Visitors

It has been kind of quiet around the old homestead lately but we did have a couple of visitors this week. Today we had our middle grand daughter, Aurora, for the afternoon while her mother was working. We really enjoy Aurora but she has a mind of her own. Emma, the oldest of our three, likes to hug and cuddle up but Aurora pretty much wants to do her own thing and is very head strong about it. Here she is enjoying time with Buddy Joe.

Earlier in the week we had a visitor on the front lawn. Our area, like many other places in the country, has been inundated with Canadian geese. They are seen in large groups and it is very unusual to see them by themselves. This one spent quite a bit of time in the yard before he decided to fly away. Joanne took this picture through our dinning room window.

The sling is gone!

Just a quick update on the old arm. Went to the doctor this morning for a checkup on my arm. They took new xrays and all seems to be healing well. He was surprised at the amount of motion I already had. That is probably because I've been cheating a bit and slipping out of the sling so I could use the keyboard on this computer. (Did you know that 70% of your typing is done with the left hand?)

He took the bandages away and I no longer have to wear a sling. The stitches are still there but will come out next week. All that is left is to get back to using it and 1) build up my strength in that arm and 2) work the soreness out and recover full motion. I've already found being rid of the sling has helped. With the sling my daily trips to the gun range have required me to only use one hand in my punching holes in the target. Today I was able to use both hands and my aim has gotten back where it belongs. Although I remember the doctor telling me it would be a "one inch incision" here is what I wound up with.

Things are looking up and I hope to be back to normal use by the first week of March when we head out for California, Nevada and other points west.

An undate of activities and status report on the arm

We had been asked to care for our middle grand daughter yesterday while her mother worked. Aurora arrived around 1:00 pm and was here until around 6:30. This is the one that is very independent and likes to do her own thing. She has a pretty good imagination and usually can entertain herself very well. Here she is working a jigsaw puzzle with Grandma.

Not very long before Aurora left the youngest grand daughter, Cadence, showed up along with her mother and dad. (The dad is also Aurora's dad but he does not make an effort to spend near enough time with her.) Anyway, the dad, who is my youngest son Alan, was trying to help me get a router working on my computer so they were here until around 8:30. (By the way, we never did get the router to work so today I purchased a new one. Can't make it work right either.) Cadence is always very shy when she first gets here. We don't see nearly as much of her as we do the two older girls. By the time they left she was having a big time and was very comfortable here. We love our little girls but they wear us old folks out pretty quickly. This is Cadence, who will be two years old next month with her dad.

Having the girls here was fun but was kind of hard to interact with them with just one arm. I did have to have surgery on the left elbow this past Wednesday. They originally expected the need to put a metal plate in to force the bone back in place but that did not happen. I did have a bone chip that was loose and causing trouble so they did take that out. The doctor originally told me he would be making a one inch incision. When I took the bandages off to shower the thing looked huge. I measured it and it is three inches long. I'll go back this next week or so to get the stitches out and then will have to start doing some exercises to get it working correctly again. Got to get this all working before the first week of March when we plan to get back on the road.