What a fabulous week! How can it not be when the end of my neck brace was coming on Thursday? But other nice stuff happened too.
With the Vienna trip cancelled, I was free to look at other travel options. Since Christmas in Rhode Island is no longer happening, Anne and I booked a Christmas markets knitting trip in Latvia and Lithuania with our favorite Arena Travel. We'll be flying out on Thanksgiving to Helsinki and will meet up with the tour after a 3 hour ferry ride across the Baltic Sea. Why not since it's so close? Anne will get to cross another country off her list. Also, a friend from our Faroes trip last year booked too so we'll get to see her again. We'll also be extending a few days in London at the end of the trip. I'm super excited.
But my brace - let's talk about that. Tuesday night was the 6 week anniversary of my fall and the start of the brace. I couldn't see the doctor until Thursday so I did a test run of driving on Wednesday with a Wahoo lunch run - picking up my grab and go lunch at Mocha C's, driving through the bank with long overdue Friends' deposits and hitting The Warehouse. My neck was stiff, of course, but driving felt wonderful. Add the Survivor finale and it was a great day. But nothing compared to Thursday.
I worked for 2 hours Thursday morning before leaving for the ortho doc and then being off until Tuesday. I drove myself to the appointment, put my brace on in the parking garage and went inside. They took x-rays and when they compared them to 6 weeks ago, there was zero change. I gave the doctor a WTF look and he basically admitted without saying as much that it had all been for nothing. Oh well. I got to work from home for 6 weeks and had great friends who drove me hither and yon so I lived. Better safe than sorry when you're talking about your spine. I still recognize how lucky I was.
With my brace in the rear view, I was off like a shot running errands all over Lincoln at my own pace. I did some thrifing, hit Trader Joe's, picked up books at the Library Commission, bought more plants and got a Starbuck's. I had thought it would take all afternoon but I was home by 3:00 because I didn't have to do every single errand now that I could drive myself anywhere. Book club was at 6:30 then Helen and I went to BK. We talked so long that they were sweeping the floor around us. We didn't realize the open sign was off. Oops! What a wonderful end to a fabulous day. Freedom!
Since at least one of my cats weighs more than a gallon of milk, which was my weight limit while wearing the brace, I had to wait for my cats' annual vet appointment until Friday. I had all 3 scheduled for 10:00 but, as usual, I couldn't get them them. I took Pixel and Tot (the easy ones to catch) in the morning and made a tentative appointment for 3:00 to take Gansey if I could catch her. I went home and got busy gardening.
I had planted one bed in April but had 3 more to prep and plant. I started with my tomato bed and then did my summer squash bed, interplanting flowers among the veggies. I was able to catch Gansey so took her in for shots and flea stuff, looking like a bum in gardening clothes. And then, in the same grubby clothes, I went to the library to drop a check off, only to find out the magician was performing right then so I went to the Civic Center and looked like a bum in front of 100 kids. I could hear my mother in my head saying, "You're covered." I then registered my cats at the city hall drive through and called it a day, happy with my progress and with no ill effects from my stiff neck.
I woke up sore on Saturday. Not surprising and with it being a long weekend, I stayed inside most of the day getting caught up on some of the chores I'd neglected recently. I also started knitting charity hats again, which seems to come in fits and starts. While knitting, I spent a bunch of time on the phone and did go out at the end of the day to cut weed trees but mostly took it easy.
Sunday was back to power gardening mode. I had one more raised bed to plant - beans and cukes - so got busy finagling a bean tower out of the frame of an old greenhouse. Andrea and Mike had brought me hog panels to make a tower but they were too big (and heavy!) and I had no way to cut them. After getting that bed done, I raked beside the garage where I'd had the trees removed and created 3 hills for pumpkins and 2 kinds of winter squash. We'll see if they do anything in that poor soil. If so, they'll get plenty of sun and have room to vine. When all that was done, I went in and took a shower and binged The Diplomat on Netflix, which was very good.
Speaking of good, good week, right? It felt so good to be back to normal and be able to get stuff done. The weather cooperated too with cooler temps and zero humidity, which made it a joy to work outside. Truth be told, I'm much better at doing the heavy work at the start of the gardening year than the maintenance during the season. Maybe this will be the year I keep up with the weeding. I live in hope.
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