Each day now is a new adventure. Unlike back in the Groundhog Days there is something unique about almost every day. It’s fun looking back.

Thursday I stood by myself and managed to get off the couch into my chair with minimal assistance. Friday I looked at a new splint to help with my left wrist extension, splints to help with finger flexion (index finger) and extension (other fingers). Right now my wrist will not extend even to neutral (0 degrees) and normal is 60 to 70 degrees. We hope that getting my wrist to extend will free up the fingers a bit. Saturday I worked on my note system and first chapter of my book. I also treated myself to a head and beard shave at Floyd’s. Sunday I attended a troop 150 Court of Honor and presented them rather belatedly with a thank you plaque for helping with our ice storm cleanup in December, 2023. Life kind of got in the way and I found it while cleaning my study.

Monday I went grocery shopping. This is preparation for cooking today. Loads of new experiences. First time in a manual wheelchair. First time shopping. Got most of the items by myself and did self checkout. Note to self: bring glasses, reacher, bags, and get a holder for iPhone. Tuesday I attended a group session on travel. Spent a long time with limited movement in the manual wheelchair taking one break to stand and stretch. I did not learn much since I have been doing wheelchair travel with Rachel for 34 years. Our first date was flights with connections to Bonaire. I did learn some good organizations for future planning.

Today was cooking and tomorrow is fitness.

Today from 11 til 1, I cooked two quick preparation dishes for lunch. In my past life these would have been thirty minute meals. The first was Sheet-Pan Shrimp With Tomatoes, Feta and Oregano pretty much straight by the recipe. Challenges included peeling garlic, opening shrink wrapped feta block, opening bag of thawed Argentine shrimp, getting bowl from a high shelf, gtting pan from a low drawer. Second was a spinach and Kale sauteé based on Spiraled Spanakopita With Feta dropping the dough and decreasing ricotta. Challenges included opening the ricotta, opening spinach/kale containr, peeling the shallots, chopping with one hand and an ulu, and getting the carbon steel pan off the bottom of a cabinet. Also had lots of stretching and reaching to get refrigerator items (they all got moved far away since Monday), pepper, and raisins. Result: a delicious lunch.

Tomorrow I have a session with my PT doing walking followed by time with Sam, my personal trainer, to work on a plan and schedule. Rachel also prompted my speech/swallow/cognitive therapist to have me create a daily routine of an hour worth of PT and OT exercises to perform on my own daily, and some OT stretching to do with assistance.

Life is certainly not boring any longer.