Four years ago, four interesting Februarys ago, we went on what proved to be, and we suspected, a last family trip with my mum, to the Turks and Caicos.
A lot of things hadn’t happened then, one of them being my hernia and nerve resectioning operation. The only way to the town in Providenciales to get groceries, etc. [etc. being beer and wine, ed.] was to ride bicycles. And I rode with my left leg, my right leg coming along for the ride. It is hard to remember pain, luckily, but I do remember the awkwardness and the motion I developed to turn the left peddle. I have never been a very balanced person, but my bicycle was my good friend and I had even taken it with me to St. Pierre and Michelon when I did a six week French immersion course when I was 18. In the Turks and Caicos I felt the loss of my powers, took my pain meds and trudged along as best I could. Hubby tried kite surfing while I took pictures from the beach, slowly relegated to audience and cheering section. Surgery was that following summer.
Fast forward to this year (zooming right through breaking what the doctor somewhat ironically called my ‘good’ leg) and here I am, trying to keep up with my 86 year-old father-in-law, peddling with two legs, in Treasure Cay.
Why should anyone other than me care? Because you have to be patient to be a good patient, and roll with life’s punches, and my lame story reveals that in spades and makes a good allegory that I hope encourages others to see through life’s storms without too much angst but with constant requests for a better answer. To be content but not complacent.
But mostly because when I got home and realised how long it was since I had ridden a bike, I had an enormous feeling of gratitude to those who listened to my story and helped me along the way that I feel compelled to share.
And in particular, I want to thank Dr Kosar Khwaja, now the Director of Acute Care Surgery at the McGill University Health Centre and still doctoring the Montreal Canadiens, who found my hernia and believed in the entrapped nerve after many false starts and miss- and non-diagnoses.
I remember him warning me I wouldn’t heal like Mike Fisher, and boy was he right! But heal I slowly have, and while pain-free was never a realistic goal or option, I suddenly, after four long years, was riding a bicycle and barely thinking about it.
What a delightful man, who didn’t dismiss the middle aged chronic pain patient as passed her prime, but quickly and professionally found the problem, fixed it as best he could, with a realistic discussion of the possible outcomes, and treated me like I was in the NHL. I had teased my doctor when I first found out about the inguinal hernia surgeries being performed in Montreal, that included nerve resectioning, that we lived in a socialist paradise and I wanted what those professional hockey players were getting, a scant two hours from my house. And I got it.
Thank you, Dr. Khwaja.
The boat:
The interior of the genius structure, with a close up of the pipes, just plastic electrical conduit, stuffed into the holes hubby drilled in the sides of the 2 x 4’s, which are scarfed together to extend to the bow and stern and are bolted to the upturned arms, which stick up like a dead dog’s would, when the pontoons are tucked in:
And the lighthouse, that marks the Nepean Sailing Club, in the unfortunately named Dick Bell Park. [Note to politicians: don’t name things using first names. It is exceptionally dorky, especially if the name is Dick.]
Good morning.
And good morning again.
I keep starting to explain that I am having a wee health issue and then erasing it all. But so it is, and it is distracting me. But nothing major or related to my hernia story, or interesting. But just enough to slow down the old noggin.
And oh boy am I happy about legal :mrgreen:. Almost literally (is that like slightly unique?) life saver for me. And the vaporizer is the bee’s knees.
Good melting morning. Nice to have a sump pump!
A string of good mornings, and I am feeling a little better.
I have been taking cuttings and attempting to root a variety of plants what with spring about to spring. The lowly germaniums, a coleus (?), my good old ficus, Benji, some oleander and a little flowering ground cover I don’t now the name of. Oh and even a begonia and christmas cactus that I am trying, because the web said it was easy, peasy, lemon squeezy.
The flower I didn’t know turns out to be a kind of portulaca, and apparently edible and often considered a weed! Well it flowers profusely, opening and shutting tiny blooms every day and it has brilliant pink and yellow flowers, and you can eat it which makes it a very attractive weed! It roots really easily and spreads through my little rock garden. [And of course almost generates an argument in the comment section of this fellow’s gardening blog, Is there any thing that doesn’t bring out the worst in people on the internet? Just because you can give an opinion doesn’t mean you have to or that you get to be an aggressive moron.]
