Friday, 7, Sunday, 9, Tuesday - Wednesday, 11 - 12 July 2023
We were here for 6 days, spending 2 of them touring the area (see next 2 posts) and the other 4 days here in the campground.
It was pretty quiet here, because the campsites are fairly well-separated and scattered through some thick trees. Occasionally some of the neighbors would be a little loud, but nobody got rowdy or anything like that.
The showers in this campground are incredible. Each shower stall has a shower curtain but no other privacy. The hooks for towels or clothes are at least 3' away from the shower area, and the only possible way to hope for any privacy is to go super early in the morning (before anyone else gets up) and take the last stall in the row. Not an enticing prospect.
I managed to get some level of internet access now and then, but for the most part it was pretty terrible. I did finally complete a couple of posts for early this month, but with the lousy access it went really slowly. In fact, loading photos was out of the question and I couldn't even check to be sure I'd actually saved something I'd written because it all went so slowly.
One morning I was reaching up to pat Lily on the top bunk and put my hand on the back of the bench seat to balance. Jimmy was racing around the cabin and jumped on my hand, dug in his claws to give himself a good purchase, and then launched himself up to the upper bunk. He left 3 puncture wounds on my hand that were deep enough that 2 of them bled all day. I had to put Band-Aids on them to keep from bleeding all over the cabin, and every time I checked to see if I could take them off, I started bleeding again. He really dug in.
But sadly, that wasn't the worst damage he caused me. One night at bedtime, I put Bucky in the kittens' carrying case and then tried to retrieve Jimmy. He was on the top bunk, up against the far wall, and wouldn't come down. So I climbed up on the front bench seat, climbed up on the back of the seat, climbed up on the top bunk, got him, and then reversed the operation. But when I was either on the back of the bench or on the seat of the bench - I couldn't remember after it happened - I put my foot down toward the next level but my foot couldn't find it. Unfortunately my momentum was moving me down, while holding Jimmy of course, and I didn't have a spare hand to save myself so fell hard on the floor just behind my left side. I was somehow still holding Jimmy, but naturally this all scared him and he jumped to the seat - but didn't scratch me (miraculously) and stayed waiting for me on the seat (amazingly). So I managed to pick myself up and put him into the case with his brother and took stock of my situation. Sore, was the answer.
As the days went by, the soreness got worse instead of better. It felt like I'd bruised a rib, though the time I did that before the soreness seemed close to the surface of my skin, whereas this time the pain seemed farther inside. Over time I came to the conclusion that I may very well have bruised one or more ribs. I'd forgotten that the rib cage runs all the way around the body, so the ribs in my back might have gotten whammed when I whammed into the floor. From what was a considerable height.
And as the days went by, I began to notice clearly that it was a big mistake to cough. The problem with that is that I've been coughing frequently because of my asthma acting up, only now the level of pain that results is more than I want. Oddly, my body thought that too - it wasn't just my mind that decided it - and I started noticing my body actually refusing to allow coughs to happen without me even thinking about it. Odd sensation.
On the other hand, I was able to bend over the kitchen sink to wash my hair (since I refused to use those ridiculous shower facilities). So I guess I didn't do any major damage, if I can bend over. I'm learning not to lift my left arm - and other accommodations for the injury.
I've also learned not to do any serious groaning because when I do, every one of my critters looks at me with real apprehension. I don't know how they know there's something wrong beyond just the usual out-of-shape old lady problems, but they do and they don't like it. So I'm starting to keep my feeling sorry for myself inside so as not to upset the babies. Probably just as well.
I went to the trouble of looking up the closest walk-in clinic - even got directions to it. But I finally decided I've lived through a bruised rib before - and a pulled shoulder, as far as that goes - so I can live through this little situation. I doubt if they could do anything for me anyway, if some internal bruises are all it is. I can't take most pain-killers because I can't take any kind of opioids, and I wouldn't want to take them anyway because of needing to be alert to drive. So I ended up not going.
One night I decided to celebrate my sister's life, since it was mainly her memory that brought me here - she spent the last 3 years of her life in Durham and died here so it's been impossible for me to come to this area without thinking of her.
Because she was only 21 when she died, we had no time together as adults - so I was really only celebrating by doing things my memory connects with her. I had some Stouffer's lasagna, because I remember eating lasagna at an Italian restaurant either in Durham or Chapel Hill. And I had some chianti, because it seemed to fit somehow. And I watched the movie Denial, because I think that situation would have meant something to her. That's the movie I've mentioned before about a trial in England brought by a holocaust denier who sued an American professor for libel because she'd said he was a holocaust denier. (She won.)
I know Louise was thinking about going to law school not long before she died and I think this trial would have resonated with her.
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