anastasiav | "How I wish we didn't hate those years while we lived them."

Braiding by Li-Young Lee is one of my all time favorite poems. The quote above has been kicking around in my mind since the accident.

Love, how the hours accumulate. Uncountable.
The trees grow tall, some people walk away
and diminish forever.
The damp pewter days slip around without warning
and we cross over one year and one year.

What with the storm and the continuing softness in the retail sector I ended up with an unexpected weekend off -- Friday, Saturday, and Sunday home with my family. This was a thrill, to say the least.

Friday I worked from home (once they got the internet up and running) and spent the entire day in my PJs. Josh's parents came over in the evening and brought us dinner and then Josh put lights on the tree. E likes lights. :-)

Saturday was another "we didn't leave the house" day. Spent a big chunk of the afternoon doing the bulk of my Xmas shopping online, and then

mylisant and

kr4sh and

mjemerson and her sweetie came over. We had dinner, and then decorated the tree. Lucky Mr E (or poor Mr E, depending on your perspective) got to stay up until after 11 pm while the tree decorating went on. He had napped from 4 to 630 and was a charming, helpful gentleman for the entire evening.

Sunday morning he was still up at 8am. Somewhat cranky, but I've seen worse. We tried to do some shopping, but came home basically empty handed (ended up with two Little Golden Books and a bagful of stocking stuffers).

Both Saturday and Sunday nights I slept (for the first time) without my leg brace on, and its made an enormous difference - my leg feels less stiff, and the swelling/edema has almost completely gone.

On the downside, I've been fighting a sore throat for more than 24 hours now.

Also, by this point we normally have the house fully decorated - not so this year. Right now we have the tree up, plus two small items that are hung on walls, and that's it. No mantle decorations, no stockings hung, no greens anywhere. I can try to do some this weekend, but its not really the same as it is in other years.

This afternoon I have the appointment with my Ortho to see if I can start putting weight on the leg again (oh please oh please oh please). It would be nice if I could also get clearance to drive. Actually, at this point, driving is almost more important to me than walking -- it would eliminate the need for me to hitch rides to doctor's appointments, it would enable me to get from job to job without hassle, and it would enable me to go out and do some shopping on my own before the holiday. But I'm not hopeful.