Saturday, October 23, 2010

S.O.S. !!

It's no secret; when it comes to writing, I'm an old fashion gal. For years, in and out of college, I hand wrote everything, and then typed it up on a 1896 Underwood. Finally, around 1995, my nephew bought me a computer, so I could use it as a word processor.

Thereafter, I wrote everything longhand and then typed it into my computer.

I haven't evolved much since the 90's. Things like this blog I can compose in my trusty Office Writer, but major projects still start with pen and ink, as did the majority of my correspondence. That is, until e-mail.
People are not really speaking English on e-mail, are they? Are these users a bunch of x-military folks? A former college friend, who joined the Navy, always sent me letters that were mostly alphabetical soup. I knew what a CO and a PX was, but after that it was all Greek to me.

I REALIZE e-mailers aren't the first to use their own brand of short hand. Way before secretarial pools and stenographers, there were native Americans and smoke signals. Maybe my ancestors were just as bad as folks using e-mail today.

(Our clan smoke signal) “Being attacked by enemy tribe, can you send mighty warriors?” (notice OUR clan always used complete sentences. That's an Irish Indian for ya!)

(Their clan smoke signal) “ROTFLOL” (“rolling on tepee floor, laughing out loud”).

Well, if you can't beat them, join them. So...



BTW: Congrats to my fellow Broomstix founders on the official cover of their forthcoming YA book, “Sirenz.” The sub-title is “The devil is in the retail.” I gave them that. Yep! And, I am also in the book, as a non-consequential walk-on character named Katharine. She's a tarot reader. She's also so marginal she may be edited out by now, or re-named Esmeralda.

It's YA, but a regular A would also enjoy it. When it comes out, read it. I did – three times in manuscript form.

P.S. As to my foot.. surgery will be mid-November. There is no way, three years after having Charcot, that the bone can be eased into place. The doctor intends to excise the ulcer, clear out all the scar tissue around the bones in my ankle, fuse them and then set them into an external fixative device. Rods will be passed through the leg bones to hold everything in place. I'll be in this for three months. It's going to be a major process, with high risk and no guarantees, but if it works, I may be able to have a a normal foot. If it doesn't, well...

My current doctor said “Hey you could get your life back from before the Charcot. You could wind up with a whole new foot!”
“Yeah...made of plastic!”
“Don't laugh! Don't say that! I don't want to hear that!” and he covered his ears and left the room. Guess he doesn't have much truck with that famous Irish Lanape dark humor.

I DID find out one interesting fact. The doc in Bensalem said that my foot is totally dislocated from my ankle. In other words: TABACTTFB (The ankle bone ain't connected to the foot bone). The only things holding my foot onto my leg are muscle and ligaments.



                                                          OMG!OMG!OMG!

1 comment:

  1. Do you know if the Pauline Campanelli image was ever published as a print? It is lovely.

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