Done Since 2020-07-19

I can't really say that it was a bad week, as weeks go these days, but it wasn't an especially good week either.

Colleen's caregiver, V, was here Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday; it's nice to have her back. She normally comes (came? this was the first week she was here since the middle of March) on Monday and Wednesday; I asked her to come Tuesday because I had a long-delayed dentist appointment to have them replace the crown that popped off about a year ago. (I'd forgotten, and thought it was more like six months. Good grief!) It was easier and less expensive than I had expected -- crown technology has changed a lot since the days of lost wax and gold. But it wasn't a whole lot of fun either.

Colleen was admitted into Home Health on Monday; her first PT and wound care appointments were Thursday. I'm actually somewhat hopeful about the PT. As long as we can keep her doing the exercises, which has always been something of a struggle. I don't exercise enough either, though I've been pretty good about keeping up the back exercises that I got from my physical therapy sessions back in February and early March. I'd been scheduled for more, but COVID.

The PT suggested raising C's bed a couple of inches. We have adjustable beds (which we usually call "hospital" beds, but they're on the low end; one is much more likely to see them in nursing homes), so this would have been easy except that I hadn't re-attached the driveshafts that connect the head and foot headboard mechanisms. The springs are stiff, and just barely within my ability to handle them, so they've been sitting on the floor ever since we moved in. Oops. Done now. I also pulled the beds out from under the lowest headboard shelf and moved them over a couple of inches (away from the window, and toward Colleen's side). That gives me a little more room on my side. It also required moving the transfer pole a little, but since it had gotten tilted I would have had to do something with it anyway. It's really not designed for slanted ceilings, so I took the opportunity to add to the (corregated cardboard) shims on the up-hill side.

Things are actually looking up in the wound/skin care area as well: she's getting Cavilon™ Advanced Skin Protectant, which is a waterproof film that lasts for an entire week, replacing (e.g.) Desitin and other barrier creams. It's not cheap, but Medicare is paying for it. Over the last year or so skin and wound care have been the cause of most of my back pain (though raising the bed may help with this as well).

Moving on toward the negative side of the week, I've been sleeping poorly, which is only partly due to having to get up in the middle of most nights to care for Colleen. To caregiver stress and near-burnout, add the occupation of Portland -- and now Seattle and other cities -- by King Donald's secret police / jackbooted thugs / shadowy paramilitary forces.

I'm always a little flaky around August 4^th; all this other crap isn't helping.

( Notes & links, as usual )

Stormy Weather

One of the easily-predictable consequences of a warmer planet is more violent weather. The New York Times had an article a couple of days ago, titled What’s Going on Inside the Fearsome Thunderstorms of Córdoba Province?. Among its vivid descriptions is this one of the fleet of radar trucks being used by researchers:

Raised off the ground on hydraulic feet, the trucks are able to scan in winds that might otherwise peel asphalt off a road.

As anyone who knows me can easily guess, my mind went immediately to On the Storm Planet by Cordwainer Smith; curious readers may wish to compare this picture from the Times article with this one of a ground car bolting itself to the ground on Henriada, where

... Heavy ground cars make it possible to travel on the surface. When a tornado approaches, they use mechanical screw-like devices to bolt the vehicle to the ground.

(Just as an aside, On the Storm Planet includes one of my favorite characters, the turtle-girl T'Ruth, who you can see imagined by Virgil Finlay and Pierre Lacombe (pretty far down the page in both cases). Because turtle.)

Readers looking for something a little closer to home might also want to look up Mother of Storms by John Barnes. (Trigger warning: I remember reading a review that included the unforgettable phrase "the sex is as violent as the weather".)