Ugh! On this fifth day towards becoming 70, I woke up with another glaring owie. This time, it was my right knee shouting, “You overdid it, Palsy!”  A month ago, I joined a weekly yoga class that focuses oldsters on stretching, loosening up our joints, and building up our balance.  Probably all that bending I did at class on Tuesday would’ve been okay if I hadn’t done a bunch of bending yesterday clearing out the geraniums. Ouchy growl! Until this morning, I forgot that my poor swollen right knee, called Song, is still the bad knee. She  has done quite well keeping up with Sing, the left joint that was totally replaced last year, which was my gift for turning 69. Poor Song. Hopefully, I can find another compatible, trustworthy surgeon to fix her in 2024. Sing’s surgeon retired. He was amazing, even straightening my leg when he said he couldn’t.  The poor Husband. He kept running over to see why I was suddenly groaning, moaning, cursing, or growling so very loudly. Song did not like

(1) True confessions, as opposed to false: If I don’t publish this post today, I will have two unfinished Thursday posts.   Keep on chugging along, Su-sieee! Mac.  (2) Do you have a day of the week in which you have a lot of physical and mental energy? Thursday is usually when I feel self-motivated, creative, and productive. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been the other days.  (3) This morning was quite fruitful. I pedaled my under-table bike for 10 minutes or so before breakfast, then later followed a short Qigong video. I must’ve unblocked some energy. The Husband found me dancing to golden oldies while getting ready for my physical therapy session.  (4) Today was my last prescribed PT session. Eight weeks, twice a week, 30 minutes, more or less. I don’t believe Sing 2.0 would be as sturdy and assured as she is today without a professional showing me how to stretch and strengthen her. (Sing is my left knee who got her joint replaced two months ago.) The surgeon, who I saw for a follow

(1) Be forewarned, I'm talking a lot about Sing in this Thursday 13 post. Sing is my titanium and plastic left knee joint. Yep, by golly, I am anthropomorphising (what a long word!)  my artificial joint. Sing a song of sixpence. . . . (2) Sing celebrated her sixth week anniversary yesterday, Wednesday, by revealing her name to me.  Whoot, whoot!  (3) I’m now up to 20 minutes of steady heel-toe, heel-toe around the neighborhood with a walking stick, no less. Knee-haw! There’s definitely a difference in my gait with Sing taking the lead. I feel like I’m walking stronger and surer. My right knee joint isn’t protesting too much, thank goodness.  (4) Spoiler alert: My future artificial right knee joint will be called Song. Hence, one day in the near future, with Sing and Song, I shall be hiking through meadows, crossing creeks, and climbing mountain trails. Ahhh. Delightful.  (5) Another milestone: I drove Sally Forth today. After our walk, the Husband and I jumped into the car for me

This week’s prompt for Poets and Storytellers United ’s Friday Writings  is: The Visitor. Here’s what I came up with, stimulated by today’s every-so-often visitor.   A Morning Caller She drops by from no where approaching silently,  stepping stealthily, suppressing giggles.  She whispers.  I didn’t know I had heard but here I am  enjoying her flash of inspiration, cleaning the microwave.  Yi-haw!    ♾️ I’ve a grand update about my Knee Joint Replacement Recovery Update. Happy, giddy news. I danced in the kitchen this morning to Creedence Clearwater Revival, Martha and the Vandels, the Hollies, Santana, and others. My new joint loved it. Knee-haw!  Off I go to visit other  Friday Writings   participants. Please, come join me.

  (1) Heel, toe. Heel, toe. That’s my mantra as I learn to walk with my new left knee joint. Heel, toe. Heel, toe. (2) My usual way of walking is shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, scrape, dang, stubbed toe. I definitely want to kick that habit. (3) I’ve learned a new set of acronyms and technical terms related to knee replacement surgery. TLKR stands for total left knee replacement, which is what I had. ROM stands for range of motion. The goal is to have a ROM of 0 to 120 degrees, with zero being a straight knee. To do most normal activities, I need to bend my knee at least 120 degrees.  (4) Extend, bend. Extend, bend. Another new mantra of mine.  (5) Yesterday marked three weeks since my TLKR surgery. Yes, it already seems so long ago. I’m glad I did it during the winter. All the rain and cold temperatures keeps me from working in the yard. Okay, I admit I sacked leaves the other day. It was great knee bending practice.  (6) Did you know that many, if not all, U.S. insurance companies author

My words found sound today, day 5 of my new left knee replacement adventure. Ouch! The first thing I saw when I was rolled into the operating room was a full set of hand drills. Wowza, to say the least. That’s for another day of story.  Today I’m joining in with the Friday Writings fun hosted by Poets and Storytellers United. The prompt is all about repetition. I’m trying my hand with a Blitz poem format created by Robert Keim. Enjoy! Roll for Many by Su-sieee! Mac Rock of ages Rock and roll Roll on by Roll with me Me fa so la doe Me no go Go lightly Go gently Gently be mine Gently live Live lively Live sweetly Sweetly go I Sweetly go you You my sweet dude You my always Always and forever Always will be you and I I laugh at ants I fly in joy Joy joy joy Joy we sang Sang sung and sing Sang over hills and hills Hills of joy and love Hills so very green Green lands of green Green lands of joy Joy joy joy Joy I sing for you You I love You inside my heart Heart to heart Heart of the Earth

