LariLee's Hutch

Congratulations, everyone for surviving the apocalypse!

After fighting foot infections and losing my big toe, I finally lost the left leg. I am trying to adjust to life as an amputee, but it has only been two weeks. I was do.ing well until I got overconfident and fell Friday. Worst part of all is that I can't take care of Mom, so she is in a nursing home. I am trying to look to the positive which means. I'll have time to do things I like... like writing.

Maybe I've acted too well in front of the extended family... no flowers or cards or kudos... in fact, they are upset I cannot wash my mother's clothes (much less my own) but as I explained, the washer and dryer are in the basement

Current Location: wheelchair in Louisville
Current Mood: tired and down
Current Music: The Cosby Show on TV

As some of you know, I've had persistent problems with my left foot for over two years. After a bad accident last September, a bad infection set in almost two weeks ago. A week ago Monday, it went into my bone.

They amputated my leg that evening. Mom was admitted that day too (copycat :-D). She was placed in a nursing home as I could no longer care for her at home. I came home last Friday and am in a wheelchair. In a few months, I'll get a prosthetic leg.

My computer is down and should be fixed ion a a couple of weeks... I hope. I am writing on a Kindle Fire (long story there) and typing one letter at a time and am tired after my PT. But the good new is that I should be having some time to write! I want to finish up my stories and try some original stuff that refuses to leave my head.

I would love some happy thoughts, well wishes and prayers. Depression keeps hunting me.

Current Location: home
Current Mood: trying hard
Current Music: dog snoring

Well, I'll be having a stay at Club Norton Audubon. I'll be heading there in a few minutes and it's serious. I've been writing out instructions for Mom's and David's care, explaining what the dogs (Gracie and Bette, I love having dogs-as-in-plural) need and explaining that Woe-Be Cat won't be that happy any way. Hey, she's a cat.\

I've been begging favors from my aunt (my uncle had a cornea transplant Wednesday, so I have a lot of balls asking them for assistance), my friend, and my good neighbors (not to be confused with the other neighbors whom I don't know that well.

Anyways, please keep sending the happy feelings. I appreciate them all.

Current Location: On my way to Norton Audubon
Current Mood: Terrified
Current Music: The throbbing of my foot

I'm sick.

I'm scared.

A few weeks back, I developed a callus on my left foot. Then, underneath it was a boil or a blister. I kept putting antibiotic cream on it, but it was healing slowly, so I made a doc's appointment. I actually made the appointment because suddenly my Ultram became an issue at every refill. I figured I'd go in, get my prescriptions updated and show off my foot.

When I woke up this morning, my foot was blood-red, swollen, with a large abscess on the top of my foot. I mean it seriously happened overnight. Last night, fine; this morning, red alert.

I spent forty-five minutes explaining to the doctor that I couldn't be admitted to the hospital. He spent the time arguing with me about how boring it would be to only have to buy one shoe. I'm not in the hospital, but I've got two days to improve. If it gets worse, I'm to go to the nearest emergency room; Dr. C. said no insurance is not a problem with a foot like mine. I'm to return to him Friday to see if I've made sufficient progress.

I just don't understand how this could happen so quickly.

There is no one who could stay with Mom and David. My Aunt is tied up with her husband who had a cornea transplant today. My cousin wouldn't help. My best friend Sandra is fighting me to see who is the sickest... I think her heart attack cinched it last year.

Gracie and Bette keep leaning against me and giving me these long, soulful looks while sighing deeply. I'm going to soak my foot again. Could y'all maybe send good wishes, prayers or designer chocolates?

Current Location: Leper Island
Current Mood: scared
Current Music: none

A quick update as proof of life.

Okay, if you haven't read The Passage by Justin Cronin, read it. If you like post-Apocalypse, dis-Utopian books like Ira Levin's This Perfect Day, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, or Stephen King's The Stand or Under the Dome, then you'll want to buy a copy, rather than reading a borrowed copy. I haven't been sucked into a book so completely since I read the first four Harry Potter books during a several day binge of pure reading bliss.

I'm also a new mommy again. Through Freecycle, I'm now the proud mommy to a seven year old black poodle named Harper. Well, she was named Harper, but Mom can't remember it and David proclaimed it a "stupid name," so she's become Betty Harper until she realizes that's her name now. Then we'll drop the Harper. She is so sweet and cuddly, like a little ewok. She's getting groomed Friday, so I'll try to post some pics of the dogs and the cat, let you see my kids.

Is there an award for great shopping? I've been in desperate need of summer clothes. I'm not quite naked, but getting close (and all my neighbors are buying drapes). I received $100 to shut up my incessant whining to buy clothes for the summer with the firm admonition that that's all the money I could have until fourth quarter or until we win the lottery. (*note to self: Buy Lottery ticket*)

So what does $100 buy?

3 Tank Tops
2 fancy women's T-shirts
8 men's T-shirts (just great to lounge in)
4 short-sleeved, button up shirts
4 plain T-shirts
4 pairs of satin panties
2 pairs of sunglasses
6 pairs of shorts

Damn, I'm good. I felt the need to smoke a cigarette after that shopping spree.

I am still alive, still going out of my head when Mom goes out of her head, and still hoping to turn No Good Deed into an original novel. I'd love to get feedback on it, but I'm not sure how I would do it. Should I use LJ and filter those people who are interested in being basically beta readers (though I need more feedback on plot and characters at this point rather than grammar Nazis) or should I start a Yahoo group or try to do it through e-mail? Any ideas?

What's going on in your life?

Current Location: non-celebrity rehab
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: L&O: Criminal Intent

The new laptop and the desktop arrived yesterday. I'm so busy moving in to the new laptop, but I can't wait to set everything up and organized and to start writing again. Now I'm missing all my bookmarks. I never figured out where they were on the other laptop to move them. I'm going to be writing soon! It's so great to be able to communicate again!

Current Location: In a moving handbasket
Current Mood: excited
Current Music: The Cosby Show on TV

A long time ago, apisa_b told me that

Many cultures believe that the world is ending in 2012. I've decided, keeping an open mind, to gather signs of the apocalypse.

Sign 1: Harlequin, long-term publisher of romance stories, has a computer game.

Now, I admit, this is a small sign, but definitely one that shows the world is changing in strange ways. Should Rush Limbaugh, conservative radio host, or Sarah Palin, conservative media whore, say anything intelligent, insightful and/or compassionate between now and January 1st, 2013, the Doomsday Clock will automatically move to 11:59 and the world's end will, of course, be moved up from 2012 to that point and we should all begin looking to the sky for Day-glo angels.

Here's a real cat house! Warning: Kitty Porn ahead.