bookmark_borderNew Book Venue

(bolding of text is mine)

Announcement:

We are very excited to announce the opening of our new web store, ACE Books and More. You can find it at www.acebooks.biz. The “ACE” in ACE Books and More is short for Allied Crest Editions. Our logo is a crest because we are the affiliate bookstore of Regal Crest Enterprises, LLC (RCE) and we provide direct distribution of RCE titles – high quality books in many genres – to both retail and wholesale customers. Every customer is important to us and we will do our very best to make sure you are satisfied with any order you place.

We are currently featuring pre-orders for the July 10th releases, and you can get those titles at $4 off the cover price. Those titles include: Struck by Keith Pyeatt, Tropical Convergence by Melissa Good and Tunnel Vision by Brenda Adcock. Besides getting these books at a lower price you will not have to wait for the official release date to roll around before your order is shipped, a benefit of ordering from ACE.

All Regal Crest titles are in the store ready for purchase. We will be adding eBooks and also some merchandise items in the near future.

Since 1999, our focus has been dedicated to producing books of the highest quality and to running a company based on respect. We intend that this new venture, ACE Books and More, will continue the drive for excellence, integrity and quality that supporters of RCE have come to expect and that ACE too will be worthy of bearing a crest that is the mark of distinction.

Happy reading!

I’m thrilled with this new site. It is smooth, nice, and freakin’ fantastic to have all RCE authors’ books in one place. Enjoy and happy reading!

bookmark_borderStuff stuff

Knee is doing much better. Still can’t straighten it out all the way but I can take as few steps using the toes. But then it hurts like the dickens later so I don’t do it very often. I see the bone doc on Tuesday. Hopefully I’ll get to start PT soon and get back to my usual crippled up self instead of this new version.

My bro and his family arrive in a month. We’ve been busy making arrangements for stuff since several things changed with my busted knee. Ryan was supposed to stay the week after and attend dinosaur camp at Gray Fossil Site but since we didn’t know if I could drive him there each day, we canceled it. We also had to cancel a trip to the Charleston Zoo with Kelli (we wanted her to see Penguin Planet) for the same reason.

Ryan, Kevin, and Lorna will go do Gray Fossil Site’s Dig For a Day. Kelli, Colleen, and myself are still trying to think up something we can do instead of the zoo. The TN Aquarium is just over the hill in Chattanooga but it takes nearly as long to get there as it would getting to Charleston. We may do the WNC Nature Center instead. It may be small, but it is packed with cool stuff without being crowded like zoos. They are one of the few places working with Red Wolf relocation. They do animal rehabilitation, too.

Kev, Colleen and Ryan will do the Segway tours at the NC Arboretum. While they are doing that, Kelli, Lorna, and myself will be at the wonderfully air conditioned Biltmore Mall.

Other than that, I don’t think we’ll plan anything else. We’ll have a list of stuff (Mt. Mitchell’s new observatory is a must at some point) to do but usually we just sit around and talk, eat, and laugh. They rent a cabin that is on Lorna’s mail route. We know the people who own the two cabins and they give them a discount. The view alone is worthy of doing nothing but gazing. And cooking out.

bookmark_borderHump Dump Umpdate

An update to this update is found at the end.

Knee: The overall pain has dropped dramatically, unless it rains then it’s a heap o’ goodness. The swelling has finally gotten to where it looks more round like a basketball and less lumpy like a football. I still can’t straighten the knee out, though. And I can balance with the toes but cannot take a step.

Hip: My hip is giving me a lot of grief. We’re trying to figure out what the problems are so we can eliminate them as much as we can. I think most of it is the entire weight of the leg is on a so-so hip socket. The tendon on the front (groin?) is very tender, hates to be moved, and isn’t happy no matter what position I try to sleep in. I can now only sleep on my back with a pillow under and to the side of that leg to position the hip and to support the un-bending knee.

Other Knee: the brace I got is great! I can wear it all day and not get the usual grossness underneath. This proves it is the latex/neoprene and it is an allergy, not heat related. The knee is very tender to the touch but it is easier to stand and hop on it now. I have a groove on the side that includes the knee cap. I’m going to have the bone doc check it out when I see him one the 23rd.

