A Solitary Cabin

I've owed you all a post for a while, and I have some time to put pen to paper, so here we are.

June was a whirlwind. The month started with a trip northward to attend my in-laws' 50th wedding anniversary. This, I have to say, was lovely. They had a vow renewal at their local church and then went to their favorite restaurant for a brunch that could not be beat. It was wonderful to catch up with family who came into town for the event. The delight of it all was watching the joy my mother-in-law took in the proceedings, and watching my father-in-law delight in her delight. They really are a perfect couple. Many congrats to them.

The spanner in the works was that, on the drive up, my son called to let us know he was in the ER. A planned lunch with my parents was canceled, and we headed over to visit with him and stayed with him until he was able to be admitted and transferred to a hospital for an inpatient stay, some seven hours later. After seeing him off, we drove to the hotel, crashed hard, attended the festivities for my in-laws, drove up to visit him in the hospital, then drove the four hours back home.

During all the activity around his hospitalization, we all agreed that one of us should go stay with him at his place to help him when he got home and take care of things in the meantime. Since I work from home, I took the first week. So, the morning after the celebration and drive home, I worked, packed, and then drove up to his house. I stayed there and helped take care of things for a week, and then my wife took the second week, and I drove back home.

All of this to explain that all of the driving aggravated that back injury from April. Two weeks out of rehab and one PT session was not enough recovery time for the amount of driving, walking, and stair climbing I did during that week. The morning after I returned home, I had a bad flare-up, and have been nursing it ever since. Now, a month later, it is finally only bothering me in the usual way instead of the bad way that comes with a flare-up.

But there have been some positive developments as well:

• Had an appointment with an orthopedic doctor and had some X-rays done. It seems that many of my issues with muscle weakness in my legs and my trouble walking could be because my L# vertebra is pressing on my spinal cord, messing with the signal. I've started a new round of PT to strengthen the muscles around my lower back, and I like my new PT people very much.
• I'm walking longer than I've been able to in some time. I'm getting out to the park in the early morning and trying to get short walks in with Trogdor the Rollinator (my rollator).
• Exercise makes me feel better, goddamn it all.
• As my back heals, I've been able to get back to some other regular activities, and I do not need to rely on things with wheels around the house so much anymore.

And so now it is already July 3rd, and I am cleaning up the house for my folks to come visit tomorrow. I live next door to a great barbecue place, so we are grabbing some takeout and catching up. Then I have the rest of the weekend to mess around with some personal projects.

Ok...this has rambled on long enough. I have other things to share, but it's more of a potpourri, so that will come in the next post.

Be well, everyone.