A Few More Pictures

 So,  I wanted to post a few more pictures of our trip, before I forget.  It's crazy to me how a trip can totally complicate your life.  I think I'm back in the routine of things, at least sometimes I think that.  Other times I know I've just gone AWOL in my head.  

Anyway, I wanted to put the picture of the Canadian money on here.  It's so pretty!  The "pink guy"?  That's one installation of some kind of art festival they had going on in Quebec.  I have other pictures of "pink guys", also.  That building is the library in Bar Harbor, Maine.  We found one in St. John, New Brunswick, too.  It's funny that I very often manage to come across a library (one of my very favorite places) whenever we travel.  Which admittedly we don't do very often.  The white flowers?  I think they're zinnias, they were blooming so lovely one morning on our walk.  And our feet?  The Husband and I coincidentally wore matching socks.  Too funny.

And here I am, mentally fussing.  We did a ton of walking on our trip.  I think I mentioned that several of the days I had over 22,000 steps.  That's a few!  Then the last day, our day in Boston with our granddaughter I logged well over 28,000 steps.  My FitBit said that was over 11 miles.  Which is all the more remarkable to me because of the surfaces we were walking.  I'm used to carpeted and tile floors here at home, pavement and cement sidewalks when outside.  Boston (and yes, Canada - everywhere we went) has a ton of old brick walkways.  I call them cobblestone and perhaps that would be a broad definition.  They aren't made of round rocks, necessarily, just old stones or bricks that have been in place forever. They are hard to walk on, hard on your feet and just plain hard.

So, today, I managed to get in to our podiatrist.  (He must have been grumpy today, I didn't even get a smile out of him, what's up with that?) Diagnosis - neuroma and inflammation of the toe joint capsules, both feet.  I walked away with instructions and some "universal" insoles.  And a follow-up appointment for two weeks from now.  The instructions:  1.  Never go barefoot, always wear shoes, preferably stiff soled shoes.  2.  Ice the feet as many times a day as possible 20 minutes per time. 3. High dose ibuprofen for three days. 4. Don't walk or exercise in any way that causes foot pain. 5. Keep the arch supported, the pressure off the ball of the foot and ....and .... and...  The one thing I might have wished for (besides a smile so everything felt more pleasant) was written instructions like we always get from The Husband's dermatologist.  But the gist of it is this - I have osteoporosis (I've known that for years) and it makes my feet (and every thing else) more fragile; it will get better with time and care; it's good I caught it early because careful healing will avoid surgery (that's something I never want).  

Any questions? Of course.  I have a million of them.  Most of which I won't be able to articulate until hours after I leave the office.   The one I did manage to ask was answered with:  if it hurts don't do it.  Sigh.

Within a day of returning from our trip, I had two books in hand to read.  A couple days later three more arrived.  All 5 of which are new books so I only have three weeks to read them, zero chance to renew them.  One is nonfiction which takes longer to read and process. 

Today's gratitude is a bit trickier.  It's hard to be grateful for foot pain.  But I am grateful for a competent doctor, I just hope he's more cheerful next time.  I'm grateful for good books to read while I'm not hurting my feet.  I'm grateful for rain and sunshine and for a snug home.  I'm grateful especially for repentance. I surely to need that.

And I'm just going to have to get comfortable with the odd placing of the pictures.  I have spent nearly an hour fixing, deleting, replacing, moving and being frustrated with my inability to post things in some sort of rational (can't even think of being artistic) order here.  I give up.