Recovery: Day 2

[robotech_master]

My arm has been doing well today, not hurting as much, though that might be attributable in part to the time I spent lying down with it propped up on my chest, above the level of my heart, so swelling could go down – and also the icepack that I've kept on it. I've started backing off on the painkillers a little, and we'll see how tomorrow goes in that regard.

I actually slept pretty well last night, considering how much pain I was in. But that might also have something to do with all of the painkillers and other medication that I took, at least half of which had "drowsiness" as a side effect. I had very vivid dreams. And one peculiar side effect of these dreams was that they tended to come with a remarkable sense of déjà vu. All the things I dreamed about, it felt as if I had actually read or watched from some long time ago and just forgotten about them. Except rationally, I know that I haven't.

I even wrote some of them down when I got up in the middle of the night, just because they were so vivid and so with me that I wanted to make some kind of a record of them and maybe do some googling to see if I had actually encountered any of them before after all. Or perhaps they might make something worth writing a story about, I don't know. Anyway, brain chemistry is weird.

Got up around six, enjoyed a boiled egg and strawberry shortcake – the kind my parents make, which uses shortbread-like cookies, rather than pound-like cake. Hadn't had that in a long time, and it was good and tasty and nostalgic, and there was plenty of it. I almost wasn't sure I could eat it all.

After breakfast, I went up and mingled around on the computer some more, then at 930 I took my 12 hour OxyContin and naproxen, and napped until noon.

This afternoon, I decided to teach my parents how to send text messages with their cheap little Samsung TracFones. I taught my Mom first, since Dad was taking his usual post-lunch nap. After I had shown her the ropes, she decided to go out to one of the pastures on their 80 acres that was getting to be overgrown by thistles and work on it for a couple of hours, taking her cell phone with her since she would get better reception out there than she did in here.

I showed Dad how to send messages, and he sent one to her from his phone, and then went out to mow the lawn with his new John Deere zero-turn riding mower. Then I messaged Mom from Google Voice, and then I had the bright idea to message my sister-in-law, Karen, and have her send Mom a message so that Mom would get more practice in about texting.

Karen texted me back, and said she had texted Mom, and that she and my brother Aaron had "just left". I asked where they had left for, and they said they had left for here – Karen said they were going to be attending a friend's wedding, and that Aaron was "pretty sure [my parents] know about it." I happened to mention this to my father, and he said that this was the first he had heard about it, but to let them know that they were always glad to see them. And they are bringing the entire family: two nephews, three nieces (including the new one-year-old), and a Catahoula Leopard dog.

And so we see the conclusion of a fortuitous chain of events – if I hadn't taught my mom text messaging, and had the bright idea to send a message to Karen and text her, my parents wouldn't have gotten that advance warning of their arrival, with several hours to spend quickly preparing the house. Indeed, if I hadn't been down here, and they had both been out doing their respective chores, they would have been in for a much bigger surprise.

But, as they say, all is well that ends well, and now I'm going to get to see my brother and the family a lot sooner than I otherwise would have. And perhaps I will get to watch some My Little Pony episodes with the nieces and nephews, which would be cool given that I introduced their parents (and, thus, them) to the show a couple of weeks ago by sending them some DVDs I burned of it. Bonus!

To my slight annoyance, it started raining about an hour or so ago, including a lot of thunder. So my parents went and unplugged their computer, including their wireless router and modem. The worst of the thunder seems to have passed now, so I will probably go downstairs and get them to plug back in again soon. I will say that it's nice having a laptop – the power blinked while I was in the middle of writing this journal entry, but all that really happened was my secondary monitor went out and came back on. Thanks to the built-in UPS, I didn't lose the entry I was working on.

Anyway, it's about 5:30 now, and the brother and family are expected to arrive in about four hours. I'm going to go make sure that I've gotten all my stuff out of the bedroom where I had been sleeping, since it's going to be needed for the kids. Looks like I'll be sleeping on a futon tonight. On the bright side, it's right next to the desk where my computer is…

Comments

[dpawtows.livejournal.com]

Yay for nerd coincidence factors?