24/7 Chat About Anything

[vanbrat]

Using the sewing awl device for mending canvas on a popup camper is going to be be a two person job, one person outside the other inside because you can’t reach both sides yourself in that situation.

That is what those funky half circle needles are for. They take practice though just like everything else.

 

[maki2]

the only thing predictable about the weather report this week is that it is likely to change overnight. When I woke up around 6am it was showing a chance of thunderstorms by 11am. By 8am it showed sunny all day. The wind is kicking up though which is good as that helps it feel cooler. It is so far a very dry monsoon season.

Today is just cleaning, sorting and packing up to get ready to move to a new campsite tomorrow. Plus shipping out an Etsy order. I am likely rejoining the group that left this last Thursday. The cell signal there is not great but I have permission to sign onto the Starlink account of one of them.

I know that dragging chains on trailers can cause fires. Mine are not dragging but I think I will get some plastic split loom wire cover and secure onto the lowest droop section of the chains just as a precaution to prevent any sparks should I hit a rock. Most likely to happen when transitioning from the main forest service roads across the water runoff ditches vat the edges of the road into the campsite area. Of course I am not towing my trailer in and out of a campsite on a daily basis. I do longer length stays and use my car for errand running.

 

[Happy Camper]

Is using cable instead of chains a viable solution?

 

[maki2]

Is using cable instead of chains a viable solution?

Not really. Wire loom is cheap and easy compared to making custom length heavy duty cables. I do have one lightweight steel cable in my hitch setup though. It engages the emergency trailer brake control should my trailer become unhitched while driving.

I will grab some split wire loom cover at Habror Freight or Home Depot on a trip into town this week. For all I know I might even have enough of it in my tote bin of electrical wires. It has been a while since I opened that bin box other than to store an extension cord in it.

 

[maki2]

Just about ready to move to the next camp. The weather report shows lower 70s expected between 2 and 4 this afternoon as it is clouding up. That will be just right for towing my trailer and keeping sun glare out of my eyes.

 

[Morgana]

So my gimp ankle is not getting much better. And the PT went, basically overnight, from "don't be so pessimistic, it's improving a little, and these things take time" to "uh, does your podiatrist have any other ideas? cuz this should really be working by now." Then he showed me this really awful Saturday Night Live skit about acupuncturists sticking a patient till he bleeds like a blood fountain, which all the PTs think is hysterically funny, and I'm trying to laugh so I don't hurt their feelings. While I have my ankle stuck full of needles. (There's a needle treatment in PT, too, but I guess nobody makes jokes about it so they have to use acupuncture jokes.)

He promised to "pull out all the stops" from now till my next doctor visit (uh, yeah, thanks? feel free to pull out all the stops any time!) so that's good I guess.

This is my second clinic and third PT (the other two were way worse), and I only got this far by being really pushy and persistent. I feel like I've lost so much time doing lame stuff with phone-it-in types. This guy is better but he seems like he's got too much other stuff on his mind and there are still too many bits that just don't add up. If I hadn't found the swimming pool on my own, it would be almost a year since I got any exercise at all. Oh yeah and their billing department acts like they're on angel dust . All my retirement plans depended on me being able to walk and stand a lot. I've been a walking fanatic my whole life. This has gone on for almost a year now. I'll get a second (2,222nd) wind soon I'm sure, and I still have a few cards up my sleeve. But for the moment I am not taking this well. Thank you for listening!!

 

[bullfrog !]

My wife is finally going to have her ankle fused this fall after suffering for over 20 years with a break that got infected and wouldn’t heal by wearing what they call an Arizona Boot (sort of a lace up cast). She finally gave in after it has gotten to a point she can only walk a few feet without a lot of unbelievable pain. Hoping all goes well for you and her!

 

[Morgana]

I hope she does well!

 

[VanFan]

I hoMorganpe she does well!

So my gimp ankle...

All my retirement plans depended on me being able to walk and stand a lot. I've been a walking fanatic my whole life. This has gone on for almost a year now.

