Frustration

Today's topic is frustration. Why you ask? Because that has been my day. Ever go into work with the best of intentions and a plan of what you wanted to get done that day? I did. I had a list of what I wanted to get done and had even itemized each task with its importance and in what order they were going to be done. There were 20 items on said list. I got 2 done. But somehow another 20 or so things got added to said list and bumped the order to smithereens.

So how do you cope with frustration? Are you a Type A personality and blow or do you just hold it in?

I actually alternate, depending on the situation, the person, and the circumstances. There are some things you just have to toss over your shoulder and let go. There are others that make me erupt. Lately one huge frustration I have is the attitude of TV media and CNN and all news. I hate this political division we are still seeing. Sorry and although I am and will always be impressed by Michael Jackson as a musician, why do I have to be confronted with him as the topic of everyone for a while now and probably a while to come.

After all, some of us are celebrating a new life or moaning a loss of a loved one, or just coping with the normal day to day life and business. Is the media then there to distract us? Lately all it does is piss me off.

I leave you with a few of my favorite frustration quotes:

“Forget your enemies. It's your friends you frustrate that cause all the problems.” ~ Anonymous

“Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.” ~ Eric Hoffer

“Life is not an easy matter... You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness.” ~ Leon Trotsky

“No matter how discouraged we get, God has not asked us to do the impossible” ~ George Grace

"I've come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy" ~ Anthony Robbins

“Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion . . . . I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.” ~ Kurt Vonnegut Jr

Back in a Cast

Well, the MRI results are in. I have a whole lot of inflammation still in the ankle and the joints - more than I should at 6 and 1/2 weeks postop. So I got a cortisone shot in the joint of the ankle near the back where most of the inflammation seemed to be. Interestingly enough, my doctor did it under fluoroscopic unit guidance so he could place the medicine at the right place. As soon as the medicine started going in, I felt that same sharp pain that I have felt whenever I am walking on the foot and ankle and the initial pain I felt when I fell. He put Lidocaine into the ankle joint too so after he had me stand on the foot. It was a miracle because that pain had disappeared (it has been a constant sharp pain since I started walking on it again a week and half ago). That was why I had the MRI.

So the diagnosis is that the syndesmotic injury I had sustained has never totally healed which is what was giving me the feeling that my ankle was going to give out on me and was contributing to the instability of the whole ankle joint. So mid August or September I have to set up a date to have that repair. I do have another bone chip but they aren't concerned about it as the MRI showed it not to be in the joint or moving or touching any vital parts. My body should just absorb it.

I am just happy they found that pain I had been having as it was hard to describe and would go away if I sat down and has been hard to find on any test (it was blocked by prior MRI's and the CT scan because the screws would distort the picture in that area). This MRI showed it had not completely healed, then the injection hit the spot and we finally recreated the pain. Voila - a diagnosis.

I was then casted to the knee and this cast will be on for another 2 weeks and then the doctor will re-evaluate. I leave for Toronto then probably still in a cast - that is if I get a passport since it still hasn't arrived yet although my husband got his over 3 weeks ago. I guess that's what one gets for being born on an Air Force Base and thus have a government issued birth certificate and not a county or state like other people.

Nothing is ever simple with me.

Hope

What is hope? As a friend, how can we offer another hope? Better yet, what can our friends or any of us do to find hope? Where do we turn when tomorrow offers no happy promises?

Some turn to vices like smoking or drinking in times of stress. Others turn to religion. I decided to see exactly how many Christians there are in the United States and was kinda surprised at how high the number was: 173,402 of 216,367 surveyed by the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) in 2008. So this survey shows there is a high number of Christians in the United States. If this is true, then why do we still look for help and hope?

According to Wikipedia, "hope is a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life. Hope is the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best".

This was also the topic in today's sermon at our church. The pastor tells us to turn to Psalm 103: 1-14. In the middle of trouble, acknowledging God’s role in our lives can redirect our thinking from the hurts of our hearts and force us to dwell instead on the greatness of our God. In Psalm 103, David lists reasons to turn our attention to God, who gives us many benefits: He forgives us, heals us, redeems us, crowns us with love and compassion, satisfies our desires, and renews us. David reminds us that God provides justice and righteousness, and He is gracious and loving. Therefore by praising God's greatness, we put hope in our troubled hearts.

