Last week I saw the orthopedic surgeon about my hip. He told me that both hips are bone on bone, although it's only my left hip that's painful. In a couple of weeks I'll be going in for an injection in the hip, which may or may not help. Apparently hip injections aren't as certain of working as injections in other joints. A hip replacement is not in the cards right now because my BMI is too high for them to do surgery. When I lose 45 pounds (21 kg) we can discuss a replacement but he thinks that just losing the weight and not having that pressure on the joint might relieve the pain and make surgery unnecessary.
So, I have some answers and a plan but I'm frustrated because I'm also still in pain and it looks like this will be the case for a while. Unless that hip injection has some effect. It is so hard to just live at the moment. Working is difficult, doing housework is difficult, just going places is difficult. It's so damn depressing. I am happy that the surgeon is open to the possibility that surgery might not be needed. Sometimes I feel that surgeons trained to operate so they end up having tunnel vision as far as other possibilities.
Reading
I finished both books I talked about last week. I was not thrilled with Eruption, the exploding volcano thriller by Crichton and Patterson. It got cheesy with clunky dialogue. I really expected better with those 2 names attached to it. I finished it but it was kind of a hate read.
The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill was much more my jam! It was about a mountain family who makes bargains with the Fae. If you've ever read fairy tales, you know you have to be careful when bargaining with fairies. For years there were prescribed bargains for the family to follow. But one member started winging it and creating her own bargains. What could go wrong? A lot! That book was so good that I stayed up until 2 am one morning reading and it's been quite a while since I've done that (I'm an early riser for work so I go to bed around 10).
Not sure what's next on the list. I have some more Diane Duane books to read from the bundle I bought a while ago and I downloaded a few of them onto the Kobo. I also have a book that I was lured into buying because of someone I follow on Bluesky. Have you heard of the Surprised Eel Historian? He dispenses delightful eel facts illustrated mainly with medieval memes but he also creates maps. He was talking about a book he'd done the maps for, Oathbreakers The War of Brothers That Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe. I like history, it looked interesting had the authors' previous book had a lot of good reviews so I thought, why not? Ok, I wasn't lured so much as turned into that Fry meme, "Take my money!"
Watching
I went and saw a movie this weekend, "Flow." This is a Latvian animated film, no dialogue and the main character is a CAT. How could I resist? I loved this movie - it was such a beautiful film, both its animation and the story it told. The cat's world floods and it finds refuge on a boat with several other animals. The group learns how to work together to ride out the flood. That is such a bare bones, wooden description that I know I'm totally not selling it. Go watch the trailer!
I found a new-to-me Youtube channel, Natural World Facts, that has absolutely stunning undersea photography. The video that first caught my attention was Into the Abyss: Creatures of the Midwater. This is all actual photography, no AI. I think angler fish are both so cool and so creepy as heck. As are most of the other bioluminescent creatures. I wasn't intending to watch the whole video when I started it - thought that maybe I'd save it for later. But it was mesmerizing!
I'm wondering if I need to change the naming system for the blog posts. I wasn't sure where I was going with this when I started so I just started numbering them. I see others who do weekly posts number them by the week of the year, or put a date and a number. I guess I'll figure it out by next week. Or not! It might be just end up being Weekly Wrap Up ad infinitum!