…..and went
Clair came home from Antarctica, by way of South America on the 20th of December. The flight was right on time. It was good to see her. Wait, she has a tan. No actually she is sunburned. Its mid December and our temps have been in the 20s for highs and she has the nerve to walk off the plane lookin’ good – not pasty like the rest of us.
It is good to have her home. Our ‘no permanent address, car-less’ daughter arrived for Christmas. Bethlehem has nothing on us. WooHoo!
It was a fine couple of days. Family, Friends, Frigid weather. And there was snow, good food gifts and did I mention Family and Friends? Our alternative tree, the Christmas branch, gave way to an artificial tree this year due to the fact that the family lumberjack, a.k.a. Jerry, only had the use of one arm and besides there will be no trail blazing for him for some time. Of course, it’s my allergies that prevent us from having a normal real tree anyway. So it was a good couple of days but I tend to get a little grumpy when I get tired and I’ve been tired a lot lately. My apologies to those around me.
Tonight…, more family! Jerry will be showing some of his AT pictures to his family after yet another shared meal. That means we’ll be expected to stay awake until probably after ..…8:00. We’ll do our best….
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
So it is not quite the new year just yet...
...but I feel a resolution coming on…. I feel a need to continue writing and updating my blog. I think it just may be the therapy that I need and if there is no one out there reading it, well, that is okay too.
It had been an interesting journey lately. At I mentioned much earlier, Jerry was hurting when he managed to summit Katahdin. The xrays taken in Maine showed no apparent injury to his arm or leg. Fast forward to the middle/end of November when he visited our internal medicine doctor. After another xray of his still hurting arm, which again showed nothing, an MRI was ordered. Ah, ha the cause of the pain showed itself. A torn tendon which connects the tricept to the elbow.
We visited an orthopedic man and surgery was scheduled. It went well until an infection reared its nasty little head a few days later. A round of antibodies did not do the trick so the doctor wanted to go back in and irrigate the wound. Okay, fine. However the morning before the second surgery Jerry missed the bottom step and landed in the ER. The incision was torn open but once the blood was cleared up things looked okay. So on to PT. The doctor stopped in and said everything looked okay. Not so. When they went in to clean out the wound the next day they found that the tendon had once again snapped. A 20 minute procedure turned in to a 2 ½ hour surgery. The doctor was not pleased he had to use the ‘old fashion’ technique to secure the tendon. Needless to say when Jerry woke up and realized 4 hours has passed he knew what had happened.
So now he is in a splint. Looking at a follow-up appointment with the doctor tomorrow. The next part of the adventure will be some long hard months of PT. The journey continues…..
It had been an interesting journey lately. At I mentioned much earlier, Jerry was hurting when he managed to summit Katahdin. The xrays taken in Maine showed no apparent injury to his arm or leg. Fast forward to the middle/end of November when he visited our internal medicine doctor. After another xray of his still hurting arm, which again showed nothing, an MRI was ordered. Ah, ha the cause of the pain showed itself. A torn tendon which connects the tricept to the elbow.
We visited an orthopedic man and surgery was scheduled. It went well until an infection reared its nasty little head a few days later. A round of antibodies did not do the trick so the doctor wanted to go back in and irrigate the wound. Okay, fine. However the morning before the second surgery Jerry missed the bottom step and landed in the ER. The incision was torn open but once the blood was cleared up things looked okay. So on to PT. The doctor stopped in and said everything looked okay. Not so. When they went in to clean out the wound the next day they found that the tendon had once again snapped. A 20 minute procedure turned in to a 2 ½ hour surgery. The doctor was not pleased he had to use the ‘old fashion’ technique to secure the tendon. Needless to say when Jerry woke up and realized 4 hours has passed he knew what had happened.
So now he is in a splint. Looking at a follow-up appointment with the doctor tomorrow. The next part of the adventure will be some long hard months of PT. The journey continues…..
Friday, November 5, 2010
The Anchor Grill Revisited
Earlier this past week Jerry and I decided to walk to the Kenton County Library, about 1 ½ miles one way.
We had a book to return and we had decided to have a ‘movie night’ one night a week. Last week Jerry brought home ‘Ground Hog Day’. Thank goodness it was my turn to choose this week. My choice was a nature show about the Galapagos. More about that at a later date.
Anyway I filled my string backpack with a few books and the DVD. On the way home we both thought that perhaps we could stop and have lunch along the way. Any of you who have walked this trail – opps, path know that the pickin’s are pretty slim in Covington. But wait, The Anchor Grill was not too far out of the way.
