A Little Snow in Chicago

A relatively quiet week for us with only a short trip to Chicago to liven it up.  Jo needed to attend the Central regional meeting in Chicago from Thursday to Saturday and since she can't move luggage while on her crutches, I tagged along as her trusty luggage handler.  Chicago had its usual mix of lovely winter weather with cold brisk winds, low temperatures and just a bit of snow thrown in to make the trifecta.  We did get to catch up a little with my sister, but given Jo's limited mobility we didn't do as much with her as usual.

The only other fun piece of news was, of course, the artic temperatures we are experiencing this winter.  Some fun facts from the last week:  1) it was warmer in Alaska than here by 40 degrees! (it was in the 30's in Alaska when we were below zero), 2) it has snowed some amount in 70% of the last 55 days, 3) we almost broke the low temperature record for one day set 130 years ago, 4) Lake Michigan is the most iced over it has been in 30 years (and has icebergs floating on it!) and 5) -14 degrees is frigging cold especially in a house with insulation installed in 1919.  On the upside (or downside depending on your perspective), I have set a new low temperature that I'll run at.  When we lived in CT we thought long and hard about going outside to run once the temperatures were around 10 degrees and rarely did.  Now that is standard running temperatures (in other words, I don't even think about whether I should) and my new lowest temperature I have run in has set to -1.  When the normal winter high is in the teens you apparently mentally get more comfortable being out in it - not sure that is the brightest thing for your mind to do, but it is what happens.

Other than that, we have been pretty home bound since Jo is only half way through her "no weight on the right leg" regimen.  She is keeping her spirits (and right leg) up though. 

I didn't take any pictures in Chicago - no reason, just forgot - or of anything else last week.  So I'm including one of a warmer, happier time from the past hoping that it will encourage the weather gods to warm up WI a bit.

My Dad would be so proud

I know this is an old theme this winter, but it has been absolutely brutal here in Wisconsin this year.  Besides the freezing cold temperatures (the high today might make it to 5 degrees) it has managed to snow almost every day for then last two weeks.  It doesn't snow a lot, just an inch or so, but it necessitates shoveling the driveway and sidewalks every day - since if you don't remove the snow it becomes ice and given the winter we are having it will be ice until May.  Now I normally like removing snow, but that is when I get to use my snow blower, which I don't when it only snows less than an inch.  That is enough whining about the fact that Wisconsin has cold, snowy winters.


The reason for the blog title this week is that I wanted to demonstrate to my father that all those "wasted" (my thoughts and words, not his) weekends of my childhood spent in the garage working with him on some aging automobile when I would rather would have been doing something with my friends weren't completely wasted.  I managed to change the lift supports on our Jeep's rear door without damaging the car or having the door crash on my head.  Next up is changing one of the heated seat switches.  Just not to create false expectations on my level of car repair skills, I don't think I have actually ever opened the hood on our other car (so, there might be an engine in there, also might be two squirrels and a cat running it).

With Jo laid up on her crutches our evening and weekend events have been fairly limited since moving more than 20 yards on crutches is a slow and somewhat painful process.  We did decide we needed to get out of the house for a little bit and so on Sunday we drove over to Sauk City to watch the bald eagles.  During the winter over a thousand eagles make WI home to escape the cold of Canada (I guess - boy they certainly should have headed further south this year, oops, more whining).  We picked up Kathy and John in Madison on the way and spent about an hour watching the adult and young eagles soar over the Wisconsin River feeding.  These are spectacular birds and it was amazing to see twenty of them all in one place.  Afterwards, we had a delightful brunch at the Blue Spoon in downtown Sauk City before heading back home.

Walkers beware

Our week was mostly focused on getting Jo up and around.  She had her stitches removed and unfortunately the doctor confirmed that she will be at least six weeks without putting any weight on her right leg.  But she is getting the hang of using her crutches although our Chris (our niece) did inform her she was using them wrong and that set her back a bit (Chris is a physical therapist and should know).  Fortunately, work has scooters available for use and Jo scored one of these to tool around at work.  This saves a lot of crutch time, plus it speeds her up getting around the building since she isn't particularly speedy on them.  I have finally tapered down the jokes about Jo becoming a waitress serving pancakes with her one leg if HR doesn't work out (job at IHOP - old joke, I know but how often does it fit the circumstances).  We did finish our Christmas puzzle since Jo was able to set at the table and work when she was taking a break from having her leg in her CPM torture machine.

