I Never Sang For You and You Should Be Grateful

Carrie is in the tub and there are some strange sounds filtering into the living room from that bathroom. I can hear her singing as she plays with her bath toys. What is it about water, tubs and showers that inspire one to break out in song?

Carrie has a voice much like mine as far as bellowing out a tune. It's something you should try to avoid at all costs. I don't know why neither of us was in the right line when musical talent was being distributed. The daughter and older granddaughter, my departed mother, my sister and niece all have lovely voices. I'm told my cousins in Italy are opera singers and there is even ballerinas from across the Atlantic.

I'm learning to ride a bike. Ok, so that talent is shared by many and isn't considered special by anyone.  And on that segue, let me say this. The bike is finally beginning to feel as though it is a part of me. I don't muscle it into doing turns but lean and move with it into those turns and it feels as though the bike and I are dancing together. I fought the idea that it was similar to the motorcycles I rode years ago because it didn't have a motor attached to it but as soon as I let that idea go and let the bike move with me, it become a pleasant experience to cut figure eights and circles and just have fun with it.

I like to start my night rides around 2200hrs. Tonight I was late starting. Carrie was here and I had to get her to sleep before I took off. Usually we mess around with TV, movies and chattering in bed and that's when we get IN bed at 2200 hrs. Tonight I hustled her into her tub, sat tub side and used the hand puppets, ole Ducky and Hippy (a duck and a hippo as if you couldn't guess!) and we did our usual play stuff. As quickly as I could get her out of the tub, dressed and into pajamas, hair combed and tied back, I headed for the guest bedroom where we sleep.

A few more games, lights out, she falls asleep  and then I started looking for my shoes. I'm usually so neat and organized, at least that's what I tell the husband, and I couldn't find those shoes I had worn today so off to the closet to grab another pair. It's usually at this time that the husband points out my abilities on being neat and organized. Thankfully he was in bed and I didn't have to slink around displaying my lack of organization while looking for those shoes.

I headed for the patio, flipped on the light by the french doors and hit the concrete walking quickly to the bike. Wheeling it around, I unlatched the privacy fence gate and wheeled through and was on my way. Freedom. When I wheel out onto the street, into the night, the chill in the air and the 1/2 moon above me causes a small rush of excitement and a huge grin slides across my face. This feels great and I want to stretch out and run.

Tonight I rode for pleasure. I didn't do the set mile which I usually ride 4 or 5 times so I can clock my distance. Tonight I just rode. I breezed through stop signs and never touched my brakes to slow down and felt wickedly illegal which is always wickedly fun. I chose streets indiscriminately. Random choices, new areas I covered and sometimes back tracking or choosing a different return route. Tonight was all about abandon. I pitched my routine ride aside and that changed the feeling of this ride. Routine was never my strong point and tomorrow I will go buy some gadget that bike riders have that measures the distance they ride. Freedom to get away from that set mile that I have been riding for the past week. It's all about freedom and denying routine with me.

I did clock myself last night so I have a rough idea of how many miles I rode tonight. It takes me 9 minutes to ride a mile so I calculate I rode 4 miles tonight and I'm OK with that. It was a much more fun 4 miles off the usual path.

A knee report is in order. When I had this knee replacement, I did a weekly progress report on this blog. It was a clinical description much like notes a nurse would make on a patient. Being just that, it was easy to clinically describe the progress so I could look back one day and know where I was in the healing of that knee. So here goes. You might want to stop your reading here. Clinical anything causes me to yawn. You were warned.

Clinically speaking, the knee has about 130 degrees flexion, small amount of stiffness noted upon initial standing, no swelling noted to knee though size difference noted from R. to L. knee related to prosthetic device. Initial start of pedaling bike causes moderate pain scaled at 3 but soon diminishes as the knee gains a degree or two of more flexion. Leg strength measured by the ability to now stand unaided from a sitting position and by the amount of time that  can be spent walking .

I have to say..clinical charting is rather boring. Strictly observational without personal feelings about what you are seeing. Impersonal and concise is what we were taught in nursing college. Chart what you see, not what you think is going on.

I do know, it's late. I do know I'm heading for a warm shower and the air is chilled outside which makes me happy. I live in the south but I'm not really a southern. The north is where my heart lies.