Too much Velcro

Because of a dumb accident on my part I now deal with 8 pieces of Velcro multiple times per day. This is 8 pieces of Velcro that I have to fasten and unfasten multiple times a day. It’s too much Velcro.

In my last post I briefly mentioned that I broke my ankle. I was camping over Labor Day weekend and seriously, like ten minutes before pulling out of the campgrounds I fell and bent my ankle inwards. I felt and/or heard a pop and the pain was intense. I had Gurney with me at the time and luckily I held on to his leash. As clingy as he is, birds will win out over me any day, even if I’m hurt.

I went home and kept it elevated. I still assumed it was a sprain as I’d never dealt with a sprain or break before. I hobbled around the house, up and down stairs, no big deal. By Thursday my leg had started to swell and my legs were a noticeably different color. I went to my doctor and they sent me to the hospital for X-rays. The tech didn’t see anything to cause them to keep me there, but the next morning my doctor called and told me I had fractured it and needed to stay off of it until Monday when I could see an orthopedic doctor.

I spent my weekend on the couch. Knitting, doing a few things mom would bring me for Christmas Around Sabina, and watching TV. Monday at the orthopedic doctor they did new X-rays and made the decision to put me in a walking boot. A super fancy one with 8 Velcro pieces/straps. High tech let me tell you.

So I wasn’t supposed to walk on it without the boot for a minimum of two weeks. I was told I could try walking towards the end of the two weeks to get a feel for if there was improvement (I’ve tried it and walking feels weird).

Overall the pain hasn’t been horrible, but it’s been gnawing enough that when I went on a business trip last week I had to stop to consider, “Is half a bottle of ibuprofen really enough?” And that’s coming from a person who rarely takes painkillers.

I go back this Thursday and they’ll do X-rays to decide if I need to keep wearing the boot or if I can switch to something else. I will not be sad to see it go.

Being stuck on the couch does mean I’ve gotten quite a bit of knitting done.

I finished a pair of socks for M. I’ll send them out this week. I started these socks once and had to frog them. Over the past year my gauge has changed a lot. His socks used to be knit at 80 stitches, but I had to drop down to 72. That’s less knitting on a single pair, so that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The yarn is Patons Kroy in the Sunburst Stripes colorway.

I’ve been working on Mom’s Christmas socks (no secret, she picked out the yarn). These have been my car knitting, waiting for the teenager knitting, etc. This is Hawthorne yarn from Knit Picks and I absolutely love it. My favorite sock yarn is Patons Kroy, followed by Knit Picks stroll and this is a very happy medium.

I’ve been looking for a storage solution for my double pointed sock needles so they’ll all stay together. I was in Pat Catan’s and found a tube in the beading section and bought it. It works perfectly! Now I just need to gather them all up from around the house.

In other farm news we have acquired a parakeet. I named her Maggie and bought her a cage. She had been loose at the lake since July and Bill and Norma’s grandkids finally caught her. We have no idea where she came from and I checked multiple classifieds sites both pet and non-pet related with no missing parakeets reported. I did not need a bird, but she’s awfully cute.

The chicken coop is coming along pretty nicely (at least from my back porch view!). Mom has gotten all of the facing boards painted and dad is adding old barn wood to the exterior. The chickens have been moved to the outdoor part of the coop. They are now laying 8-10 eggs a day.

I’ve walked out to the garden a couple times, but I think it’s about done for the year. I haven’t been able to get out and do a second planting of lettuce, it might still happen.

Today was the first cool day of fall and mom made a big roaster of soup. Soup and crescent rolls are going to make for a lovely warm meal to celebrate the new season!