Writing: Eh, not much. Lots of ideas, though. I got Moon’s Deeds of Paksenarrion and am re-reading it. I love that book and it inspires me to write. The style is so simple, so real. There’s big info dumps because of the war strategy and stuff but overall, it is fantastic. I am re-gaining a visual image of where Sarah and crew are and that allows me to “be there” further and therefore write much more better-er.

Cats: The Tues. before I fell and broke my leg (that still sounds so weird), Lorna called me to say there were three kittens at the post office. I joined her there and we caught them. We brought them home and set them up in Mike’s Big Boy crate. They drove the dogs nuts. We had to cover the crate with a sheet at night. We knew there were going to be problems. Mike has a huge prey drive and chasing cats is fun. I could keep that under control if Sass didn’t egg him on. So when I fell and we realized how much it was screwed up, we also realized there was no way Lorna could take care of three kittens AND me AND the house AND the dogs AND our own 2 cats. So we called Mary at Asheville Pet Supply. She often finds kittens in boxes left on the store’s doorstep and has a huge cat crate set up. We called her and asked if she could take them for us and help us find homes. She did! AND then called the next day to say they’d all found homes already! All 3 went to the same home which was great. This lady decided a while back she wanted kittens but would only take any that Mary got, knowing they’d need homes. She happened to come in that morning and there they were. We’ve heard since then that they are doing great.

Dogs: Joella is now on full-time pain meds for her arthritis. She still has trouble getting up off the floor but is happier and more active. We played with the dosage for a few weeks and think we found the right amount. Mike is a handful and a half. What a teenager he is! No more snakes although there was the dead possum and the mouse. And bamboo. Lots of bamboo. And sticks. And lost toys. Lorna had to wander through the dog lot to find all the cat bowls he took outside. She has to pick them up each morning or they wander back out. Now that I’m not so stoned, I hope to re-re-restart his training again.

Friends: About a week before I fell, a close friend of ours was thrown from her horse. She broke her spine but had no spinal cord damage. She was in neuro-ICU for several days then in a room for quite some time. She’s home now and slowly recovering. It will be a long haul for her. Patti is the woman who takes care of the dogs when we both leave, like for trips up Nawth. Another friend, Elena, is doing “as good as can be expected”. Her husband is dying of cancer. Hospice has been working with them for a month or so now. The hard part for her is his mental capacity. Between the cancer and the drugs, he’s far from himself.

**I have found out that Lew died Sunday, at home where he wanted to be.

So there you have it. A big honkin’ set of updates. Did I miss anything?

bookmark_borderHumpty Dumpty Goes to the Doc

Saw the bone doc today.

The fractures have not shifted/expanded since it happened (they took x-rays today). This is good news. The plan now is to continue to take it easy over the next 3 weeks. I can move it as much as it wants to and can start to use the foot for basic balance with light weight bearing but only as much as it (and I) can tolerate.

The pain and inability to move is from the swelling, not just the breaks themselves. As the swelling goes down, so will the pain and up will got the movement. He renewed my pain med and gave another script for an anti-hurling pill. Taking the pain med means I can move it more which can help the swelling go down as long as I am smart about it.

In 3 weeks, if the swelling is down enough or even gone, I will be fitted for a brace to support the joint so I can use it more. I got one today for the other knee to support it as I start to move around more. I already have several but this one is better in that it is latex/neoprene free and has metal stays on each side. This will raise my confidence level tremendously! I am assuming I will get the same type of brace in 3 weeks. From there, it is just slowly moving on, letting everything heal and strengthen.

So no cast, no surgery. Just slow recovery. If there is still swelling and/or pain in 3-4 mos, then we’ll do an arthroscopic peek into the knee to make sure all is well. I’m relieved that the fractures are solid enough that it won’t finish breaking. I’m frustrated that it won’t be a quick fix but instead this slow, creeping process. Eh, well, could be worse. I could have the leg stuck in a cast and be sitting outside with the miter saw about to cut it off.