WEEKLY HAPPENINGS - MONDAY 1/6/25 TO SUNDAY, 1-12-25

Hello Family and Friends, here is my latest weekly missive. I go on at some length about my physiotherapy appointment. Several of you have been asking how my first one went, and I thought it would be easier to put it all down here. It takes me a while these days to send individual emails out, sorry to say.

The above shows our weather forecast for the week beginning 1/13/25.

Monday, January 6th, 2025: a snow day. The forecasters were correct. It started snowing late last night and is still snowing this morning at 11.21 a.m. About six inches so far. (I took this photo a few days later while driving through the neighborhood.) It snowed all through the day.

The next photo also taken a few days later, is from the house that always has these lovely seasonal decorations in their front yard. The gentleman must be late taking them down because of the weather, but I am glad as it is a lovely sight and always makes me smile when I drive by. I received a text last night to say my first physiotherapy appointment was cancelled for this morning. I was disappointed, and yet relieved? I was doing cartwheels inside my head. I will pay the piper later!

The same young man who shoveled our driveway last year about this time, knocked on the door this morning. We hired him again and he did a great job. He had grown about six inches taller. He goes to our local high school. When he was finished, snowmelt was put on the driveway. More will be added as the day progresses. 

These photos of the birds were taken the next day. They were nowhere to be seen for those 24 hours. Then they made up for it and were very busy flying in and out for a while. The Kissing Bunnies seem to be doing fine.

Had a lovely chat with son and daughter-in-law. Dear d-in-l wisely cancelled lessons. Son sent me snow photos a few days later also.

Tuesday, January 7th, 2025: Tuesday is always a bit of a fog because without fail lately, I forget to write anything down until the next day.

Can't remember what we had for breakfast or lunch but dinner was a frozen Pad Thai bought from CostCo today. We both enjoy cooking but it's nice to have something you can take out the freezer and throw into the oven. We wanted something hot.

Wednesday, January 8th, 2025: we went for our weekly fast-food trip. It was McDonalds again for lunch with burger and fries, with me taking along my own water. 

Our main roads have been salted, plowed and easy to get around. The neighborhood roads are passable but a little trickier. We went for a drive later and our car miraculously turned into the drive-thru of one of a favorite coffee shop. I took pictures on the way back.  There were quite a few snow men in people’s yards. 

Son called up and said earlier, "Are you at McDonalds?" He could see us on the GPS tracker. Not that we keep tabs on each other, but I guess we keep tabs on each other! It's come in very useful when either of us have had car problems, as the directions take us right to their cell phone. Does anyone else use these between family members? Some might think it a bit too invasive of privacy but we've all grown to like it and it gives comfort when on journeys. We have the ability to turn it off but never do, and we don’t check it all the time.

Thursday, January 9th, 2025: we seem to be eating out a lot as today we were at Santini's. Gregg had his Italian cold cut with a coke. I had their steak and cheese with a cream soda for a change. I brought half of mine home and for....

Dinner: we shared my half of the steak and cheese, along with half an avocado. The sub was as delicious as it was at lunch time (heated up in the microwave). Santini's is not on a regular schedule. We go a couple of times every three-months or so. It is an excellent sub-shop however.

When we came back from lunch we had a chat with brother-in-law across the pond. We were on FaceTime for well over an hour-and-a-half. I've mentioned it before, but he is more like a brother to me than a brother-in-law. I still remember my sister bringing him home that first time to meet us all. I was 13 years old. I remember being very shy. 

Friday, January 9th, 2025 at 10:47 a.m: I am all ready to go to my first physiotherapy appointment. There were several locations to choose from. They have a place at the hospital where I saw the orthopedic surgeon, and as we know the building, all the appointments were made there. It's not too far from our house. I dressed in comfortable clothes with layers. Not sure what to expect. Gregg dropped me off at the entrance while he parked the car. I waited for him in one of the foyer chairs. I saw this. It's a photo of The Air Force Memorial.

First session over and I am back home. My knee was evaluated by a no-nonsense (but very nice) physiotherapist. She was very good at her job. I shot through the roof a few times as she examined my knee. She had me walking up a wide hallway while she watched me from behind. That felt a bit strange. I stayed close to the wall and put my hand out to steady myself a few times. She asked did I always do that? I said not as much since I had the injection but before a lot and now sometimes. I told her I was always glad to have a wall available. When I go out I have Gregg’s arm. I also said I had to use our furniture at home to get myself around when I first sprained my knee.

She taught me how to use my cane. Apparently, I am not the most coordinated person. She told me I should put my left foot forward and do the same with the cane in the opposite hand, synchronizing it to come together with my left foot as I move forward. Can I move my one hand up and down and do a circle motion with the other hand at the same time? My thought, not hers. Nope! I will be practicing. She also adjusted the height of the cane. Gregg bought it for me a couple of weeks back as they sell them at the supermarket. She also told me not to hunch over as I walked, “You need to stand up straight.” Oh boy!