While personally I turn to my faith, I find hope in my own religious belief system and that hope is not always what we might want to hear or accept.

So what do I say to friends who ask us to help them? Be there. Comfort them. Pray for them. Let them talk and let them hope that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best. After all, hope is an individual feeling.

Happy 4th of July!

Have a safe and happy 4th! Happy Birthday to one of my nieces and one of my sisters.

I don't know if we will make it to the fireworks today or not - down to a light rain with temps at 68 degrees. If the rain stops and we do make it, we will stay in the car to watch them so I don't have to fuss with the scooter and all.

Please please be safe around fireworks. I remember being an ER nurse on the 4th. The most common fireworks injuries involve the hands, fingers, eyes, head, and face. Some of these injuries are severe, resulting in permanent health problems such as missing fingers and limbs and vision loss. I would post pictures but would gross too many of you out.

Toilet Seats

I am willing to bet you all are thinking that I certifiable now. I mean I am still counting the days of not being able to walk to do anything. Then on top of that I have been posting the craziest things. I mean who talks about toilet seats?

I do. Especially when I fall into the toilet at least once a day because SOMEONE in our house "forgets" to put the seat down (not mentioning names but there are only 3 humans in this house and only one other person shares a bathroom with me). I am beginning to think he is sadistically enjoying hearing the splashing I make because he goes into his cackles whenever he hears the splash.

So I offer a logical rebuttal (no pun intended).

First and foremost - the logistics: a toilet seat is a hinged unit consisting of seat and lid which is bolted onto a toilet bowl for a flush toilet. A toilet seat consists of the seat itself, which is contoured for the user to sit on, and the lid, which covers the toilet when it is not in use. Why make a toilet seat like this if it was not going to be used properly?

So let's consider statistics: Females generally do not raise the seat for anything but cleaning, while males use it both ways. BUT the statistical analysis on how many times it is used in the lower position is 63%, therefore the seat should be left down the other 27% of the time. Clearly when considering the statistics, the normal state of the toilet seat is down. Therefore the work of putting the seat up and down should be that of the man who is the one taking the toilet seat out of it’s natural state.

Now let's consider aesthetics: a toilet is not the most attractive household appliance. Closing the lid improves its appearance and prevents things from falling into the water (like me). If the lid was not meant to be closed, then what is its purpose and why was it made?

Now let's consider the real world of what happens when said seat is in the wrong position. If the seat was down when a male does one of his functions, a wet seat results. Unpleasant and poor manners but not life threatening. However, if a female SPLASHES, repercussions will result. Of this I have great knowledge. Have you ever tried to hop on one leg using crutches, pull down your pants while carefully practicing the balance act, then lower yourself to the toilet, only to go SPLASH? So we can postulate that the seat not in the down position is a whole lot more serious.

Now let's consider what happens if the toilet seat is up and you dare to flush: did you know the spray from the toilet bowl can land several feet away? This fine spray unseen by the naked eye contains a whole lot of bacteria and viruses which can survive for hours or days and will make you sick. If you flush an average of just 5 times a day for over 1 person in the house, that means in our house, the floor and walls and everything within 6 feet will be covered in raw sewage by the end of the day. And who wants to clean the bathroom and toilet more than once a week?

In conclusion, one does not need to be told that all the criteria has been met and the toilet seat should be in the down position. For an added benefit, all males would then please the female and might - just might - not piss her off any more than the male already does.

I rest my case.

Social Security Numbers vs Brain Farts

I have this problem. My husband's social security number, tax ID's, driver's license, medical license, DEA number - you name it I can rattle them off at the drop of a hat.

My info - another matter all together.

Today I was checking on the status of my passport application online. The form called for the last 4 digits of your social security number. Couldn't remember mine for the life of me and on the off chance I do remember it, I have to mentally say all the numbers to get the last 4.

