Purl, Interrupted

off to see the wizard

it's the crack of dawn in lovely san antonio, and we're all sleepily pouring ourselves into clothes before we head off to the hospital. next time you hear from me, i should have a new shoulder.

we mess with texas

first off, apologies for not taking any photos of our trip to the alamo. if i'd taken a photo, it would have been of the "gentlemen remove hats" sign at the entrance. Of course, the sign in full reads: QUIET NO SMOKING GENTLEMEN REMOVE HATS NO PICTURES. So maybe my ironic blog photography would not have been appreciated.

anyhoo, we arrived in san antonio yesterday afternoon, despite the best efforts of us airways to keep us away. between airline drama and rental car drama, we were about an hour and a half late to see the doctor, so i was pretty much beside myself by the time we finally got there. the appointment went well, though -- he and his surgery fellow and nurse actually brought out props to explain the difference between the various kinds of procedures they might have to do and the relative advantages/differences between them.

the plan is to try to do a simple resurfacing, where they don't cut the bone off but instead just smooth it down (like licking an ice cream cone, allegedly) and then put a titanium cap on it. but if the glenoid (the socket side of the shoulder) is too malformed at this point, they will have to do a "hemi-arthroplasty," aka a "partial shoulder," in which they cut off part of the bone and put a prosthesis in its place. either way, the recovery's about the same and i should have much less pain and much more range of motion. yee haw.

after A LOT of dealing with their bureacracy and my insurance company, we're now squared away. i'll check into the hospital at (groan) 6 a.m. Monday morning, and by Monday afternoon I'll be doing physical therapy. Yikes.

in the meantime, we're just chilling here in lovely san antonio. staying for the weekend at a lovely B&B called the Brackenridge House, which is a restored victorian in the "historic kind william district," about 5 blocks from the beginning of the downtown area. the innkeepers are delightful, the house is beautiful, and the breakfast is scrumptious.

this morning terry and i walked around downtown and visited the alamo. as promised by my friend caroline, it is truly smack of the middle of downtown, right next to a mall. it was nice to walk around in the sunshine. we were wearing t-shirts and got lots of funny looks from locals in jackets. (it was mid-60s, about 55 degrees warmer than at home).

my mom flew into town this afternoon, and tonight we had a great dinner and lots of wine and much fun. tomorrow we'll walk around some more during the day, and then in the evening have a family reunion of sorts with a bunch of my mom's cousins, some of whom live here and others live pretty near by. i haven't met any of these people, so it should be a fun time.

so that's the latest news from the southland. i'm anxiously awaiting monday, and very much looking forward to starting to fix this thing.

the waiting game, day one

one of the funny things about living in alaska is getting used to your new travel schedule. no matter where you're going, if it's outside Alaska, it's more likely than not that you'll be taking a red eye. That's right -- Red Eye -- it's not just for broke college kids anymore. There are some advantages to this. Like you can work a full day the day of your flight and not have to think twice about the fact that you haven't started packing yet. And you can clean your house so that when you come back you don't have to brave a war zone of dirty dishes and laundry.

Unfortunately, you can also accomplish all of these taks and still have HOURS to go before the cab comes to take you to the airport.

So I'm watching tivoed episodes of myth busters, while Terry is in the garage waxing our friend Jeannette's skis. (A small price to pay for house+dogsitting!). But I'm really tired and a little crabby and not necessarily looking forward to 8-9 hours of air travel, plus waiting around airports, plus getting a rental car, plus going to a doctor's appointment all before i come near a bed again.

Anyhooo, the plan is to leave ANC at 1:30 a.m., arrive in SAT at 1:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon, and drive straight to the doctor's office for a pre-surgery check-up. That's when we should find out whether he still thinks I'm a candidate for the far-less-invasive "resurfacing" procedure, or whether he thinks I need a total shoulder replacement. Assuming nothing goes terribly terribly wrong, we'll hang out in SAT for the weekend (my mom will come join us starting Friday), meet some long-lost-relatives and family friends (who knew?) and then head to the hospital either sunday night or Monday morning.

But for now, I'm just counting the hours until we get to the airport and I can take a Tylenol P.M. Ahh, glorious airline sleep.

san antonio on my mind

we leave for san antonio tomorrow night. this time next week, it'll be all over but the shouting. well, not exactly. but by this time next week the surgery will be over and i'll be living it up in the hospital with a shiny new titanium ball where my shoulder used to be. good times.

why truman is a great guard dog

We had a middle-of-the-night visitor the other night, which Truman was kind enough to point out for us. With loud barking. Terry went out on the balcony in his pajamas and bare feet, like a nut, so that I could share it with you.

more winter pics

Boy is it cold out there. Just came in from walking Truman, and snapped these three pics from in front of our house. I love the way it looks here in the winter -- really like we live in the middle of the woods.

These first two were taken walking away from our house.

And this is the view on the way home. Apparently yesterday Truman got stuck on the other side of that hige pile of snow on the left. Goofball.

I love this view ... reminds me of when we first came to visit this house. I couldn't believe that this litle enclave was hidden away in the middle of anchortown. Still can't.

the big adventures of terry and truman

Terry and Truman have been enjoying their winter vacation. Classes at UAA don't start for another week, and with all the snow, they've been going skiing twice a day. Here are the views from the dog park near our house.

In a related story, December was one of the snowiest on record here, and we kicked off the new year with a huge snowstorm on Wednesday. Much fun being had by all.