• Ramblings

    Paint the Breeze

    I’m still on the couch. Two weeks ago, while I was sleeping in bed, I pulled my right leg up by my side and felt a little pain in my thigh. Other than a quick thought of, “Oh great, another place to hurt,” and a readjusting of my position, it didn’t cause much of an issue. Later that same evening I was trying to propel myself out of this awful piece of furniture, and just as I stood straight, I involuntarily screamed and went down to the couch again. I had torn whatever muscle runs the entirety of your inner thigh. I could probably look up the proper name, but…

  • Ramblings

    Lookin’ on the Bright Side Always Pays

    Here I am, back on the couch. My renewed hip pain has led to my right leg swelling to an uncomfortable size, and I feel like these two little throw pillows elevating my lower leg by four inches are somehow going to help. You see so many pictures of people relaxing on their over-sized chairs and sofas, with their laptops balanced perfectly on their curled legs. There’s probably a mug of coffee or a glass of red wine somewhere nearby, usually on the floor. They’re always smiling and they look so comfortable. That is a perfectly accurate description of how I’m not sitting. This is basically how this whole evening…

  • Ramblings

    You Know I’d Never Talk About the Weather

    Right now it’s 58°F and storming, which means I can’t open the windows. I can’t open the windows for multiple reasons. First, I’m terrified of lightning. I’ve gotten better over the years, but I still can’t allow drafts when there’s even a trace of thunder. It started in 1994 when lightning struck our house, which wasn’t uncommon, but this particular time it shot through the electric lines and hit my aunt who had been holding the refrigerator door. She was pregnant and had to be taken to the hospital to be checked. Everyone survived. I also got to experience ball lightning because of that event, which I didn’t realize was…

  • Ramblings

    On Wobbly Knees

    Well, that was fun. Not long after my birthday, back in March, I woke up from having fallen asleep on the couch unable to walk properly. It started with a tightness in both my calves which felt as if I had run a marathon on my tip-toes. Then, because I was hobbling around, my knee started to hurt. Then, because I was hobbling even worse with my new injury, my right hip started to hurt. When the pain hit my hip I was no longer able to walk without crutches. It took months for things to improve. Right now I have a renewed hip pain because I’ve been walking slightly…

  • Fly Tying,  Ramblings

    Oh, Lookie There, I’ve Got a Bite

    Recently, I’ve spent all my free time tying flies for fly fishing. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for years, even though I don’t fly fish. For Christmas, Brian gave me an Anvil Atlas rotary vise and I’ve been hooked, figuratively and sometimes literally, ever since. I haven’t spent a lot of time following established patterns, so I don’t know if anything I’ve made would actually catch a fish, although we used to fish with hot dog pieces, so I’m pretty confident “these dogs will hunt.” I’ve considered selling them at shipping cost to those who do fly fish, just to see how they fare, but I may wait until…