I know, I know, I haven't posted in quite a while. It's not that I haven't been doing anything (well, actually, I do lead a pretty boring life) but I just haven't been moved to write about it.
Christmas was pleasant. I spent the day at my aunt's with the family. As my uncle was a French chef, the food is always excellent. I didn't get any really special gifts - a check from the parents (always appreciated) and some clothes. The interesting gifts are still promised. My sister is sending a wicked pair of running/biking sunglasses and my friend, Chelly, is constructing a scrapbook of our New York/Nike Half Marathon experience.
The running has been a little lax. Since Thanksgiving, I'm probably only averaging 10 miles a week, and the bulk of that is usually my weekend run. The lack of running, combined with the increased eating, has led to the gain of a pound or two. I have to decide on a running goal for the new year. I'm sure I can get myself motivated if I find something special to aim for this year. The knee is not bothering me on the shorter runs, but I'm a little nervous that going longer will make it go again and that is at the root of my reluctance to plan anything big.
In other news, I'm now officially the runner's rep and webmaster for my running club, the Alley Pond Striders The two jobs are separate. The webmaster bit is something I really wanted to do. I finally got my hands on the website this weekend and I've got something up and running. I'm a total beginner and still learning, so it isn't beautiful, but it is current which was my first priority.
Runner's rep involves gathering the racing results in a column for our monthly newsletter, trying to motivate the runners by planning/finding activities and races to participate in, contacting other local clubs and fostering good will/competition with other local runners and, finally, attending the club meetings. I'm letting this stress me out a bit. Quite a bit of those duties are social and I'm not a terribly social person. Unless I push myself, I would probably spend the majority of my time in front of this computer screen, on the couch in front of the television or curled up with a book. This is why I join clubs. Belonging to a club forces me to be social and I know that this makes me a happier person. Otherwise, I would be one of those people you hear about that lives in an apartment surrounded by their stuff until it falls on them and kills them. And no one finds them for months.
On that happy note, I hope everyone has a wonderful New Years. Here's to a fantastic 2008!
Well, the big news around here is that Shannon got her cast off! I brought her in to the vet's on Monday for what I thought was just going to be a quick look to see how things were going. The vet looked at it and said it was coming off. Fantastic! It took quite a bit of cutting and tugging, but the thing was removed and I was sent home with what seemed like a very tiny dog with an itty-bitty leg. The vet warned me that it would probably take a day or two before she started to use it. I've never had a cast, but he said that the limb feels odd for a while after you get one off. I was just happy to not have that huge thing hanging off of her. The first night she was confused. She had gotten used to using the cast to support her weight and now there was nothing there. So she spent most of the time lying on her cushion. By the next day she was touching the foot to the ground, but the leg was very weak. The vet didn't give any special instructions, but I tried to force her to use it a little. By the evening she was getting around, mostly using the foot to balance herself rather than hold her weight. I spoke to the vet on Wednesday morning. I was a little down about how little she was using it, but he didn't seem too concerned. He said to give it another 36 hours and we'd see how it goes. I called him back on Friday morning and told him that it didn't really seem any better. I'd say she was limping about as badly as before we bandaged the leg. He wasn't too happy and said that it usually worked better, especially with the small dogs. We discussed the possibility of surgery. He's not too inclined to do it and I don't really want to put her through it either. He said that it wouldn't make much difference if we did the surgery now or later. So I decided we'd wait and see how things go. When I got home it was like she had heard the decision and decided she didn't want surgery, either. She is using the leg about 90 percent of the time. She is still limping, but I think the limp is not as bad as it was before. I'm really hoping there will be further improvement. We went for our first walk in about a month this morning. I think she was thrilled to get off of the front lawn. We didn't go too far since she is probably out of shape. I did carry her the last bit, but I think she was happy to get out. Here's keeping our fingers crossed for her.
Name: DebbieJRT Home: Bellerose, New York, United States About Me: crotchety cross stitcher, trying to channel my inner athlete See my complete profile
