Filling our time in the Arizona spring

It is spring in the Arizona desert and the Gold Canyon temps are in the high 80s to low 90s.  That means it is time for snowbirds to begin flying north.  We'll be doing that soon, but not yet.  

The warm weather has brought out these bright red flowers on the ocotillo plants in our resort.  These plants bloom when the temperatures heat up in March and, if there is rain, they bloom again in response to the moisture.

 The prickly pear cactus also blooms in the spring.  This plant has bright red and yellow flowers.  Others have pink flowers.

  

We met our friend Darlene Sibigtroth for lunch one day in late March.  When we lived in Granby-Grand Lake, Colorado, she was my supervisor at Mountain Parks Bank.  She and her late husband Gary were members of our church.  Now she lives in Casa Grande, south of Gold Canyon.  It was so good to catch up with her.

Darlene's daughters were people our son Eric knew in high school.  John officiated at one daughter's wedding and today that couple is related to people we know at St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church in Colorado.  That is the church John served as rector before retirement and where we worship when living in our Lone Tree apartment.  What a small world.

John is beginning to look better, too, as we wait to head north.  The dermatologist and plastic surgeon removed a basal cell cancer from near his left eye.  We're so glad that cancer is gone!

In a week or two, we'll never know the surgery took place

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Are we only as old as we think we are?

I started blogging in 2006.  We had been RVing for 16 years and I decided to keep our family informed about where we were and what we were doing through a blog.  I was 63 years old.  But age is just a number isn't it?  Aren't we only as old as week feel we are?

Today we are 77, nearly 78 years old.  So, how old to I feel I am?  Every bit of those 77 years!  

About 19 years ago, I suffered a torn meniscus and it hurt, at times pretty bad.  After a period of time, I went to the urgent care nearby and had an Xray.  They sent me to a surgeon.  Until the surgery was scheduled, I wrapped the knee and went about my normal everyday life--as best I could.  That surgery made a real difference.

Eventually, that meniscus surgery no longer took care of the problem.  My knee began to bother me, almost every time I stepped on that foot.  Long story short, in mid-November I had a total knee replacement of my right knee. 

Let me tell you, those years have made a difference.  The surgery has healed well.  I am recovering very well.  But, at 77 healing and total recovery takes time--more than I would like.  Every time we walk, I feel it in my right knee. It hurts.  And the long we walk, the more it hurts.  

I haven't recovered like I did nearly 20 years ago.  I wonder why?  Is it my age, do you think?  I know I do.   It took my 77+ years to get to this point.  And every bone, joint and muscle in my body is also 77 years old.  They are at times as slow acting and as slow recovering as I am.

Age is more than how I feel.  Age is an actual, verifiable fact.  Live with it.

Piece of Cake

That is really what it was to have my knee surgery yesterday. Hope it continues this way. We woke up at 3:15, left at 4 and arrived at the hospital at 5:30 am. By 10:30 we were headed out the door. I used crutches to get in and out of the wheel chair--you never get to walk out of a hospital--and to get in the truck and into our RV. When I stood on my right leg, it felt better than it had when I woke up in the morning.

We both slept well and I am doing fine today. Able to removed the ace bandage and gauze wrapping, take a shower, and put on band aides over the two small incisions. I will take it easy today and tomorrow. No crutches are necessary and I can put my full weight on the leg.

This is probably more than anyone wanted to know, but the blog is a record of our life so I am saving this for my own benefit, if not for posterity.

What more could I need as I sit recuperating in my recliner? Water, cell phone, i-pad, pain pills, blood pressure cuff and a great husband taking care of me. You can't see him because he took the picture.