February 15, 2015
7:24 p.m.

Judging by my last post, it seems I'm compelled to write only when it is snowing, or has just snowed. Since the last thirteen days have been mild, I guess I wasn't moved to express myself.

Just kidding. I have been working on my continuing education credits, and--well--life. I spent a day obsessing about the many parts of the shoulder and all the things that can go wrong with them. Coding for shoulder surgery is...um...interesting, very interesting. Haha.

It's funny how I can get so caught up in certain diagnosis scenarios based on my own experience. Well, maybe not so funny. I've had surgery on my left shoulder twice, and I have every reason to believe that at least one on my right shoulder is somewhere in my not-too-distant future. I also have internal dialogues while coding back surgeries, things like: "Hmm, I wonder if that's what he did to me?" and "If only I had opted for that," and "Dang, no wonder I lost over a half-inch in height!"

Oddly, though, while I find a lot of it uncomfortably familiar, I still find coding interesting and challenging, and that makes it a worthwhile pursuit for me. Therefore, study time.

Life, on the other hand...let us just say that studying is more interesting. For now.

See, it's the boot thing. I am so sick of the boot. My walking is improving daily, but if I want to leave the house, I have no choice but to "boot up." And I don't want to! I hobble around in my house and avoid going anywhere because boot. Phooey!

 It's ugly, it's uncomfortable, and I hate it. And it's not like it helps all that much. It makes my back and my hips hurt. I go to the store and ride the shopping cart/scooter and feel guilty because someone else might need it while I am wasting my time still healing from an injury that should be done healing by now, doggone it! (Never mind that I was told it could be over six months--I'm tough, man. Ha ha!)

This week I was pretty pleased with myself for being able to wear my sneakers in my house. Both sneakers. Yeah! Of course, I crab-walk (you know, sideways) because my ankle won't bend correctly when I point my foot forward, but what the heck. It's one of my exercises for my hip, crab walking. So it's a good thing.

Speaking of exercises, though, I still haven't returned to physical therapy since I got back from Oklahoma. My co-pay for specialist visits went up to $50. per, and I simply cannot afford it. They'd like to see me a couple times a week. Fat chance of that. So I am trying to rehab myself by myself. Wish me luck on that.
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On a more productive note, I did get out this week. On Wednesday I left my house, boarded a bus and rode it for over an hour to spend several more hours performing my civic duty as a juror.

It was so funny how this happened. Just as I was preparing to leave for Oklahoma I got a summons to appear in court while I was gone. So I contacted the court and told them that I would be happy to serve when I was actually in Colorado and gave them my tentative return day. Lo and behold, a new summons awaited me when I returned home.

If the wheels of justice turned this quickly in other areas of the justice system, things would probably go a lot better around here!

So I "booted up" and went to court.

I spent the better part of a day there, was sent to juror selection and promptly proved myself incapable of being impartial when faced with a drunk driving charge.

All I said was I was sure that if the police who arrested the man had done their job correctly, it would certainly not be a 49 vs 51 percent uncertainty vs certainty case, but if I was 51 percent certain of guilt, I was going to vote to convict. These were his numbers, not mine.

The defense attorney was like: "If it's that close, you'd convict?!" And I said, "It's unlikely that it would ever be that close, not if the police have correctly collected all the facts."

Then he said, "But wouldn't you rather be 100 percent sure of convicting a guilty person rather than 51 percent sure and possibly convicting an innocent person?" But instead of letting me answer, he directed the question to someone else.

Well, all I could think of was that the guy was speeding, going 74 in a 45 mile per hour zone, and admitted he had been drinking a few hours prior to being pulled over. The lawyer basically told us his whole case before the judge told him not to be giving away the circumstances while selecting his jury. And in just that amount of time, I pretty much decided the guy was guilty.

Am I judgmental? Probably. Would anyone have been able to persuade me that I was wrong about him? Probably not.

Needless to say, I was dismissed.

Do I care? Heck, no. If the trial lasted more than a day, I'd be spending another three hours on a bus (round trip) and hobbling a quarter mile uphill from the bus stop to the courthouse in my dang boot, then downhill (which should be easier, but isn't--not in a boot!) back to the bus stop.

In my defense, I hate drunk driving. I have been in pain every day since 1994 because someone thought it was okay to drive after having a couple of drinks. If I'm impartial, blame that.

Hopefully I won't end up on trial myself for sharing this story, but I was told I could talk about the case after the case was over, and it is. I have no idea whether he got off, but my part in the story is over.

Guilty.

Don't judge me.
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I enjoyed a nice visit from my daughter and grandchildren this weekend. It's fun watching 1980's movies with kids who have never seen them. "Innerspace." So delightfully silly.

Naturally, I have now consumed too much take-out food.

Yay, Burger King. Hurray, Pizza Hut. Oh, and yahoo, Wendy's. Also, let's not forget the doughnuts.

Hello, four pounds I just lost.

Boo.
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Anyway, it's snowing.

And snowing.

There's a lot of it. And more to come.

So I'm going to say that Mr. Groundhog was probably right.

If you have to go out, please be careful!

Good night.