Purl, Interrupted

worst. blogger. ever.

ok, seriously, my intentions are good. but i've fallen completely off the blogging wagon. my new computer isn't helping matters, since it has windows vista, which is the biggest pain ever and is not compatible with anything in the world. serious hassle. but that's beside the point.

and if i don't update my blog, terry's friend peter won't know if terry is still alive.

so, since i haven't blogged in about 2 months, i guess we have some catching up to do.

First thing first: my new titanium shoulder pretty much rocks. before my surgery, i couldn't use my left arm to hold a beverage, shampoo my hair, apply deoderant, bear any weight whatsoever -- we're talking about really, really basic stuff. And (as I know I probably made abundantly clear), just going about the tasks of daily life was incredibly painful and exhausting. Pretty grim stuff.

Five months post-op, i can't believe the things i've been able to at least try this summer. such as: canoeing, fishing, riding my spiffy new recumbent bicycle, cooking elaborate meals again (i'd pretty much stopped cooking b/c it was too hard on the arm), and, most recently: making a very slow foray into the world of running.

i know -- me, running -- it's an absurd thought. and last summer i tried running exactly once, for about 10 steps, each of which felt like i was being beaten with a baseball bat. so the fact that i've gone on 5 walk-runs in the last week without any problems during or after is nothing short of amazing to me.

so i've been trying to pull it together, so to speak. i'm in week 5 of what i refer to as my stupid diet, which actually isn't stupid at all and is a pretty great and healthy way of eating that has me eating better and cooking more than i've done in years. i feel good, i'm starting to lose some of the weight one gains if chronic pain keeps one from engaging in any physical activity for, say, about three years. so, hopefully this is the summer of pulling it all together.

that's the big motivational part of this story. if you've hung in this long, i'll fill you in on the rest of our lives:

-- terry, too, has a new bike, and has now taken to biking the way he took to kayaking and skiing. obsessively, that is. on sunday he rode 62 miles. just because. i may be moving towards a healthier lifestyle, but i still think that's just plan nutty.

-- truman continues to be loads of fun. when we got him at the end of last summer, he was really afraid of the water. (our first clue that he wasn't really a lab puppy after all....) this summer he's getting more interested in it. still won't swim, but he'll run into the water after the other dogs, which is big progress. we want to take him canoeing, so yesterday i picked him up a really adorable doggie life jacket. maybe i'll post photos later if my computer will let me. terry's favorite part is that it has a handle on top, which makes him look and function much like a suitcase.

-- summer in anchorage has been great thus far. we had a stretch of the kind of weather that reminds you why you moved here. it's a little greyer now, but hopefully the sun will come back to us. we have a bunch of out of town guests headed our way in july and august, so we'll get lots of excuses to get out and explore.

-- speaking of guests, we had a delightful visit from karrie in june. she and i went up to lost lake, near fairbanks, for a weekend of learning crazy wilderness skills. i'm a good person to take camping, b/c i can start a fire, build you a shelter, cook you tasty dutch oven treats, and splint your arm if necessary. karrie is a good person to take camping because she can hunt you a styrofoam animal and then field dress it for you.

-- when we returned to anchorage, karrie and i showed off our mad wilderness skills by fileting a king salmon in our driveway. i love alaska.

ok, had enough? i'll try to post some photos soon, and to be more reliable about blogging. hope everyone's summer is going swimmingly.

Posted by cmandala at July 3, 2007 09:22 PM