a shorter post

Today Tori and I went riding.  My knee did fine with it. Yesterday I did most of the exercises that I am supposed to do daily.  My knee is more flexible than it has been in months.  I think the physical therapist just may know what he is talking about.  I still have numbness on the outside of my knee and it feels really creepy when I bump or touch it.  Several members of the WB2008 team sent congratulatory emails to the others on the team.  It was a great experience and it was nice to get the thank you emails.  

   My new favorite song is "Lux Aurumque" by Eric Whitacre.  It is on the album "To the Edge of Space" and is beautiful.  Sue

The Wasatch Back, etc

Well, it's over for this year!  The Wasatch Back Relay was this weekend and it went really well.  Our team actually had 12 members, the last one being signed up on Thursday night.  Nothing like living on faith or whatever.  We had resigned ourselves to having only 11 runners and one person would have to run 6 legs instead of 3 legs.  But at the last minute, Ronell found a runner!  Thank goodness for him.  He also found a van to rent for a really good price, better than  the AAA rate that I found at Hertz.  I think everyone on our team had a good time.  They seemed to be very happy when they came over the finish line.  I will post some pictures when I get them.  I was so proud of them.  I volunteered in 2 first aid stations.  The first one was at Morgan City Park, from 4:30 pm to 9:00 pm.  It was not too hot, and not busy for the first aid person (me). so it was fun.  Dana came with me and we read and I did sudoku and chatted with some cute neighborhood kids who were at the park.  The boy's name is Caden and he is 8 yrs. old.  His little dog is Pooh Bear.  His friend is Cheyenne and she is 4 yrs. old.  Caden was very patient with Cheyenne and she and Pooh Bear tagged along with him.  He was very chatty and also played frisbee with some of the other volunteer guys who were there.  I helped him with the words to "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"  He couldn't remember the "Up above the world so high" line.  He says he sings to Pooh Bear at night to  put her to sleep.  Dana had a small bag of cashews and the kids said that they would like some peanuts, too, so we shared with them.  Cheyenne said she REALLY likes those peanuts and her grandpa has that kind of peanuts, too.  Pooh Bear liked the cashew/peanuts, too.  She is a Jack Russell, but is brown and black instead of white and brown.  Anyway, they were really cute kids and made an otherwise boring 5 hours more entertaining.  After we were finished there and had eaten at the Fazoli's food venue, we drove on to South Summit High School, in Kamas.  I was scheduled to do first aid there at 0530-1030, the next morning.  Our plan was to sleep in a tent there on the lawn until time to go on duty.  When we got the to high school, there was no one there.  The school was locked and there wasn't much lawn to camp on, except in front of the school.  Also, most importantly, there were no portapotties or bathrooms available.  I found out later that the volunteers didn't come until about midnight and the first runners didn't get there until about 0300.  So we decided to drive on to Heber and find a motel.  The Holiday Inn was all full, the Rodeway only had one smoking room available and Mac's Motel (under new management) looked seedy.  We asked the guy at the Rodeway if there were any other motels in town and he suggested the Danish Viking Inn.  (I think he was trying to get even with us for not taking his smoking room)  So, we drove to the D.V.I.  It said it was AAA approved, but on closer examination, the middle A was crossed out.  There was a tiny swimming pool, but it had only a little water in the bottom and there were reeds growing in it.   But I digress.  When we got there, the woman at the counter was signing up another guy.  We were crossing our fingers that she wasn't giving away the last room.  Lucky us. She had two rooms left.  102 didn't have air conditioning and the shower didn't work, but the cable did.  Oh and it was a smoking room, but since the shower hadn't worked for awhile, it probably didn't smell too bad.  Room 108 had air and the shower worked, but the cable was out.  She suggested that we could watch TV in 102 and then walk over to 108 to sleep and shower.  She also said that she wouldn't charge us full price even for the two rooms.  At first she said it would be $30, but then she tore up that card and only charged us $25 ($31.95 with tax).  Since we had planned on sleeping on the ground anyway, we decided this was an upgrade for us.  She also told us that she is the head housekeeper there and her brother is the manager, but he has 2 broken feet and so she is helping him out at the desk.  About her attire.  She was young, maybe 22 yrs old and has a two year old daughter.  She was wearing a tank top, and a push up bra.  Envision her bosoms being high and almost popping out of the tank top.  At first I watched the men in the office to see where they were looking.  You guessed it.  Later, I mentioned that she was a bosomy woman and Dana said, "She has jugs."  I laughed because he usually doesn't talk like that.  But she was so friendly and chatty and nice, that I couldn't be critical of her.  She said that she wants to be a nurse, too, someday, but right now, it's hard with her two year old.  I think she was pregnant, too.  Dana took pictures of the room and I will post them, too.  We slept in our sleeping bags on the bed, using our own pillows.  Since we had to get up by 0430, we didn't shower and just went to bed.  When we got back to the high school in Kamas, I mostly saw people with blisters.  One guy was covered in hives and itching, so I gave him Benadryl and suggested he shower to wash off whatever pollen he had gotten into.  Another girl had the same problem, but had already taken benadryl and was starting to get a little better.  One lady asked for ginger for an upset stomach, but I didn't have it.  One guy asked for talcum powder for chafing, but I didn't have that either.  A couple of people needed their knees wrapped and all I had was 2 inch Ace wrap, but I did the best I could.  It was an adventure, but I may do it again next year.  It was fun, too.  

