Hi,
[Medical and Literary Updates:
I have been off my pain medications for a month now, so that’s good. I haven’t been sleeping as well as I used to, though (frequent middle of the night trips to the bathroom, and dull throbbing in my leg and hip).
I have been driving for a few weeks now. Getting in and out of the car isn’t pleasant, but it’s getting easier each time I try. I’ve only taken one semi-long trip so far. A few days ago, I drove Minay to Lufkin, Texas (a little over a hundred miles away). She was giving a talk at a local quilt guild and I’m her officially designated Quilting Roadie. I even have the t-shirt to prove it.
When she gives talks to local quilt guilds, she brings large storage bags full of quilts, usually three or four of them. Her talks are informational (about various aspects of quilting), but they always include a lot of show-and-tell, holding up some of her quilts to illustrate a point she’s making. A storage bag stuffed with quilts can weigh 30 to 40 pounds.
It used to be my job to load the quilts into the car’s trunk and back seat, along with a utility cart and a portable design wall; and then drive Minay to the talk, unload the stuff and help her set everything up. Then I would fold each quilt after it was displayed and fit it back in the storage bags. After the talk was over, we reversed the process before driving home.
Lately, though, with my compressed spine, and the AFib, and the arthritis, I haven’t been able to fully roadie at her talks. She won’t let me carry the bags to the car or load them in, or load them on the utility cart at the venue. She also does all of the setup. Assembling the design wall, for example, has to be done on the floor, and I can’t get down there and help with that because of the hip. I mostly fold the quilts, stack them in the bags, and then drive us home. Maybe I’ll be able to do more after the ablation surgery.
I haven’t been doing much on the writing front either. I feel more tired than I think I should, likely a result of the AFib and recovery from the hip surgery. Maybe if I could start sleeping through the night again I would feel energized enough to hit the ground running (ooh, poor choice of words after a fall and a hip replacement), and write some each morning, but lately it’s been sporadic 😊
See you next time,
Michael
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