as her leg improves. And it’s also possible that it’s just pure habit. He’s told me I can start to build up her walks and stop her painkillers (keeping a few for emergencies like yesterday). And we don’t have to be anywhere near as careful with her now – the bone should be pretty much healed from what he was saying. I’ve arranged for her to go back for a check up and Xray on 10 February. I deliberately booked it for the week after my cousin comes to stay, just in case we have a few unsettled nights following another anaesthetic.
I’ve also booked her in with her own vet for Monday. She needs her booster and apparently they check them over at the same time, so I’ll know a bit more once he’s looked at that leg too. She’s fast asleep at the moment – I took her to the Country Park at lunchtime and we went out to the boardwalk – she hasn’t been there for months and really enjoyed herself.
Yesterday I spent time going through the bathroom brochures again. I’m making progress, but I really need to speak to a fitter as I’m still not sure which layout to go with (one may not really be feasible), and it affects the size of bath and shower I can have. The issue is whether we can move the toilet.
This morning Joy phoned – one of the actors has gone sick, so she wants me to play the detective this weekend. So tomorrow I’m off to Windsor. It’s the first one of the new plot so it will be manic. Plus, it’s the first week-end with the new chain she’s contracted to. Oddly enough I looked up the hotel and realised I know it – I did my Creativity residential course there when I was doing my MBA. It’s in Old Windsor, fairly near the Thames. Looks like it has changed hands and been refurbished since I was last there (which I think was about 2001). The theme is all about phobias and involves a couple of hypnotherapists – which is even more spooky as it was at this hotel that I was hypnotised and learnt self-hypnosis (in what is now the lounge). Anyway, she’s suggested it might be fun if the copper has a phobia. I’ve found one called scelerophobia, which is a fear of burglars and criminals, which I thought might be a laugh for the copper. Not sure what Joy will think though. But I can’t believe how many phobias there are – some are really weird, such as all the fears of different diseases, fear of different animals, fear of infinity, fear of stars, fear of women’s genitalia, fear of sitting, fear of chopsticks, fear of bald people…. I could go on for ages.
Thursday, 22 January 2009
Monday, 19 January 2009
He don't really feel the weather
I spent the morning clearing up dog sick – lots of it, and horrible & slimy. Poor little soul was in a bad way. She took herself off into the garden and just sat there drooling. Eventually we got her back indoors and she settled down in her bed and slept for a couple of hours. 15 minutes after she woke up she was as right as rain: wanting to play, chasing pigeons, and hunting for something to eat. She’s asleep again now, but she’s been eating and has kept it down, so I presume she is better.
It was just too much excitement for her yesterday. I had Dad and Pat over to lunch, and Jez always gets so excited when she sees Dad. We can never work out why. Anyway, lunch went ok, although it turns out that neither Dad nor Pat liked the Christmas presents I got them, so took them back. Personally I thought they were very nice – don’t know why I bother!
Saturday (I think) I spent ages ripping new albums and updating playlists on my old MP3. I can only use it if it’s plugged in as the battery packed up 18 months ago. But it holds a huge volume of tracks (more than I’ve ever ripped) and so is good to just leave playing all day (like now – I’m being treated to Teenage Wildlife). I also finished the bastard jigsaw puzzle Chris gave me for Christmas. He tells me he bought it cos it worked on so many levels: it involved dogs and looked really hard. It was only 1,000 but you had to lay them all out to stand a chance of completing it. Anyway, this is it…
Thursday I put a call into the Jez’s orthopaedic surgeon as it has been 4 weeks since her op and we had instructions to phone him. I‘m still waiting for him to phone back though. As for Jez, she still hobbles along, skipping steps from time to time, plus she holds her leg up when she stands. But she does seem to be using it a bit more. I’m sure she should better than this though, so I’m keen to talk to the vet. At some point soon we have to take her back for another Xray.
On the film front we watched a very strange film called The Nines last week, although it was ok. We also watched a sort of thriller thing called Unknown. But Saturday we finally got to watch The Dark Knight. We really enjoyed it – Chris more than me. I felt it was a bit too long (I usually find any film over 2 hours is too long). But I just had to marvel Heath Ledger’s performance in it. It was just incredible. I didn’t think anyone would be better than Jack Nicholson in that part, but I was wrong. And when you think about how good an actor Jack Nicholson is, that’s saying something. It just seems so sad, and also slightly unreal, that he’s now dead. What a loss.
