Milkweed in Our Yard, Mid-October

I returned from our Quehanna backpack trip on Wednesday evening, feeling really glad that I'd made it both into AND back out of our back-country site. The whole trek, both ways plus all of the side trips, was around eight miles, carrying a full-frame, fully loaded pack. It was probably the hardest thing I've done since injuring my right knee last November, and then hurting the left one in June.

Of course, I've been hobbled since then. My left knee has been stiff and sore since I got home. I put ice packs on it. I elevated it. I rubbed it with arthritis cream. I tried to stay off it. I took glucosamine. Eventually, on Saturday, I began using a cane, again. Every trip up and down the stairs is a real pain. And we live in a split-level house, so EVERYwhere involves stairs. It is Sunday morning as I type this: my left knee is finally slightly better today, but I'll still be cautious for a few days.

I've been minimizing my activities since then. Not walking if I can prevent it. Just doing quick bike rides across the road and around the street or two near us, and then back. It counts as exercise, but I'm not going far. It seems to loosen up the stiffness some. The only photos, I took in our yard. Here is some really gorgeous milkweed, growing angel wings and taking flight. It fed a lot of caterpillars this year, and just LOOK at that glorious orange foliage in the background!

My husband has been as helpful as he can be with the whole disability situation. I told him that I anticipated that this might happen; in fact, I worried that such trouble might happen WHILE I was in the back-country, such that I couldn't get back out, and home. But at least trouble did me the favor of waiting until I was home to strike. Mostly.

We talked about our last backpack trip. How wild it was. How far away it seemed. All of the bugling and the howling. About the wild-sounding owl that began our night in the woods so freakily. About the frost mist rising in the morning sun. And our very last treat: the coyote sighting. "Would you rather have MISSED all of that?" my husband asked.

Well, that's an EASY answer (no matter what my knees might say)!

I WOULDN'T HAVE MISSED IT FOR THE WORLD!!!

Our soundtrack song is Ronnie Milsap, with I Wouldn't Have Missed It for the World.