Don't wait for something big to occur. Start where you are, and with what you have, and that will always lead you into something greater. ~ Mary Manin Morrisey Yesterday's Entries 2000: Meeting Tipper TODAY's FOOD Breakfast: Cereal CURRENTLY READING One Corpse Too Many TODAY's ENTERTAINMENT Going to rehearsal of a university play
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THE NEXT CHAPTER 29 April 2004 Something weird is happening in the past 2 or 3 weeks. I don’t think I noticed it really until I got into the car about two weeks ago and buckled my seatbelt. I was on the passenger side at the time. Now this may not seem like a significant thing, but ever since the bike accident, I haven’t been able to buckle my seatbelt in all cars. It’s something having to do with the angle where the buckle is, and how much pressure I have to use to push the belt into the buckle. If it’s back too far or if it takes a lot of pressure, I need help to be buckled in. Even Walt’s shaky 90 year old mother can manage to buckle herself, so I’ve felt like a toddler in our own car, because we have one of those cars that are hard for me to buckle in. Every time I get into the car with Walt, I start to buckle the belt. Some days are better than others but most of the time, I have to wait for him to buckle me in. But the other day, I buckled myself in and it hardly hurt at all. Since then, I’ve been able to buckle the buckle every time with only a slight twinge in my shoulder to remind me that I used to need assistance every time. Hmmm....can I possibly be seeing the end of this thing, as I approach the one year anniversary? Well, I have begun to notice other things too. Used to be I couldn’t slide the heavy closet doors with my left arm. Now I can and don’t even notice any sensation at all. I didn’t used to be able to reach around behind myself with my left arm for cleaning, wiping or anything else. My right arm has had to take over those tasks. Now suddenly I’m doing them again. The limiting factor is now size, no longer pain. Yesterday in the post office, I was juggling three different boxes and the envelope on the top started to fall. I jerked automatically to catch it. That’s the movement that has usually evoked the most pain but I hardly noticed it yesterday. Cutting things is easier now. Still not completely comfortable. There is still some pain with that firm downward movement, but I am very definitely...and very cautiously...optimistic. Now I just have to get the knee back in shape again. Be still my heart. So maybe I’m ready to look at some new chapters in my life. The new chapters at which I’m looking actually have nothing to do with physical limitations, but just seem to be coming along at the same time. I finally heard from MedQuist, the on-line transcription service which hires transcriptionists to work for doctors all over the country. I’ve passed their transcription test and now have to decide if I actually want to go to work for them. I don’t think I do, but it’s been something that has been on hold for several weeks and it’s nice to at least have passed the test. (Taking the transcription test also reminded me how very good I have it. My word, is the psychiatrist a transcriptionist’s dream. The only time he’s difficult to work for is if his machine is acting up. He dictates so clearly I hardly even have to stop the machine...just type as he dictates. The different voices and specialties of MedQuist reminded me of what it was like when I was an on-call transcriptionist for doctors all over town, many of whom were abominable dictators.) I also volunteered for something. I am kind of half-heartedly looking for a dog. Kimba, who is 13, arthritic and deaf, isn’t going to be around too much longer and sooner or later we will be dog-less. If I can find "the right dog" while she’s still around, I’ll bring that dog home. So far I haven’t found anything that really hits me as a "must have that dog" furry person. But my search for a dog has mostly been on line, checking the pets available for adoption through the SPCA. Most of the animals come with photos and some of those photos are good, others aren’t very good. Each time I see a bad picture I think "they need a good photographer." Finally I wrote today and volunteered to come to the animal displays each week and take photos of all the animals so they can have 2-3 pictures of each animal for the web site. I’ll start doing that this weekend. Finally, I am now doing almost all of the reviews for the newspaper, since the other reviewer who had been doing it for years, has retired. In her retirement, one of the things she is doing is starting a writers workshop. The first meeting was held while I was in Seattle, but apparently they have decided to continue and the next meeting will be this Saturday. I plan to attend and see if this is something I want to get involved with. I suspect it is. I’ve never taken a writing class of any kind and if I’m going to be doing all this newspaper writing, and trying to get a book written (my other new project), I can only benefit from the critique of others. It will also be nice to become part of a community of writers and maybe make a new friend or two. So it doesn’t feel like doors closed leaving me with nothing any more. It feel like the arm is coming back to life and with the advent of spring, all sorts of buds are budding on this tree and who knows where they are going to lead me in the coming weeks. (And if none leads anywhere, at least I’ll have journal entries to write while I’m exploring each new avenue!)
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Created 4/24/04
