Happy New Year 🥳🥴

We had a dun coloured Christmas and no real snow until the night of the 28th/29th. I could tell it had snowed when I opened my eyes at around 7 that morning because the light illuminating the blinds was brighter than usual at that time. I got right up, took my pills, ate half an apple and cheerfully went outside to shovel, something I enjoy almost as much as dancing. I hope to continue doing both, the former only when the snow is light and fluffy and the latter only in flats, two lessons painfully learned. There were only about three inches of snow but it was wet and heavy. My knees were back to normal, it was warm and some birds were chirping. l went at it for about 11/2 hours, ate a big breakfast and felt fine. I even went on a long snowshoe the next day with Jane and Lynne. Then I was levelled, literally. I woke up on December 31 expecting to do what I always do, reach for my iPhone. Aargh! The shot of pain in my lower back stopped my breath. I lay back to recover and eventually came up with a plan to carefully reach for the nearest leg of the bedside table, pull it closer to me and thus get my fingers on the iPhone. Success. But I was now afraid to try to move any part of my body other than my thumb and index finger. So I spent the next half hour reading about and signing up for Uber, something Barb Steers and I had read about on a blog called Eternal Expat, written by a young woman who has lived in different places but now is in Mexico City. It's full of information that she goes into in careful detail. She says Uber in Mexico City is great. Barb is better at tech. stuff than I am so she had signed up. I planned to just get a cab, until my fear of the pain of trying again to get out of bed overcame my technical reticence. I lay there following instructions for a painless but frustrating half hour and now have an Uber app on my iPhone which I probably will never use. When I finally did rise it really hurt, both my lower back and right arm, which I somehow wrenched in an effort to take the strain off my back. Since then I have used more drugs and rubs and hot pads and massagers than I ever hope to use again. My New Years Resolution is to try a little forethought for a change. Miriam and Bill drove me to Jane and Phil's New Years Eve party where we moved little, talked a lot and I drank just enough to forget the pain but not my resolution. It's January 3 and I'm still in pain and on drugs and hoping for the best. I walk a bit each day, read a lot and sleep in the recliner because I'm not ready to try rising from the futon. I will make it to Mexico and face a future of less activity and more forethought.
I hope that 2019 has come in like a lion but will soon be more lamb like.
Happy New Year to all.