Please don't keel over dead . . . I know I've been "nearly dead" to the blogging world lately, but since moving to Utah, life has been BUSY! Husband's shattered/now replaced shoulder was/is probably our most spectacular and uncomfortable singularly difficult experience since landing in the intermountain west this past June.
Living in an apartment 1/2 the size of our home of nearly 30 years is d i f f e r e n t. I guess it's a plus that there's no yard work requirement which is good considering that husband is rather limited in right arm function at this point. Even though there is a crew of grounds workers at the apartment complex who do a pretty good job keeping things looking good, my fingers get itchy for my pruning clippers all too often when I see shrubs and roses with overly excited shoots exceeding their brother's neat limits. I've been know to superstitiously snap an errant shoot or two, but I stop myself--with great effort, I might add--when it comes to "dead-heading" the rose bushes. There are too many and I might get in trouble--exceeding my time limitations and all.
We have been walking a lot since the shoulder accident back in June. The weather and walking conditions here more easily facilitate/encourage walking. The humidity is far lower, the mornings and evening far cooler (we're now experiencing low temps in the 40's and highs in the 70's/80's) and there are endless sidewalks and neighborhoods to walk on and through. When we first began our daily walks, we'd go both morning and evening for 30 to 45 minutes. We managed to average about 20 to 23 minutes per mile. We have walked up to 3.5 or 4 miles one day (which included some challenging hills, I might add). Yesterday afternoon, we walked about 1.5 miles in less than 24 minutes and averaged 15.15 minutes a mile. I think that's our best record to date!
I had a bone density test the other day and was rather pleasantly pleased to learn than at age 60+ my bones are better than the average 30 year old's. I think our daily walks--along with other good health practices (and probably good genes) contribute to that!
Tomorrow we go to one of the University of Utah's health complexes to find out about husband's axillary nerve in his damaged shoulder. It doesn't respond to any stimuli--which is a problem. That is the never that controls the deltoid muscle's movement for raising your arm as well as moving it up and out to the side. When it doesn't work, your arm movement is VERY limited and if it's the right arm and your right-handed . . . well you might imagine how difficult it is.
Writing is very limited. Driving is very limited. And so on, and so on. Maybe tomorrow we'll learn a little more about what to anticipate. Sometimes those nerves regenerate--which can take up to 2 years to do so--and sometimes they have to be replaced . . . Husband is NOT looking forward to any more surgeries!!!!!!
On a happier note--we fell into buying a new van. Yep, we're grandparents and so we need a van. Took my '03 Altima in to have a seat belt fixed/replaced July 30th and (since we'd been talking about getting a newish van for awhile) we decided to take a test drive while the Altima was being worked on.
Weeeeeelllllllllllllllllllll . . . the dealership we were visiting had a quota to meet. They made us an offer we couldn't refuse so, the day before our 42nd wedding anniversary we drove out of the dealership in the very van I had test driven. Didn't plan on it, but thus it happened. I LOVE MY NEW VAN!!!!!!! It is far more luxurious than I ever dreamed of. It is larger on the inside than the 1993 Nissan Quest we owned for 10 years (and loved). It has leather interior, a DVD player which the grandchildren love. It is excessively comfortable. It drives like a dream. I can't get over how nice it is. But the BIG thing is, it DOES accommodate enough of us comfortably!
Well, I better change gears and get ready for the rest of my day. Somebody mentioned breakfast and I guess that means I need to fix something. :-)
