Thawed, Frozen, Repeat

 Saturday

I was invited to join my friend Annette at a restaurant to celebrate her 65th birthday. She chose a Korean barbecue which I had never experienced before. You order small plates from an iPad, which they bring (raw) to your table, then you cook it on the grill embedded in the table and share. I definitely enjoyed the novelty of it all and the company was jovial and engaging, and I was so happy to celebrate my friend. Would I go back? Probably not because I'm not a fan of cooking the food myself, nor with sharing food all around. As a social event it was great though.

Rebecca, Annette, me


The whole group, minus Jesse.

Monday

The snow is gone, the ice is melted, and it's supposed to reach 55 degrees today! There is a layer of water on top of the last of the lake ice so no more ice fishing. 

I love the feeling of waking up with nothing on the calendar and musing about how I might fill my day. Today I thought I might go biking, do some business errands, or paint the closet I started repairing yesterday. When I stood, my knee was extremely sore and swollen; I had to hobble around as I tried to figure out what was wrong with it.

I called my orthopedics office and made the first available appointment for mid January.  Realizing that I couldn't limp around for three weeks, I noticed they also have an urgent orthopedic office that is for walk-in patients. I drove over and was seen after a half hour wait (not bad), had an x-ray, a lidocaine injection, a needle aspiration, then an injected dose of cortisone. With instructions to ice it and rest it, I set off to get a couple of errands done so as to not waste this entire day. I only grumbled a little about missing a perfectly good bike riding day.

How quickly plans develop all on their own! I'm guessing I injured the knee climbing up and down stairs and ladders, along with twisting myself around shelves to re-tape and spackle the ceiling joint in the linen closet. I didn't notice any injury while completing the task, but I can't think how else it happened.

Tuesday

My knee seemed very much better so I got busy making a Chocolate Guinness Cake for tonight's NYE party. I had a quick appointment with the ENT where we decided to put off surgery for a bit, then I went on a 3.5 mile walk with Annette. I was amazed at how well my knee felt. 

The party was a fun collection of hiking friends both old and new, but I was home by 10:30 as I have no need to watch the ball drop anymore. No one took pictures either because we were enjoying catching up and eating lots of delicious food. The Guinness cake was a hit along with home made tiramisu.

I'm not setting resolutions, per usual, but I am setting a few short term challenges to see where that takes me. I've decided to try for 1500 biking miles this year as a start. Other than that I'll be working on making my life better by volunteering a bit. I'm off to a dinner tonight with friends who volunteer at a music venue so I'll see where that goes.  

Thursday

I took a walk today that started out pleasant enough, but then things took a turn.

This is from the softball fields on a nearby hill.  I could see the snow flurries in the distance.

I was walking in a snow squall for the rest of the time with visibility about 1/4 mile. Fun!

I thawed out in the hot tub as the sun came out and the squall line moved north where I'll be driving this evening. Luckily there seems to be no accumulation with this line of squalls, just white knuckle driving.

Comments

  1. MargaretJanuary 2, 2025 at 8:13 PM

    It's a frustrating thing about ageing that we hurt something and can't exactly explain what we did. I have that issue sometimes with my knees or ankles. I'm just trying to be active! Wow, that snow is pretty but I wouldn't want to walk in it. The Guinness cake sounds intriguing. I've been to South Korea and am not a fan of their food, to be honest.

    ReplyDelete
  2. PamJanuary 4, 2025 at 5:50 PM

    I can't imagine thawing out in a hot tub. Don't the bits of you that stick out stay cold???

    ReplyDelete
  3. Maureen MJanuary 4, 2025 at 11:12 PM

    The water is so warm 102 *F (39 *C) that my head does not ever feel cold. Sometimes I have to raise my arms out of the water to cool off a bit, or sit up on the cooling bench. It's making the winter season quite a bit nicer!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Another Rainy Weekend

Image
Another rainy Saturday to contend with, so I decided on a Van Morrison playlist while I cleaned out the garage and danced and sang. My gardening supplies and planters and pots that need sorting and recycling  were cluttering up my space. They are now sorted and the garage is cleaned out for at least another week or so. I think the shed in the back yard needs to be a project to get it into a more useful state.  The amount of rain we've had is remarkable. May was one of the wettest months in eighty years and June is starting to look the same. I would rather have too much rain rather than a drought though.  After dropping around 3 inches of rain, the skies cleared up later in the afternoon. I loaded up my bike for an impromptu ride on the Electric Trail with the thought of dinner or ice cream at Samascott's.  The first of many turtles on the bike path. Now I see just how rough the path was and how I had no business riding on it.  The trail was very wet on the way s...
Read more

Summer Solstice

Image
Vroman's Nose overlooking the valley. Summer has begun! To mark the solstice, my hiking group held a picnic at the top of Vroman's Nose, which is a short little hike up a 657 foot hill. It overlooks the Schoharie Valley and has a beautiful rock 'dance floor' that easily accommodates our group of forty. The weather was a perfect 74 degrees with a breeze to keep any bugs away. A pleasant gathering on the dance floor near sunset. I drove Sue Ellen who had her gall bladder removed last week, and we hiked up with a guy who has spinal stenosis. As I listened to them discuss their ailments, I silently gave thanks for my health and thought about how 'mature' our group is becoming.  Once at the top, the party began with burgers and dogs, salads and desserts, and great conversation.  Most of our group made it into this sunset picture. Saturday started with me being woken up by my neighbors chatting down below in the street - it was garage sale day. I didn't join since...
Read more

Random Thoughts In My Little Life

Image
 The orchids I bought in February (!) catch my attention each day and I have to marvel at their longevity. Four months of continuous flowers? What other plant does this? I just may become an orchid collector. A new stem with buds is forming on one of them too! This long horn beetle was inspecting my snow peas. They have blooms, so peas are not far behind! I drove up to the Plateau to meet a friend for a paddle. The wind picked up for awhile so we got a nice upper body work out paddling into the wind. Then we just floated near the dock when the wind died down and the sun was shining.  This wetland was covered in yellow flag (iris) on the way to the Pond. Enjoying the calm water after the gusts. This is not proper paddling form, but it was so relaxing. This angle makes my kayak look tiny! Thursday was a nice dry day - perfect for lawn garden work. I'm diligently putting the plants I keep buying into the ground. I have a dozen sunflowers I grew from seed that need planting, but t...
Read more