A Softening and a Challenge in Everyday Ramblings

A weird angle but a pretty true red of this early dahlia.

When I was walking with Mrs. Sherlock last week, I asked her what she was doing on the 4th of July. She said she was not doing anything in particular, and as I knew it was going to be unusually warm, I asked how’s about I came over for lunch in their garden. She was surprised as I haven’t been over there in a few years. Covid, and Mr. Sherlock becoming more ornery and effortful to be around.

The thing is that they are being forced to sell their place, long story, family of a now deceased partner they bought in with 49 years ago. They are getting good legal representation, but the net result is still they need to sell unless they want to spend a fortune fighting it in court.

Mr. Sherlock is now 85 and as he said to me yesterday, he thinks he has the beginnings of dementia. He was pretty darn coherent but having some trouble getting some words out and frustrated by that. I found him to be in better shape than I expected but it was the middle of the day, and he was in a good mood and didn’t have anything to prove. And yes, we did talk about the mental acuity of our current President from his perspective.

What I noticed was a kind of softening. He is not holding his opinions with quite the same hard edge as before. His sense of humor is intact, and he asked me to read him the poem I read to my class yesterday morning, and he had a clear insight about the tone of the poem that was interesting and true.

The 4th of July is not a favorite holiday of mine and I was dreading it a bit. It worked out fine though. The cool thing right now where I am is there were no local private fireworks. They are all banned here but that didn’t seem to stop folks in other parts of the city indulging in them.

I could hear the public ones just fine as they are close, but before and after were quiet. Carlo went off and hid but came back after they were over and is fine now. One of our local schools just outside of the city limits switched to drones instead and I sure wish the city would. All the pets and wildlife…

At least this year I am in my own apartment. Last year Carlo went and hid, and it took me quite a while to find him, poor guy.

And then there is the heat. Like so many folks across the world we are headed into days of record-breaking heat. I am well aware and talking to my students about how we cannot take for granted that our systems of managing it will continue to work for us. We are older and it is hotter. My plan is to only do anything outside around the edges of the day.

I feel for folks who need to work outside.

And weirdly, shoes are an issue for me. I have a bunion on one of my feet and for the last oh, months, periodic numbness and tingling in my 2nd and 3rd toe, mostly when barefoot. I have a pair of sandals that manage the bunion but my feet get tired and achy in them and so I can’t wear them for long.

I decided to try this sandal type shoe from a place called OrthoFeet that are specifically designed for people with bunions. I need shoes I can wear to walk, you know, a few miles a day. I got them, and they come with optional arch supports. The material says try them both ways. I went for a 30-minute walk in them without the supports. My left foot was very happy.

My right foot became so painful I was almost limping by the time I got home. Not to mention, whoa baby, my right hip. Ow. Not the bunion, it was fine. It was the nerve pain in my toes. So now I am partially disabled thinking I will try the arch supports. The shoes I normally wear made my foot feel normal.

What I think is going on is that over time I have developed some sort of compensatory movement pattern to manage the bunion. What I don’t know is do I have this Morton’s Neuroma thing that folks with bunions sometimes get or is it my old friend the sciatica in my lower back flaring up.

This is my current challenge. Will the arch supports make enough of a difference so I can wear these new sandal shoes. Or will I need to continue the epic search for sandals besides my plastic Birkenstocks which I can wear around the house are not great for oh say more than a quarter mile.

Who knew? Footwear, the final frontier… to be continued…

Last updated July 06, 2024