How many of you can rattle off 4 obscure numbers like that? Why can't they do the 1st 4? Are the 1st 4 numbers banned or do they deliberately make it difficult for us?

How many of you even know that there are parts to a social security number? The SS# is a 9 digit number divided into 3 parts.

The 1st part is the 1st 3 digits and represent a geographical area. Before 1973. that geographical area meant the area where you first applied for your number. Since 1973 the Social Security Administration began assigning numbers based on the zip code of your mailing address on the application for the card. Generally the people who live on the east coast had the lowest numbers and the people who lived on the west coast had the highest numbers.

The middle two digits are the group number. These numbers have no special meaning; however they are assigned in a special way. The group numbers range from 01 to 99 but they are not assigned in consecutive order. For administrative reasons, group numbers are issued in the following order:
1.ODD numbers from 01 through 09
2.EVEN numbers from 10 through 98
3.EVEN numbers from 02 through 08
4.ODD numbers from 11 through 99
As an example, group number 98 will be issued before 11.

The last four digits are serial numbers. They represent a straight numerical sequence of digits from 0001-9999 within the group.

Now brain farts are a spontaneous stupid (stupid the noun, not stupid the adjective) usually accompanied by loss of train of thought and saying something fantastically stupid without realising it. These I am proficient in.

Brown Paper Bags

Today was supposed to be a brown paper bag day - containing a special present for a special person. It got postponed for a week because my foot went nuts after my MRI today. Said friend is a wee bit afraid of what is in the brown paper bag but then again I have teased her just a little bit about what could be in said bag. My friends know that with me said present could be just about anything.

For some people brown paper bags conjure up all sorts of evil mysterious things. For me, they remind me of the olden days when we would have to use a brown grocery bag as a book cover or they would hold my lunch for school. They became nefarious in the early 1900's when they were used as a color litmus test to see if you would be admitted into a party or restaurant, etc. The idea was that one had to be lighter than the paper bag in order to enter.

But did you know that the humble brown paper bag is actually a technological masterpiece that solves many practical problems? Neither did I until I did some research. But if you think about it, unlike a plastic bag, it can stand upright by itself. Plus you don't need an extra hand to hold it open while you fill it. And it has the added bonus that it folds flat for easy storage. It actually took inventors years to come up with a design that would behave this way. Early paper bags had "envelope bottoms" and wouldn't stand up at all. Then in 1867 Margaret Knight invented a machine that could make the standard bag's rectangular "satchel bottom" in a series of three folds. Another inventor added the accordion folds on the sides of the bag.

Today, paper bags have an infinite number of uses. They are used to carry groceries, they are recycled and used to store garbage. They are also used to stuff things in them to carry said items somewhere else. Since they are not transparent, they are used to conceal items from others, like being used as wrapping paper to conceal gifts.

If you are really crafty you can give them to your kids and make homemade masks out of them, or puppets. I remember my brother used to think it a riot to blow a small lunch bag up then smack it and surprise the beejeebees out of me. If you put one upside down on your head, they make an excellent costume. They can be drawn on, colored, penciled, cut, shaped into origami figures, or anything your imagination will take you. My cats loved them and my kids loved to tap the top when they ventured in, making the cat jump and the bag move.

They can also be used in the kitchen - if you place green tomatoes in a paper bag and roll the top down, the tomatoes will ripen. They make it easy to remove candle wax from a rug or carpet - just scrape up as much as you can, then place the paper bag over the wax and run a warm iron over it. The wax will melt and the bag will absorb it. I use paper bags to make patterns too, especially patterns I love since the tissue paper patterns seem to not last long.

My FIL used to cut shapes and designs out of the upper sides of the paper bags. Then he would put sand in the bottom of the bag and place a candle in each. Set the bags (luminaries) outside and light the candle. This was a Christmas eve tradition my kids love. We would take bets on how many bag fires we would have!

But my friend seems to think I have an ulterior motive. Maybe I do. After all, typically brown paper bags conceal contraband—alcohol and pornographic magazines and material.

She won't know until she opens her bag next week.