Day 297 - Went for a Long Walk

[shadowkat]

After two live-streaming prayer and church services, I decided to take a two hour walk around Greenwood Cemetery. It was a bright sunny day, with a barely a cloud in the sky. Meandering through the cobblestone paths, and communing with the trees, the sunshine, and the birds helped silence the noise in my head. Along with all of the noise outside. It's been a very noisy week, hasn't it?

There was a bald eagel sighted today. I walked beneath him, but couldn't see him - I don't have binoculars or a telescopic lens. And he was very high in the pine tree, hidden behind the branches. But someone posted a picture of him on Facebook. It was a hopeful photo.

Walking through the cemetery - helps me realize how temporary things are. There's so many graves of veterans from past Wars, long finished, or past tragedies, long done. Their names barely visible - eroded with time, a possibly too many people doing illegal gravestone rubbings.

And the sun was warming today. I kind of got a bit lost in the Cemetery, winding around the paths, but I'm used to it now - and didn't feel the smart of panic or the urge to look at a map - and sure enough in times I winded my way back on the path and around to the entrance again. It was a good four mile hike, almost five. And I ached just a tad afterwards.

My Cousin - who I visited in Seattle in 2018, told me over the phone that she thinks my discovery of Greenwood Cemetery is ingenious. I've managed to find a beautiful place to walk, with very people in it - or an large groups. It's so big that over 2,000 people can wander about it in one day and never really see each other.



Well, I knew January was going to be hell on wheels, I just didn't realize it was going to be this bad. I don't know about anyone else but I feel overwhelmed by it at the moment. This past week almost did me in - I had a panic attack on Friday, and had to calm myself down.

The news from my parents is...not great. According to Mother, my father is...okay?

Mother: So I talked to your father finally on the phone.
Me: Oh, is he okay?
Mother: well...physically I suppose. I mean, he's..not..
Me: I know he's not going to wonderful or anything, but is he okay?
Mother: more or less. He knew who I was, and was relieved to know I was doing okay. And he had a vague sense of where I was. I had to explain to him again that I wasn't getting another surgery, that I was in rehab. He's confused - and he wondered where I was. He has no idea who his roommate is.
And while they got him sitting up in a chair - he's having difficulty walking again.

Later she talked to their doctor - who informed my mother that the X-rays she'd gotten prior to calling the ambulance, showed nothing wrong. No fractures.

Me: How'd they find the fracture then?
Mother: the hospital ran a C-T scan and found it that way. The doctor was concerned and bewildered. She's also worried it may be back related and so am I - I'm really worried that there may be a problem with my back. Although there are some medications that cause spontaneous fractures - but I'm not taking any. I don't know how this happened. Did I fracture it after the x-rays - right when I got out of the car? That makes no sense. And if so, what was the pain I was having prior to that?

I'm really glad she's in the rehab facility. Although she's going to the bathroom all the time - because of the water pill she has to take to get the swollen legs and water retention down.

The doctor was also concerned about my father's sudden inability to walk again, since he'd been doing fine previously.

Me: I'm afraid that Dad will give up...
Mom: Me too. But maybe that's..
Me: I know, I have to learn to let ..
Mom: Yes, I know I need to learn how too, because for him to stay may be too painful..

I'm afraid that I'll never see my Dad again. But there's nothing I can do about it. I just have to stay strong and hang in there. Somehow.

I wrote to the Bible Study Group finally, that I could not host on January 20 - that due to a family crisis, I just couldn't. I was barely focusing on work. In a way, not having to do much at work is a good thing - since I'm struggling to focus on it. On the other hand - I wish I had more to do - to give me something to focus on.



What's going right now in the US is frightening. There are rules and restrictions being put in place - that may have serious repercussions later on. For one thing, the internet is being restricted more than ever before.
Youtube, Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have begun to block and suspend right wing political accounts and hate speech. Also the Biden Administration is putting together a Domestic Terrorism Bill that will provide for further restrictive measures. On the one hand - I'm relieved, on the other...I worry about the long-term ramifications on individual rights.

That said, perhaps we require more restrictions. Al Gore way back in 1999 and 2000 warned that if you didn't put restrictions on internet content now - you could run into problems later. And we have - acts of terrorism are plotted via social media sites. It's one thing when Black Lives Matter and Women's March plans peaceful protests for systematic change. It's quite another when White Supremacist Militias plan revolutions and acts of terrorism.

The latest? Everyone who participated in the attack on the Capital along with their associated groups is being placed on "The No-Fly List" and can no longer take an airline anywhere. In addition over 6000 of the National Guard have been utilized for the inauguration. (Trump is allegedly planning his own rival one and offering pardons right and left - but if they impeach him, he can't do anything.) The calls for impeachment and removal are quadrupling from both sides of the aisle. And the House expects to do it this week.

Meanwhile in the UK - UK businesses, particularly small businesses are feeling the ugly side-effects of Brexit.

I kind of wish I had a Tardis, and I could take a few of the people who were strong Brexit and Trump supporters to this ugly future, and see if it changed their minds.

Most of us, sane folks, knew this would be the result. It's why we were so upset. But alas, there are lot of idiots who were bounced on their heads at birth walking about.



Good night...and good luck. Hopefully next week will be better. I won't have to try too hard, in my opinion.

Comments

[atpo_onm]

Later she talked to their doctor - who informed my mother that the X-rays she'd gotten prior to calling the ambulance, showed nothing wrong. No fractures. Me: How'd they find the fracture then? Mother: the hospital ran a C-T scan and found it that way.

Diagnostic imaging can be tricky. Just about a month ago, my sister's husband was having a lot of pain in one shoulder. His dodc had an x-ray taken and it looked fine, so he diagnosed a soft-tissue sort of problem and recommended some exercises to treat it.

But, it didn't get better, so his doc sent him to a specialist, who, according to my sister, took one look at the original x-ray, and said, "This isn't good enough. We need to take some additional ones that detail the shoulder structure from all around." They did, the specialist looked at the results, and pointed to an area on one of the x-rays, said "There it is. We need to target that specific area with a cortisone injection. She did, and a week later it was better.

Hang in there!

( BTW, pic of angel or whatever it is in the tree with the branches all around it is fabu! Copied! )

[yourlibrarian]

Amazingly clear skies, which we are still lacking here. It's particularly striking with the cityscape.