Wishes do come true

The last few days I have been wishing for two things.....in the over all scheme of things they are not big things, but in my narrow world they are big things.....1) Having the 13 staples that were beginning to irritate me a lot removed, and 2) Being given permission by my surgeon to ride my bike again.  Thursday was the day that both of those wishes could be granted, and I had essentially been focusing on that day all week long to the exclusion of most anything else......I was in a holding pattern.  

Thursday finally came and there we were at 10:30 walking through the door to my surgeon's office, just a stone's throw from Riverside Community Hospital where the surgery was performed.  Within minutes TLE and I were whisked into Dr. A's examination room where he pronounced me well on my way to a full recovery with no complications.  As he asked me various questions about the past 10 days he began plucking the 13 nemesis staples from my abdomen one by one......funny, I expected a little more discomfort during this process, but only felt very minor sensations as they came out....of course there is always one staple that is hard to get out, but even that one caused me no pain, or discomfort.

As the good doctor was cleaning off some of the remaining adhesive from my original surgical dressing I asked "doctor, may I resume riding my bicycle today?", and he answered quickly "Of course!  But, nothing too strenuous for a while, okay?"  Yes, okay.....YAY!

I was feeling a little bit giddy after we left and suggested we head over to Goodwill to see if they had anything we couldn't live without, and then on to the supermarket to do some much needed shopping.  I found nothing at Goodwill, but TLE found a couple of clothing items to replace some others that no longer fit her. I was just kind of floating on air as I walked around each store.....no more feeling of the staples pulling a little as I walked.

We arrived back "home" by noon time.....TLE made me a sandwich accompanied by some chips and her amazing salsa!  I was tempted to head out on on my bike after lunch, but decided to give myself one more day before I get back in the saddle.

I haven't read any books on my Kindle for several months.......I had started a book written by my friend, Brian Gore, "Shadow on the Mountain" back just before we started the sugar beet harvest, but never finished......I was soooo tired every day that the last thing I wanted to do was read a book.  For whatever reason I hadn't pulled it back out to finish.  I decided Thursday to get the Kindle charged up and make an effort to finish his book.  I have gone through periods when I read a lot, and then periods when I don't read at all.  Brian is a western writer and this particular book is the second of the "Ben Jensen" series.  Brian also writes a regularly published blog called "Goin' RV Boondocking", which I highly recommend.  

During the morning the USA women's hockey team was leading Canada 2-0 with just 3.5 minutes to go in the game and we were thinking the USA would win, but Canada staged an unlikely comeback tying the game with just 54 seconds remaining to send the match into overtime where they (Canada) scored the sudden death winning goal with 12 minutes remaining in the overtime period......a devastating loss, to be sure, for Team USA.

I spent the afternoon reading Brian's book, and really getting into it again.  He is a good writer, and I'm looking forward to reading more from him as he continues adding to this series.

For dinner TLE prepared my usual street tacos after I grilled up another batch of carne asada on the BBQ.  

I have pretty much hit another weight plateau at 188, where I have been since the surgery, but I am hoping that adding bicycling back into the daily mix I can chisel away at my weight and hit my goal of 185 before we leave on March 3rd......just three pounds to go!  Right now my total weight loss stands at 23.5 pounds and I am ecstatic.  TLE is also in a holding pattern on her weight loss.

Thanks for stopping by!