A few good things have come from last Sunday’s accident. First, it has given me another practical application of the theory of relativity. After a dislocation, all other physical pain seems easily bearable. And after a few weeks of work with the people at SSASS, a handicap such as a temporarily useless arm seems minor. Second, it has lead to an exchange of e-mails with Jay and a conversation with Barb Clegg and Elizabeth and Ross Murray in Thunder Bay that I would not have had otherwise. Third, it has probably been the cause of my getting an MRI, which I was waiting for anyway, a bit earlier than I otherwise would have. And last but not least, it has given me another reason to be thankful, as I have been so often in the last few years, for the love and help of family and friends, old and new.
This has been, perforce, a quiet week, no more skiing or working with SSASS. By Tuesday, I had made an appointment for an MRI in Kelowna on March 11, exactly 2 years since Jim died, and another with an orthopedic surgeon on March 19. I can drive, so was able to tutor and meet with Mi-Sun. I’ve walked around Vernon quite a bit and had my haircut. I usually can’t resist cutting a little here and there, the way you might slice a strip off a piece of cake, just to even it, and then have to cut a bit more. Now that I can’t raise my right arm, all that has to stop. And unfortunately, I got injured at a time when I’d clipped my hair into a real mess. It’s been professionally fixed up now, but as usual I’m not completely happy with it. It’s too manicured looking, and I long to snip it but can’t. My mother used to say, “Our hair is not our crowning glory, Jan.” She was right about that; although, of course, I didn’t agree with her at the time.
Me in more active times, with Marie on our last ski at Sovereign Lake
The new activity centre. It's a pain management device that I sit down and put around my body. It involves some kind of magnetic realignment of something or other. I was lent it by an enthusiastic ski instructor and salesman who also volunteers with SSASS. His wife has MS and uses it when she's in pain. It apparently works for her. I find it cumbersome and have not felt any benefit so far, but it was kind of him to lend it to me.
A joke about BC that was in the 'Globe and Mail' this Sat. Click on the picture and it will enlarge. The suggestion was taken more seriously in BC than it seems to have been by the Globe cartoonist. I really like his take on it, though.
Another joke in this Saturday's Globe
A mating pair of mallards in Polson Park today
The same pair taken without the telephoto
Two odd mallards in Pollson Park. The near one is the mate of the male next to her. He stuck by her the whole time I was taking pictures, and when I got too close, they swam off together. The albino didn't seem to have a mate, although there were two albinos.
Ogopogo in Polson Park. He's all over the Okanagan.
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