Questions that You Didn’t Ask but that I Answered Anyway

Why did I increase the font size of my blog?

If you were to ask me that question, you must be under the age of 50! I increased the posted font size of Nick’s Bytes because I have to click on View—>Text Size—>Increase on 95 % of the blogs I visit so that I can read them. Therefore, especially for us old dudes and dudettes, I have increased the size on the text of my blog so that we don’t have to do it.

Did I heal OK from that fall through my deck steps three weeks ago?

Strange that I should ask myself that! Both of my legs were swollen and bruised after the fall, as was my right wrist.

Do primarily to the workings of the Veterans Administration bureaucracy’s Catch 22s (I loved that book!) I wasn’t able to see a physician, so I decided just to allow the bruising to heal. My right leg and wrist did. However, my left leg, although the bruises have disappeared, remains swollen and painful from my foot all the way up to above my knee.

So, this morning, after telling myself “to hell VA with rules and procedure,” I drove myself to the VA hospital emergency room where I spent the next six hours. Without going into the details of that adventure, let me inform the world that the reason for the swelling in my left leg is (1) a cracked heel and (2) a chipped knee (whatever those two diagnoses mean).

I now have this thingy on my left foot covered by miles of that stretch stuff. See:

The ER doc told me to use crutches and not to try to drive my car, especially since I need my left foot to engage the clutch. Ha! I left the crutches at the hospital because I’d probably break one or both legs if I tried to use the damned things and am using my walking stick (cane). That’s the way I’ve gotten around for most of the past thirty years and I don’t feel like moving up to crutches or (God forbid) the wheelchair they offered me.

So, after leaving the hospital with my trusty walking stick (someday I really must take photographs of my stick collection and post them here), I climbed into the CR-V, tested that I could depress the clutch even with that thingy on my foot, and drove home, stopping on the way to pick up some (you guessed it) cat food for Alex and cigarettes for me.

The doc at the ER has made a referral for me to an orthopedic dude or dudette and hospital is to telephone me next week to set up an appointment. In the meantime, I can still hobble around and do just about everything I normally do except scratch my left ankle that is now itching horribly.

How are Alex and I dealing with the heat?

Today has been heavenly! It was cool last night and we shared my bed. We not only needed a top sheet, but added a comforter, beneath which both the furball and I snuggled. When we arose at 5:00 a.m. or so, the temperature in my bedroom was a wonderful 62 F.

The present temperature is about the high for the day: 83 F (which not long ago was the low for the day).

How are you going to spend Labor Day?

I’m not sure, but not here:

That’s enough Q & A for now. I am going to post this, feed the cat and myself, and maybe rest for a while!

Don’t forget September 27^th:

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