She looked at my shoes and I was wearing my comfy flatties. She told me they don't offer a lot of support for my foot, and I really should buy a pair of good walking shoes. I came home and, fingers crossed, ordered another pair online that are a kind of an orthopedic shoe for people with similar problems. They will arrive in a few days. They look like a regular walking shoe.  I will show them to her for inspection the next time I go. 

I am also doing the exercises every day that she had me do in the office, as I have to strengthen the muscles in my leg. She asked me what my goal was and I told her I wanted to walk around the gardens and the parks again, definitely to walk further than I have been doing. Also to be able to go on longer trips when the warmer weather arrives. We often talk about that when we are home. I left more hopeful and very appreciative of her sound advice. 

Several other questions, more exercises and we were out the door, "and when you order my coffee my love, would you also get a brownie for me? For some odd reason I badly want chocolate!” Family joke and a leftover from childhood! But first, on the way home we had had lunch at Chick Filet, and then the coffee stop nearer home at our local place. We are not doing very good with our ‘not-eating out as much’ resolve.

It is late afternoon now and the man has gone off to Wegman’s. More snow tonight and the store was busy again with people preparing and stocking up for bad weather. It's not supposed to be as much though.

Son texted us to see how my appointment went. He was on the metro coming back from Maryland.

Saturday, January 11th, 2025 - 10:47 a.m: we awoke to about an inch of snow this morning. The roads through the neighborhood were better for driving. Thanks to the young man who cleared our drive and path up to the front door, dear other half didn't have to do much, but he still got a good work out. He has put more snowmelt down and hopefully there will be no more snow for a while. 

The next photo shows the view out of our garage window facing us as we pull the car in. The window need cleaning I noticed, but I have been banned from getting on step ladders for some time now, by the two men in our family. There is also a workbench in front of this window. Man said he will get round to it. 

He knows I'll have a bee in my bonnet. Lots of bees flying around in there lately.

Moving on, the first thing we check each morning is the news, to see what's been going on and have our daily discussion about current events. Daily prayers to people in California, and to all firefighters and first responders, and everyone else who is volunteering and involved in trying to keep people safe. I don't usually mention what I read about (the bottom part of my profile on the side of my blog page explains why), but keeping up with what's going on here and around the world is important to us. I found this online.

Since posting the above I saw that South Africa has sent their firefighters. Here, there are those from other States now. The way the fires were raging and flying because of those 80-100 mph hurricane winds looked horrifying, and nigh on impossible to keep up with, an interminably impossible situation. They also are dealing with fire tornadoes and showed one on the news. I have never heard of such a thing and the sight of it was startling to say the least. There are probably more helpers involved now. There are many, many helpers out there. Praying for everyone!

The snow is dripping off the roof and for a while there was a mini blizzard of misty snowflakes blowing sideways. 

I enjoyed watching the birds again, a daily pastime. We have a White-breasted Nuthatch, several finches, Dark-eyed Juncos, a Carolina Wren and a male Cardinal out there right now, and a Blue Jay, ones I have mentioned before.

They are most definitely regulars. I have a clear view of them where I sit and my camera with the zoom is always at my side on the sofa. I am still waiting for that Northern Flicker to come back. My knee might not be up to snuff but my camera arm's reaction is really good, and very coordinated! They all flew off at the same time. Something must have startled them. Our houses are pretty close together and someone is always coming and going, more so on the weekends. Or maybe the dinner bell rang at another house.  False alarm, they're back. 

We had a nice chat with our son when he called in the late afternoon. He was shopping and picking up items as he walked around the supermarket. Very much like his dad in that area.  He wanted to know more about my physiotherapy appointment from yesterday.

Sunday, January 12th, 2024 - 10:12 a.m: son isn't coming over today. He is looking after dear daughter-in-law who is feeling under the weather. Hoping she will feel much better so that they can enjoy the rest of the day together.

Last meal to mention: it was eaten late and was our combined lunch and dinner. The man roasted chicken breasts topped with olive oil, salt and pepper and chili crisp, cubed boiled potatoes and Brussels sprouts. Plainer fixings, not too many seasonings and  it was excellent and welcomed. Well done Chef!

That's it for now.

Thanks for looking and enjoy the rest of your week. I leave you while I am doing cartwheels in my head, and several bees are buzzing around in my bonnet! 🐝 

THE STORY OF THE SPRAINED KNEE

All my step pictures are with thanks to Pixabay, to try to add a little humor to the story. Probably doesn't work but I am always trying to lighten things up.

On my birthday I gave myself a lovely gift. That gift was on July 8th and it was a sprained knee. It is definitely an eye-roller up to the ceiling moment, and a sort of funny story that goes along with. I couldn't smile at first, but I am inwardly smiling now all these weeks later, sort of.

