Foot Doctor’s Advice: Wear Boots

For the past several months, my left heel has been hurting a lot when I take the first few steps when I rise from bed, and later in the evening, close to bedtime. The morning pain has been sharp and quite irritating, but it subsides soon enough.

I knew something was wrong, though, when the pain persisted. I’m no dummy… I figured I had plantar fasciitis, which is an inflammation of a tendon that runs along the bottom of the foot from the heel to the ball.

I was being a general goofball guy, hoping it would go away, while concentrating on getting my partner over his long-term illness. Now that my partner is feeling better (not recovered, but better than before), I thought that now was a good time to see a doctor and get this problem addressed.
Continue reading

Wesco Highliner Boots on eBay

Closing the story from yesterday’s post, my two senior pal visitors and the cats have gone back to their respective homes, now that power has been restored to each of their homes after seven full days of their power being out. I am glad they are able to return to their usual lives, and let my partner and me get on with ours. Not that their visit was a problem; it’s just that we are not accustomed to having company, especially the matronly type (giggle.) No worries, we were good boys, and giving them a safe and comfortable place to stay was our pleasure.

Since we had some time to ourselves yesterday, I got my partner into several pairs of boots and…
Continue reading

Collecting Seniors and Cats

Sorry, not much time to blog… I have “collected” yet another senior pal who is camping out with us. This is my other senior pal’s neighbor. First senior pal came to our home at my insistence on Thursday when I discovered that her power had not yet been restored and she was becoming ill due to the effects of high heat and humidity. She did not want to go to a public shelter, and could not afford to pay for a hotel room.

Now, her next-door neighbor has joined us. I learned by speaking with my friend that her neighbor was in the same situation as she is: no power back on yet after last week’s storm, living alone, and on a fixed income. I went to the neighbor’s house on Friday evening, and discovered at my horror that she had hardly enough energy to answer the door. She was refusing to leave her home since she did not want to leave her cats alone. But it was well over 90F (33C) inside her house.

Damn… I couldn’t just leave her there…
Continue reading

Boots Soaked with Sweat

The weather here in Maryland, USA, has been less than cooperative lately. Just when I thought we had the best Spring — with delightfully cool but sunny days, and crisp nights — all the way through June 22 — hell hath been wrought on the region.

The weekly rains stopped, the heat turned up, and here we are, in a full-fledged heat wave. Tomorrow (Saturday), I was going to go on a ride on my Harley, but I will heed a lesson learned on Thursday afternoon when riding in 100F (38C) heat…

…that is, ask myself, “are you nuts? You want soaked boots again?”
Continue reading

Independence Day

Happy Independence Day in the good ol’ USA! Yes, this holiday occurs on July 4, but the greeting for the holiday is not “happy fourth.” That’s just as silly as saying “happy fifth” tomorrow, especially when the Declaration of Independence did not obtain its final signature until August 2!

Today will find me doing what I usually do on this holiday — swearing and crabbing.
Continue reading

Resuming Life

I am convinced… I live among a bunch of whiners. Really shouldn’t be a surprise, but becomes more evident as widespread power outages persist following last Friday’s severe storm. It is so hard for me not to post a retort to friends on Facebook who whine about their power not being restored by yesterday and their electronic toys not working. Gimme a break. They haven’t seen a real disaster.
Continue reading

Wham, Bang!

Goodness gracious, what a storm! Friday afternoon, the weather radar was looking frightening, and by 10:30pm Friday night, we got hit — hard! But this disaster dude was ready, and prepared….
Continue reading

Are Civilians Welcome at Police Motorcycle Rodeos?

A guy by the name of Greg submitted a comment on a recent blog post titled “Watching Cops Compete“, where he asked,

I am thinking about attending a motorcycle cop competition as a spectator. I like looking at cops and I am quite serious about photography (as an art form), so I thought those events might be fun.

Do those events typically welcome civilians to just go and watch? Are there specific events that you recommend?

My reply (with a little bit more):
Continue reading