A Lousy Break

To put it bluntly, this week has sucked. It started out ok, with a cool Model A Ford car show in nearby Hart Memorial Park on Sunday. But later that afternoon, I took a spill while biking up in the hills above Orange.

At first, I thought my scraped left elbow was the worst of it. I felt a little twinge in my right elbow, but it wasn't painful. In fact, it hadn't even hit the ground- my right hand had hit the ground to break my fall. I made it home fine, but my right elbow felt less and less comfortable, so I drove myself to urgent care. The doctor figured it was a sprain, but suggested I have x-rays taken the next day. By the time I was driving home, I couldn't even shift with my right hand.

There are many aggravating details about walking to the radiologist on Monday, going to the doctor a second time, walking home in the rain, etc., which I'll spare the reader. Long story short, I broke a bone in my left arm, at the elbow. It was a very unwelcome and unpleasant surprise, to say the least. It throws a wrench into some significant plans I had made, besides being inconvenient and sometimes painful.

The lamest thing of all, however, is that after 3 days of waiting, I finally got approval from my HMO late this afternoon for the "urgent" request to have an MRI done on my arm. It seems the x-rays aren't conclusive, so I've been waiting with my arm in a sling to see just how extensive the damage is. I don't think it's bad enough that I'll even need a cast, since it seems to be a hairline fracture rather than a complete break. But, until the MRI is done, the exact nature of the injury is still unknown, which is fairly unsettling.


This is my good elbow.

To add insult to injury, literally- my landlord wants to increase my rent 23% by May 1st. I found this out the same day I learned my arm was broken. Nice, huh? Not only is this excessive (he wants me to start paying for utilities, too, which until now had been included), unfair and unreasonable, I do consider it an insult. The dramtic improvements I've made to the apartment at my own expense, time and labor, as well as my exemplary conduct as a tenant, seemingly mean nothing to this guy. Ironically, the improvements I've made are the reason he'll probably get the money he wants for the place. The guy is being a greedy ass----, and he's going to be disappointed to learn that by California law, a landlord must provide a tenant with 60 days' written notice before a rent increase of more than 10% can take effect. I'll make him aware of that, in due time. He'll also be disappointed to learn that I am not responsible for utilities, since the property has only one meter shared by two tenants, and it's impossible to determine who is using what percentage.

So, I will most likely be searching for a new place to live, with the hope that my arm is sufficiently healed by the time the heaving lifting begins. Thanks to my friends and family who offered to help me out with some of the things I can't do because of my injury, thanks to Mom who did my laundry and took me to get groceries, and to Brenda who offered to fly back to come take care of me.

Switching gears entirely, I'll end this entry with a quote from Theodore Roosevelt, which seems appropriate as the immigration issue heats up here in this country:

"In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American."