You have to understand that 36 years ago when we were young and had just met Jerry picked me up from work and took me to The Anchor Grill for our first dinner out together. I had never been there before and though I was tired from working a 3-11, I was also hungry. And I trusted Jerry. That was 36 years ago!
There is still a sign in the window that I’m convinced has been there since the beginning of eternity, “We may doze but we never close." There is a new sign now this one on each table. "Anyone ordering between 1:00-4:00 a.m. must pay for the meal when the food arrives." This is apparently due to the large number of ‘walk outs’.
There is still a little mechanical band up in the corner of one of the room. When you put money in the juke box the curtain in front of the band parts and the little guys move as the music plays. However, alas, the coin slot at each of the tables had been taped over. How sad! The band has been silenced!
Not much else has changed in the last 36 years. Except now the dust is a little thicker.
We had a book to return and we had decided to have a ‘movie night’ one night a week. Last week Jerry brought home ‘Ground Hog Day’. Thank goodness it was my turn to choose this week. My choice was a nature show about the Galapagos. More about that at a later date.
Anyway I filled my string backpack with a few books and the DVD. On the way home we both thought that perhaps we could stop and have lunch along the way. Any of you who have walked this trail – opps, path know that the pickin’s are pretty slim in Covington. But wait, The Anchor Grill was not too far out of the way.
You have to understand that 36 years ago when we were young and had just met Jerry picked me up from work and took me to The Anchor Grill for our first dinner out together. I had never been there before and though I was tired from working a 3-11, I was also hungry. And I trusted Jerry. That was 36 years ago!
There is still a sign in the window that I’m convinced has been there since the beginning of eternity, “We may doze but we never close." There is a new sign now this one on each table. "Anyone ordering between 1:00-4:00 a.m. must pay for the meal when the food arrives." This is apparently due to the large number of ‘walk outs’.
There is still a little mechanical band up in the corner of one of the room. When you put money in the juke box the curtain in front of the band parts and the little guys move as the music plays. However, alas, the coin slot at each of the tables had been taped over. How sad! The band has been silenced!
Not much else has changed in the last 36 years. Except now the dust is a little thicker.
Friday, October 29, 2010
The Journey Continues
This past week I turned 62. WooHoo, I’m 62. Well, now what? That’s THE
question at the moment.
Since arriving back home I feel that I’ve settled in to the same old same old.
I really don’t like that feeling. Yea, I know its okay to sit still for a while
and listen for the next step but I certainly don’t want to sit still too long.
So for my 62nd birthday I wanted to visit a National Park so that I could
purchase my very own Life Time National Park Pass for only $10. I feel that I
have arrived! Thanks to an overnight trip to Mammoth Cave I now have in my
possession that special pass that honors me for being old. I’ve had an AARP
card for some time now. Not the same. The National Park pass gets me outdoors.
When we visited Acadia a few weeks ago (really, only a few weeks ago?) it cost
us $20. to ride though the park. The Shenandoah visit was $15. Now I have this
nifty little park pass that gets me in any National Park FREE. Not only that,
three (3) other adults can get in FREE with me, regardless of their age. How
great is that! Now I can listen to my favorite wind chime – the rustle of the
leaves in the treetops or as they are falling, dancing on the wind, we can
wonder at the spring wildflowers and try to remember their names, go sled riding
and make snow angels on the golf course near the cabins, play games on the
screened in cabin porch to escape the summer heat, walk through the woods
kicking the fallen leaves, kayak on the lake, search for the woodpecker that we
can hear but so seldom see and so much more.
I have this nifty little pass…. Anyone want to come along?
question at the moment.
Since arriving back home I feel that I’ve settled in to the same old same old.
I really don’t like that feeling. Yea, I know its okay to sit still for a while
and listen for the next step but I certainly don’t want to sit still too long.
So for my 62nd birthday I wanted to visit a National Park so that I could
purchase my very own Life Time National Park Pass for only $10. I feel that I
have arrived! Thanks to an overnight trip to Mammoth Cave I now have in my
possession that special pass that honors me for being old. I’ve had an AARP
card for some time now. Not the same. The National Park pass gets me outdoors.
