I'm a great-aunt again! The baby girl was born at 12:26am on December 30, 2009. She weighed in at 8 pounds 8 ounces and was 20 inches long. And is she ever cute! (I'm posting her picture so you can see that I'm telling the truth.) She is my sister, Diana's eighth grandchild, and was welcomed by dad Darin, mom Jill, and big sister Zoe'.
We were beginning to think that she was never going to put in an appearance. At Christmas, Jill was nicely huge, in that beautiful pregnant way. She had hoped that the baby would have come before then, but no such luck. Jill went to see her doctor on her due date, December 28th. He told her that he wouldn't induce until she was five days past her due date. Luckily for Jill, she only had to wait another day and a half before her labor started in earnest.
And the result was this beautiful little girl who's name is Jade Katherine Bowers. Welcome to the family, Jade.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Sunday, January 03, 2010
Oh, How I Hate The Cold
Well, winter is really, really here. The temperature outside, according to WeatherBug is -2 right now. -2!. I had gotten up early, planning on going to church, but I decided to find out what the temperature was just to be on the safe side. I'm glad I did. No going out yet for me. You see, I have two titanium knees, and they don't like the cold at all.
One of the admonitions that my doctors had give me after my knee replacement surgeries many years ago was to avoid frigid temperatures whenever possible. I didn't really pay too much attention to that during the first two years after my knees were replaced because the winters had been mild ones. Only a day or two during each of those winters had dipped into the single digits, temperature wise. And then it happened. My third winter with my new knees, I had driven over to the train station in the morning to head downtown to work. The temperature was in the low twenties. During the day, however, a cold(er) front moved in, and by the time I got home that evening, the temperature was only about four degrees above zero.
I hurried from the station to where my car was parked. Since I was able to park in the "Handicap" section, my car was about 150 feet from the door of the station. I got to the car, opened the door, and went to sit down in the car. A strange thing happened. My left knee would not bend. I had to manually force the knee into a bent position to get it into the car. After letting the car warm up for a few minutes, I drove the eight blocks home and pulled into the garage. I opened the car door and had to use the leg of my slacks to pull my left leg out of the car. I was panicked.
Once I got inside, I immediately called my doctor's service. He called me back a few minutes later and asked what was wrong. I told him about my left leg. He said, "Are you nuts? What were you doing outside in these kind of temperatures?" He then reminded me that I had been warned by both him and my orthopaedic surgeon to avoid extremely cold weather. He told me that once the knee joint warmed up I would be fine, but that I should never, never, never go out in the cold if the temperature was below ten degrees. It seems that titanium doesn't really like the cold very much.
I have, of course, gone out when the temperature was below 10, but I always make sure that I have extra covering over my knees. I wear tights under my slacks and I alse wear my long winter coat instead of the more stylish short jacket. After all, I was still working until last year, and I couldn't afford to take off every time the temperature dropped too low. I have to admit, though, that it is nice not to have to get so dressed up to go out in such cold weather. As the years have gone by, my joints have all come to dislike the cold as much as my knes, which brings me to this morning.
I had planned on going to church this morning, but after seeing what the temperature is, I have decided to stay put in my apartment until the mercury starts to rise. It's supposed to get up to 15 by this afternoon and I'll try to go out then. I haven't been out of my apartment since last Monday due to the cold, and I need to pick up some groceries. In the meantime, I will continue to dress in layers and layers to keep warm. I hope you all are keeping warm, too.
One of the admonitions that my doctors had give me after my knee replacement surgeries many years ago was to avoid frigid temperatures whenever possible. I didn't really pay too much attention to that during the first two years after my knees were replaced because the winters had been mild ones. Only a day or two during each of those winters had dipped into the single digits, temperature wise. And then it happened. My third winter with my new knees, I had driven over to the train station in the morning to head downtown to work. The temperature was in the low twenties. During the day, however, a cold(er) front moved in, and by the time I got home that evening, the temperature was only about four degrees above zero.
I hurried from the station to where my car was parked. Since I was able to park in the "Handicap" section, my car was about 150 feet from the door of the station. I got to the car, opened the door, and went to sit down in the car. A strange thing happened. My left knee would not bend. I had to manually force the knee into a bent position to get it into the car. After letting the car warm up for a few minutes, I drove the eight blocks home and pulled into the garage. I opened the car door and had to use the leg of my slacks to pull my left leg out of the car. I was panicked.
Once I got inside, I immediately called my doctor's service. He called me back a few minutes later and asked what was wrong. I told him about my left leg. He said, "Are you nuts? What were you doing outside in these kind of temperatures?" He then reminded me that I had been warned by both him and my orthopaedic surgeon to avoid extremely cold weather. He told me that once the knee joint warmed up I would be fine, but that I should never, never, never go out in the cold if the temperature was below ten degrees. It seems that titanium doesn't really like the cold very much.
I have, of course, gone out when the temperature was below 10, but I always make sure that I have extra covering over my knees. I wear tights under my slacks and I alse wear my long winter coat instead of the more stylish short jacket. After all, I was still working until last year, and I couldn't afford to take off every time the temperature dropped too low. I have to admit, though, that it is nice not to have to get so dressed up to go out in such cold weather. As the years have gone by, my joints have all come to dislike the cold as much as my knes, which brings me to this morning.
I had planned on going to church this morning, but after seeing what the temperature is, I have decided to stay put in my apartment until the mercury starts to rise. It's supposed to get up to 15 by this afternoon and I'll try to go out then. I haven't been out of my apartment since last Monday due to the cold, and I need to pick up some groceries. In the meantime, I will continue to dress in layers and layers to keep warm. I hope you all are keeping warm, too.
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