Jo's sister, Kathy, and her friend Donna were in town for a couple of days to take in the Pink concert.  Jo was supposed to go but decided that tackling the stairs at the Bradley Center wasn't in the cards.  Therefore, I got to go and enjoy a truly amazing concert - especially the part where she soared over the crowd on four guy wires.  Her singing was great as well.  It is interesting how concerts have changed from my college days when it was just a couple of people on the stage singing.  Now it is more about the entertainment instead of the actual singing.  Does make for interesting concerts though.

It is Frigid

Temperature outside according to our thermometer never broke past -15 degrees yesterday.  Heat hasn't shut off since it can't get the house up to temperature.  And according to the weather on the TV it is warmer in Anchorage than here.  This winter has been brutal.  Enough said.

Just call me Hoppy

As many of you know Jo has been struggling with torn meniscus in both knees and finally decided that her right knee had become too painful to continue managing it with physical therapy and cold packs.  So the day after New Years she went under the knife for the first time since she had her tonsils out as a kid.  The good news was she came out the surgery without any difficulties and is currently recuperating.  The bad news was the damage inside her knee was more extensive than expected.  Not only is the meniscus on the lower portion of her knee more worn than just two years ago, she also had damage to her articular cartilage on the outside of her knee (the doctor described it as a pothole in her cartilage that would keep growing if not fixed).  The doctor performed microfracture surgery which will help rebuild some the damage, but her running days may be behind her.  The other bad news was she was expecting to be on crutches for a couple of days with the meniscus repairs, but the microfracture work means 4 to 6 weeks on crutches as the bone needs time to heal. 

To help the healing process she has a machine to mechanically move her knee through a small range of motion.  She has to strap herself in for 6 to 8 hours a day.  We haven't completely figured out how she will do this while going to work.  Also, she is learning how to walk with crutches and my analysis is she needs a lot more practice.  For now, I'm walking behind since she looks a little wobbly.  It does give one an appreciation for what it means to be handicapped in your standard home.  We have been rearranging furniture and items to make it work with Jo navigational skills.  Also, gives me a small appreciation of home health care since I'm having to carry all the load around the house - leaves one exhausted at the end of the day.  But she'll be back on her feet by the end of the month.  Then we have to figure out the whole exercising thing.

Christmas in Sunny New Mexico

Did I mention that New Mexico is sunny and warm in December when compared to Wisconsin.  We spent the holiday visiting my parents in sunny (yes it is the theme for this posting) New Mexico where we got to enjoy temperatures during the day into the high 40's/low 50's (oh what bliss).  We had a wonderful time enjoying the local Mexican food and had a nice time playing cards every night with my Mom and I coming out the winners (for once).  Christmas Eve we put out luminaries which are a local tradition.  Really looks nice at night with all those candles burning and the wind stayed mild so we didn't have to worry about all those bags becoming small incendiaries.  Christmas day dawned bright and sunny and everyone had fun opening gifts.  Jo and I picked up some needed items along with some fun things.  Then it was chicken parmesan for dinner.  Our trip also included a visit to Santa Fe to see the New Mexico museum and one visit to a casino so everyone could get their gambling fix.  Too soon it was time to get back on the plane flight home to the cold, dreary winter we are enjoying here.  Fortunately, all of our flights ran smoothly always a pleasant surprise this time of year.

We finished out the year enjoying some free time at home catching up on some chores as well as a few fun things.  Of course this involved some snow shoveling as we continue to get almost daily snows and the temperatures hover in the low teens.  We finished the month of December with 8 inches of snow above normal just for the month.  Since it has been too cold to cause much melting, the snow piles at the front of the house are growing too high to shoot snow over (maybe I need to buy a bigger snow blower - something to consider).  We decided to tackle one of my Christmas gifts, from Santa, putting together a 2,000 piece puzzle (it is of the Italian coast).  It was so big we decided to use the kitchen table and it just fit on it.