June 25, 2023

An exciting police chase in the canyon below us last night gives me an excuse not to write!

Daily Diary, Day 1028: This has been a very odd Sunday. Too tired to work on writing my story.

First of all, for the past week I have been having trouble with my ears/hearing, which is something that happens occasionally. Head feels the way it did in the past when I had a cold and had to fly. But the first time this happened, and lasted for months, I went to the doctor, no sign of fluid or damage to ear drum. After going the rounds of doctors, the current diagnosis is that it is arthritis in my jaw (I have something called TMJ), that if combined with any sort of inflammation from mild allergies, makes the ears feel like there is fluid in them (even if there isn’t).

I take a claritin daily, and have sworn off anything that kicks up my TMJ, like almonds, carrots, etc. and it is generally doesn’t pop up but a couple of times a year, and when it does, it resolves quickly. What set it off this week, I don’t know. We’ve got lots of pollen, and while it started before my two days of dental work, I don’t imagine that has helped.

So, I am having to ask my husband to keep repeating things, and today I have taken some Sudafed and will probably try advil (for inflammation) before bed.

But it means I feel like my brain is filled with molasses, which has been exacerbated by the fact that last night we lost over an hour of sleep because of a police chase that ended up in the canyon below us.

I woke at around 1:30 to flickering red lights on the ceiling. My husband was already awak and had gone to see look out the windows and said that there were lots of cop cars, apparently blocking the various entrances to the canyon below us. There was also a helicopter flying up and down over the canyon, and then a megaphone instructing someone to surrender. This went on for about an hour, although at some time when the megaphone stopped, we both fell back to sleep and the next time we woke, all was quiet and the police cars were gone.

Of course, as soon as I got up in the morning, I checked Nextdoor, and read on it a blow by blow from someone who had a police scanner and was reporting in real time to all the people who had gotten up and gone online. She reported that they were after a man they had engaged in high speed chase (local news today said he’d stolen a truck) and having ditched the vehicle he’d fled into Rose canyon below us. Over the megaphone they were telling the man to surrender or they would unleash the dogs, then he evidently tried to flee down the creek that runs through part of the canyon east of us, and finally was bitten by the dog, which brought him down. Then they called the EMTs, removed him, and all went quiet, and indeed the whole occurrence took an hour. Such excitement!

But between the ears, and the disrupted sleep, I am exhausted. I did get the day’s cleaning done, but in little bits and pieces, since I clean when my husband is out walking the dogs, but he too much shorter trips because he’s exhausted as well. So, I have been working on my workshop, which doesn’t take as much brain power, he’s given up trying to write (he is working on a text book on the preservation of government information (not something one can do when brain tired), and we are counting the hours until dinner and TV!

If the person who I have a scheduled phone call with cancels, which she said she might, I will tray a short walk to see if that clears my head any! Mean while, I think I will start something I did last year, try to concentrate on photo's of a certain color for as long as I find new blooms, and then switch to a new color. I am starting with pink, in light and dark shades!