We were going to a cookout tonight, but this morning we decided we would go out to Books-a-Million today for our frozen hot chocolate treat, as there was more of a chance of rain tomorrow. We still slept in (with a great rage of thunder booming out sometime during the night; I asked James blurrily about 8 o'clock: "Was I dreaming last night or was that real thunder?"), and had breakfast, and headed out before noon.

Between his fall down the stairs (twice) and the degenerative arthritis in his feet, knees, and hips, James has several nerve problems, and one is a bad case of sciatica, which affects his right leg. However, in the last couple months, he's been having problems with his right foot going numb when he drives. Now, the truck is twelve years old and the seats have gotten saggy in the years since February 2005. He was complaining about feeling like he was sinking down, so during the winter I bought him a seat cushion for the car with the sciatic gap at the rear, and I think it helped for a while. Still, this foot thing was happening. Just recently he got out of the truck and he couldn't feet the foot and was practically walking on his ankle. I was horrified because he looked like he was going to break it.

Today that started up after we got on the road for Acworth. It was so bad that he pulled over to the cutout for the entrance to a housing development to let me drive. I used the seat cushion as a backrest, and my driving pillow, sat down firmly in the seat and...what the hell?

Apparently the 12-year-old springs on the left side of the seat have given out. When you sit driving you are higher on the right than on the left, and I noticed immediately that when I drove that my right leg started aching trying to keep myself level in the seat. And think of him with the sciatica compensating for that. No wonder his right leg is cramping up and the foot going numb! He said the moment he sat in the passenger seat, the cramp eased, and while the sciatic pain didn't go away completely, he had no problem with a cramp or any more numbness.

(Before we drove home, I took one of the old towels that we keep in the middle of the front seat for Tucker to ride on, and folded it up several times and put it on that left side. With the cushion on top, James said it was much better and thanked me for figuring it out. Sometimes you just need someone to look at something in a new way.)

Anyway, we looked around Books-a-Million, enjoyed the frozen hot chocolate; James bought a "Cooks Country" magazine and I got a book about the slow food movement and eating better by eating locally. We got home around three, I walked Tucker and put up the flag, and relaxed until it was time to leave for the cookout at the Spiveys.

Had a great time. Everyone brought something to grill and Ken cooked; there were three pies and various veggies and fruit trays. The Butlers brought vegetarian baked beans, we brought cookies and nuts (well, besides ourselves), there were chips...in short, a perfect cookout, and we sat and yakked for a couple of hours. The one fly in the ointment was that my tooth was hurting again and even though my steak was cut into small pieces I had to eat them one by one a few shreds at a time.

Came home to watch a couple of eps of Make Room for Daddy and then the different military programs they showed on our local PBS station today, including a couple documentaries on "Easy Company" of Band of Brothers fame. Someone was popping fireworks outside and Tucker unhappily attached himself to the sofa as if its bulk would protect him. When it eased off around 10:30 I took him out. It looks like they sold the house down the street; the sign is gone, there's a car in the driveway, and I could see some things in the windows.

Labels: friends, health, holidays, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:28:00 PM

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