Well, this is long, but it was an eventful weekend.  Dane and Jamie got married on Saturday and we couldn't go because of the race, but went to their reception last evening.  It was a fun reception, with Dane playing the guitar and singing to Jamie and then later he played the drums with the band.  He is good at drums.  We all danced and had fun.  Brian is so proud of his boys.  You can see it in his face.  They are good kids, all of them.  Shelley was crying when she was doing the Mother/Son dance with Dane.  The song was sweet, something about "I was  the first one to hold you"  It made me want to cry, too.  Holly was planning on attending the ceremony, but her recommend was expired.  If I had known, I would have lent mine to her.  Is that legal???  ;)

Insomnia

I hate insomnia!  All of my problems look gigantic at 12:43 a.m.  Right now I am freaking out about the Wasatch Back Team.  We still only have 8 registered runners and the race starts in 4 days and about 8 hours.  Everyone says they want to be on the team, but they don't follow through. What's up with that, people????  Is this a problem unique to our team????  I am sure K wants to totally wash her hands on this, but since somehow she got roped into  co-managing this team, she is stuck.  I wish D would be more proactive and help her.  Well, at least I am not worrying about the mess in my attic.  That's usually what I focus on when I am having insomnia.  I need to find the off switch for my brain.  Usually if I go somewhere else to sleep, like the couch, I can relax and go to sleep, but we have out of town company this weekend and all the alternate sleeping places are taken.  Maybe if I read "John Adams"......

Update

I had my surgery a week ago, last Friday.  I was so nervous about everything, but mostly about the anesthesia.  I have had Brian Waterfall do my anesthesia for both of my most recent surgeries, so I was a little nervous about having my life in the hands of a stranger.  But Dr. McAllister came highly recommended from my friend Steve and it was fine.  I know Dr. McAllister's brother, who does some anesthesia at the Women Center at AVH, so we had something to talk about.  TOSH really had this surgery thing down to a fine science.  I met my circulating nurse before the surgery, so that was nice.  Her name is Max and she took good care of me.  When I woke up in the recovery room, the back of my knee was really hurting, as if it had been hyperextended for a long time, but I knew it had been bent.  They were really good to address my pain and within the hour, I was comfortable.  I now have three little scars on my knee and it is  swollen and a little stiff.  I drove yesterday for the first time, which was great.  Driving is easy, but getting in and out of the car is slow.  My knee is still stiff and doesn't bend as much as it used to, but the Physical Therapist, Joel, is taking care of that.  It hurts to do the exercises he gave me, but I can already tell a difference in both mobility and strength.  Now that I can get up and around, my recovery is starting to feel more like having a vacation from work.  Last weekend, when I couldn't get up much and I needed Percocet and ice on my knee, I got so bored with TV and knitting that I thought I would go crazy.  That's why I mopped the kitchen floor on Monday.  Everyone thinks I am crazy, but standing still and moving my arms with the mop wasn't a hard thing to do.  Since then, I have gotten a ton of flowers and vegies to plant, so Tori and I will be doing that this weekend.  I will supervise and plant the pots and Tori will do the kneeling and shoveling.  

We had a little incident on Tuesday.  A Husky dog jumped our fence by the Woods yard and chased our chickens and actually bit Arwen.  She was in shock when we found her, hiding by the fence.  I took her inside and comforted her and she finally started acting more normal.  When we found her, she was limp, wheezing and cyanotic.  I thought she might die from shock in my arms, but she seems fine now.  There were so many piles of feathers in the backyard that I was surprised that she and Osiris had any feathers left on their bodies.  When we first went out there, after Dana had chased the dog away, Blackberry was in the pine tree (smart girl), Dot, Nefertiti, Chic, Buffy and Chicken Little were hiding in under the ivy on the side of the house.  They can really get down under the ivy if they need to.  We couldn't find Osiris, but she showed up in a little while.  I suspect she was hiding under the chicken house, but we couldn't see her.  We called Animal Control and they actually found the dog, still running loose, about a mile away.  They followed it home, where it jumped a 6 ft. fence into it's backyard.  So, they picked it up.  It is a nice dog and wasn't doing anything that doesn't come natural to it, as far as hunting.  The officer said that because he saw it running loose and jumping the fence, the owners will have a pretty high fine.  Also, it has to be quarantined for 10 days, and will cost about $30 to pay for that.  We decided to press charges of animal attacking animal, not to add to their fees, but to let them know that their dog had come a long way from home and had gotten into mischief.  We discussed it and decided that if Lacey had gotten out and caused some damage, we would want to know about it.  I hope they will figure out how to keep him confined in their backyard.  We also added to our fence to make it higher, to protect both the neighbors from our fierce chickens and to protect the girls from jumping dogs.  

Oh, back to my knee.  No more running for me, ever.  Unless I want a knee replacement in a few years.  So, I guess I will take up hiking and biking.  It has been a bit of a paradigm shift for me this week, along with some minor grieving for my lost youth.  :(