Sunday, October 25, 2009

The Last Swim of the Season


The sky was gorgeous today and I have some pictures to prove it...but alas, the add photos button is missing from my posting page. Hmmm? So you're going to have to take my word for it about the gorgeous day. The pure soft blue above mirrored the water we were swimming in, or perhaps it's the other way around, I'm not sure. The blue of the pool shimmered with white ripples and splashes, while the blue of the sky was strewn with wispy clouds. White on blue, blue on white, and three sun dogs added a splash of color. (Sun dog, parhelion, a bright spot in the sky tinged with color. It's a little piece of rainbow in the sky on a gorgeous day, no rain in sight -- serendipity!) Nadine and Gary told us about that. Tom and Nadine and I, got to enjoy first one, then two, then three sun dogs, while floating, kicking, splashing in the warm water. A great last swim. Meanwhile sunshine cast a golden glow on the last yellow leaves still hanging tight to the maple trees. (Another striking picture that I can't post.) About the time we got out of the pool Gary was pulling his canoe up from the creek across the field. (Also picture worthy, but I don't think we snapped it. Instead Tom hopped on the tractor and puttered to the rescue.) Now the canoe is safely tucked in the barn till next spring, no more boat rides or float trips this year.


Nathan claimed the absolute, positively, for sure, last swim of the season. Only fitting since he worked in the tree field through the late afternoon. But now it is time. Time to click off the heater and let the water cool down. No more 85 degree swims on 58 degree days. Time to drain off some water and add winterizing chemicals. Time to get out the winter cover. Time to put the pool to bed for the winter. It always makes me sad.

Good night. Sleep tight.

P.S.This is Nadine not Nathan...by the time he took his swim the sun was low on the horizon, it was getting dark!

P.P.S. I found the button to add pictures!

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Shared Experiences

If it weren't such a pain in the knee it would be down right romantic. As if Tom and I don't have enough in common...now add this. We've both, at one time in our lives, been hit by a big dog and ended up on crutches. His was a l-o-n-g time ago and was much more serious than mine. He was just a nine-year-old. A skinny little kid who was running down a one way path while a full grown German Shepherd was running up the same path. BAM! The dog hit him in the leg and broke his femur. He was in one of those body type casts that came up around his waist for months. Wouldn't that be awful? I on the other hand was hit in the knee by a boxer dog (who, in case you don't know, have really hard heads). I only ended up with a fracture of the tibial plateau.

Although I called the most prominent orthopedic drs. in town, I was told to go through my pcp first. Okay, I rang her up next. My doctor ordered x-rays, and I dutifully went to the hospital for said pictures. I didn't hear back about those x-rays for 10 days. After profuse apologies for the delay, I was informed I needed to see the orthopods. No surprise. A week later the orthopedic doctor (p.a. actually) didn't like the x-rays and ordered up an MRI. An appointment for that was set up for the next week (and a half). Then a follow up to tell me the MRI results for a week after that. And, uh oh, there is a fracture of the tibial plateau. By putting weight on the leg I'm injuring it further. I need to be on crutches for 30 days.

Wait a minute, let's count. I was injured on September 8. I've used my best common sense, ice the knee, keep it wrapped, keep off it as much as possible...except for normal activity including housework, yard work, nursery work, shopping trips and a visit to the zoo. But in between those hours of real life I did sit on the couch with my leg up. I was just getting good at hiding any limp, finding the right way to use my leg without too much discomfort. In fact, I just figured out how to run up stairs. Now it's October 14th and I'm told I need to be completely off it. -- That's 5 freakin' weeks since the injury! My knee hardly even hurts anymore. How am I supposed to faithfully use crutches at this stage of the game?

Two motivators. If I don't, they'll cast it. If I don't, the damage will continue and I'll need a knee replacement down the road.

The aggravating word there is "continue" because even a moron can figure out that if I've been using it as hard as I have, there's got to be significant damage done already. It makes me shudder to think how proud I was of running up stairs.

So, I am faithfully using the stupid crutches. And now that I've written this all down it's time to get over it. These things happen. Doctors don't always call back in a timely fashion, even if you leave lots of messages. But really, once they see any sort of problem, why wouldn't crutches have been ordered as a precaution while the injury was being diagnosed? Why? Why? (Okay, maybe I'm not over it...now I am...this is me, moving on...)

The lesson I learned is, don't be afraid of over-reacting. You can't be too cautious. Find a pair of crutches and lean on them while the docs are taking weeks and weeks to diagnose your troubles. Then, when they say, "you have to stay off this for 30 days." You can say, "Done!"

Monday, October 12, 2009

All in a Week's Time

The birthday week was busy! What with this going to work three mornings a week and baby sitting every Friday and working in the tree fields and cleaning out closets and rearranging furniture and doctor appointments for the knee and aching back (go figure) there seems to be no time to blog.

Add to that I have to get a swim most days because we'll be closing the pool soon. And the "to do" list is as long as my arm: clean out the flower beds, pull the dahlias, plant 100 new bulbs for spring (it seemed like a good idea when I saw the beautiful, colorful pictures of flowers on the 1 foot cube box at a very reasonable price), make applesauce, wash windows...there's a story in that, maybe I'll tell it later.

Fortunately I've got good help. Nathan is still here...on his way to California, but here for the moment. He's going to have the upstairs nice enough to rent out by the time he's done, and he's a tremendous help in getting the trees ready to sell. With the three of us working we'll surely have them all shaped and shorn for Christmas. The goal is to have them all done by September. In reality we're going to be ahead of the game if they're all done before the end of October.

Birthday highlights: Nathan and Tom waited on me Saturday the 3rd. The men of the church put on a hot dog roast with all the fixin's on Sunday. And in the afternoon I had a Skype visit with my favorite grandson. Tom and I went out to a movie on Monday. The three of us went to Adam and Alicia's and had a birthday dinner at Red Lobster on Tuesday. Wed. night prayer meeting, board meeting. Thursday night TeamKID and then off to a bonfire visit with friends. Friday our usual Steve & Dee night. Saturday tree nursery work, swim, and an adventurous dinner prepared by Nathan. Then it was Sunday again. Yes indeed it was a good and busy week. And I'm happy, and content with life.