Wow, what a day.
Big step forward for Donna, literally and figuratively today. Her cast came off, and she’s in a walking boot now. She can’t walk or put any weight on it yet, but it means she can start physical therapy tomorrow. Unfortunately, since this was a repair of a rupture immediately following a reconstruction of the same Achilles’ tendon — it’s going to be a very long road. Her foot is currently pointed like a ballerina, and she has almost zero mobility with her ankle. Physical therapy will be months and months of slow, painful elongating of her still-healing tendon and emaciated calf muscle.
But the cast is off, and that’s forward momentum, however small.
To add insult to injury, we’re having a winter storm today. The wind was so strong this morning, it completely destroyed the wooden gate to the backyard. Since Donna still needs to use the ramp and go into the back door, that means I had to build a new functional gate instead of just sealing off the opening until summer. And since the dogs go in the backyard, I couldn’t just leave it open either. So with 35MPH winds, and pelting lake effect snow, I was out in the yard making a gate out of scrap wood and an old broken baby gate. To be honest, it turned out better than I expected! (don’t mind the air conditioner on the patio — I had to make room in the shed to get out of the wind for a few minutes)
Yes, the gate is held shut with a bungie cord, and it’s re-using the hinge from the broken gate. But it opens and closes. Plus with the hollow center, it doesn’t act like a sail in the wind. (The other gate was a privacy-fence style 6 foot tall monster that was begging for the wind to tear it down)
Did I get work done? Sigh. No. Tomorrow is a new day though, and looking backward doesn’t help anyone. Or something encouraging like that.