Doubling Down

My 3 a.m. cellphone alarm alerted me this morning for what was to be my fifth consecutive six-block walk at around that same time of night as I seek to regain the mobility I have lost when I damaged my right knee in a fall early on the 1st of the month.

This time I took a walking stick, approximately five feet long.

I must confess that it gave me confidence, helping me to walk more quickly than the previous four walks. Anytime the quadriceps muscles along each side of my knee felt like they might fail or spasm, the stick offered me the support to keep walking instead of stopping to regain my balance like I had to do in those other walks.

The stick also gave me added confidence in the context of having to defend myself. I just didn't like the telltale noise it made each time the wood clacked against the sidewalk ─ I prefer anonymity, so I tried to contact the stick as lightly as possible, which did somewhat reduce its purpose.

Fairly early into the walk I was to discern what was probably a South Asian male well ahead of me who was wearing what were probably white runners. Fortunately he was not coming my way, but I seemed to be overtaking the damned laggard, which was most irritating. So was the fact that at least twice the prick stood still, further allowing me to close the distance.

I suspect he was likely engrossed in a cellphone screen.

Happily he was only an annoyance for ─ at very most ─ a third of my walk before he turned into the driveway of a home and was gone from sight.

Anyway, as usual, it was good to get back to the security of home.

I was probably back to bed by about 5:30 a.m.

I rose anew around 8 a.m., finding my right leg to be evidencing the aftermath of the increased pace of my walk. For one thing it is considerably stiffer anytime I need to get to my feet, and it is much weaker initially, forcing me to hold onto something as I move so that I have assurance, for buckling always feels to be a threat.

By the way, I have effectively given up on visiting the Surrey Memorial emergency department to have myself checked out. Shortly after I had risen for my walk, the wait times website claimed to expect well over 10 hours ─ and I am sure that those hours only count following getting checked in, which action can take an hour if the lineup is advanced like it was when I was at the hospital the day of my accident.

My younger brother was up this morning shortly ahead of 9 a.m., but I waited till nearly 9:15 a.m. before going downstairs to boil water for my day's first mug of instant coffee and then to join him.

When he invited me to put our Android TV Box to work, I tuned in a nearly 2½-hour (2:29:06) video streamed March 16 to Rumble's TheLastAmericanVagabond channel: US Government Continues Israel's Illegal War On Yemen & Trump Doubling Down On Free Speech Attack.

Welcome to The Daily Wrap Up, a concise show dedicated to bringing you the most relevant independent news, as we see it, from the last 24 hours.

All Video Source Links Can Be Found Here At The Last American Vagabond: https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/us-illegal-yemen-war-free-speech

I warned my brother that I would be tuning out at 11 a.m. in order to continue with the two-hour older (2019?) video we've slowly been working through from YouTube's Talasbuan channel.

And so I did ─ by then we had watched an hour and 35 minutes of the 2½-hour video. I find that the videos of Ryan Christian are as one-sided and relentless in their content as are those of Max Igan (The Crowhouse). It would be impossible for me to watch each video as one became available at either channel. I can't even watch a full video anymore whenever I may tune one in, which is not often.

I had hoped that we would get through the Talasbuan video, for we had about an hour to go. But at 11:30 a.m. my brother announced his desire for more bed rest; consequently we are not yet done (and I think that this may have been our fourth sitting).

My wife was only scheduled to work the latter part of today, so she rose around noon if not somewhat before, and while she was freshening up in the bathroom I opted to take my afternoon nap without having a meal.

When I rose later ─ maybe around 1:30 p.m. ─ my wife ensured that I helped myself to the two dishes she had prepared. One was a special tasty thick mushroom soup, the other a delicious pasta.

While I was napping, my brother had his bed rest and apparently chauffeured Bev off to her bank and to the government liquor store so she could buy another box of her preferred white wine.

After their return, he then headed out afoot to catch a bus and engage his essentially daily social drinking, but at least he was back again well before 7 p.m. for a change. My wife left for work mid-afternoon or so.

Today has been a bath day, so I got that extended chore over with at the end of the afternoon. It is still difficult with my bad knee, climbing in and out of the tub, and to even manage to get myself sitting down in it. Drying and giving the tub a bit of a scour afterwards is also a cautious process.

I might as well break from this post and see if my brother is soon going to invite me downstairs to finally use our Android TV Box to tune in some of the shows he and I follow in common ─ he has watched none of them in the five previous evenings, so I would think that he must be getting weary of Bev's choices via our basic cable programming. He has no idea how to use the Android TV Box for himself, so even when she goes to bed and he can watch T.V. on his own, he still has poor choices.

But I will not be available to him if he's going to keep me waiting. If I am not invited down before 9 p.m., it will be too late. And at 8 p.m. I am likely to be tuning in a show here at my bedside computer so that I have cause to be enjoying a can of beer.

So here I will break, and give a brief report before publishing.

★★★

Well, I finally got the summons just ahead of 8 p.m. Ergo, it shall be a late evening for me, with no early a.m. walk overnight.