If a picture truly is worth a thousand words, I have just loaded 12,000 words from my photos to this post. The theme of my 12,000 words is, initially, that although WordPress can, it seems, develop a new improved editor, they cannot work out a system to allow me to access photos from old posts. They charge me for unlimited photo storage every year but I note, on an old post, that some photos have disappeared. I also note that if I want to access photos from old posts it gets progressively more difficult as I get back beyond a couple of weeks. Once past that the system starts to grind and lock up and flick back to newer photos. At that point it is easier to give up or to search out old posts and either link to them or recopy the photos. That is what I did with the last post.
It would have been a much more exciting post if I had been able to simply access the photos by scrolling down the media file.
If I could access old photos easily, this post would be more interesting too. However, due to the clunky and ineffective scrolling system I can only really access photos from the last couple of weeks. They are nice enough photos but they lack a bit of variety, you have seen them all recently, and they are not necessarily my better flower photos.
If I were developing a proper 12,000 word piece, I would then move on to muse on the mutability of life and how we change and improvement are not the same things. Life is simply a jerk progression, like the WP photo storage, where we jerk from one imperfection to the next. The final display is, like our lives, a poor reflection of the quality of material available, which has been severely limited by circumstances beyond our control. I think that makes sense, though it may just be self-absorbed twaddle. If that’s the case let’s agree to call it “deep”. That’s a useful neutral word to cover many eventualities.
There are several things I could move on to discuss as an ending. Cooking with arthritis is a current topic of interest. As a condition, not as an ingredient. Despite the new medication my fingers are actually getting worse. More fingers are being affected and more joints within those fingers are being affected. The index finger on my right hand now has painful swellings in all three joints and I could probably find hand modelling work as something out of Lord of the Rings or for those appalling Versus Arthritis adverts we now have on TV.
It seems to me that the name Versus Arthritis was developed by an idiot and approved, probably at great cost, by a board of idiots. Same goes for the TV adverts they run. In fact, despite the advertising I have spent the last two years not seeking help from them because the adverts are so bad. Today is the first time I’ve actually been on their site, and though some of the stuff appears useful, I may not rush back.
I was amused to see that one of the organisations that merged to form Versus Arthritis was formed in 1947 as the British Rheumatic Association (BRA). Even in 1947 I’m sure bra was a well known term for women’s underwear. Assuming that the organisation wasn’t formed by 14-year-old boys, it looks like the pitiful naming tradition has continued over the years.
Cooking with arthritis used to mean that my fingers ached after kneading bread. Now it means I can’t grip a vegetable peeler properly, can’t (on bad days) cut through veg single-handed and can’t fetch and carry without using both hands, as my grip has gone.
Tonight’s tea is roasted veg with pasties, Yorkshire puddings and gravy. I may be arthritic, and dreading the new improved editor but I’m not malnourished.
Note on the Dominic Cummings cut-out I mentioned a few days back (though I can’t actually find the reference, so I may just have thought I mentioned it). It was taken down but my sister sent me a links after seeing something on Twitter. Here is a link if you want it. I find it amusing, even if the story is now dead and brushed under the carpet.
And at just over 700 words, I think there is just time to sign off, and take my tea, carefully, from the oven.
I’m really sorry about your arthritis pain. I think the medication won’t have kicked in yet and if they are still increasing the dose, your body will have to acclimatise itself to that as well, before you notice any improvement. The meds will only work on the rheumatoid (and similar) arthritis and won’t make any difference to any osteo arthritis you may have. My full dose of methotrexate was 20mg and they increased the dose up to that gradually. I can’t remember much improvement in my health until I had been on the full dose for a while. Stick with it if you can. I know of so many people who have benefitted enormously from this drug. I only wish they could find something for osteo-arthritis.
They did warn me it was gradual. If this attack follows the normal pattern it will be gone in a week or so, then stay away for a couple of months. Here’s hoping. 🙂
It’s the psoriatric arthritis that is causing the problems – I currently have fingers that look like sausages. I am on 20 mg now, and have a blood test next week. I will be patient.
I am so sorry. I understand the misery of not being able to use one’s hands properly. I wish you all the best, Simon. I hope the flare-up goes away quickly. 🙂
Thank you. I thought things were hovering on the brink of recovery last night and this morning they have improved considerably. Still not great but I was able to cut the sourdough this morning and scramble some eggs for Julia’s breakfast. I’m hoping it may be even better tomorrow. 🙂
🙂
The photos are beautiful, Quercus! I am sorry about your arthritis. Rick’s hands are bad enough now that playing a guitar is difficult for him. I hope your medications kick in soon.
Thank you. It is far worse for a guitar player than it is for me, I can always buy sliced bread and pre-prepared veg, he has my sympathy.
I am really sorry about your deteriorating arthritis. I hope that the new medication will kick in before too long. I don’t much care for the arthritis adverts myself. They seem designed to make people with mild arthritis feel very depressed.
Yes, I always feel worse after watching one. I’m sure I will learn to live with it. They have upped my dose for next week. 🙂
Lovely flower photos. Never can have too many of the same flower, especially when irises are involved. So very sorry about your fingers.
Thank you. I’m just having a bad week, for a variety of reasons. It will pass. I also like an iris.
Not exactly a jolly time right now, is it?
No. Things have been better. Just have to remind myself they will be better again.
Like the flowers. Commanding for better reach.
Thank you.