Well, I think that’s about it. I’ve avoided mentioning the appalling weather (we lost another roof tile). Only other news is that it look as though my cousin Linda and her husband Paul will be coming down to stay for my birthday, which will be nice.
And yes, I am aware what a momentous day tomorrow will be. Might watch some of it on TV.
It was just too much excitement for her yesterday. I had Dad and Pat over to lunch, and Jez always gets so excited when she sees Dad. We can never work out why. Anyway, lunch went ok, although it turns out that neither Dad nor Pat liked the Christmas presents I got them, so took them back. Personally I thought they were very nice – don’t know why I bother!
Saturday (I think) I spent ages ripping new albums and updating playlists on my old MP3. I can only use it if it’s plugged in as the battery packed up 18 months ago. But it holds a huge volume of tracks (more than I’ve ever ripped) and so is good to just leave playing all day (like now – I’m being treated to Teenage Wildlife). I also finished the bastard jigsaw puzzle Chris gave me for Christmas. He tells me he bought it cos it worked on so many levels: it involved dogs and looked really hard. It was only 1,000 but you had to lay them all out to stand a chance of completing it. Anyway, this is it…
Thursday I put a call into the Jez’s orthopaedic surgeon as it has been 4 weeks since her op and we had instructions to phone him. I‘m still waiting for him to phone back though. As for Jez, she still hobbles along, skipping steps from time to time, plus she holds her leg up when she stands. But she does seem to be using it a bit more. I’m sure she should better than this though, so I’m keen to talk to the vet. At some point soon we have to take her back for another Xray.
On the film front we watched a very strange film called The Nines last week, although it was ok. We also watched a sort of thriller thing called Unknown. But Saturday we finally got to watch The Dark Knight. We really enjoyed it – Chris more than me. I felt it was a bit too long (I usually find any film over 2 hours is too long). But I just had to marvel Heath Ledger’s performance in it. It was just incredible. I didn’t think anyone would be better than Jack Nicholson in that part, but I was wrong. And when you think about how good an actor Jack Nicholson is, that’s saying something. It just seems so sad, and also slightly unreal, that he’s now dead. What a loss.
Well, I think that’s about it. I’ve avoided mentioning the appalling weather (we lost another roof tile). Only other news is that it look as though my cousin Linda and her husband Paul will be coming down to stay for my birthday, which will be nice.
And yes, I am aware what a momentous day tomorrow will be. Might watch some of it on TV.
Sunday, 11 January 2009
Pictures on my hard drive
I’ve just had to check back – I can’t believe how long it has been since I wrote anything. One of the main reasons has been that my laptop has been driving me nuts, and it was getting so that it was almost impossible to type. Well, not impossible, but half of the letters I typed never appeared – and I’ve got 4Gb of RAM on this machine! The reason is something called a memory leak in Adobe Flash player, which seems to have appeared (or got worse) at the beginning of December with one of the Windows updates (I’m using Vista). As the machine is left on, Flash just starts to eat RAM, leaving very little for anything else. I’ve spent the past couple of days trying to sort out the PC (backing up& clearing out old files, tuning up, running scans) and finally last night I found a really good little memory management which seems to have done the trick. It’s still not perfect, but it’s one hell of a lot better.
So, Christmas came and went. It was fairly uneventful as far as I can remember. We weren’t doing too much as we were nursing a little dog back to health. Those of you on Facebook will know how Jez is doing (especially now she has her own page – and so many friends!). But we’ve spent 3 weeks having to take her out in the garden on a lead every time she wanted to go out. It was no fun – especially not in the middle of winter. Aside from the limping though, she was fine in herself, as you can see from these photos of her on Christmas day.
For Christmas I had a Nintendo DS, some games, books and jigsaw puzzles, one of which I’ve started today. So since then I’ve spent hours playing on the DS or playing Spore on the PC.
On 30 December I went to Salisbury where I was first death on the New Year Murder Weekend. Although I was only there a while I had great fun – they seemed to be a really good bunch of guests and (unusually for the first night) I got into character and into the plot straight away. I was sad when my time came to die. Anyway, here’s a couple of photos of me, courtesy of one of the guests.
That week was the start of the very cold weather we’ve been having. I noticed it was -3C as I drove back from Salisbury. A week ago it was down to -6C here though, and all of the ponds have frozen – in fact even the sea froze down at Sandbanks. So while it was still all frozen I took the camera out to photograph the local ‘Ponds’ where we have been walking Jez. They were frozen solid (apart from one small area where a stream flows in. Rather than post all the photos here I’ll include a couple and then put a link to the slideshow on Flickr (where you can see the photos much better).
