IN WHICH BEAR WAKES UP BUT ISN'T SURE WHERE HE IS

Hmmmmm. This place looks somewhat familiar. Sniff, sniff, sniff. Sells familiar too. (Sorry; but I need to check things with my nose. Bears eyes are not very good; we do much better at finding things with our noses than with our eyes.)

This is my blog, I think. I knew it was around here somewhere. But, oh my; it's been almost a year since I did anything here. And that's not for lack of noteworthy events. Actually, a lot of things have happened. I just haven't shared them with you. I'm sorry about that, but my get up and go got up and went, and I was left behind, and it's been just awful.

A lot of things are very different here. It's like somebody has trashed my den. But I've just come out of my den. Nothing here makes much sense anymore. I . . . well, um, yes. This is a mess.

Let me try to sort things out, and bring you up to speed.

Where to begin?

1. Moved, again (why not)? 

Well, the Bears have shifted den, again. (Oooh — that rhymes.)

We had this nice condominium suite we were renting in downtown River City. It was really nice. Until it turned out to be not so nice. Life in the trees was grand — there, beside the river, alongside the parks. Close to downtown shopping.

But the floor under us has one of the hotel's party rooms, and people were allowed to party there until 1:00 a.m., whenever they were partying. And party hard some people did. Many people, even. 

I don't know about you, but I don't sleep that well with a party that close. And J hardly sleeps at all. And the hotel was making good money off the partiers, so it wasn't the least bit concerned about our worries. 

Enough of that. We moved. To the New Town part of the city, across the river. This was one of the three communities which came together just over a century ago to form River City. Nice, tree-lined streets with big mid-street boulevards. And ancient Elm trees. (The city is working hard to keep them from all dying.)

We hunted and looked, and finally found a place that we thought we would like. We phoned to have a viewing. And who showed up? One of J's cousins, who just happened to be working for a property agent. Talk about a small world! (We've both met him here in River City several times. I stayed with his mom when I first moved to River City, before J and the kids came here and we got to move into our home.)

This condo we are renting from a doctor who is studying out of the country for an uncertain length of time. 

Ironically, we used to live in this part of River City, just two blocks down the street. (That's another long, sad story for yet another day.) But we know the neighourhood, and it is a great place to live.

2. Challenges Abound

But as you know, when we do things we have a habit of making them complicated. Or at least I make things complicated. And so it was, on the last night of moving, I rolled over in bed and felt this sharp pain in my hip. I also found it almost impossible to walk because the pain was so bad. 

I got to the doctor and had some x-rays done, and fond I had dislocated my hip. It was still generally close to my pelvic bone, but it did not fit into the "cup" (the acetabulum) where it was supposed to sit. He called it "Hip dysplasia," the same problems that lots of dogs have. Have I gone to the dogs? (I'm not going there!)

Fast forward nine months. I have had my second consult with my surgeon. He says the situation is definitely worse than when he saw me in the autumn (I think October). The solution: give me a new hip, made of titanium. So I'm scheduled for a hip replacement, though the backlog is so long, it could take 12 months to get in. (Meanwhile, the government has just cut back on money to medicare, so the delay could be . . . we won't think about that.)

But in the meantime, I am taking increasingly large doses of a narcotic medication. (Yes, I know, there's a great hullabaloo about narcotic medications, and how many people are dying from them, etc.) Fortunately, I have studied this stuff in detail when I as working on my second Master's Degree. Anyhow, I know what I'm doing when I take this stuff. Still, having those pills around is like having a loaded gun on top of my dresser — makes me feel uncomfortable. And I use the drugs very carefully — making sure I don't take too much.

BTW, this is a lot more medication than I took when I was having trouble with my back. I don't feel that at all, now.

There are a couple of other things on the downside of the medications.

a) I feel very tired, and I want to sleep a lot of the time. There are lots of days when I cannot really function until about noon, even wen I've gone to bed early the night before.

b) I have increased problems getting my brain to function. I cannot remember the names of friends, sometimes. I find it almost impossible to keep track of what I am doing, or what J and I are doing. I have to make lots of notes, but sometimes that is still not enough to keep me straight. And try to figure out problems? I might as well forget that on lots of days.

Anyhow, enough of that.

In fact, I'll quit there. I have lots more news, but I'm getting very tired. (I did mention the drugs wear me out and leave me feeling tired much of the time.) I'll write in the next couple of days — or sooner, or later. I expect/hope to be writing more frequently. Much more frequently.

Blessings and Bear hugs!


Today's Weather Report

At 1:00 a.m. Friday, the temperature is 7°C, on its way up to 17°C this afternoon. (It's 45°F going to 63F.) It is supposed to be sunny all day; I'll look forward to that.