Friday, December 15, 2023

 Friday, December 15, 2023

    Yesterday's strong wind not only knocked down a shallow-rooted tree but also knocked over Josh's motorcycle. It had a soft landing cushioned by a large bush. The wind pruned the trees. It took down fifteen large fronds from the two-story palm tree in the driveway. Each frond is five to six feet long and at least three feet wide.

     After learning the car part was in, I borrowed Yvette's car this morning to go to Kia to get a service appointment. Alex said they hadn't gotten my voicemail because of problems with the Internet connection. Their voicemail had been down. I got an appointment for the afternoon of the 22nd. Changing out the part would take up to four hours.

     I stopped at Costco on the way home to fill up Yvette's tank. I was confused upon finding her tank opening on the right side only after I had pulled up to the dispenser. When I tried to put the nozzle into the opening, it didn't work. I struggled until someone called from another aisle, "That's diesel!" Ah! When I picked up the regular gas nozzle, it wouldn't work either. Seeing my confusion, a woman from another car came over and helped me. When I hung up the diesel nozzle, it canceled my information. I had to start from scratch.

     I have seen a difference in my mental processing since the accident. I fell on June 13 and shattered my left shoulder and elbow joints. This resulted in eight hours of surgery and a two-week stay in the hospital until my blood count returned to a safe level. I was on opioids the whole time. I lay there without a concern in the world. The combined impact of the eight hours of anesthesia, the opioids, and inactivity left me somewhat the worse for wear. My body has recovered faster than my mind. As you can see from my writing, I haven't lost everything. Still, I can't respond as quickly as I once could in unfamiliar situations.

  Shannon, Darby, and I planned to watch Barbie together. It came up in one of our walks. None of us had seen it. I proposed that the three of us watch it together at my house; I had a TV to hook up to my computer. Steve, Shannon's husband, came over the day before to plug in the wire we needed to connect the laptop to the TV. Shannon arrived for the screening with a big bowl of popcorn. We hooked up the computer and TV; the transmission was severely unstable. It started and stopped, started and stopped. Shannon called Steve to come rescue us. Steve arrived dressed like Ken. We thought the problem was with my computer connection. Then Ken (Steve) saw the transmission was perfect on the computer. The problem was with the TV; it was too old to work with the computer. When did I get it? Let me see. We had it at least as long as we lived in this house. We moved in June of 2015. I wasn't sure, but I suspect we brought it from Ohio. We may have had it three or four years already. That made the TV over ten years old.

   We set my computer up on the coffee table and watched it together.   Darby and I had trouble. My double vision caused strain, and Darby's nervous system is still recovering from her stroke four years ago. I got enough out of the movie to judge it as remarkable.

   When I told Judy about watching it, she asked if the movie was anti-male. Well, it had to use the Barbie conceit. I don't blame men for their predisposition for power. The society is set up that way. There are some natural tendencies in all of us to want power over others.

We all want the world to be our way to feel safe. Some of us are more flexible than others. Some of us dig in and strive for as much power as possible.

    I'm reminded of an interview on NPR with the man who negotiated the reduced salaries for the financial leaders after the financial crash. He said he expected the men, I think they were all men, to say they couldn't afford a salary reduction because they had four houses, three boats, and twelve cars to maintain. He was surprised by what he heard. Men said I can't make less than five million a year. That'