Monday, May 6, 2013

That's What She Said

Interesting blog post title isn't? I partially stole this from Michael Scott on the TV show The Office (one of my favorite shows). I'll explain the title a little further down.

I've been wanting to write another post for quite some time. It has been on my To Do List but it keeps getting passed by for other more urgent activities like cleaning the chain on my bike :-). I think the biggest stumbling block for putting together a new post has been contnet. I've thought about a chronological post highlighting what I've been up to since the last time I posted around Thankskgiving. I quickly decided that since Alethea has already done an excellent job of doing this with her blog (Alethea's Excellent Adventures) that I would incorporate her posts with some notes that I've jotted down. Am I taking the easy way out? I am sure am with this post. She is also a much better writer than I am.

The major event for Alethea and I over the last several months has been her hip surgey. Alethea had surgey for a torn labrum back in mid-January. We're not a 100% sure when or how she injured her hip but we believe it happened shortly before we moved to Portland in January of 2012. Alethea has written these posts listed below detailing the surgey and her recovery.

Hip Op
Going Under
The Patient
One Month Post-Op
Two Month Post-Op
Three Month Post-Op

The surgey went very smoothly and the recovery has gone pretty much as expected as it relates to the hip. Alethea's has had some tendinitis in the hip and some issues with her knees that arose during physical therapy part of her recovery that she is working her way through. 

Alethea shortly after arriving home post hip surgery in January

Once Alethea progressed enough post surgey we decided to take advantage of an opportunity for a trip back to Nashville. We had planned on traveling back to Tennessee for the holidays but postponed our travels since Alethea was on a waiting list for her surgey. We wanted her to have it as soon as possible. In March we ventured to Nashville for a little over a week. The good news was that we got to visit with family and friends. The bad news was that I came down with a nasty cold that prevented me from getting out much the second half of the week limiting my ability to socialize. It also made it a little more challenging that I was working while in Tennessee. My job allows me to work remotely but since it is based out in Portland I worked West Coast hours (10 am to 7 pm) on most days. I was glad we got to spend a little time with Eric Speich's mother Peggy who recently passed away after a long illness. Alethea wrote a post about our trip back home in March which can be found at here Nashville the Next Beervana?

Playing with the goats in Tennessee back in March

In April, Alethea and I decided to go for a weekend trip to Eugene, Oregon. Neither one of us had ever been to Eugene during our time in Oregon. Alethea had some Amtrak reward points that were about to expire so picked a location that we could get to by train, that we hadn't been too before, that we could transport around with our bikes once we got there, and that it involves beer! Eugene made perfect sense. It was fun to get out and explore with our bikes. I rode just over 41 miles in three days. Alethea did a great job on her bike considering it was only three months post hip surgery. It was cool and little rainy at time but enjoyable. Alethea's post that summarizes this adventures can be found here Beers & Bikes: A Weekend Getaway to Eugene. Eugene reminded me somewhat of Knoxivlle. It is close to the same size and is essentially a collge town with the University of Oregon located there.

Alethea in front of Autzen Stadium in Eugene, OR

This brings us in until the end of April. On the 23rd of April Alethea had nasal surgery to address sinus issues that she has been having for some time. The surgey itself went smoothly but the recovery has been rather challenging. Alethea wrote about the surgery and the recovery in this recent blog post A Pain in the... Sinus? Hopefully, before too long she will be back to close to 100% and will reap the benefits of the surgery in the very near future.

Recovering from recent nasal surgery

Well this has been a good summary of what we've been up over the last several months. Most of my days involve work, exercising, and bicycling around town. I've been making progress on many of the goals that I set out for myself of the begining of the year by following Dan Miller's recomendation of setting goals in seven areas of your life. I need to work on some of the areas more intently but overall I am doing pretty good. 

Laurelhurst Park on a warm spring day. This park is about a half mile from where we live.
What's next for us? That is easy and something I am anxously counting down the days too. We'll be going to Alaska for two weeks at the end of May. As of the time I'm writing this only 20 days until we leave! It should be a little easier to get some content for my next post :-). Alaska is somewhere I have wanted to go.

St. John's bridge in Portland from Cathedral Park during one of our spring outings recently

As far as future blog post go, they'll probably look a little different in both format and length. I've loaded the Blogger apps on my iPhone and iPad. I plan on wiriting future posts on these devices especially my iPad which I purchased a little over a month go. So far, I really like my iPad. Future post will probably shorter since I'll be assembling without the use of keyboard or mouse :-). We'll see how that goes.

Next stop...Alaska!