All About My Bones

What a week this has been

Hi friends. It's been quite a week.

Eight days ago, I enjoyed a wonderful hike in the American Canyon wetlands. It was beautiful weather. Blue skies, a few wispy clouds, thousands of waterfowl, a huge field of sheep. We mostly had the trail to ourselves, though we met a couple of wonderful characters along the way. One guy, whose name I’ve forgotten, had spent hours clearing the rough terrain of every manner of debris. In admiring his piles of garbage, I wondered, “Who in the hell throws all of these household items, bottles, food wrappers, and construction debris into this precious water?” A rhetorical question, I know. Assholes.

It still baffles me why people do these sorts of things. There are just different types of people in this world, aren't there? Yep - good and bad. Or, some optimists might categorize them as the ignorant vs. the well-informed. I'm sticking with the former. Even when I was a little girl, I had a sense that these beautiful places where living creatures thrive needed to be protected. It would've felt wrong to throw random things I knew should have gone in the garbage into a beautiful setting with frogs, fish, and birds. That would have been mean.

The other character John and I met on our walk was named Chris, I believe, though I'm going to admit things have been super foggy this week. I will get to the reason for that shortly. Chris was a nice gentleman from Vallejo (though originally from London) who loved the wetlands park and had put up a cute sign marking this especially scenic spot, which he named Gratitude Point. His good friend had built an attractive, sturdy bench at the spot. GP was perfectly halfway between the trail’s beginning and end. The bench gave one (or two) the opportunity to sit and enjoy the view or to rest their weary feet.

Not gonna lie, here I am only in my fourth paragraph, and I'm reaching the end of my ability to sit in an upright position. Pretty proud, however, that I have at least mastered the voice recognition program on my Mac. I had a million stories that needed telling this week, but they've had to remain inside my head, as I've broken both of my arms and wrists in multiple locations, as well as a rib and my kneecap, and I can't do a damn thing. I've been in excruciating pain. And my healthcare provider had to put off my surgeries for a week and a half because many of their hospital staff were on strike. I'm looking forward to having a double surgery this coming Thursday to repair both of my arms. Can hardly believe this has happened.

For those thinking WTF… after completing our wonderful 8-mile walk, John and I stopped by a favorite restaurant to pick up sandwiches for the next day’s cattle wrangling, and when I went out to the car to grab a bag, I somehow tripped. Just like that. I don't even remember tripping. I was just all of a sudden on the ground. I'm not going to describe what my arms looked like.

Amazing how quickly things can go from being idyllic and peaceful to chaotic and painful. This last week has been quite an adventure, and one I will share with you when I can relay the details with more humor. A lot of funny things happened. And I just have to say how very grateful I am to my partner, John, and my daughter Ellie, who are taking good care of me.

I'm signing off for now, as I need to go and rest. Thank you, readers, for all your engagement with my posts.

Get out there and protest on my behalf!

xo, Chris