Yup, that’s it.

It’s Sunday and it’s been raining for hours.  Lucky: I’d forgotten to water the mums on the front steps.

Watching the trees whip around outside, am feeling very lucky to be in a warm, dry house.

Ron grabbed the Times for us, has laundry going and brought Robert to work.

“Made of 185 parts, your feet and ankles are extremely complex. There are 26 bones, 33 joints, and 107 ligaments, and 19 muscles in your feet, to be exact. The ankle provides the foundation for the foot and acts as a shock absorber, as well as a mechanism for propulsion. Each year about two million Americans visit the doctor for ankle pain from arthritis or fracture. An estimated 50,000 people a year experience end-stage ankle arthritis, in which the ankle cartilage has worn away completely, causing painful bone-on-bone rubbing and some level of disability.”

Smokey has been here sleeping in my living room chair since about 1:30 this afternoon. I had a nap myself before he arrived. He decided to check out the bed before he took off.

Ron took Robert to work and put in a day at the bakery.

Met Cindy and Cathy for brunch.  We finished early, so I took a drive through Sandwich village and made a brief stop at Sandy Neck and Scenic Roots.

Drove Alpha to work and continued on to Hart Farm in Dennisport for salt marsh hay.

Picked up a church pie and soup mix at Andy’s.  Cleaned up the kitchen, made the bed, vacuumed and put Rug Gripper tape on the two scatter rugs.  Made a salad and put the pie in the oven for supper.

Very tired, arms were sore.  Ron is off to pick up Alpha.

Ron picked up supplies from CVS before he went to work, so I was able to put on a clean dressing.  Foot looks a little swollen and skin is peeling like crazy, but the wound looks the same as yesterday.

Got the okay to start weight-bearing!

Drove Alpha to work.  Deposited checks.

Still managing without Acetaminophen, since Monday.

No ill effects from yesterday’s activity.

The double-sided tape we (mostly Ron) put on the rugs is working well, so I ordered more for the smaller rugs in front of the doors. Also ordered a traverse rod for the living room curtains because struggling to open and close them has become an annoyance.

A health care professional called this morning, and I asked her to please give me a read on the incision.

This looked a butcher shop mess to me, but to her, it’s healthy.

Underneath this loveliness is a Scandinavian Total Ankle Replacement (STAR) prosthesis. It’s a 3-piece system made of cobalt chromium alloy, titanium, and polyethylene (Mobile Bearing) that doesn’t require bone cement.

Took out a 6-month online subscription to the Cape Cod Times.

Happy to see Smokey today.

Spent the afternoon at Ellen’s seminar.  She wheeled me into the building and  generously treated to beer etc. afterwards.  Her optimism is invigorating!

The Dell that Robert gave me came in handy.  It has an old-style port that is required to use the big TV at the Senior Center.

This morning, Ron started whining again about problems logging in to his Yahoo email account.

He spent an entire morning earlier this week trying to fix this.

It took me less than 10 minutes. I set up a new password for him and cleared his Safari cache. That was it.

I was furious that he continues to dick around with this stuff when I can usually solve his problems very quickly.

It would be about as idiotic as my using power tools when he’s available and has much more skill than I do.

Maybe some day I’ll get that message across.

Reactions from the adoption community to Mike Pence’s glib comments from the VP debate included these two posts that sum up my own feelings quite well.

Adoption Is Not The Answer

He Knows Nothing About Either

Grouchy or Cheerful Ron?

He was pleased to find a recording of a Pentangle concert he attended in Berkeley in May 1970.

He was grouchy about having an appointment for a blood test this morning.

He picked up some great produce from the CSA yesterday afternoon, including a gorgeous pumpkin.

Cindy called last evening; we are “on” for breakfast this weekend, Cathy’s generous treat.

The boot is more comfortable than the splint. Maybe that’s progress of a sort. At least most of the stitches are out. Sleeping seems a little easier. The boot comes on and off easily and the plastic “sock” still works great for bathing.

I cleaned up a pile of papers from my “desk” yesterday.

I managed to get the scooter in the truck and drove to Mahoney’s for decorative mums. Arranged them with the pumpkin on the front steps. Once again, I regret not having a pulley on the truck bed. Driving was easy; everything else was hard.

Gave up on the bidet install. Would have cost over $1,000. Look what I saved us.

Chatted with the patient advocate at the hospital and with the doc’s office about pain management. It was the doc’s fault that I didn’t have a self-administered drip.

Made stew with ground turkey, zuke, onion, garlic, rutabaga (or is it turnip?)

Cleaned the vegetable bin and the bottom of the refrigerator.

Organic Pyrethrin

Drip irrigation:  Fedco.  Anchor every 6-7 feet.  Remove at end of season.

Recommended (drought-resistant?) plants:
Background shrub:  Center Glow 9-Bark
Petrennia – Golden Valerian
Stokes aster
Meadow Rue
Variegated Sedum
Frosted Elegance Phlox

Good website for companion planting: Cornell extension

Apply sifted diatomaceous earth after it rains (yeah, right)

Scab-resistant potatoes: Butte Red New Orleans Natasha

Vocabulary
monoecious
parthenocarpic (fruit without fertilization)

Septoria leaf spot (tomato disease)

Pyganic: pyrethrin-based insecticide derived from chrysanthemums

Surround, Serenade: Chemical-free disease control

Neem oil and spinosad – either can be used to control thrips

Yellow leaves: correct with Miracle Gro

Apply biofungicides before mildew; add nutrition

Copper sulfate or hydroxide

pmr = powdery mildew resistant

Still on non-weight bearing.  My bones are great, but not so much the incision, which isn’t healing properly.

Back and forth over why I had PT.  It was, in fact, ordered by Boyle’s office, but they are blaming it for why the incision hasn’t healed.

I lost the splint, have a boot.

On the way home, I was angry, frustrated and feeling sorry for myself, at which point Ron decided to change the subject to his beloved Native Americans in North Dakota.

Boohoo.

Another bad dream about the Cohens last night.  I was carrying a beautiful baby and he fell asleep in my arms.  I put him down in a kind of soft blanket/bed, but adopter-liar rolled him out of it.  The baby stayed asleep, though.