by Judy Handley | Feb 9, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 40: An Impromptu VOW Presentation
Date: Friday, February 9, 2024
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High Temp 43, Low 37 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
Today was cloudy, but since there was very little wind this morning, it felt much warmer as Shadow and I headed out for our walk. We waited until Anavo arrived to start work on reinforcing the bathroom wall and putting the bathroom towel rack back in place that came down when I took my first shower after my back surgery. It didn’t take him long because he was almost done by the time Shadow and I got home. We added another tenth of a mile to our walk today, getting us to six tenths of a mile. I wore my knee brace and again found it to be more of a detriment than a help. I’m going to try the walk in the morning without the brace and see how my right knee holds up. I limp without the brace, but walking is easier.
I have been amazed by the fact that I can barely walk or climb stairs using my right knee, but I can do a ballet plié or bend if I absolutely need to lower myself down to do something. I don’t look like a ballerina, but I can put my heels together, knees apart, and squat all the way down to the floor keeping my back totally straight. You would think that my right knee would just give way, but it doesn’t seem to bother it. I wish walking was that easy.
I have a President’s notebook for Encore that was very organized in August, but I have taken things out of it and amassed pile of papers to be filed. In other words, I have made a total mess of it. Today my goal was to put it back together. I was off to a good start when the doorbell rang. It was Lynda, the friend I rent from, and her friend Peggy from New Hampshire. Lynda was coming to check out Anavo’s work in the bathroom. I’m not sure how we got from the bathroom to me hooking my computer up to the television and going through my Voyage of Windbird (VOW) presentation with Peggy. But that is where we went for the next couple of hours. It was way more fun than organizing a notebook, but that job still awaits. Maybe tomorrow morning.
When I got to the Madagascar part of the presentation and was showing the baby turtles hatching at the turtle sanctuary on Nosy (island) Iranja, Peggy explained that every Monday morning she walks with author Sy Montgomery and a young man who does turtle illustrations. Sy Montgomery writes about animals and I just want to go home with Peggy to walk with Sy and Matt. How lucky she is to have such friends.
Peter and Karen Baranowski both tested positive for Covid today, so I am sending positive thoughts in their direction. Karen wrote that she feels like hell. Sure hope that turns around quickly.
by Judy Handley | Feb 8, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 39: Making a Little Progress on Walking
Date: Thursday, February 8, 2024
Weather: Sunny; High Temp 41, Low 29 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
Yesterday and today, I extended my “around the block” walk from a quarter of a mile to a half mile. So, that is a success. I will do the half mile again in the morning and then on Saturday, I will extend that just another tenth of a mile. If that goes well, my plan is to add another tenth of a mile every other day and hope to be walking a mile by this time next week. This seems like baby steps, but in this case, I think baby steps are what the doctor has ordered. In fact, my plan might be a little too ambitious. But we shall see. Other than that, I spent the day filing away a few things that have piled up. I still have more to do on that front tomorrow. And also tomorrow, Anavo is coming at 8 am to start work on the bathroom towel rack I managed to pull out of the wall. That means Shadow and I have to be up bright and early, so I’m calling it a night earlier than usual.
by Judy Handley | Feb 7, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 38: Delightful, Heathy Lunch and Conversation
Date: Wednesday, February 7, 2024
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High Temp 38, Low 28 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
For over a year now, two couples that I know through my Exploring Public Policy group and myself have been trying to find a time that we could get together for lunch to talk about our mutual interest in trying to move to a mostly plant-based diet. Today, we finally got together. The couple who hosted the luncheon at their “green” home a few blocks from Falmouth Heights Beach provided the entrée, a minestrone soup and freshly baked bread. I brought one my mainstay lunch salads, a mix of arugula and locally grown greenhouse baby crispy green leaf lettuce topped with a cauliflower rice and hemp heart mixture. The other couple brought dessert, a to die-for chocolate Pots de Crème made with no heavy crème. Cashews provide the cream for this decadent dessert. The food was wonderful, but the point of our get together was not really the food, it was the conversation. All of us have different social groups, but none of us has found other friends in our groups that are really interested in moving toward a mostly plant-based diet. I keep saying “mostly plant based” because we all still eat fish. We talked the entire afternoon away, four hours in total, and we could have continued. We talked about everything from electric cars, to electric clothes dryers, to our mainstay foods, to the sources we use for making decisions on what we are going to eat. We will get together again in April to continue the conversation. It felt so good to be with people who are actively trying to change their lifestyles, adjusting what they eat, to be better for their own health and the health of the planet. I look forward to continuing the conversation.