It’s 11:13 p.m. I ought to go to bed, but I don’t feel sleepy. I ought to. We did a lot of heavy moving this afternoon, the Husband and I. We rearranged the garage to let Sally Forth rest indoors. No go. All we needed was a foot. Alas there were no more inches to give, so back onto the driveway she went. The Husband set the alarm for 5:15 a.m. I need time to wash myself in some kind of special soap, dress, gather my thoughts and big girl panties, and skedaddle to the hospital. There I’ll be stripped, put in one of those indecent gowns, and prepped for knee surgery. Can you hear the saws grinding? Just kidding. I’m ready for it. Only took six years of distractions to get me to tomorrow.  It’s 11:23 p.m. I’ll finish my cup of water, turn on the modem, take one last look at Facebook, and off to bed I go.  Here we go, Knee-haw! 🙃

(1) Tick. Tick. Tick. I asked the Husband to investigate the ticking sound in the L Studio closet yesterday afternoon. I hadn’t heard it before. “Hush,” he said, reaching for an item from the shelf way up high.  (2) He opened a small black case that held a polaroid camera once upon a time. Tick. Tick. Tick.  The green wall clock! I wondered where it had gone. The Husband asked, “Did you think a bomb was in there?”  (3) Nervous Nelly. She is me. I am her. (4)  It’s nearly very soon for my-new-knee adventure to begin. (5) I discovered on Sunday that we don’t have enough decent soup bowls, dessert plates, and other dining ware for a dinner party of six and more. That’s what I get for retiring a lot of Mama’s and my dinnerware to the garden and crafting bins. (6) Dirty gin martinis with eggplant dip and chia and quinoa chips. Orange kobacha soup with petite slices of toasted walnut bread and pastrami bagels. Carbonara bucatini and roasted Brussel sprouts. A trifle of limoncello-soaked almo

(1) It’s raining, hurrah, hurrah! The weather experts predict rain until Tuesday, yippiee! (2) Rainy days mean soup is on. Today I simmered a huge pot of chicken backs and necks, with a big bulb of garlic. I ought to be able to freeze 4 pints worth of chicken broth.  (3) The past few summers we’ve been able to purchase 10 or so pasture-raised chickens straight from a farm, enough to get us through the next summer.  Definitely a difference in quality and taste from mass-produced birds, even after several months in the freezer. (4) I made corn chowder with some of the chicken broth. I sautéed onions in olive oil with pickled peppers and leftover roasted potato and leftover Chinese broccoli. Don’t you love it when you can turn leftovers into something else? (5) I’ve decided to stop counting down the days to my knee surgery and simply think of it happening soon, quite soon, very soon, and the day has arrived.  (6) With good fortune, nothing will interfere with surgery taking place. Have I

The prompt for  Friday Writings #54 (at Poets and Storytellers United ) is a letter to a stranger. Four days later, I offer mine.   Dear Future Artificial Left Knee, Today it has become real that our surgery will be happening. The insurance company has approved the procedure and primary Doctor B has said I’m good to go. And, Dr. G, the surgeon who shall wield the tools to hack out the bad tissues and replace them with titanium, plastic, and other non-natural materials, gulp, has given me my pre-op pep talk.  I am confident you and I will like each other. It’ll be slow going at first as we get to know each other and what we can do. Ah, the fun we’ll have when we get into step. Then, once our future artificial right knee joins us, oh my, we’ll truly be ready to rumble, dance the rumba, climb mountains, jump over the moon, and so forth and so on. The pain I shall be feeling will be worth it. Yi-haw!  Don’t get me wrong, I‘m not taking this lightly. I am scared. But, hey, we must find li

1) Four glorious days and nights of rain, off and on, enough to soak the ground, but not to get it ookey-muddy that I sink. Wish it did though. 2) We've been in a drought since 2011, not including the one year that the governor and experts said it was over. Really, though, we ought to go back to 2007. The experts said it was over in 2010. Ha!  Poor plants. 3) The experts predict that our part of the world should experience another exceptionally dry winter. I hope not. 4) From four days of collecting rain water and a couple of buckets of grey water from the kitchen, we have filled up a 30-gallon garbage can and a vintage metal milk churn (also called a milk can). Hurrah! 5) Yesterday, I got in a panic that the insurance company hadn't approved my upcoming knee surgery. Usually, it sends me a copy of any authorization it makes for me. Not seeing anything in my online account, I called the orthopedic center. The gatekeeper put me on hold to ask the nurse, returning to say the nurs

Let’s see, my knee surgery is scheduled for December 14, today is November 7, so that makes…what…37 days to go. Oh-oh. I haven’t even begun to clear the surfaces in L Studio, particularly the bed we think we’ll be sleeping on during the first weeks of my recovery. Who knows, maybe I can make it upstairs.  For that matter, I haven’t made my to-do list for this week and it’s already time to think about about what to make for our main meal of the day. Something out of tofu, black beans, white rice, zucchini, and a portobello mushroom. There are a couple slices of bacon in the fridge, too. This morning I thought about pickling peppers and making kimchi. How time flies when you’re retired. I’ll just put them on my list. The Husband and I did go for a walk, yaay! We were figuring the shortest way to walk to  the physical therapy clinic where I’m supposed to go for a pre-op session later this month. We are still without a car, so I must think these things out. It’s a little over half mile awa