Ten days since I’ve written. It seems like
a lot has been going on. Not a lot of important stuff happening, just routine
bucketing along one day after another, and suddenly it’s the weekend, and I
have commitments in Rimbey. This return to worship conduct has been good. It
finishes today, and I’m glad, because I’ve realized that preparing for three
weeks hand running is more work that I’m ready for. I guess being almost 80
does that to a person. I have things I want to say, but I need lots of prep
time between times to share those things. They don’t come together overnight.
I’ve managed to get swimming lengths down
to a three-time-a-week routine: Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6:30 AM. It is
still very demanding. Get easier on the body muscles, but very slow improvement
in the lung/heart development. I reach the end of a length gasping for air, and
I need 3 or 4 minutes to catch my breath before I start back. I have begun to
notice the real swimmers in the pool.
Back and forth…back and forth, making barely a ripple. Poetry in motion. “Oh,”
said one man, “I did 73 lengths this morning.” I gasped internally.
Seventy-three lengths! If I ever get to twenty, I’ll want a medal. I may need a
wheel chair to get to the pool by then!
Daughter Kathryn and family spent three
days with us this week, delivering grandson Angus for a week long stay. Great
company…very quiet and introspective. To get him talking and sharing his life,
I just get him to walk with me. When he walks, he talks. We had a great visit
yesterday after the 24-hour rain. Today he will come to worship with me, and
then we’ll shift the remainder of the garage contents back into place, and
unlock the gates. We are planning a trip to the Telus World of Science in
Edmonton tomorrow. They have a neat film on the Lemurs of Madagascar, plus new
science exhibits that both of us will enjoy.
This is a whole new dimension of recovery:
encountering real life, the things that go on every day around my therapeutic
walks and swims, things that must be managed, because they are the stuff of
life.
I have been making phone calls and sending
emails to Winnipeg friends. We’ll be there next weekend for my early 80th
birthday party, and there will be time to see some of them. Then off for a
weekend in Brandon, a few days sightseeing in Moose Jaw, followed by a couple
of weeks roaming the Grasslands National Park in southern Saskatchewan – a
favourite haunt of ours. It will be interesting to see how my heart/lung
recovery will manage climbing hills. An unanswered question, to be deal with.
One minor/major item I’ve had to prepare:
making sure that I have sufficient of all my meds for the trip. Lots of
counting and listing, with a trip to the pharmacy thrown in tomorrow to fill
all the prescriptions. It’s always a hassle with Alberta Health and the
insurance company, while they make sure you aren’t abusing the system or chintzing
them out of money. The pharmacists tell me about the difficulty of arranging
meds for snowbirds who go south for extended periods, like three months!
Enough for the moment; I must shower,
shave, and become presentable for worship. Presentable…not fancy; the blessing
of a rural congregation of people who know me. No need to be impressive, just
real!
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