One year ago today: March 10, 2025, a fault in others.
Five years ago today: March 10, 2021, inherently faulty.
Nine years ago today: March 10, 2017, my flowers don’t grow.
Random years ago today: March 10, 2005, I hate stupid.
What is this, Day 41? That would explain why the medical community is touchy about recovery chances. Nothing prepared me for this. Yet, that isn’t strictly true, in the sense I have long prepared for a quieter and less active life. I just thought it would take a lot longer to get there. Good morning, my guide list says mention breakfast. Fried spuds and muffins right out of the oven. But the loss of taste remains and it is not improving. No matter how well it starts, after five or so bites of anything, the flavor disappears. That’s a problem.
Last day I read about the two-piston tractor. Here is the John Deere next door, so I hobbled over for a look. Sure enough, here is a photo showing the cutout to access a single piston, the other is probably the other side. Once more, I pose a simple question that stumps the entire Internet. Not one direct answer to the question why early tractors were limited to two pistons. Several articles told this arrangement is what gave tractors their characteristic sound, which makes sense. The location of this spark-plug cutout means the motor is located on the bottom of this chassis.
I’ve earmarked today for another do-nothing period. I’m still watching “The Way Back”, a dumb title. I always wondered if it is true thirsty people can “get sick” if they drink water too fast. There you go, yet another yes-no question not one Internet genius can answer. Lots of indirect answers that it could bother people with bad kidneys to start with, and imbalance electrolytes, which some folks claim they can tell. I don’t believe them, it is just thirst.
Later, I finished the movie. It lacks the intensity of the book. The movie kept me still for two hours, which is more important just now. Some years ago I attempted to train myself to do this, but failed. I would get up every twenty minutes for a coffee, or something, or put on a second movie simultaneously, or sometimes read a book while watching the movie. So it takes a major heart situation to get me to behave like others my age. Isn’t that something?
Pro wood cutting.
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Sitting still, I got to more documentaries. My focus was companies that were big when I was growing up which have now disappeared. Gone are Sears, Schwinn, Baldwin, and the lesser-missed Kodak and Xerox. Radio Shack is gone, and I really miss Borders. I was seeking some common factor like failure to adapt. I suppose failed business decisions and changing markets would be that category, but so was the wholesale shipping of the work and technology overseas.
Baldwin was my study choice. The documentary correctly covered the impact of a piano, that it was the mark of a good family. The kids were getting culture, the parents were now middle class. None of this applied to my situation, not one of my siblings ever got past a few weekss. This was curious indeed, how they heard me practice every day and decided to take lesson to prove it was easy and I was just a slow learner, but that is a different story. The Baldwin factory is now a condo.
We never had a Baldwin and I did not know much about pianos at all. I believe I had 90 piano lessons in my life before I decided to form my own band, which is also another story. Those lesson took nearly three years and I knew I was no classical piano player. But I had figured out the circle of fifths and forced myself to hear when chords matched—I did not have any source of coaching for this, so yes, it did take often years for items that could have taken minutes.
Google announces a new format of youTube ads. They are unskippable 30 second plugs, which Google says is to allow viewers to watch the ads in a more “relaxed living room setting”. I predict the adblocker people already have the workaround. People who trusted the age verification software to be anonymous are reporting their real names are being searched from places like Israel.
ADDENDUM
What about progress? There isn’t any. I’m still wavering between spells of energy and weakness, both around 40% of optimum. My right leg is still draining though the wound has closed roughly a third. My left leg still feels hot and paralyzed under the skin, with surges of fiery pain. No gout today but my chest wound still isn’t narrowing. And I’ve got a sharp pain across the upper chest, the pain I was expecting weeks ago. The bone-mending pain. But none these pains stop me from moving around freely. The chest pain is worst, but tolerable.
Sleep can strike fast, but comes on instantly if I lean back or lay back. A nap is two to four hours. I have a mild pain right where I think my appendix might be. I’m a lot steadier standing up, it’s enough to have me avoid walking. I also have several small healing scars on my neck and wrists that must have served some purpose.
The revelation to me is that recovery is such a long stretch that possibly there is a real danger of one’s overall condition not being up to the task. I’m beginning to suspect part of this drawn-out return is due to demands being placed on one’s general regular health. This second day of almost complete immobility is telling me my normal constitution can easily be stressed by, for example, the sharp chest pains of today. Could that explain the ups and downs? Hmmm, could that explain the rumor of the 50% survival rate? I can tell you the needs can easily tap into strengths in your core that might not be there for the taking. Lie down, and you can be out for hours. Hmmmm.
