Ramblings.

My hip replacement surgery is scheduled for Monday, January 7. There may be a slight tremor in The Force that day, but fear not, my friends. Tis only the mightiness of my new hip.

I may have neglected to mention that this was on the horizon. Back in May when I saw the ortho PA and she recommended, among other things, going gluten-free, the x-ray showed my hip was bone on bone. No wonder it hurt. My surgery had to wait until Smokey was recovered from his back surgery, then until after the October 15 tax season, then for a new x-ray and a CAT scan, then for surgeon to get it scheduled.

I am looking forward to this big-time. Surgery does not scare me at all, even though it probably should; this will be my ninth (2 C-sections, 2 polinidal cysts, twice for the broken ankle, a few other things) so I know much of what to expect. The aftermath may be painful but the eventual ability to walk easily should be worth it.

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That massive blizzard that hit the Midwest yesterday mostly missed us. We got less than 1/4" of snow but lots of wind and cold. Temp this morning was 6˚F; 18˚ now.

We are not plowed out yet from the last snow dump that occurred almost two weeks ago. Smokey managed to make one plowing pass from the house to the road before Da Yeep broke. And broke again. And possibly again. We can drive from the road to the garage and pole barn that are 75 feet uphill from the house but must walk the rest of the way. Yep, these northern winters do make one hardy. 

Elder Son is supposed to be driving home from Ann Arbor yesterday and today. We have not heard anything from him. I hope he checked the weather before he left and waited a day. (He may be brillliant, but sometimes his common sense falters. Also, his phone appears to be off.) When he does get here I hope he does not attempt to drive down to the house. The two cars blocking the driveway may be enough of a hint.

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I was reading blogs in my Google Reader this morning and saw this over at sneezingcow.com, Michael Perry's website:

Al is married to my good friend Colleen. That quote sounds just like him. Al, a retired English teacher, is also notable for having taught Neil Gaiman's son, Mike, at Menominie HS.

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Our geothermal heat system has been giving us fits for several years. The major problem was that the installer's crew(s) knew not what they were doing back in the early aughts, not to mention that the unit we got seems to have been a lemon. After spending thousands (and thou$and$) of dollars having it fixed and replaced and fixed and fixed yet again, we hired a different contractor to replace it. He seems to have somehow missed that fact during the preliminary talks and bid that, while his unit needs 14 gallons/minute to work most efficiently and effectively, our well only produces 6 gallons/minute. So we will perhaps be relying on (expensive!) electric heat to supplement the geothermal. Rats.

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On the (very slightly) bright side, the Christmas mittens for our teenage helper are turning out quite nicely. So nicely, in fact, that I am tempted to make a pair for myself in different colors. 

I'd really like to to show how they look, but a few days ago my computer/iPhoto announced that it could not find my iPhoto library of several thousand photographs. I have searched the hard drive myself to no avail. My Mac Mini had been acting unreliably this fall, so about six weeks ago I hooked up a backup drive and turned on Time Machine to back up my hard drive. Great, I thought, I'll just do a restore. So far repeated Restores have not helped, nor have they actually restored anything. Neither the Apple site nor Google have been particularly helpful so far, either; their tips on fixing iPhoto don't work for my problem.

So you won't be seeing any photos here for awhile...

* * * * *

Have I bummed you out sufficiently with all my (admittedly minor) complaints? Good, my work here is done.

Comments

[Erika]

Geothermal is cool! Too bad yours isn't working. Winter is probably a bad time for that to be the case.

Congratulations on your hip? Sorry about having to spend all that recovery time, but it sounds like you will have a new lease on life once it's all ready!

[Kym]

Wow. That's a whole lot of news there. Sorry to hear about your iPhoto issue. I am having great fear, at present, about my iMac . . . as its hard drive has been recalled, but I am too damn overwhelmed with the rest of life to deal with it until after the holidays. (I live on The Edge.) Hope your son made it home safely (I understand all too well about brilliance-without-common-sense issue) and that your vehicles are moving and the snow managed. Wish I could see the wonder-mittens, and will send healing thoughts your way for the hip! That about does it!

[JulieH]

You are about the 4th person I know who, in the last couple of months, has lost years of treasured photos on their computer. I'm thinking this must be a wake up call to get going on a back up for our back up.

Good luck with the surgery and may you have a speedy recovery!

[Chris]

Ah, you DO have a date for the surgery - you haven't mentioned it for ages!

Bummer about your photos. :(

[Jeff Peterson]

Kathy,
Good luck with your surgery. You'll feel like a new person in a couple of months.
Jeff

[Big Alice]

I remember you mentioning last Spring that you were going to get surgery on your hip, and I kept wondering if that had happened already and I missed it. Good luck, and I hope that it goes well.

[Lorette]

Oh Lord. That reminds me, I need to do a second backup of photos. I have them backed up to one drive, but it's not unheard of to have a computer and the back up turn into a brick at the same time. Have you had any power flickers lately? That can do it.

Good luck on your surgery!