Weather Report

Well, okay, so not a real weather report, but my version. Right now - at 7:30 in the morning - outside it is already 98 degrees - going on 100 - and today, like most days in the Sandbox, is going to be hot and sunny. And humid. Very, very humid. It was humid yesterday. The kind of humid that means your hair is going to be wildly uncontrollable. Today's MSN weather report says it will be 114 degrees outside. I have no clue what the humidity percentage "technically" is, but suffice it to say that it is a lot. A lot!

The Kids and I didn't go for our morning jaunt today. For a couple of reasons - the first because DH and I were up until one o'clock in the morning watching the first six episodes from the very first series of Lost. I know. I am way late to that party. People have been watching this show and talking about it for years. I'd seen an episode or two here and there but couldn't get into it. I'm hooked. I finally went to bed - after six shows. DH was still up but I made him promise he wouldn't watch any more of it without me - and when he first put it in and asked me if I wanted to watch it, I said, "Nah." Go ahead. I remained on the couch however, and by episode two wasn't moving my butt off the couch. We'll watch more tonight. Needless to say, I didn't get up at 4:30 or 5 to get The Kids out there before it started to get nasty outside - and now it is quite unpleasant - and as much as The Kids think they want to be out there - they don't. Looks like we will spend much of our day - after I get back - playing with our new toys... That'll work, too, but a walk is definitely better. Sorry, Kids. Promise I'll go to bed early enough tonight to get out to walk tomorrow.

I am going to the clinic this morning. Seeing Dr. M. about my knee again... It is just a follow up appointment which I wanted to cancel, but after the fuss I caused about seeing him, no way I'm canceling! He won't have anything to say to me, different than what he said to me the last time I saw him, because I haven't done what I was told to do when I saw him the first time - i.e., get a knee brace and do five weeks of physical therapy. Not because I didn't want to follow his advice, but because it was only a couple of days after I saw him that I headed for the States - and he knew I was headed for the States and wasn't going to be able to get in for the physical therapy - although I did try to get fitted for the brace - and that didn't work out like I thought it would. I can go this morning and get that taken care of, before I see Dr. M. And, I can schedule my five weeks of PT appointments. Oh joy.

What I do not want to do today is get dressed. Really get dressed. On the days I don't leave the house - but for walking with The Kids - my "uniform" does not change. I get up in the morning and put walking clothes on - bike shorts and a tank top - and walking shoes. Then I come home and shower. My at home "uniform" is the same as my walking "uniform," but I wear colored bike shorts instead of black and I wear sandals instead of walking shoes. Yep. The "uniform" doesn't change. I live in bike shorts and tank tops, here. Unless I have to leave the house and go to the Commissary or the clinic. So, today, I have to put real clothes on. I am in quite a dilemma about what to wear. But, as it isn't a choice - about whether I get dressed or not - I'll suck it up and do it and wear my black garbage bag, too. Have to.

It is Ramadan here. A holy month for Muslims. This means I need to be respectful - thus, fully covered. I'm going to wear bike shorts with my tank top to the clinic. Since Dr. M. is going to want to see my knee - no sense wearing jeans - and it is far too hot and sticky outside to have jeans on. No way. If I wear shorts, will only have to rip off my black covering for Dr. M. to examine my knee. Problem solved. Sort of. I also need to go to the Passport office - there was a big problem with my Visa when we left here to go to the States and I almost did not get to leave the Sandbox. If I was wearing jeans to the clinic, then I could go without it - the black bag - and not have to worry about what I am wearing if I go to the Passport office - but frankly, it is more comfortable to wear almost nothing and cover up in black than it is to wear jeans and a "modest" shirt. There is something to be said about wearing an abeya, as much as I hate wearing it - you can wear virtually nothing underneath and no one knows it! Nothing says comfort, though, more than wearing black in the heat and humidity! Yeah. Right. And, yes, there is going to be some outside walking involved, for me, today - although with it being Ramadan I suspect the clinic will be empty - everyone is home sleeping - but I still will have to park some distance from the Passport office and "hike" in black... [Note to self: buy another pair of walking shoes to use for "dress up."]

