Standing at the Trailhead of Winter

No word today about the MRI, but I figured it'd be another day or so before I'll get a call. I truly hope that call comes sooner rather than later. This pain is close to sending me over the edge. While the new nerve blocking pain meds do work, they only do so much. I still have a lot of pain in my knee and shin, and anything that touches the skin in this area sends me into orbit. This evening I have a new pain in my lower shin area, close to my ankle. It's just throbbing.  I was able to walk around the block twice today, so there's that. The first time, when I got back and sank into my chair it was like I had worked out hard. I was done. The second time, my hip started talking to me big time and it was all I could do to finish the walk. A month ago I was walking 3-5 miles a day. Now I'm reduced to a block. I am so bummed. I'm really trying to stay positive, but I don't know how when I can't do much of anything and the pain is just always there. Each morn...

 

 

When the shelter-in-place order came, I wondered how long it was going to take for nature to respond to the lessened human activity outdoors. It definitely didn't take long. Earlier today, a friend texted about having deer in her backyard, something she's never seen in the five years of living in her house. Then, when Ado and I were crossing the hill on our afternoon walk, I saw what I thought was a coyote at the bottom of the hill. I hurried home with Ado, grabbed my camera, and went back out to see if I could get some photos. As I edged around the patch of taller prairie grass, I saw the coyote. This poor thing looked absolutely awful. So skinny. Much of its hair gone. It favored one of its back legs, too, keeping the paw from touching the ground. Somehow it had managed to find something to eat, most likely a rabbit it had come across in the prairie grasses. Those eyes! Though I didn't get to use my new lens to capture photos of the Sandhill Cranes, I had the oppo...

This morning we biked around the lake. With little traffic, a cool breeze coming off the lake, wildlife that inspires, and the scattered hills along the way, the lake route proves to always be enjoyable as well as invigorating. By the end of the 12 miles, and since I'm not pushing it too much since Hubby can't keep up, the legs feel somewhat fatigued but not overly so, which makes me want to return soon to see just how fast I can actually do the route. One day in the very near future, once Hubby puts the new cassette on his bike, maybe he'll be able to keep up and make me work harder. I'm looking foward to not having to slow down. Today a doe with her fawn, a little one that couldn't have been more than a day or two old, stood on the shoulder of one of the back roads. She watched us approach, and when we were about twenty yards away, she turned and darted into the cornfield. The fawn didn't follow. Rather, it ran along the shoulder, crossed the road and went int...