Potpourri

Time for a bag of miscellany here.

First, my lovely wife departed back to the mountains this evening. It always feels a bit lonely and sad as she goes. I feel it is one of the hardest parts of marriage to handle the absences. It has always made me wonder how my friends that have spent their entire marriages with one or both partners on the road handle the feelings. Maybe it feels different if that has been the pattern from day one. It has to be hard. Of course the same question and thoughts apply to our service men and women. I'm sure that knowing your spouse is not only gone for months, but in harms way while gone is very hard to deal with.

Next, Magpie of Magpie Musing is running a contest for a Wii Fit. Her requirement is that one post a tale of fitness (I suspect for her amusement) to be entered for the prize. The details are in her post here . So without further ado, here is my *sob* story as to why I want a Wii Fit.

I try to walk 5 miles a day year round. That and other activities are my modest attempt to retain some semblance of fitness as I grow older. Many a year ago, I used to jog, but that is not something that works right now. Anyhow, back in the snowy days of February several years ago, I was walking across a parking lot and hit some black ice. (In a continuing theme here, the parking lot happened to be at my dentist's office. Do you think I might have a dental obscession?) One second I was merrily walking along and the next I was airborne. Needless to say I hit with a thud. After sitting dazed for a bit I finally managed to get up only to find that my arm was not working. I made it back over to my pickup and got in, although it was a challenge to close the door with only one arm working. I drove myself home, all the while thinking I must have just pulled my shoulder out of joint. Got home and told my wife about the incident and then spent a while to see if the pain would subside, etc. After an hour or so, gave up and called my doctor. He says first thing is to go to the hospital for an X-ray.

So I trundle over to the hospital. The X-ray tech wants to know if I can lift my arm up and I have to explain that no, it isn't working. She says never mind and takes pictures. I begin to get the impression this may not be a simple dislocation when the tech invites all the other techs over to look at the pictures with words like "I've never seen one of these!" To make a long story short, I have managed to crush the top half of my humerus bone. To make a long story short, two surgeries, 2 months of immobilization and healing, 6 months of physical therapy, and a whole lot of pain meds later, I can lift my arm over my head again.

Now what brings this story up today is that yesterday afternoon, my wife and I and Molly the dog were walking home form the park where I had been putting in my daily mileage. It was a bit icy and slick in spots on the way home. A pickup truck pulls up beside us with the window down and a huge evergreen in the back. In the cab is Dr. S and his wife. Dr.S has been my doctor through all of the above. The first words out of Dr. S's mouth are "Well, if you fall, we know of at least one thing that won't break." I'm a bit confused and ask what that might be. His reply is "your arm - with that much steel and those rods in it something else will break first."

So there you have it. I want a Wii Fit to keep my arm from rusting in one position. {*grin*}