by Judy Handley | Feb 6, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 37: A Most Unmemorable Day
Date: Tuesday, February 6, 2024
Weather: Overcast with Light Snow; High Temp 34, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
This was one of those days when there was very little memorable enough to note. I did three laundry loads, mostly bedding, I went shopping and on the way home I stopped by Heather and Jed’s to pick up Shadow’s food that I store in their freezer, and I made a few phone calls on behalf of my sister. While I was at Heather and Jed’s, I got to visit with Ollie and Sam for a few minutes, but not Jonah as he was not at home. Still, that was the highlight of my day. I have not seen much of the boys recently, so it was great to see their smiling faces. And I enjoyed watching the light snow falling off and on all day. It was too warm to stick until late day, and even then there was only enough snow to barely cover the ground. Still, it was beautiful as it was falling.
by Judy Handley | Feb 5, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 36: Plants and Friends
Date: Monday, February 5, 2024
Weather: Sunny, N Wind in Afternoon; High Temp 37, Low 31 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
Today’s activities involved two things dear to my heart—plants and friends. After taking Shadow to the vet to get his Lyme vaccine, I came home and worked on transferring some plants from the containers they came in from the nursery to nicer pots. I managed to make a huge mess in the dining room, but hopefully the three plants involved survived the ordeal. Then Karen Baranowski came over to visit. She and Peter have been gone since early January on a trip to Florida, so we caught up on happenings. Then Karen invited me to come over to their house for dinner and I accepted. She made turkey breast fajitas, and they were delicious. Thank you, Karen.
The sun did shine all day today. Even though the temperature was not much different from yesterday, there was no wind this morning, so it felt considerably warmer. But tonight, I’m feeling that chill again. It must be time to crawl under the covers and go to sleep.
by Judy Handley | Feb 4, 2024 | 2024 Life Logs |
2024 Life Logs, Day 35: Just Too Cold
Date: Sunday, February 4, 2024
Weather: Partly Sunny with a N Wind; High Temp 38, Low 28 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue, Falmouth MA
For the past two days, no matter what I do, I am just too cold. I have increased the thermostat from 68 to 70, the sun was shining for much of the day, and I put on more clothes. But for whatever reason, my nose is constantly cold, as is my whole body. I think tomorrow I am just going to stay in the bedroom with the door shut. That should do it.
I finally had a visit from a physical therapist today, a young woman named Tracy. The order was put through a few days after my surgery, but like all medical appointments here on the Cape, it took a while. All I wanted was for someone to come give me a few pointers on how I should be moving, and the PT who came spent over an hour with me. She had me go though my daily routines, inside and outside, getting into and out of bed, playing fetch with Shadow with the Chuck It, just about everything. She recommended a different way of putting on the brace for my left knee and showed me a better way of getting into and out of cars, and she answered my biggest question, “Is leaning the same as bending?” The answer is yes, unless done from the hips, not from the waist. I had been told no BLT, no bending, no lifting (over 10 pounds), and no twisting. And Tracy adds an S and R to that—no stretching to reach things. Despite the limitations, she gave me a pretty good ‘grade’. She recommended that I keep icing at least once every couple of hours per day for three more weeks and just keep on rollin’.