I'll spare you most of the details, but several years ago I developed a severe case of plantar fasciitis, that then extended to Achilles tendonitis and other soft tissue issues up to and including glutes. I, too, had always walked, and had never had foot pain. I couldn't walk across the room! I became truly depressed. A top-notch physician referred me to a competent PT. No improvement ensued. This went on for the better part of a year.

Guess what? It got better! Honestly, I don't think the PT helped all that much, though it didn't hurt and probably helped other areas. I read up on and self-administered some fascia release techniques. Later, I found a practitioner trained in ART (Active Release Therapy) who seemed able to help, too. I'm not suggesting this specific path, since I am in no way qualified to do so. I do believe you will get better and your life will look much different than it does now.

(For the last three weeks, I have been grounded with another set of possibly related physical issues. I'm being both proactive and patient, and doing all the "right" things, but there is no clear path to relief in sight. I, too, am getting zero exercise. I believe it will get better. Even so, getting through the "middle part" is darn hard.)

Here's to both of us being able to do the things we need to in order to stay active, healthy and happy!

 

[jacqueg]

Plantar fasciitiis takes its own sweet time. I think the PT helps mostly by keeping the surrounding tissues both limber and reasonably strong. I've had one bout with it, and it took two years to get back to walking any distance at all. And I STILL must rotate my shoes about every three days or so.

 

[bullfrog !]

My old Birkenstock Arizona sandals have sure helped me with my problems!

 

[Morgana]

Thank you so much for the perspective, people! I really appreciate it. I hope you all get the best possible outcomes, and just so you know, sharing your experience was super helpful. And I got my 2,222nd wind, lol.

And now, just to be a little silly ... I plugged a question about what kind of shoes to wear for Achilles tendonitis into one of the new AI engines (I used https://claude.aid) ... and the answer was shockingly good and included information I've been unable to pry out of any human experts. I asked a follow-up about brand names, and it gave a very coherent list with specific reasons for trying each. (Birkenstocks were high on the list.) I was almost more impressed than I wanted to be.

Now that doesn't mean it's a panacea or even trustworthy! I would definitely verify anything I learned that way. Next time I might ask "can you cite sources for that?" and see what happens. But, yikes. Pretty impressive. A lot easier than trying to pry information out of a human, lol.

 

[maki2]

I get Plantar fasciitis now and again but I know the cause and the cure as the doctor explained it to me many years ago. There is a specific cause and you can fix it yourself!

To prevent it you need to be sure to do hamstring stretches as overly tight ham strings are the cause. The leg muscles go all the way down into your feet and at the far end of the attachment point in your feet you will the pain from an overly tight muscle pulling too hard.

Good supportive shoes with good heel support also help prevent it. But the critical point of support is actually in the heels of your shoes. You need a snug fitting heel that does not allow side to side movement. If you are wearing sandals or crocs you are making the condition get worse instead of helping to improve it. So wear a good supportive shoe and add heel cup inserts sold for plantar fasciitis. Also do ham string stretches regularly. Do those two things and you will not suffer from it.

Just remember it is not an instant fix, it takes about a month to get those overly tight ham string muscles reconditioned to the correct length. Then you have to keep them that way with a bit of exercise. It is easy exercise to do so even a sedentary person can do them. Watch YouTube videos to learn how to do it while standing, sitting or even lying down. Outside standing up you can lean against the vehicle and do those hamstring stretches. Sometimes called heel drops. All you have to lose is your pain!

The design of Birkenstocks creates a ham string stretch as it drops your heels rather than raising them. People who wear shoes with higher heels are creating shortened ham strings.

 

[Morgana]

It is important to remember that every case is different -- in terms of what helps, what harms, and how long treatment takes. Similar symptoms can have different underlying causes. Treatment for fresh cases and more entrenched cases can be very different. (Prevention of a problem, vs. treatment of it once it crops up, may be different too.)

I don't think I've ever seen as wide a variety of different medical opinions online, even on reputable websites, as I have for foot and ankle problems. Some of the advice I'm getting is exactly the opposite of Maki's. It's complicated.

