Bending My Toes (and assorted random thoughts)

Fall Leaves - Central Park

I am making slow progress since posting about my post-operative adventures in Wiggling My Toes and Mourning the Corner Drugstore.   I can now actually bend my toe and the incision is almost healed.  It's going to leave a pretty awesome scar though.  Much of the progress is due to starting physical therapy (PT) and getting out of the surgical boot into a regular shoe.  I will admit that finding a regular shoe that works was quite challenging -- took two trips to two shoe stores but I was successful.  After a couple of false starts (including a pair of Merrell clogs that is just two big), i have two pairs that are big enough to accommodate the swelling in my left foot but not fall off of my right foot.  Of course, a couple of pairs of shoes for when my toe is all better followed me home.  Looking forward to wearing them.

I am still hobbling around with a cane -- more to let people around me know that there is a reason I am moving so slowly and to be careful when trying to scoot around me.  Fat lot of good it does although one woman did thank me when I moved out of her way to let her pass on a particularly narrow sidewalk.  I was afraid she was going to run me over!  Today, I was walking to the office from PT and I caught up to someone and got to pass him!  Another sign that progress is being made.  This weekend I may even go out for a spin in the park with my camera.

Pipes - NYC Midtown

I started this post without giving much thought to what i would write -- I just had the itch to write something that wasn't an email, memo, or report.  So, apologies if I seem to be meandering amongst topics.

Television:  Having gotten hooked on Once Upon a Time during my early recuperation (44 episodes in 1 1/2 weeks hooked to be exact), I am trying out Once Upon a Time in Wonderland.  It started a bit slow with Alice NOT in Wonderland but now she is there -- having been rescued from the insane asylum by the Knave of Hearts.  I am not sure if there is going to be enough texture to this show to keep me interested but there's not much else on from 8:00 - 9:00 on Thursday nights so I am giving it a whirl.   One hope I have is that Alice gets a better outfit at some point.  It seems shameful that the Queen of Hearts gets a luscious red ensemble and Alice is running around in her undergarments.  At least she remembered to grab her shoes.

Salto Chico Abstracted (Patagonia)

Of course I could be using the time to catch up on Breaking Bad.  I guess I was living under a rock when that series debuted -- so here I am fully 3 1/2 seasons behind just as the final episode of the series aired.  This is one of those shows where I always feel a bit self-conscious laughing.  It really shouldn't be funny when the acid bought to get rid of a body eats through everything and the tub comes tumbling down into the first floor hallway.   I shouldn't laugh.  But I did and I do.

Social Media:  The ban seems to have been lifted and I am back on Instagram (see @nel234: My Oh So Brief Love Affair with Instagram and @nel234: Instagram Update.  This is VERY exciting -- as in I would jump up and down with joy if it weren't for the recently re-engineered toe.  Instagram brings beautiful images to me on a daily basis.   Fingers crossed that I don't get kicked off again.

Brooklyn Bridge Cables - NYC

Books:  I am on a mini-break from my Game of Thrones marathon.  At some point during Book 4, I got tired of losing characters that I had come to love -- or at least like.  It's tough to always keep top of mind that characters to George R. R. Martin are a bit like scenery in a play -- flat, one dimensional set pieces that can be cast aside as soon as their part in the plot is done.  Or something like that.  So what did I pick up to read?  Well, the latest Daniel Silva book, The English Girl, had come out and so I sped through that.  Silva, unlike Martin, keeps his characters around for a very long time and I adore Gabriel Allon and his merry band of Israeli spies.  The story telling was perfectly timed and the ending quite satisfying.  Then I moved on to Daniel Brown's Inferno -- that one kept my attention although it suffered from a bit of "I know this could also be a movie" so I'll get a jump start on the screen play.  Then I had surgery and stopped reading!

About the Photos
Since I've been laid up, I haven't been out with my camera in a while and so these photos are from the archives with a general theme of patterns.

Mnemba Driftwood - Tanzania