When we visited Acadia a few weeks ago (really, only a few weeks ago?) it cost
us $20. to ride though the park. The Shenandoah visit was $15. Now I have this
nifty little park pass that gets me in any National Park FREE. Not only that,
three (3) other adults can get in FREE with me, regardless of their age. How
great is that! Now I can listen to my favorite wind chime – the rustle of the
leaves in the treetops or as they are falling, dancing on the wind, we can
wonder at the spring wildflowers and try to remember their names, go sled riding
and make snow angels on the golf course near the cabins, play games on the
screened in cabin porch to escape the summer heat, walk through the woods
kicking the fallen leaves, kayak on the lake, search for the woodpecker that we
can hear but so seldom see and so much more.
I have this nifty little pass…. Anyone want to come along?
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Sleepless in Covington
So I dug out a pair of ‘farm socks’, socks I never thought I would wear in public again, socks I should have thrown out when I left New Hampshire but didn’t, and we stayed on the road one more night.
We left Hagerstown MD and headed for Shenandoah National Park. Jerry had hiked through the park back in May and my BFF, Karen and I visited with him for about a week and kept ourselves busy doing Trail Magic along Skyline Drive.
One more night on the road, one more night in the tent. We had decided to camp which worked out well because there were no lodge rooms available in the park. I had the camping equipment in the car since the end of July. We might as well put it to use one more time. We camped in the Big Meadow Campgrounds. There were the usual deer, fun to watch. The weather was mild. The sunset was once again beyond words.
As a cold front blew through in the middle of the night and I could hear leaves hitting the rain fly and slide down the sides of the tent I realized that when I had set up the tent I did not look up to check for any dead limbs that might be hanging from the trees above us. It all worked out well, nothing but leaves ended up falling on the tent. We slept well.
A middle of the night visit outside the tent revealed a heaven full of stars. The Milky Way was visible, as always a wonder to behold.
As the promise of dawn broke, we broke camp and except for a stop or two to view the sunrise we spent the next 10 hours in the car headed towards home and the family.
So now I am sleepless in Covington. The once normal sounds of the night are new again, our bed much too comfortable.
We left Hagerstown MD and headed for Shenandoah National Park. Jerry had hiked through the park back in May and my BFF, Karen and I visited with him for about a week and kept ourselves busy doing Trail Magic along Skyline Drive.
One more night on the road, one more night in the tent. We had decided to camp which worked out well because there were no lodge rooms available in the park. I had the camping equipment in the car since the end of July. We might as well put it to use one more time. We camped in the Big Meadow Campgrounds. There were the usual deer, fun to watch. The weather was mild. The sunset was once again beyond words.
As a cold front blew through in the middle of the night and I could hear leaves hitting the rain fly and slide down the sides of the tent I realized that when I had set up the tent I did not look up to check for any dead limbs that might be hanging from the trees above us. It all worked out well, nothing but leaves ended up falling on the tent. We slept well.
A middle of the night visit outside the tent revealed a heaven full of stars. The Milky Way was visible, as always a wonder to behold.
As the promise of dawn broke, we broke camp and except for a stop or two to view the sunrise we spent the next 10 hours in the car headed towards home and the family.
So now I am sleepless in Covington. The once normal sounds of the night are new again, our bed much too comfortable.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
On the way home - perhaps
Is it time to go home when you run out of clean socks? Or do you just buy new ones?
Sunday was spent on the road once again traveling from Bangor PA to Hagerstown, MD. We were welcomed by Ann and Tom with opened arms. Their daughter Laura, aka L.T. hiked with Clair back in ’03. We first met Tom when he summitted with the kids then. Ann we met at Laura and Matt’s wedding 5 years ago. They also graciously took Jerry in for the night as he passed by their place back in June.
We had a wonderful evening and a great bed. Ann sent us off with a packed lunch.
We headed west - towards Kentucky.
Sunday was spent on the road once again traveling from Bangor PA to Hagerstown, MD. We were welcomed by Ann and Tom with opened arms. Their daughter Laura, aka L.T. hiked with Clair back in ’03. We first met Tom when he summitted with the kids then. Ann we met at Laura and Matt’s wedding 5 years ago. They also graciously took Jerry in for the night as he passed by their place back in June.
We had a wonderful evening and a great bed. Ann sent us off with a packed lunch.
We headed west - towards Kentucky.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
6/1
MA, CN, NY, RI, NJ, PA all on Saturday.
Today we head to MD to visit friends who graced Jerry with Trail Magic as he past through oh so many months ago.
Today we head to MD to visit friends who graced Jerry with Trail Magic as he past through oh so many months ago.
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