Catching Up

 As our lovely autumn days begin to turn a bit chill and dreary - the transition from October to November is like that  - I want to share some of the beautiful photos friends have sent to me. While the foliage overall seemed pretty dull this year, there were some gorgeous spots in other sections of Vermont - and even here at Joe's Pond. A good example of that is this photo that  Alicia Hengston (Old Homestead Rd.) took this morning as the sun made its first tentative appearance. This is along the West Shore Road side of the pond - much more color there than I would have guessed. Further up that road where I live, most of the trees are bare.

My friend, Mary Whitcomb began taking pictures in September and sent me some samples of some of the shots she got. She didn't say where there were taken, but I am guessing around the Randolph area. Mary travels far and wide, sometimes hiking and taking pictures, and they are always lovely. 

I posted here about our friend and neighbor, Julie Ackermann, who passed away earlier this month. Her obituary is now available and should you wish to send a message to her husband, Walt and their family, the address is 3041 Cabot Plains Rd., Cabot, VT 05647.

On a personal note - I'm still navigating with a big stabilizing support for my right leg that keeps it straight out - no bending that knee!! It makes doing some things difficult - forget lowering myself into a chair gracefully or getting up from one without lots of planning ahead, and even then it's never pretty. Getting my foot past the door opening getting into a car is always a challenge, but I've got steps and stairs down so they are no problem as long as I have a walker waiting for me wherever I land. Getting into my jeans takes a little time and careful navigation because I like to have the brace over the trouser leg so I can loosen it when I'm sitting in my recliner. I have to keep the leg stiff - good think I've never had a problem reaching my toes without bending my knees! I sometimes forget to take the walker with me when I'm here in the house - there are plenty of things to hold onto and occasionally I find myself standing in the middle of a room, no walker in sight. I have about one more week with this very limiting brace, but hopefully after that I will graduate to a less restrictive one and be able to do some PT to get the knee operating normally again. Someone recently told me it can take a year or more to get full motion back. I hope I can do better than that - so far the knee has given me no pain at all, so I think I should be back to near normal within a month or so. I may not be up for shoveling snow off my deck this year, but that's ok - it is not something I really look forward to, although I have enjoyed measuring snowfall during the winter.

Funny story: When I first hurt my knee, my three sons quickly took action and ordered stair lifts - one for the long flight into the basement, and another for the few steps from the garage to my kitchen door. Last Sunday, both were installed - no problem. Everything worked beautifully. I got instructions on how to operate the things and then the installer said he wanted me to ride down to the basement just to be sure I felt secure. I got neatly seated at the top of the stairs and began to turn the chair so it could proceed down  and as my foot bumped the door jamb, I realized that with my right leg extended, there wasn't room! I was able to stop the chair from turning before any damage was done, but the installer (his name was Bob), looked completely baffled. Part of his installation was to be sure the owner/user of the new system felt safe, and here I was scrambling out of the chair and declaring that I couldn't do it! I was actually eager to try it out and never gave my extended leg a thought.

I'm sure it will be fine later - and in the meantime, I can manage stairs perfectly well - slowly, but safely, without the chair, and can send loads on the chair, freeing me to hang onto the railing. All is good, and I'm sure I'll use the lifts eventually - as the boys keep saying, "When you need them, they are there, Mom." We have to adapt as we get older - I'm just getting a big dose of that right now that I hadn't anticipated. 

I have been taking rain measurements this past week! It has been very gratifying to have a few days of real rain. I've measured just about 2 inches total. Not enough to bring water levels all the way back to where they would normally be this time of year, but it helps. There is nothing running into my pond yet, and I suspect it will remain mostly empty until spring. What we need is more rain dancing! Enjoy your day!