Another week has gone by. I’m still healing up. The doctor gave me a little different advice to care for things on Friday and there’s a noticable improvement already just 2 days later. Yay! I go back next Friday, hopefully for the last time.
In the last week I’ve been consciously re-engaging with life. I’ve spent the last couple of months doing nothing but planning for, having, and recovering from surgery. I’m very tired of all of that. I still have a couple of weeks to go as far as restrictions from exercise and lifting, but I’m taking on more and more as I can. It is wearing me out, I still have no stamina, but the only way to get that back is to continue to push myself into working more and more, without pushing myself too hard and causing more damage. It’s a delicate balance. This morning, my bff and I resumed our Sunday morning walking at the arboretum. This was the first real walking I’ve done in 5 weeks. The last time we went was the sunday before surgery. Today, we hiked 2 different half mile trails. There was a short break between them, and I had to stop about 2/3 of the way through the second one, but there was a nice bench in the shade and a nice breeze over the meadow lake that we were next to, so we sat there and talked for a while.
It’s funny how my body tells me that I need to sit down RIGHT NOW! I told her not 30 yards before that bench that I’d be fine and make it the rest of the way back to the car. My body had other plans. I keep reminding myself to have patience. They said 6-8 weeks before I felt back to normal. It’s been 4.5. I’m getting there, but I’m not there yet. The last hike we took last month was 2+ miles on rougher terrain (we mostly stayed on pavement today) and at a much harder pace, but all things considered, I can live with a mile that took the better part of an hour with 2 decent breaks in the middle. It’s a start.
BFF is going through something awful that has a remarkable amount of things in common with what I went through a few years ago. It’s hard for her right now, and it completely sucks in general, but having been through it myself is at least useful for giving her feedback and different ideas on how to look at things. She’s been there for me through so many things, it’s comforting for me to know that I can be there for her through this.
Our Sunday morning’s are very closely guarded girl friend time. We went for years not seeing each other for months at a time. We talked on the phone, but that’s not the same. It feels so good to have a couple of hours every week to just get away from everything and talk, or not, and hike, or not. The Arboretum has become a sanctuary for that. When I became a member there I just wanted to have a nice place to hike a couple of times a week.
We also usually do something responsible after our hikes like grocery shopping after a healthy brunch, or today, she helped me with a little housework. I like when we go shopping. We’re both living healthy lives now, and we get more tips from each other just walking through a grocery store than I get from reading a good magazine or website. We didn’t shop today, but she was helpful. I’m still restricted from things like vacuuming, so she hoovered the house while I swept and mopped the kitchen floor. I feel like a helpless, fragile little thang asking my friends for help with the housework, but this too shall pass, and for now, the place is clean enough. I’ve got 5 loads of laundry to do today, but I can mostly do it myself. I drag the full baskets down to the laundry room, so I’m not lifting anything, just dragging. Roomie will help me carry them back upstairs if I need it. I should be OK though, I just bring up a load at a time as it finishes, and they’re not huge loads, so the weight is within my carrying limit.
One of the cats is sick again. I just have to figure out which one. I think it’s my old guy, but I’m not sure. I have some high maintenance pets. One gets insulin twice a day, one gets a pill every evening, and the other has just been psycho for the last couple of days which isn’t so normal for him, so it really could be any of them that’s leaving me presents outside of the litterbox. Hopefully I’ll catch one of them in the act before it gets worse. Cats are very good at hiding when they need medical care. Dammit. I really don’t have the cash for more than a blood test or two, so hopefully whatever it is shows up on that.
Also last week, Minime cancelled the wedding celebration in Jamaica. They’re already married, but they wanted to take a couple dozen people down there to party this coming midwinter. Too many people are strapped for cash right now though, including me, although I wasn’t one that spoke up about it. I am a little relieved that the pressure is off to make that trip, but it’s a bummer for her and my son in law – HeWhoStillDoesn’tHaveABlogname. Because of the cancellation though, I’ll get the money that I’ve paid toward the trip back, and that will cover 85% of my unexpected out of pocket expenses for the surgery, so there’s a blessing in disguise. I’ll make it to the Carribean one of these winters. I have family that has property on Anguilla and they winter down there, so all I have to do is get there and I’ll have a place to stay for a week. One of these years…
Instead of Jamaica, they are having a celebration of their marriage at their house in a couple of weeks, right near their first anniversary. They’re renting a tent and chairs and inviting half of the planet to a BBQ, but it should be fun. I’m bringing a few things, and offering the suggestions that I think she will consider. It’s their party though, so I’m mostly just doing what’s been asked of me. I am considering changing one of the dishes that I’ve been asked to bring, just because it’s a lot of work for a little bit of food, but I’ll talk to her about that before I do it. It might also be another good piece of time to spend with BFF and her oldest daughter. That would make it extra cool, if they can get away.
I was looking into getting a passport too. I’ve never been out of the country, but the possibility exists that I’ll visit my friend in NY in the fall for a photo walk through the Adorandacks, and while I’m up there I’d like to see Niagra Falls from both sides. Crossing into Canada now requires either a passport or a passport card. The fees for them go up Tuesday, so I blew it by not getting that done while I was off, but I’m thinking that I’ll just get the passport card, because that’s all you need to drive through any border near us. It’s good for Canada, Mexico, and the Bahamas on the one condition that you arrive by land based craft, so either car or boat. If I fly I’ll need a real passport. I need to apply soon though because it takes a month or two to get it in the mail.
I was also reading about the passport cards and how they have RFID chips in them. They come in a pouch that supposedly blocks the signal. That’s probably crap, unless the pouch is made out of some kind of thin metal. I thought about it though, and I carry a smart phone that tracks everywhere I go and pretty much everything that I do anyway. I suppose that if I were doing something wrong, I’d care more, but the price of the technology these days is giving up certain privacies, and I have nothing to hide. There is also safety in these devices. If something happens, they can track my location by just a phone signal, so it goes both ways. In any case, I don’t think that a card with an RFID in it, that will live at my house in my safe unless I’m traveling, is a problem. Bummer that I now have to pay a bunch more to get one, but such is life.
I guess that’s it for now. I’m too tired to be profound. I do have some thoughts that I’m putting together though. Maybe next time… Have a good week.