To see all of the photos click here.
On the knitting front I’ve finished Chris’ jacket, but need a zip for it. Meanwhile I’ve started an Aran cable-knit jacket for myself (which takes quite a bit of concentrating). And I’ve completed mine and Chris’ tax returns and updated all our finance info. I was pleased to see that we’d actually spent a lot less than our income last year!
Well I think that’s about it on the news front, other than the update on Jez. Despite our efforts she was getting bored, so I started to take her to the end of the drive to have a sniff round on the footpath (since we were only walking he length of the garden – bearing in mind she was supposed to be on house arrest for 3 weeks). She would use her leg at times, but limped and held it up a lot. In the end Chris managed to speak to her surgeon while I was in Salisbury, and he confirmed that she would still be limping, but said we could take her out for 10 minute walks, increasing to 15 minutes 3 weeks after her op. So that’s what we’ve been doing. Some days she’s worse than others, and I don’t think this cold weather has helped (one night I was out walking her when it was -6C). Thursday we finally let her out in the garden on her own (cheers all round!), and she’s occasionally allowed to get up on the sofa. But she still skips an awful lot of steps, and at this stage I’m beginning to think that the operation has not corrected the problem. If that’s the case then we will always have to restrict her exercise and she will suffer really badly from arthritis. Anyway, I have to phone her surgeon this Friday for a progress update, so I’ll see what he says. But at the moment, she’s happy enough in herself.
So, Christmas came and went. It was fairly uneventful as far as I can remember. We weren’t doing too much as we were nursing a little dog back to health. Those of you on Facebook will know how Jez is doing (especially now she has her own page – and so many friends!). But we’ve spent 3 weeks having to take her out in the garden on a lead every time she wanted to go out. It was no fun – especially not in the middle of winter. Aside from the limping though, she was fine in herself, as you can see from these photos of her on Christmas day.
For Christmas I had a Nintendo DS, some games, books and jigsaw puzzles, one of which I’ve started today. So since then I’ve spent hours playing on the DS or playing Spore on the PC.
On 30 December I went to Salisbury where I was first death on the New Year Murder Weekend. Although I was only there a while I had great fun – they seemed to be a really good bunch of guests and (unusually for the first night) I got into character and into the plot straight away. I was sad when my time came to die. Anyway, here’s a couple of photos of me, courtesy of one of the guests.
That week was the start of the very cold weather we’ve been having. I noticed it was -3C as I drove back from Salisbury. A week ago it was down to -6C here though, and all of the ponds have frozen – in fact even the sea froze down at Sandbanks. So while it was still all frozen I took the camera out to photograph the local ‘Ponds’ where we have been walking Jez. They were frozen solid (apart from one small area where a stream flows in. Rather than post all the photos here I’ll include a couple and then put a link to the slideshow on Flickr (where you can see the photos much better).
To see all of the photos click here.
On the knitting front I’ve finished Chris’ jacket, but need a zip for it. Meanwhile I’ve started an Aran cable-knit jacket for myself (which takes quite a bit of concentrating). And I’ve completed mine and Chris’ tax returns and updated all our finance info. I was pleased to see that we’d actually spent a lot less than our income last year!
Well I think that’s about it on the news front, other than the update on Jez. Despite our efforts she was getting bored, so I started to take her to the end of the drive to have a sniff round on the footpath (since we were only walking he length of the garden – bearing in mind she was supposed to be on house arrest for 3 weeks). She would use her leg at times, but limped and held it up a lot. In the end Chris managed to speak to her surgeon while I was in Salisbury, and he confirmed that she would still be limping, but said we could take her out for 10 minute walks, increasing to 15 minutes 3 weeks after her op. So that’s what we’ve been doing. Some days she’s worse than others, and I don’t think this cold weather has helped (one night I was out walking her when it was -6C). Thursday we finally let her out in the garden on her own (cheers all round!), and she’s occasionally allowed to get up on the sofa. But she still skips an awful lot of steps, and at this stage I’m beginning to think that the operation has not corrected the problem. If that’s the case then we will always have to restrict her exercise and she will suffer really badly from arthritis. Anyway, I have to phone her surgeon this Friday for a progress update, so I’ll see what he says. But at the moment, she’s happy enough in herself.
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