I figured I should add this at the top because so much has been going on, although I now hope things are going to slow down.  I just had my second (and I hope last) surgery. 

For those of you who don't know me, I was born with short achilles tendons.  I spent my life trying to stretch them out with exercise and massage and had limited success until I spent 4 years being an athlete and running a 3 minute mile (which no one believed at the time) about 3 times a week.  That, plus my increasing age and too many stairs did additional damage to my ankle.

Dr. McInnes, of Virginia Mason, performed the second ankle surgery on me last Monday.  By then, 3 procedures were needed; not only the lengthening of the tendon, but also removal of a bone chip (shepherd's fracture) and scraping off a calcaneal (heel) spur (AICT).

I am slowly regaining my strength.  I will have to keep weight off the leg for 6 to 8 weeks.

If you have been following my progress, you know that life has been one non-stop cycle of busy-ness for me for years, mostly leading up to this.

I had my first surgery (the tendon reduction on the opposite leg), performed by Dr. Bouchez, just before the dot-com dot-bomb.  Just when I was able to walk on both legs again, I was laid off.  I had a difficult time getting reemployed due to the economic situation, so I spent the next 2 years cramming in all the programming (Perl and Java) and Unix/Linux classes I could manage because I wanted to stay in high tech.

During that time, my husband and I agreed to buy a new house, all on one level (no stairs) so that I could heal after my second surgery, but we could do neither until I was reemployed.

I started a great job as a System Administrator last March and I've been very happy there and applying myself thoroughly.

We found a house last July; the sale was final in August; we were moved in by mid-September and unpacked by the end of October.  Like I said, it's been busy.

At this point, I hope I have a permanent job, a permanent home, and a steadily improving health situation so that I can focus on some more pleasurable aspects of life like social gatherings, hiking, and travel.

Major thanks to my husband, Tom, who, through all of this, has contributed greatly to enriching my life during my infirmity by taking me camping and boating where I could not have walked unaided, and to making my recovery possible by supporting me while I was in school, finding our new home, buying it with me, renovating it to suit our special needs, and equipping it with the rails and ramp I will need for the next few months.

The December colors are new, although they are the same as last year's, and I added a white cauliflower soup recipe.  If you read the above on my major life changes, you'll know why I haven't done more.

I have some time to read while I am recooperating from my surgery, so I am going to try to learn sendmail.

I still need to recontact BFREE to ask them for more material. 

Today (Thursday) is the first day I've been able to sit at my computer since Monday's surgery.  We brought in a tree but we haven't had time to decorate it.  I have a dozen small home projects to do, most of them concerned with accounting and the move.

We saw the winter ducks early, in mid-November, widgies and golden-eyes.  We knew this meant that the weather up North got very cold and snowy in a hurry, but we can't predict our weather by it.

The local squirrels recognize me as their feeder (benefactor).  The birds are feeding from our feeder, which I remembered to fill before I went to the hospital.  It won't be long before I have the same kind of good communication with them that I had with the squirrels and birds at our old place.