Today's post is to answer those who have been asking how did I do it? It was all to do with renewing my military spouse ID. An appointment was made and the only time available was on my birthday. I didn’t want to delay it any longer. There are a couple of bases we can go to get it done. We decided on the nearest Marine Corps one.  

Security at the gate told us where we needed to go. We ended up parking on a multi-story parking lot next to the building. It was only a small parking area compared to other places we have been to. The first two floors were reserved spaces for active military, third floor was for visitors. It only had three levels but there was no elevator. No problem I told Gregg, I can handle going down those steps. Gregg always looks a bit concerned, stairs and I have had many issues in the past. I repeated, with emphasis, “No problem, honestly!” I got down those steps okay and was feeling proud of myself that nothing untoward happened.

We were at the side of the building and popped our heads through a door, but there was no one around to ask. Gregg said to me, you wait here, and I’ll come back for you when I find the place. Okay I said, but after ten minutes the heat was getting to me even in the shady spot and no bench in sight. (We were having a heatwave and were being warned constantly on the news.) I was starting to feel a bit worse for wear. More time went by when a young marine walked past me and before he disappeared, I got the hook out, figuratively speaking. I asked him if he could tell me where the office was to renew ID’s.  He responded with a smile and said, “Yes ma’am, I am going there myself and I can show you.”  I happily said that would be lovely, thank you so much and off he went, with me following briskly behind, more briskly than I have been in a long time.

The building was on quite a steep hill, and at the side of it there were a hundred plus steps to climb - oh boy - which young marine took two steps at a time. ‘Oh boy’ became my mantra as I tried to keep up. At least it’s great exercise I thought. (Both father and son rolled their eyes to the ceiling when I told them this later. I got sort of a lecture from son about me trying to keep up with a marine. We all know how fit these guys are, me not so much, fit I mean.)

Young marine was waiting for me at the top and he said that we had to go through ‘this door’, which - oh boy - led to three more long flights of stairs inside the building, no exaggeration. He slowed down for me and finally, after me slowing the poor young man down while the old lady caught up, he deposited me at the door where I was to get my ID done. I thanked him and off he went through another door to get his own ID presumably.

So, there I was, sitting in the waiting room and chuckling at the thought of Gregg walking up the stairs to find that I was already there. I had sent him a text earlier which unfortunately he didn’t see. Yes, he was very surprised, and I beamed and giggled like a school girl getting there first, not that we are competitive or anything. (So, she who laughs first and all that right?) In my defense, not that I needed to defend but I felt a bit guilty, I didn't mean to disappear on him and I told him I had sent him a text, and just had to get inside out of the heat, and had no time to tell him about the young marine, bless his dear heart, and all those blessed steps, before we were called into the office.

We were both impressed at the efficiency and friendliness of the staff and were finished in less than 20 minutes. Loved their air-conditioning and the cool air was very welcome. I was told that because of my age (another young man - he needed training on how to talk to women as old as his grandma, but in all seriousness, he was very sweet), he continued that I would not need any more renewals, this was the last one for life.  At that point I could have said “Yippee!”, at the ID and "Yippee!" at the first ever decent ID photo I have ever had, because I have to stare at the thing to the bitter end and yes, I am smiling. It’s the lighting, it was really bright in that room, and I was very happy with the final ID photo. The others across the years have been pretty abysmal.

By this time I was feeling somewhat uncomfortable. 

We walked out the door and looked to our left and there was the blessed elevator!!! Yes, that sentence deserves three exclamation points. “Are you kidding me!” I said.  Gregg said “I wonder where that goes?” I told him again with emphasis that I didn’t care as long as it goes down, and my inner tortoise and hare mentality kicked in. The hare was through the elevator door first, by this time not hopping but limping a little.

When the elevator reached ground level, we only had to walk down a short corridor and surprise, surprise, exited out the door we had tried when we first arrived. There were rude words in my head, but I was proud of myself for not speaking them out loud.

It was still sweltering. Gregg found a bench for me around the corner and in a shady spot, deposited me there while he fetched the car, and I promised him I wouldn't move an inch. Thankfully by this time there was a slight breeze. 

On the way home Gregg asked me how was I feeling? I told him, “Well, my knee is a bit sore.” By the next morning it was pitching a fit. 

The doctor’s appointment was made after almost a week of supporting myself by walking around the house leaning on every piece of furniture, and it wasn’t getting any better as I had hoped. It was x-rayed and I have been told there is arthritis also. I have to go back in three months, sooner if it gets worse, and no climbing steps, no kidding! I was given a prescription for a topical ointment which has the same effect as my go-to pain medication, but without the problematic side effects. And no walking around our favorite spots for a while, and as I say yet again, most definitely no steps. 

So, there you go, I hope that answers a few questions. 

Thanks for sticking with the story through to the end. It is a bit of a long one.

Have a great day everyone, and for any Marine Corps friends out there, Semper Fi!