Of traffic, snow, and ankles

[akirlu]

My god, it's snowing. I don't think I've ever seen the traffic map of the Seattle area look so grim. It's 7:30 in the evening, and long swathes of the map are still black. Black means stopped. This after the WSDOT was supposedly all ready for the weather, having prepped truckloads of salted sand last night, after learning their lesson in December. Imagine if they hadn't learned their lesson.

If I had been at work today, I'd probably still be out there, in it, trying to get home. Probably sitting on an idling bus going nowhere, being bored out of my skull by Kelly Link. But lucky me, I had the good fortune to sprain my ankle last night while coming back from the laundry room. It was only hailing, last night. The irony there was that I was coming back the long way, by the paved path, to avoid slipping. I safely traversed the shortcut across the lawn any number of times, but walk on the sidewalk, and boom, down I go, with all the grace of a bag of rocks.

So. Compression, elevation, ice, and rest. It doesn't quite scan, but I've been doing it anyway.

Just now I gimped outside with the dog briefly so we could see the snow. It's like snow in a real winter place. It's airy and dry and goes skirrr-crunch skirr-crunch when you walk on it. It's limning the edges of all the bare tree branches and muffling the rooftops and sticking, even on the asphalt. We didn't stay out long, because Sarah became a Very Bouncy Dog. I had forgotten one of the fundamental principles of Sarah-osity: Snow is Envigorating. Bounce. Bounce bounce. Very charming, her bounciness, but I didn't want to get tipped brass over teakettle a second time, so we came in again. I may gimp out again with just the camera later to take flash photos of the snow-laden trees.

So remember kids, don't call it Global Warming, 'cause not everything will get warmer. This is Global Climate Change.

Comments

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

So. Compression, elevation, ice, and rest. It doesn't quite scan, but I've been doing it anyway.

"Tension, apprehension and dissension have begun."

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's the one it doesn't scan to.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Okay, this is not the universe breaking the O'Briens one at a time. This is the laundry room breaking the O'Briens one at a time. You were looking for someplace else to live? It's a sign, I tell you.

Are Hal's crutches adjustable to fit you?

Crutches

[hal-obrien.livejournal.com]

"This is the laundry room breaking the O'Briens one at a time."

Yeah, that was my thought.

"Are Hal's crutches adjustable to fit you?"

I think they were, but "were" is the operative word -- we donated them to the local senior center, a few months after I didn't need them anymore.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I think it's a mild sprain. This evening I'm a lot closer to normal mobility of the ankle than I was this morning. Swelling's down, too, I think, though it's hard to tell through the ace bandage. I suspect if I need mobility tools, a cane will suffice, and I'm actually hopeful that with a bit of care, even that won't be necessary.

But yes, laundry room of doom, for sure.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Wow. Ow.

[threeringedmoon.livejournal.com]

I hope your strain improves quickly. Try not to do what I did: I had a mild strain of my left ankle after Hap bucked me off over a decade ago. It felt so good two days later that I went for a walk with the dogs. Stepped in a hold. The mild strain became a fairly severe one at that point.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm with you on that hope. I'm trying not to be too macho about it. It seems like it may be a fairly mild one. It feels much improved since about last night, but I'm still trying to mostly keep off it as best I can. I seem to be doing some weird sort of compensating, because today on the bus I noticed that I seem to have pulled the quadriceps in the opposite leg. Still, the increased gimpiness will give me that much more reason to stay the hell off it for a while.

[cluefairy-j.livejournal.com]

So Seattle has snow but Boston doesn't. That's just not fair.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

It's a sign from the Snow Fairy. You should so totally move back to Seattle. I have to say, Redmond has a better/deeper snow load. Seattle itself seems to have only gotten an inch or so. Out at our place it seems more like four inches or more. I wish I could have stayed home to take pictures.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

It doesn't scan because they're in the wrong order:

Rest
Ice
Compression
Elevation

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that really scans better, but the first letters spell out RICE if you do it that way.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's how they tell you to remember it.

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

So far I haven't read anything I liked by Link, but everyone else talks about her like she's the best thing since sliced bread. You find her boring?

MKK

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm reading the collection Magic for Beginners just now, and while I liked "The Faery Handbag" okay -- though not, I guess, to the rocked-my-socks degree that would send me out into the snow to vote it a Hugo or anything -- but the rest of the stories so far seem sprawly and plotlessly episodic, an admixture of only-mildly-interesting surrealism and long, tedious conversations and parades of neuroses. Different stories have different balances of surrealism versus yakking, but...eh. Or possibly I should just skip over "Stone Animals," which is clearly doing nothing for me, and coloring my cumulative view of the rest of the book, and see if the next one is any better.

[farmgirl1146.livejournal.com]

Now, four days later, I hope you ankle is better. Thanks for the reminder the it is Global Climate Change, not just warming.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Thanks, the ankle is definitely some better -- I've got good range of motion and can walk with a natural gait -- though going *down* stairs is still a little extra slow, and I suspect I'll be friends with elevation-as-I-can and ace bandages for day wear for a while yet. As sprains go, it seems pretty mild, but definitely a sprain so not going away overnight, either.