I did buy some impatience last year but almost no annuals thanks to my indoor rooting, etc. Gardening on the cheap! But I didn’t seem to get my usual harvest of nasturtium seeds so those might have to be purchased.
I don’t remember if I rambled on about making homemade dog treats, which I did the other day, but I should have. I have made another batch, this time with chicken stock, peanut butter and coarsely chopped left over parmesan rind … a huge success! Sure beats spending $70 on treats packaged in plastic bags (not on one bag, but when I would load up on them it really did add up). Mouse is a spoiled lass, and not a fan of the standard milk bone. But these were winners:
I added a title … sorry for the alarming bold, I didn’t know how it would display.
And to prove Roz Chast right and make sure this blog continues to also be about what I am cooking, here are my pecan sandies, very short like shortbread is short. I mostly followed this recipe, but also added some basmati rice flour, because I have some and like a short shortbread:
http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2008/12/pecan-sandies/
I made twice the recipe, and rolled the dough into logs that I chilled in the refrigerator overnight and then sliced, into disks about a third of an inch thick. And I didn’t add the sugar at the end.
Good gray drizzly morning. Hard to feel motivated, but it must be possible!
I had stopped doing my yoga while on holiday and it is amazing how quickly one forgets how important exercise is. Yeah for Yoga by Candace, she really does a good job. These are the two videos I did yesterday:
30 Minute Restorative Yoga
10 Minute Yoga for Leg Strength
So tonight we are going to finally go to one of the winter speaker talks at the sailing club:
Sailing from Toronto to Thunder Bay
Not that I would want to do the whole thing, but parts of it, like the North Channel sound fabulous. And nice to support the effort and we have been no-shows all winter. It involves driving, and often there is also drinking, so without the boat or van to sleep in, or weather suitable for same, it is generally to be avoided. Alcohol and sailing go a little too hand and hand, I mean in …
Well that was fun. A charming Russian fellow with a sense of humour and interesting photos, a few of them quite fabulous. Although I must say that ‘straighten’ is an awesome and easily available editing tool for photographs. And crop. Take more photo than you want, and then straighten and crop. Too hard to get the framing right through the camera so why not add a little wiggle room? One of the things I have figured out as I learned not to take so many bad photos.
And good morning. The sun is shining and the bird feeder is filled with a fresh batch of homemade suet. It is just homemade everything lately, and I can’t express how happy it makes me to try to back away from the money economy, although I sure should try to figure out a way to monetize myself! I really do love to shop, but not for things that I can apparently make better and more cheaply, and I feel quite terribly guilty at times for not earning a better salary. But then I check myself and accept where I am, and do what I can today. Which seems to involve eyeing the bacon fat and thinking of making Mouse some more treats …
Good sunny, chilly, morning.
Happy Sunday. Contemplating making homemade easter eggs … the hideously sweet, buttery ones dipped in dark chocolate. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth but my Granny Tiny used to make them for us and I was repelled by the prices of “chocolate” egg type products.
The world is going to hell in a very slow hand-cart perhaps, and I am so disappointed in the American current political scene that I am rendered temporarily speechless. Please, no, and that goes for all the candidates.
Good Monday moaning.
Good morning. Aren’t the lighter afternoons great? Couldn’t we just stay on summer time? Please! It would be so simple and changing the clocks really messes with people’s brains.
Well I did make the Easter eggs and though for some reason I did not take a picture (my piping skills suck and the eggs were round) they turned out great. Dipping them in chocolate was not so tricky using a spoon and fork and freezing them first, and I had some leftover melted chocolate to which I added peanut butter, icing sugar and a little bit of butter, let it chill and then rolled them into truffles which I dusted with cocoa. Yum.
Ignoring the world is working out, for the moment. Watched just enough television to hear of the bombings in Belgium … what the f is the matter with people? I think I will go back to the sand box.
Happy Good Friday, though I am not so sure what was so good about it. Jesus dying for my sins is one of the silliest thoughts out there, and I take it rather personally. But nice to have a holiday even if the association of eggs and chocolate with man’s inhumanity to man and a fellow nailed to a cross is particularly weird. Oh well, who says we are rational? I just wish we were a little more sensible sometimes.
And yes, you can buy chocolate shaped like Jesus, even nailed to the cross. What would you eat first? How to traumatize your children ,,, yum, stigmata …