I Cannot Patella Lie
Feb. 9th, 2010 11:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drpaisleyThis morning began with Dragonet being unable to open her car door ('95 Mercury Mystique). I went to help her, and we got the passenger door open, and she crawled in and headed off to another day of training. About 15 minutes later, she called in minor hysterics and said she couldn't get the window down to wave her card at the gate to get into work parking. So she came back home and I gave her the keys to the Intrepid. She handed me keys from her keychain, and I stuck them in my pocket.
At 8.45, I went downstairs to head to work. It should be noted that my left knee, which was acting up after the Xmas blizzard, had been stiffening up over the weekend, and was bad enough that I wore the brace to work (which was a 10 hour day, yay monies!). It was worse this morning, swollen and stiff and painful. I managed to get dressed, put on my coat, and reached into the pocket to pull out the keys. What emerged in my hand was the key to the van. Fortunately, we had a spare set of keys to the Mystique in the basket by the door. I grabbed them and hobbled out to the car to try and open the driver's door. Alas, the electronic mechanism was not interested in playing in the balmy 8˚ temp, so I had to clamber in the passenger door and slide across into the driver's seat. Then it was off to work, where I discovered that the windows still were not working, so I had to clamber out, gimp around the car to wave my magic card at the reader, then gimp back and re-insert myself (not a euphemism) and drive into the garage.
So, of course, in my hobbled condition, the big job of the day was installing cut vinyl lettering at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art fora new exhibit of donations made to the museum in honor of its 75th anniversary. Which involved a fair amount of clambering up and down a ladder while trying to get the letters to politely peel off the premask and go onto the wall. This took most of two hours, and then there was the long walk to and from the installation area, which left me feeling like I should be playing Chester in a summer stock production of "Gunsmoke: The Musical." The trip there and back was made in an SUV with the middle seat racked all the way forward to make room for the box of vinyl, and I was jammed in sideways, which made getting out almost as bad as with the Mystique.
After finally getting back to work at 2p and a brief lunch, I spent the rest of the day slaving over a hot table laminating* and prepping yet more Ha//mark stuff so I can cut it all out tomorrow. At 5p, I limped back to the car, which still wouldn't open. So I slowly forced my way back into the driver's seat, and on a whim tried the electronic lock button. The door lock moved to the open position, so I tried the handle. Amazingly, it opened. Alas, when I shut the door, it didn't latch. However, the window did work, so I rolled it down and was holding the door shut with my left arm as I started to drive home. After a few blocks, I realized I was so preoccupied with all the crap I had failed to put on the seat belt. I pulled it out, and looked at the door handle, and looked at the seatbelt, and decided "what the hell."
I threaded it through the handle, and it was just long enough to snap into the buckle. Didn't keep it fully closed, but enough to keep out the wind and not let the annoying "Hey, assclam, the door is open!" bell ring incessantly. I made it home without further incident, and after disentangling the seat belt, I opened the door, then closed it. Click, said the door. I shoved it, but it did not fly open. I got out, shut it again, and it still stayed shut. Victory! Ideally it will work tomorrow morning (and no, I did not engage the electronic locks).
But back to the knee. It has spent the evening under the care of ibuprofen and ice, and seems a bit better, though still very stiff and swollen (enough that at one point I forgot I had taken the brace off for the evening). If I don't have to work Monday, I am going to try and get into the KC Free Clinic on Main and get it looked at. My friendly neighborhood Tully thinks I tore the meniscus. In any event, to document this, as I did last winter's Bruise Banter, here is photo one of the Big Knee (it's my left knee, thus the one on the right in the photo. The other one is included for contrast, and to show that even when healthy, my knees ain't right).
At 8.45, I went downstairs to head to work. It should be noted that my left knee, which was acting up after the Xmas blizzard, had been stiffening up over the weekend, and was bad enough that I wore the brace to work (which was a 10 hour day, yay monies!). It was worse this morning, swollen and stiff and painful. I managed to get dressed, put on my coat, and reached into the pocket to pull out the keys. What emerged in my hand was the key to the van. Fortunately, we had a spare set of keys to the Mystique in the basket by the door. I grabbed them and hobbled out to the car to try and open the driver's door. Alas, the electronic mechanism was not interested in playing in the balmy 8˚ temp, so I had to clamber in the passenger door and slide across into the driver's seat. Then it was off to work, where I discovered that the windows still were not working, so I had to clamber out, gimp around the car to wave my magic card at the reader, then gimp back and re-insert myself (not a euphemism) and drive into the garage.
So, of course, in my hobbled condition, the big job of the day was installing cut vinyl lettering at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art fora new exhibit of donations made to the museum in honor of its 75th anniversary. Which involved a fair amount of clambering up and down a ladder while trying to get the letters to politely peel off the premask and go onto the wall. This took most of two hours, and then there was the long walk to and from the installation area, which left me feeling like I should be playing Chester in a summer stock production of "Gunsmoke: The Musical." The trip there and back was made in an SUV with the middle seat racked all the way forward to make room for the box of vinyl, and I was jammed in sideways, which made getting out almost as bad as with the Mystique.
After finally getting back to work at 2p and a brief lunch, I spent the rest of the day slaving over a hot table laminating* and prepping yet more Ha//mark stuff so I can cut it all out tomorrow. At 5p, I limped back to the car, which still wouldn't open. So I slowly forced my way back into the driver's seat, and on a whim tried the electronic lock button. The door lock moved to the open position, so I tried the handle. Amazingly, it opened. Alas, when I shut the door, it didn't latch. However, the window did work, so I rolled it down and was holding the door shut with my left arm as I started to drive home. After a few blocks, I realized I was so preoccupied with all the crap I had failed to put on the seat belt. I pulled it out, and looked at the door handle, and looked at the seatbelt, and decided "what the hell."
I threaded it through the handle, and it was just long enough to snap into the buckle. Didn't keep it fully closed, but enough to keep out the wind and not let the annoying "Hey, assclam, the door is open!" bell ring incessantly. I made it home without further incident, and after disentangling the seat belt, I opened the door, then closed it. Click, said the door. I shoved it, but it did not fly open. I got out, shut it again, and it still stayed shut. Victory! Ideally it will work tomorrow morning (and no, I did not engage the electronic locks).
But back to the knee. It has spent the evening under the care of ibuprofen and ice, and seems a bit better, though still very stiff and swollen (enough that at one point I forgot I had taken the brace off for the evening). If I don't have to work Monday, I am going to try and get into the KC Free Clinic on Main and get it looked at. My friendly neighborhood Tully thinks I tore the meniscus. In any event, to document this, as I did last winter's Bruise Banter, here is photo one of the Big Knee (it's my left knee, thus the one on the right in the photo. The other one is included for contrast, and to show that even when healthy, my knees ain't right).