One of the few things the different schools of thought seem to agree on is that these conditions are much easier to treat if you catch them in their early stages. The one piece of general advice I'd feel comfortable giving is, if you think you're starting to have a problem, see a doc sooner rather than later if you possibly can.

 

[jacqueg]

It is important to remember that every case is different -- in terms of what helps, what harms, and how long treatment takes. Similar symptoms can have different underlying causes. Treatment for fresh cases and more entrenched cases can be very different. (Prevention of a problem, vs. treatment of it once it crops up, may be different too.)

I don't think I've ever seen as wide a variety of different medical opinions online, even on reputable websites, as I have for foot and ankle problems. Some of the advice I'm getting is exactly the opposite of Maki's. It's complicated.

One of the few things the different schools of thought seem to agree on is that these conditions are much easier to treat if you catch them in their early stages. The one piece of general advice I'd feel comfortable giving is, if you think you're starting to have a problem, see a doc sooner rather than later if you possibly can.

Yup. I delayed because I thought I had injured my foot by slipping on the stairs. The podiatrist I eventually saw said the slip had little or nothing to do with the fasciitiis (I pronate), but by the time I saw her I could barely walk.

BTW, if you have any kind of foot pain at all, see a podiatrist and get your feet and gait analyzed. The one I saw, I paid out of pocket and I was surprised at how reasonable it was. She told me what I needed to look for in shoes, and my life changed. Once you really know what YOU need (which is not necessarily the same as what I need), it is straightforward to buy shoes on ebay.

Or you could try shopping for shoes at a place like The Walking Company. Their sales people have some training in this, and their advice is generally pretty good.

Standard running shoes are not necessarily the best shoes for your feet. Counterintuitively, they may be overpadded, and/or the padding may not be where YOU need it.

I also learned to work on my feet. We tend to ignore our feet unless they hurt. EVERYONE should be massaging and stretching their feet at least every couple of days. You really can't overdo it!

 

[maki2]

I have a pronate issue. My parents used to constantly berate me for it and tell me to quit walking like a sailor. Of course I could not correct it just by paying attention to how I walked, it does not work that way. So later in life when a friend who was wiser said I pronated I was able to research it and found a couple of athletic shoe brands that correct pronation by having a structurally stiff enough sole shank that prevents pronation. One of those brands is Brooks, the other is New Balance. I recently found a less expensive shoe from the brand RBK that also seems to be good. Pronation can also lead to knee, hip and lower back pain so it is important not to ignore it.

The pronation also causes me pain in my knees when riding a peddle bike or recumbent trike. The shoes I wear did not fix that pronation caused pain. To correct that I was able to find at a specialty bike shop some plastic wedge inserts that go into the toe area of my shoe sole. That wedge tilts my feet to put them in a more normal alignment to the pedals without needing to order specially shaped foot pedals.

 

[maki2]

Learned a new urban language term today. A nomad said he was going to be “flying cardboard” all the way on his trip.
Turns out it means stopping along the way to pan handle using cardboard signs. I am always curious about the meaning of unusual word combinations that do not make obvious sense to me.

 

[maki2]

I got lucky yesterday! One of the women I was camped with was persuaded by another group member that she needed to do some downsizing. So I was gifted a bunch of tins of wild caught albacoretuna that does not expire until 2025.

But even better was she was looking to find someone who wanted a pair of shoes that were exactly my size that I had been looking for. Brown colored all terrain sports shoes that are waterproof and in my extra wide width! Last summer in Flagstaff I had looked at all the stores in town for something like them because with the monsoon season rains waterproof shoes in a brown color are exactly what is needed. Of course all over the desert Southwest brown is the best color for shoes as all the dirt is brown so that is the color that best matches the permanent dirt stains. I will save them back for the rainy days for now as I have another pair I bought this winter thatI will wear for everyday. There is not enough storage space in my setup for owning multiple pairs of shoes. Three is my limit two everyday plus s pair of winter slippers. So my other spare pair that is white is going to the thrift store today.

 

[user 37446]

Not luck, good karma perhaps!

 

[maki2]

Not luck, good karma perhaps!

Right place, right time. Luck, karma etc are all superstition stuff anyway. But still in use as common expressions.