November chitchat

[agate]

Hm, Virginia, maybe he's playing miniature golf? Or just watching while the others play? If he's been told he can't play for a while for medical reasons, I'd think that the exertion that goes into it would be the same if a person is playing professionally or just playing with family but of course the stress involved in playing in tournaments the way he does must be considerable--and maybe it's just that stressful type of golf he needs to avoid for now?

It is nice that she plays as well. It must be dreary to be stuck at home if your spouse is out there on the golf course much of the time.

[flatcap]

Stats

I was curious, so I looked at the numbers for all of the threads that show up as 'new' upon arrival at the forum without logging in and determined that, on average, the ratio of posts per page views is about 0.15. There isn't much chance that any given post will ever be viewed by anyone. Overall, there aren't very many people reading the forum, and active participation is even lower.

Evidently, there isn't much interest in what is said here. I do not believe the figures for the number of guests on the forum at any given time. It is always in the thousands, and even if correct, visitors aren't doing anything but looking at the subject headings, not threads, much less reading posts.

Discouraging. Either that, or my analysis has no merit.

[agate]

I'm afraid we're just a handful of people trying to be friendly here. Unless someone among us knows of a way of bringing in a bunch of people who are willing and able to participate, I doubt that that situation will change, just because message boards have been taking a back seat to social media sites that are newer and trendier, at least for now--though maybe the novelty will wear off and people will wake up and realize that if they want to discuss anything, a message board is a much better situation.

They don't necessarily want to discuss anything though. They want to post dressed-up animal photos and photos of what they ate at McDonald's today, for their "friends" to "like."

But they're having a good time anyway, and that's the way it is.

Meanwhile, back at BrainTalk, we're carrying on, lollygagging and shillyshallying and whatever else we're doing. We can keep on deluding ourselves that what we're saying here is worthwhile enough to pay attention to, or at least a few people are paying some attention to it. I don't mind that idea.

I still have some contact with a few people who were here long ago. I could try to persuade them to return but that seems like a form of pressure I don't want to subject them to. They know this place is here and will surely return to it if/when they are so inclined. I assume that their lives are keeping them too busy. Taking part in BrainTalk is a leisure-time activity and many people have no leisure time. Or energy.

Some people do check in from time to time--soul, LarryLDN, Jen's Solitude (Dar, formerly BNTgal I think), renee, among others. I think it's good that we're here for those people, some of whom are in situations now where they'd like to participate but can't.

[flatcap]

I think all social media posts, including those you find at forums such as this one, are performative to one degree or another. I think most of us like the attention. Sometimes, no one else is listening.

[agate]

But you yourself are listening. An audience of one is still an audience.

For about 17 years I've been running a little MS message board that began as an offshoot of a much larger board. It went along with about 20-30 real people taking part for a while but gradually they dwindled away, and for the last 10+ years it's consisted 99.9% of just my posts. I like looking at them. I refer to them from time to time. I polish them up and trim some of them sometimes. It's a sort of reference work for me. Every day there are a few viewers but I usually don't know who they are. It's more like a blog. I've been too lazy and too cheap to do much about promoting it.

It does serve as a backup board for this place if it has a spell of downtime.

[flatcap]

Well, last night was fun. I fell two times.

First time I went down, I stayed on the floor for maybe 1-2 minutes to try and recover. The only thing that hurt was the back of my head. It hit the ground pretty hard.

Got up and went down again in less than a minute. Banged my head again. Stayed down about fifteen minutes this time. I don't know why, but I got nauseous and threw up. Great. Something to do when I woke today: clean up puke.

Bottom right rib, whichever number that one is, was apparently bruised. I don't think it is fractured or broken, but I can tell you I know I have one. Hurts a lot if I turn just right (wrong?). Head hurts a little, but that's about it. I haven't needed to take aspirin.

Enough of that. I am going to go post a cap pic and a song.

[flatcap]

Agate, over in the cap thread, you mentioned that the Mystery Man's cap looked like it was tacked down at the front of the brim. Flat caps usually have a snap there. Virtually all true vintage flat caps do. Most made today are sewn to the visor. Mine all have snaps.

I would be interested in looking at your blog, if you care to post or PM a link. If not, that's OK. Thanks.

[jingle]

Yikes - flatcap. I'm so sorry you fell. That's so scary . Are you certain noting is broken? I hope and pray that you're OK.

[flatcap]

Thanks, jingle. I'm pretty sure nothing is broken.

From what I can discern, broken bones hurt like hell just sitting still. The rib only hurts when I move, and then it only hurts like heck. Lol

[agate]

flatcap, I'm so sorry you fell--and twice. That's really overdoing the whole idea. I hope you're heading for the ER or a doctor right away because a head injury shouldn't be ignored if there's any likelihood of a concussion.

It sounds as if this wasn't just a slight injury.

As for the MS message board, the link to it is in my Profile, under "Web." You'll find quite a few members from this board registered there because at times it has been a backup place to hang out during down times here.

[Virginia]

Flatcap, even if nothing is broken, the fact that you threw up along with falling is enough to take you to the Doctor. Almost 2 years ago I had a series of falls. I would just fall backward. One night it took me over an hour to get up. I finally went to the doctor, but still had another fall before the results were back. Thankfully, I have a life line alert that is around my neck at all times. I had to push the button twice for EMR to come and get me off the floor. The second time they took my temperature and it was up and they put me on a stretcher and took me to the emergency room. I was admitted with sepsis due to pneumonia and sepsis due to a UTI. I didn't know I had either. After staying 10 days, I was sent to a rehabilitation center.

I am telling you this because you shouldn't take a chance on having an infection or something like that even if you don't have anything broken. I have never gotten completely back to where I was before that happened. I try not to take chances anymore. I hope you will think about it.

[agate]

Thank you, Virginia!

Recently my primary care doctor heard about the fall I had in May and said I should have had medical attention at the time. She also indicated that I might not be out of the woods yet on effects of that fall.

[flatcap]

I am seeing my PCP in the morning. I will report back later.

Please remove the other thread.

Thank you.

[agate]

I've deleted the thread insofar as was possible and have contacted the admins about removing it entirely.

Glad to know you're getting to the doctor. We'll be hoping for a speedy recovery for you, flatcap.

[flatcap]

I saw my PCP today and got a clean bill of health. However, I did forget one thing, and that was the pain in my rib area. I kept looking at my list before I printed it to take with me and knew something was missing. I just couldn't my finger on it. No matter. The pain is subsiding. I did not take aspirin.

Speaking of which, on 10/26 under the Flu shots? thread, agate said,

My mother always relied on aspirin, but when she was in her late 50s, she suddenly was going deaf. It turned out that the aspirin she'd been taking for arthritis was causing it. When she cut it out, her hearing was restored.

I replied that I was going to stop the daily baby aspirin to see if it would have any effect on my tinnitus. I would say it has in the sense that I have already had more days without the ringing than before. It has not gone away entirely, but when it does come up, it is less intense. Sorry to say, they're ringing now, but it isn't that bad.

R&R is about all I need for everything else. Well, that and more sodium. Evidently, I am not getting enough. I used to like salty foods and added salt to most things that aren't, but my taste in that regard changed drastically a while ago. I'm not sure what I'll do about sodium now. Maybe pretzels and milk. Strange as it sounds, I always liked that.