My foot is feeling better. If I’m allowed back in normal shoes after my doctor appointment this Wednesday, I’ll be so busy dancing I won’t have time to assess that list I posted here of all the things I’d accomplish during my 12-week convalescence. Better do it now.
Fingers crossed: A good visit with the doctor on Wednesday means I can retire these things.
- Read books. This was a joy. I thoroughly enjoyed In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard and Ursula Under by Ingrid Hill, and I especially recommend The Year We Left Home by my friend Jean Thompson. I finished State of Wonder by Ann Patchett yesterday –fantastic! Today I’ll start Turn of Mind by Alice La Plante. I am friends with Alice’s little sister Lynn and sat with Lynn to hear her big sister give a presentation on this book at printers Row Lit Fest in June – am looking forward to getting lost in Turn of Mind now.
- Brush Harper. Another joy, for both of us. Even with my fiberglass cast on, we managed to hobble to the little city park next to our building for a daily grooming.
- Watch White Sox games on TV with Mike. Did that, but considering how things are going this particular baseball season, I prefer listening to Brewers games on WTMJ-Am. No one announces a game like Bob Uecker.
- Attend lectures. I only went to one, but I wonder. Does it count if I gave one?
- See a few plays. Again, we only saw Porgy and Bess. We had ideas about seeing Chinglish until I found out a lot of it was in Mandarin. Subtitles don’t work when you can’t see!
- Play fetch with Harper. Over and over. And over. And over. And over again.
- Check my blood sugar levels. Over and over. And over. And over. And over again. When I went to my endocrinologist the other day, the results from my A1C test was 5.9. (For you lucky ones who don’t have Type 1 diabetes…that’s a very good number!)
- Get more comfortable using my iPhone. Took a cab over to Guild for the Blind in Chicago for one-on-one tutoring from a volunteer last month. I’m making progress, but am still on the uphill side of the learning curve.
- Work up some jazz tunes on the piano.I have been playing piano more lately than before the break. Can’t say I’ve worked up any new tunes, though.
- Share stories with friends. As corny as this sounds, my friends carried me through my convalescence. Thank you, friends. Thank you.
- Practice my newly-repaired accordion. Mike has been amazing during my convalescence, too. To thank him, I’ve kept my accordion in its case.
- Publish blog posts. This took up the majority of my time with a foot in a cast. Supervisors at my part-time job at Easter Seals Headquarters allowed me to work remotely, so I continued writing and editing posts for their blog about autism from home. The Bark started something they called The Broken Foot Chronicles and published a number of posts I wrote about Harper’s disposition while I healed. And then there’s the posts I publish here. Thanks for reading them, loyal blog readers!
- Write a few books. Okay, that was a lofty goal. While my foot was still in a cast, though, I did manage to write a piece for a book National Geographic School Publishing is putting together. Maybe that counts?!
Today, August 28, happens to be Goethe’s birthday. Along with giving Chicago one of its best street names, Goethe also gave us this fabulous quote: “A man can stand anything except a succession of ordinary days.” When I found out my foot had been broken, I wondered if I’d be able to stand a summer of ordinary days. With the way things have turned out, though, I find myself wondering what the heck I was worried about.
Oh, Beth, I feel like such a terrible friend! I hadn’t checked in on your blog for a while, so I hadn’t even known you’d broken your foot. Sounds as though you’ve handled it with your usual panache, though. Glad to hear you’re on the mend.
Panache? I love that word. Had you seen me right after they told me I’d be off my foot for the whole summer, though, you might have described my behavior a little differently. Try…pathetic!
Now Beth, I saw you in early July. If you were pathetic, it didn’t show. Glad to see you are about healed. Your comments in an earlier post about the blindfold are interesting. I worked for several years at the Colorady Center for the Blind, and we required students (adults) with residual vision to use blindfolds (sleepshades) during their training. I taught classes in computers, and I occasionaly (as often as they thought they could get away with it) had students who liked to lift their sleepshades to look at the screen or keyboard. I remember a young lady who decided that this was a good solution, and used it often. She was absolutely insensed to find that, just for her, I had unplugged the monitor, and left the lights out in the classroom.
Take care, and maybe we can have a Milwaukee White sox series.
My fingers are crossed and I know you will get a good report, but does that mean fewer blogs?
Good luck! Penn
Ah, you are sweet. And you’re probably right: once I can get outside regularly with Harper again I may be writing fewer blog posts.
Or, at least they will be shorter ones.
Which, perhaps, is not such a bad thing…!
It seems like you did pretty well with accomplishing things on your list while wearing your Flintstone brace and clodhoppers. I didn’t do nearly any of those things, sighted and with good feet!! Kudos to you.
You sound busy! Perhaps you need a break once you get back on your feet!
Ouch. Please do not use that word “break” lightly.
Glad the foot is healing nicely. You read quite a few books and I am wondering if your finger is bruised ? No seriously, how do you read your books ? Do you read a few in Braille to keep up the skill ? Talking books from the Blind ? Down load from someplace for an app ?
Good luck at the Dr’s tomorrow.
Rick
I don’t read Braille well, but I do read books. “You mean you listen to books,” friends say. Well, I guess technically they are right. But when I want to talk to others about a book, I don’t say, “Gee, I listened to a really great book last vacation” or “I was up all night last night listening to Pride and Prejudice.” It just sounds awkward!
I used to listen to books on tpae, but I’ve joined th 21st century now –I download them!
And I do stil use Braille. Braille helps me know which floor I’m on when I get off an
elevator. I punch out Braille labels to help me keep track of paper
files & important pieces of mail. But when I try to read a book in Braille, you’re right: my finger gets tired!
I couldn’t find a “reply” button under Dave Hyde’s comment above, but want to let him kno I *love his ingenuity, unplugging the monitor so students don’t cheat and look at the screen.
And as for the White Sox/Brewers, my husband Mike asked me just the other night what I’ll do if those two teams end up meeting each other in this year’s World Series. I was pretty confident in my response. I told him that is one thing I don’t really worry about much.
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Glad you made it through Beth! I’ve sorta been there, although you’ve had a lot more going on!
Oh, I’m not so sure about that, Mike G. seems like you had more going on, at least internally. Your ankle break was so severe it required surgery, ouch.
I had “so much going on” b/c I put it on myself – keeping busy it was the only way I could come up with to take my mind off of how dumb it is to break a foot falling into a pool.
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