Back to work

The time has come for me to return to work. My new knee is doing well and although I still have sick time remaining, it is time to go back. I have enjoyed the time off and it has allowed me to rehab my knee with twice daily sessions at home and twice weekly sessions at the hospital. I thought I would get very bored which I have at times but I have also found things to occupy my time and the days have gone by quickly. If I had a different job, I would still have to be off for a while longer but since I have an office job, my knee should be able to handle the job. I still do not have the full range of motion (I have 110 degrees of flexion which needs to be 120 degrees). The strength is still not to the point where I can put all my weight on it but it gets better every day. Six weeks post-surgery, the surgeon has ok'd me to ride the Harley so that is something I am very much looking forward to. So things are falling into place for me and I am very pleased I had the surgery. I put it off for a very long time and endured a lot of pain because the idea of the surgery and the subsequent therapy scared me. As it turned out, neither the surgery nor the therapy has not been as bad as I envisioned.

Another memorable weekend

Yesterday, Peggy and I wanted to take a short ride so we drove out to Wamsutter which is about 40 miles from here to pick up a few caches. There were potentially 4 which we could get, 2 of which were in town. One was about 10 miles out of Wamsutter and the 4th was actually closer to Baggs which is 50 or 60 miles south. We found the 2 in town and then headed out to find the one about 10 miles away. I could go on and on about that adventure but will leave that for another day. The short of it is, we spend over 2 hours, drove many, many miles drove down dozens of road but actually got lucky and found the cache. It was too late in the day to attempt the 4th cache and as we were heading back home, got a phone call from Peggy's sister letting us know her daughter (our niece) had wrecked her 4-wheeler and was headed by ambulance to the hospital. When we got to town and drove to the hospital, we found out that they suspected she was bleeding internally and was being flown to Casper for possible surgery. We decided that Peggy would drive her sister's car since Lori was in no shape to drive, I would follow in our pickup so Lori had a vehicle in Casper and we could come home. We got to Casper about 10:30 and she was in the emergency room and they were doing tests. They felt better about her condition and didn't think she was bleeding badly, that her liver had a 'nick' on it but was not bleeding the way they suspected. After a while, they took her to ICU where they decided they would merely monitor her condition and wait before doing anything drastic. We went to our son's house to spend the night. This morning, we got up and called and there was still no further word so we went to the hospital to spend time with Lori. Peggy's brother and his wife were on their way so we all went to lunch together and then back to the hospital to see Ashley. We left Casper about 3:00 and even now that we have gotten home, have no definitive word as to what will happend next. The most recent news is they may have to do surgery on her neck as she has broken bones that need to be repaired. So all we can do is wait and see what happens. The doctors tell us that she is not in any imminent danger but will definitely be dealing with her injuries for some time. We are just very happy that this 15-year-old was smart enough to be wearing her safety gear (helmet and riding boots) or she may not be with us today. The helmet has three cracks in it now. We hope this is the last of the bad luck for a while and we also hope she is on the mend soon.

Dodged a bullet

Wow, did we dodge a bullet this morning! We got up at 7:00 am with plans of heading out for the Torrington event by 8:00. It had snowed during the night so we agonized whether or not we should go. We finally decided to stay home and not brave the roads and cold weather for this trip. I got online to post our decision and discovered the event itself had been cancelled! We were very thankful that we made our decision or we would have driven 240 miles to find nobody home. We still could have cached in the area but it would have been very disappointing to show up and find nobody there. Good old Mother Nature strikes again! I'm not sure what the best method to handle this situation might be, perhaps a warning post the day before letting people know there is a possibility that the event may be cancelled so those planning on attending will check before leaving home. At any rate, we will be staying home this weekend but hope to make the next event, that is as long as the weather cooperates.

Friday night

Well, it is Friday night and we are relaxing and getting ready to head to Torrington tomorrow morning for the Mudlblood Squad Spring Challenge. The weather looks like it is going to be a little iffy with chances of precipitation and cooler temps. We will show up and see what happens but Sunday looks much better. If it is too cold to spend much time at the event, we may just do some caching in Torrington and head to Scottsbluff for the night. We had to get reservations there since there were no rooms in Torrington tomorrow night. Looks like Scottsbluff is a definite caching destination with lots of caches in a relative small area so we are hoping for big numbers. Also in the plan for the weekend are getting two grids in the Delorme challenge, caching in Lusk and heading back home Sunday evening. Wish us luck, weather-wise!

Saturday

We are going to miss the Mudblood Event again this year. Grace has a soccer game in Douglas in the morning and then I have to get back to Lusk to help a friend with a Confirmation Retreat at our church. We have Confirmation at our church on Monday. This is a busy week and weekend getting ready for that. I still have to find a time/day to head back to Casper to do some shopping to finalize preparations for that day too. Just not enough time, it seems, to get things done. Will probaby have to make the quick trip to Casper on Sunday. So, needless to say, the Event is out of the question at this time. Geocaching Events on the weekends are pretty much out of the question for us until the first of June. Grace has soccer until mid-May and then we have graduations etc. One thing after another.....'tis the season - especially when you are married to an educator! :) I read that Ellis is going to miss the Brown Bag....gosh, how I hate to hear that. Hope you have a good time in Torrington.

Who will be there?

Peggy and I are planning on attending the Moodblood Squad Spring Challenge this weekend. I was just wondering who is planning on attending that have not indicated so on the website for the event. We will be spending the night and doing some additional caching on Sunday that we can't get completed on Saturday. Our caching will be somewhat limited because I am still not full speed due to my recent knee replacement but we will be out there doing the best we can while we can. We need some numbers as we haven't had many numbers for a while. Add a comment to this post if you are going to attend, we are just curious. Here's hoping this weekend will be nice weather so we can really enjoy the weekend. Hope to see you there!

Tough caching weekend

We had a very difficult time this weekend in Casper finding caches. I didn't do an exact count but we only found 5 caches and I'm sure we had at least 8 DNF's. We get into ruts like that where we just don't seem to be able to find some of the tougher caches but many times when we go back, something is different and we are able to spot them the second or third times. We came up this weekend for my doctor's appointment that we just got through with. Everything was going well, the doctor was pleased and I was even more pleased except for the part that I have to wait at least 6 weeks before attempting to ride the motorcycle. It will be a struggle but I will do as the doctor directs because I don't want to have to go through this all again any time soon. He did say that walking is very good for my knee so we will be going for walks in the evenings when it is nice and so caching is also good as long as the terrain isn't too bad. See you on the trail this summer, I can hardly wait for warm weather! It was beautiful here on Saturday, especially in the evening but today, winter is back and we were hunting for our coats. Wow, to live in Wyoming is certainly an adventure!