Leslie Nord's Random Thoughts on Friends, Family and Life

What an open-ended statement. Yes, it has been a year since my dad passed away. It’s been a year since my mother-in-law passed away. It’s been a year filled with yet another ending like 2021’s.

For all you betting that it would be my knees to be “rebuilt” first, you would have lost. The first piece of titanium that has put me on the road to becoming a bionic woman was placed in my neck. I had to have my C-7 and T-1 vertebra fused together with an (as the doctor put it) postage stamp-sized piece of metal and a couple of screws that I will get to keep forever.

I’ve had a “few” surgeries (8 on my knees alone) but this was the first one that really scared me. Scared me to the point that made me realize I really do need to “get my affairs in order” (as they say). Geez, I don’t even know where I’d like to be buried. I say, if you plan to visit my grave on a regular basis, then let’s make it nearby. If not, then maybe Quantico National Cemetery.

Then there has been the talk of when I will retire. That would need to be separated into two answers, one would be when would I start drawing Social Security and when would I actually stop working. While I have a timeframe in mind for the first half of the question, I don’t have an answer for the second half. I don’t have a lot of answers…

The last post I made was February 14, 2022 in the afternoon. Later that evening my sister called to update me on my dad. She called back in what seemed like just minutes later to let me know we had lost him.

I didn’t cancel my Ortho appointment for the next day since all the planning and arrangements were still being figured out. I love my Ortho, he cares about the whole person. He knows the Quantico National Cemetery very well and understood what I would be going through. We agreed to immobilize my shoulder to protect it, gave me something to help me sleep and told me just to call the back office when I was ready to schedule the surgery.

Circumstances were such that my daughter who lives in the area made the trip with me. I’m still surprised at how much I like the long drives. Even with the bum shoulder I did all the driving. It was a trip that I wish I had had more time for, that we didn’t have to turn around and head back almost right away.

In the midst of it all, I was asked to give the eulogy for my dad. Why? I never asked. The service was nice. Quantico is beautiful.

When I got back, I had the rotator cuff repaired. It was a longer recovery than I wanted but I’m just now finally pain free.

For the first time since 2004, I didn’t go to San Diego for the conference. The funding wasn’t there for the hotel and I couldn’t cover that cost. I supposedly have a airline credit for the COVID related cancellation. I don’t know, I didn’t check. It all seemed like a thinning of the herd.

Que sera, sera.

Life has been turned on it’s ear since October of 2021. Part of me wants to share the events but part of me feels like “is anybody listening?” The other part is starting to dislike the direction the internet has taken.

I get to go see my favorite orthopedic surgeon. Hopefully we can figure out when to get the tears in my rotator cuff repaired with all the upcoming twists and turns I need to hang on for.

I’m still here…

Just stopped by to run the much overdue updates on my sadly neglected blog. The world is still somewhat sideways for me but I will survive.

Update to the last post, after a software update to my car I now have Apple CarPlay. I’ve been using Siri to read and send text messages. I need to work on my enunciation of words but all in all it does work.

Thanks for stopping by…