This concerns me. I get concerned every year about this. Muslims fast the entire month of Ramadan. They do not eat or drink [not even water!] from sun-up to sun-down. This is fine if you are not outside working. But what about the gazillion workers outside, toiling in the sun, the heat and the humidity? The majority of them are Muslims. The majority - if not ALL - of them are the imported workers - the laborers, the street cleaners, the gardeners... It is just downright dangerous, as far as I am concerned, to have these men out there working without allowing them to drink water. What are the statistics that show how many of them die during this time each year because they are not allowed to drink water when it is a necessity? I don't know what the rest of the Muslim world does, insofar as working hours, during Ramadan, but I know that here, where I am, Saudis work decreased hours during that time. They are not expected to be at their offices at regular opening hours - and many leave early. The imported workers are not given the same opportunity. They work their expected, normal, usual hours. If Ramadan fell in December or January, this wouldn't be a big deal. It is much cooler here then. But now? Nope. No relief from the weather for those poor men.

UPDATED PRIOR TO POSTING: Well, I botched that one up. Big time. I was determined NOT to wear my abeya. I wear it only when required; just not going to get so that I wear it because I am too lazy to get dressed. Will. Not. Do. It. So, decided instead to wear a white long-sleeved "oversized" button up shirt - like a man's shirt - but made for a woman and blue, long length capri pants. Get to the Orthopedic clinic and what am I sent to do, first thing? Go get x-rays taken. Why?!? "Doctor has ordered, Madam." Okay. Fine. And I decided NOT to wear bike shorts and a tank top and cover it with a black garbage bag, why? Whatever. Off to x-ray where they made me take off both my pants AND shirt because Dr. M. wanted an x-ray that included my right hip - along with a half dozen other x-rays. Fine. Strip to my "knickers" and bra, and put a HUGE green "over the head" hospital gown on - wanted to bring it home with me - very comfortable - of course you may as well just wear a sheet that you poke a hole to stick your head through, but... Anyway...

The poor x-ray technician. She was Saudi. She was very sweet. But we had a very, very, very difficult time communicating. Apparently since it is Ramadan, the more proficient English-speaking technicians must have somehow gotten the day off - or something - and this woman got the short end of the stick. I have to include, here, that she was quite, oh... how to put this delicately, screw it - she was overweight. Large. I had no problem with the standing x-ray, or the on my right side with my knee bent x-ray. I had difficulty with the knee in a bent position because she tried to bend my knee with a foam triangle under it and flatten my foot. Sorry. My leg DOES NOT GO THAT WAY at this point. I can do that with my left leg and foot, but NOT the right! That is not happening. The biggest problem we had though was when she tried to tell me to get on my hands and knees. She did not know how to just outright say, "Get on your hands and knees with your butt in the air." She kept trying to position the front half of me - which was really more of a yoga position - but couldn't actually tell me what she wanted me to do with my "back half," so she tried to show me. And, yes, she was dressed head to toe in white - with a full-length "lab coat" over her skirt and blouse. Head covered in white; face covered in white. She tried. She really did. And she was trying to show me without actually getting down on the floor on her hands and knees to get me to do what she was doing. To say it was comical is an understatement. I told her how to tell us Western women from now on, "Get on your hands and knees with your butt in the air." There. If she would have just said this to me at the start, I could have saved her a lot of frustration - and could have saved her from having to get down on the floor [our clinic and all of the floors of the various departments are immaculate! thank goodness].

Anyway, got all the new half-dozen or so x-rays done, have my brace fitting scheduled for September 29th, and have my first PT scheduled for next Saturday - and I'll get to go three times a week for five weeks! Yeah!!! Finally saw Dr. M. I like this man. I am not at all thrilled at the possibility of needing a new knee in the next five years or so - but I am quite confident in Dr. M's abilities and am thankful that I have him as an orthopedist. The orthopedic clinic I went to in the States can't hold a candle to Dr. M. I did get lucky, in this regard. I have some apprehensions about having surgery done, here, but I can probably get past that if and when the time comes. So I finished at the clinic - two hours and fifteen minutes after I got there and went to the Passport office.

The Visa in my passport is good - but in the computer system - it has expired. The Passport office is taking care of this for me and I can get my passport back in two days, In Shallah. Okay, whatever, fine, just fix it. Not like I am going to need it right away. We just got back from the States, and thankfully it was "fixed" by DH's boss so that I could get into the country, but as of right this moment, I cannot leave. I don't have anywhere to go, and we won't be getting on the bridge and crossing the Causeway any time soon because there is no alcohol being served in Bahrain for the next month due to Ramadan. More on that later... And on the trip home - which I will have to post about - because it was not a pleasant trip - and of course, unload photos to the computer and post the deer... Lots to do. Lots to do. And just what I don't need is to have to go to PT three times a week for five weeks, but, if that is what Dr. M. wants me to - I'll do it.