…wobbly, really wobbly. I’m tired of falling, understand: the bones have been jolted enough the last couple of weeks.
So did I wear my crash pads today? No. I was too tired to wrestle with the damn tights, which hold them in place. I just skated in street clothes and hoped not to fall.
By the end of the session, however, I’d gotten steadier. Jane pointed to one of my besetting sins, a left knee knocking in. I started working on that—tomorrow I’ll add a patellar tracking band (Ace) and a wrap on that knee, and that’ll help. I gave it 15-20 minutes of steady outward pressure while skating, and it helped a lot, but when the knee started to heat up, I quit. Now I’m getting stiff.
The right knee behaves well: I spent 4 years in competition fencing, and the right knee’s quite strong, after all those years of lunges. Problem is, the left leg of a right-handed fencer gets none of that precise bending (knee over toe)–and can develop some imprecise habits. Like knocking in, or letting the foot rotate a bit to grip the floor, so as not to fall on one’s nose during a lunge.
Well, when it translates to skating, that left knee is being a pita, and a knee knocking in means it’s a real pita trying to rock the foot toward the left outside ankle to go onto the left outside edge without pitching onto your toe and really screwing it—you need to keep your knee bent and outward—read: toe/knee aligned nicely—re that inward tendency. Do that, and the rock to the outside edge happens. So does your turn. Do it wrong, and your left foot does a shimmy on the ice and doesn’t make solid shoves during the strokes. So…a little time off the ice has really turned a spotlight on the weakness, and this time it’s going to get fixed.
Sore, oh, yes. I sit down for 15 minutes and I’m feeling it.
We picked up 2 hemlock trees about 4′ tall—to put in line between the 40′ giants that stand between us and the avenue. I want to have understudies for those two stately trees, because trees have a lifespan, and they’re maxed in height. I got them at a bargain, 25.00 each; and then discovered they’re a different species of hemlock, but well, they’re a bargain.
And Jane found a Scarecrow water-jetter on half of half because the packaging was screwed up. That will frighten raccoons away from our pond. If it works. And it looks as if it will.
So I’m off to take some more Advil. 😉
Over the course of the spring, please be sure to report on the effectiveness or not of the Scarecrow water-jetter. Raccoons are the bane of my small water garden.
I just noticed the progress bar. I really like it. One of the main reasons I come to this blog is to find out how you’re doing on your latest writing project. The bar is perfect: out of the way, always there. I hope it isn’t a pita to keep updated…
Just takes my remembering to do it, and as you say, it sits there reminding me!
I agree with CapnKirk, thanks for the progress bar. It’s nice to see the new book growing!
I’m sensitive about falls because both of my parents and my grandmother had problems because of falls. My grandmother fell on a sidewalk, broke her hip, went into the hospital, then a nursing home for seven years, and that was it. So please take care.