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December 7, 1996
I rushed out the back door with snow shovel and without jacket to get the car out before the plow decided to skip our courtyard. I didn't want to face the neighbors if I was the one who didn't move her car in time. I shoveled furiously, forgetting that there is a curb at the end of my walk. I stepped funny and my right ankle buckled. I struggled to keep my balance to avoid falling into a snowbank. I really didn't want to get wet. So I fell awkwardly down on one knee with my right ankle under me. Not good.
I finished shoveling, moved the car, loaded in the laundry and my camera, and took off for Cleancraft, Starbucks, and walking/lunch/holiday celebration with Rita, Joan, and Claire. I dropped off the laundry at Cleancraft and felt a little twinge in my ankle. I walked into Starbucks and felt a big twinge in my ankle. By the time I got to Rita's my ankle was throbbing. Rita sat me on the couch with a pillow under my foot and an ice pack on the ankle, with a stack of magazines nearby. She and Joan and Claire went out walking while I read the Christmas issue of Yankee Magazine. I felt better after icing it, but never did get to take any pictures of the wet snow clinging to the trees and grasses. Too bad, 'cause it's raining lightly now (after snowing again this afternoon) and it all won't be so picturesque tomorrow.
We had a nice lunch and exchanged gifts and stories. Joan is in process of giving up smoking. She just finished the last patch and is now on her own. The patch company sent her a diploma. How do they know if you actually stay off the cigarettes once you go off the patch? She said the diploma has a number to call if you haven't quit yet... Rita's son just got engaged. It was so romantic. He (Grant) and Rita drove to New London and took the boat to Long Island to get the ring on Monday. Apparently the fiancee had been admiring it in an estate jewelry place and had told Grant about it. He called the store and asked the guy to hold it. So Grant and Rita spent the whole day getting to and from the jewelry store. They toasted with drinks in those plastic cups on the boat and planned how to surprise her. The plan worked. Rita tells a story very well, and this was a good story, so we all enjoyed hearing it.
So I sit here feeling absolutely stupid at having sprained my ankle shoveling snow. At least I could've done it at some athletic pursuit, but no, I had to klutz the curb in my own backyard. I really feel like a "ground mole" now. I can't go out and revel in winter. I have to stay in and hunker down like a shut-in. It is supposed to snow more tonight and then stop by midday tomorrow, so I am going to try to drive down to Rhode Island in the afternoon to see Nancy and do some winter birding at the cove if at all possible. I hope this thing heals fast enough for me to learn to snowboard :-) -- ain't gonna try skiing - too many of the kids I grew up with had permanent knee damage by the time they were in the 8th grade - I never learned to ski despite growing up in New England. I do skate though (but not with this sprained ankle). Had skates on my feet as soon as I could stand up. Devastated to find out girls couldn't play hockey. I played pond hockey with my brothers and the neighborhood boys and Maureen from down the street who also didn't understand it was a guy thing, until our mothers decided we were too old for contact sports with boys...
I should stop journalling and ice the ankle again but I'd rather stay up here in my stimulating office with my stimulating computer than go downstairs and watch television. I wonder if there's a way to type with my foot elevated.
Oh yeah, I seem to have transferred all my RSI symptoms to my left arm somehow. Either that or I'm having a really prolonged heart attack that's lasted days :-0 My left arm hurts in all the same places my right arm normally hurts: behind the shoulder blade, at the front of the shoulder, the elbow, the thumb, and the wrist. Maybe the ergonomic keyboard spreads the damage around equally :-)
The precipitation outside seems to be both rain and snow at the moment. Need a web cam for my window. Not.
Meanwhile the crew at Starbucks has been plying me with free refills and extra shots of espresso in my latte since I asked the manager to turn off the Xmas tape. It's nice being a hero to the younger generation :-)