so how am I?

Since my return from Europe, we have not been able to finish a single movie in our usual post-dinner streaming sessions. I've fallen asleep for every one of them. (Once, I woke up shortly after and we did finish it then, but that doesn't count.) At the same time, I continue to be a firecracker in the early morning. Today's day lily tally was close to 500. I was done snipping even before the day's sunshine flooded the garden. (Only five photos today! I'm showing restraint.)

(white with a green apple throat: hard to photograph, easy to love)

(secret path: full of lilies, penstemon and lavender)

(sun's out!)

(Big Bed)

True, I was in a bit of a rush: I had an appointment with David, my PT specialist who has been coaching me through knee rehab this spring. I hadn't seen him since before my travels and I was super curious to see if I got any better, got worse, or stayed the same.

So here's the good news (with lots of heaped on praise from David!): in walking, I'm coming in at 3.5 miles per hour which, according to him, is at some elevated super stardom for someone not quite three months after surgery. And the knee bend has improved a couple of more degrees, putting me at a solid 130 degrees. I'm likely to stay there for life and it's a good place to be. I am assured that this is more than super fantastic.

However.

David is not one to mince words when it comes to deficiencies. I love him for his brutal honesty and I swear, any time I need PT in the future, he's the one I'll shoot for. And there was definitely a wince when I kicked my leg up to demonstrate a perfectly straight leg. I know you can straighten it, because you're at perfect 0 degrees lying down. But kicking it up? You fall short by 3 degrees still. You have to work on that!

Another printout of exercises is forthcoming. 

As long as we've descended into the cavernous post-operative negative-land, I tell him that I still feel uneasy about getting up off the floor. He teaches me a trick: kneel down on your good knee, shoot your fake one forward and you're good! Then reverse the steps to get up! No more standing up on picnics in Copenhagen! Yeah!

In all, I felt rather celebratory so that even though Ed could not join me for breakfast (a day of meetings for him), I decided to defrost one of those wonderful Madison Sourdough cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

Never have I eaten a more stale piece of pastry! Ed must have put them in the freezer when they were long past their date of any possible future tastiness. I did eat it, because my heart was set on it, but I wont be reaching into that freezer bag again anytime soon.

The day becomes a little complicated going forward. David had told me to keep on walking, so I felt obliged to follow his advice on that one. I walked to the bikes and made a loop on one and then walked back, swinging on monkey bars along the way.

Ed was still at his meetings and I had an early time for going to pick up Snowdrop at her yoga-cooking-drama-art camp, as it was her very last day there and as always on Thursdays, there was a demonstration of all they do for families and sundry others. 

(sundry others)

No one from her clan could go. Sparrow is sick, dad is with son, mom is at work meetings, Sandpiper is at school. But, I was there, photographing away!! Two photos for you: from the yoga flow and from the Pea Story, where she plays the mother pea.

The girl has one more short summer program this evening so it made no sense for me to bring her back to the farmhouse. Instead, we go to a cafe, pick up some treats (in addition to the ones I'd pack for the occasion) and head out to the Middleton Village Green for a reading/eating session.

Evening. Now it's time for me to turn on my social side -- something that in the evenings I've let flop down into disuse in recent times. I join Ed and a half dozen of his colleagues for a dinner at Sardine. I would not have gone (who on earth likes their sweetie's colleague dinners?!) but they promised that there would be one other partner person there, with no connection to machines. She is from Mexico and I got curious. Besides, it's Sardine. I love Sardine!

p

Don't even ask if I fell asleep on the couch tonight. Plenty of movement, a Negroni for dinner, good food with no clean-up afterwards. Utter contentedness. Zonked, I tell you. Totally zonked.