The First Day of Summer

     There are some that associate the first day of summer with the Memorial Day weekend.  Others are attached to the vernal equinox.  For us summer begins when the bus arrives in our driveway to be packed for the trip north for the summer.

      Well, here it sits waiting for someone to pack it up for the summer.  The first step was to see if the two old men could make it up the stairs.  I made it.  I drove it there.  Baxter needed a bit of encouragement.  He is +/- 14.

     That's a big step.

     He can make it.  Tomorrow we'll get started on loading it up.  Summer is here.

     Durelle and Cindy got back today from a trip to Atlanta to watch the Sox begin with a two game winning streak after losing ten in a row!

Our Shrubs and Other Updates

     I have marveled at the Holly bush in the front yard.  Since we bought it as a mandatory replacement for the sweet gum that we had removed, it has taken hold and seems to be thriving in this lousy patch of soil.  what puzzles me is that it retains its fruit even as the next crop is coming in.

     Note the last year's crop in red and the new ones in green.  This is not just a difference in ripening rate for one season's crop.  Are there any other examples of this in the plant world? 

     Another shrub that we bought when we had three diseased trees removed was a Magnolia.  It's always a nice sign of Spring and Mothers' Day. 

     So Spring has sprung, and we are starting serious activities involved in getting ready to pull up stakes on 3 June.  I'll be allowing a few more days than usual for loading the bus.  I have told ProTech that I'll pick it up on 28 May.  That's three weeks from today!  Durelle already has an appointment with her hairdresser in NH.

     I take the cane with me when I leave the house, but I am doing most of my walking without it.  I'll have PT three times a week until I leave, but it is more attuned to strengthening the shoulder than the hip.  Just walking accomplishes most of that.

Itinerary for 2014

     

Pot 'o gold in Northport?

     Yesterday the surgeon cleared me to drive, so I came home and started to make reservations for this summer.  The longest stop by far will be at the www.mooringscamp.com in Belfast, ME.  We will be there from 19 June until 5 August.   6-19 June will be at  www.fieldnstreamrvpark.com in Brookline, NH.  We'll also be there from 11-24 August.The week before that we will be in Norwich, NY for a reunion on Durelle's side of the family.  On 24 August we will return to Maine for the rest of the summer.

     After physical therapy I went over to check on the bus.  Everything is 100% except the KingDome automatic satellite dish.  I'm assured it will be working before we depart o/a 3 June.  We are looking forward to the summer! 

Another boring update

     It is now nineteen days since the hip surgery and much has changed.  I transitioned from the walker to a cane at day 15.  For those of you that think it would be unnatural to hold the cane on the strong side, you are wrong.  I was surprised how natural it feels.
     This morning, while doing some of my exercises, I saw our bald eagle out the window.  He was perched in a tall pine across the pond in a position where the sun was emphasizing his white head among the pines.  So, when I finished my exercises (and not before) I got the camera and slipped out back to see if he would wait for me.  He did.

     We are so fortunate to have such an abundance of majestic wildlife in our suburban back yard.
     This evening I got up the nerve to accompany Durelle on her evening walk around the block with Baxter.  It was the smallest block available, but it took a half hour.  The martini tasted good when I was done.
     Cindy and Durelle are going clothes shopping tomorrow.  Cindy will have to either buy some smaller britches or some suspenders.

Great Job, Cindy!

     For five years this blog has remained generally close to the stated purpose of recording the travels, and some non-travels, of Durelle and I.  Today's post is all about Cindy.  The pictures below were taken almost exactly six months apart.  She had gastric bypass surgery on 16 October.  Below you can see what six months and seventy pounds have done.

  She's not done yet.  Her next milestone is one hundred pounds, and I'm sure she will make it.  Congratulations, Cindy. 

Walking in the Backyard

     Everything is going fine with the new hip except..... The joint, the incision and sutures, and the pain level in those items likely to be affected are all doing fine.  The one problem is a painful knot in the muscle of the outer thigh, below the incision.  Also the right leg is a bit larger than the left.  The therapist, Meghann, will be here tomorrow, and I hope she can recommend a course of action so that I can begin to properly use the walker.  I know enough to know that I am doing it all wrong.  Physical therapy is seen as a necessary evil, administered by therapists who are part personal trainer and part drill instructor.  Let me say that Meghann blows that stereotype completely out of the water.  She's gentle in voice as well as manipulation.  She listens, and she assesses, in depth, what is really going on and identifies root causes.   
     Today, as a result of some gentle spousal reminding, I was "walking" around.  I sat down on the screen porch while Durelle went out and straightened a loose picket on the back fence.  There's another role reversal for you.  She silently motioned for me to join her.  What she saw was our alligator crawling out of our side of the pond.  One of the pictures was taken through the fence to prove that he was on our side of the pond.

     He's about eight feet and he doesn't look like he(she?) has missed many meals lately.  As I was slowly walking back to the house, Baxter was rolling around scratching his back so I had to snap a couple of shots of him.

     So, I'm progressing normally with no pain meds, but we have to fix the cause of the painful knot in the thigh.  The pain subsides while in the recliner...hence no meds...but it sure inhibits proper exercise.

Post Op

     I really don't want to turn this into a medical blog   A food blog is bad enough.  It's difficult, however, to find material for a travel blog when you are only a few days post op from a hip replacement.  Bloggers who make a living at it such as Adventurous Kate have a few episodes "in the can" to pull up when the need  requires.  I have always been a blogger on a day to day basis.  So below is a shot Durelle took that fits many categories.  It was taken 82 hours post op.

     So, why wasn't the lid up to show an elegant, gourmet dish?...because all there was in there were some brats.
     I expected to whish through this hip thing like a dose of salts through a duck. I was planning to attack the therapy with vigor, as JFK used to say in our day.  No such luck. I was hurtin' first day at home.  Sitting in the recliner was pain-free, but moving around was painful.  In bed the first night with a nearby urinal was an almost constant toss and turn.  Can you imagine multiple trips to the john with the walker, picking my way over Baxter?
     Today the lead therapist for the local home therapy folks arrived and set me straight on a number of scores.  I'm already feeling better, walking better and able to get some things accomplished.  Today I assembled a sturdy stool so I can continue to work in the kitchen.  It was built in Vietnam with Vietnamese instructions that had been badly translated into English.
     The therapist suggested that I sleep in the recliner for a while.  Remember, the difference between a terrorist and a therapist is that you can negotiate with a terrorist.
     I think that there are more people who care how I'm doing than care about where I've been.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.