Well, Dido beat me to the punch with her account of our recent get-together at a small country town in the Poconos of Pennyslvania.  Although it was just a day trip, I REALLY enjoyed getting out of town for a while; it was my first extended trip since the pandemic started, and even just driving west on the wide open highway in unfamiliar territory felt so good.

I think she covered all the highlights: bike ride, yummy lunch and browsing an antique mart, all of which allowed me to minimize walking due to my knee injury.

I've come to the conclusion I'm going to need surgery to fix it but still have a lot of trepidation about it. I saw a surgeon over a year ago now but I'd wanted to try physical therapy first. It helped, but only to a point. I really can't walk any great lengths, or it will start feeling sore and before you know it, I'm favoring the knee, then limping it I keep walking. I can get around well enough around the house or runnng shopping errands, but extended walking, no. I feel it's already affected my quality of life and I've given the knee ample time (over a year) to heal on its own, but it hasn't, really.

So Monday I plan to schedule a return visit with the surgeon, who will probably want to repeat the x-ray since it's been over a year and I've been walking on the knee.  I'm not sure how quickly they can schedule the surgery, but I'm thinking October/November would be a good time, since it's before any major bad winter snow and I'll also be done with any kind of yard work and spending more time indoors anyway.

My cousin who lives 4 hours a way has generously offered to come take me to the hospital and back, and stay as long as I need him to. He's retired, so he has the time. I am so grateful because the many details of how the recovery would take place were kind of overwhelming and had been keeping me from doing anything about it.  I may need transportation to physical therapy or follow-up appointments afterwards, and I'm not sure if I'd be allowed to drive. I do have some stairs outside leading to the house. I may be on crutches, so I'd want someone besides an Uber driver to help me up the stairs and make sure I'm settled in okay.

I would plan to let him sleep in my bed and I would live on my first floor for a while, move my computer/router to the dining room table, and I guess I'd have to buy a bed or something for the downstairs. Wondering if I could make do with just a cot or futon. I don't have any extra space for it afterwards, unless it folds up or something. The main thing I think would help is if it was off the floor to make it easier with the knee getting up and so on.

I'm not looking forward to it but have talked to various others who've had similar surgery and it didn't seem to be a big deal. It is a big deal for me, partly because I live alone and don't have a spouse I could assume would be there for me. Hence the added apprehension.

In other news...

A friend of mine is not only baking me a cake of my choice (dark chocolate/peanut butter) for my birthday, which was this past week, but making dinner too! I'm not positive I've ever had linguine and clam sauce, but I think I'll like it. I'll bring her a zucchini from my garden. I was a bit relieved to hear she finally got her 2nd shot, something she had long delayed for months after having a very adverse reaction to the 1st shot. Especially now that I'll be having dinner in her home.

The garden is doing pretty well. My jumbo sized cherry tomatoes are finally turning red and I've had a few already. I think I've picked 19 zucchinis so far (yes, I keep track) and my string beans, which are under row cover, are looking fabulously healthy but are only now forming flowers. (I planted them mid-summer.) I had a smallish eggplant and have a few more on the plants. I have an asparagus bean plant that I don't expect to amount to much. It's growing but is completely vulnerable to deer browsing since it's growing on the fence that surrounds my raised beds.

I'll be spending a few grand for a tree company to trim some dead wood off a giant silver maple in my back yard and cable the 4 co-dominant branches, which are huge and heavy. Not only does the cabling provide extra support, but if any branch did fall, it would fall close to the tree, not on my house. It's actually more money than I've spent to day on any tree takedowns in the 25 years I've lived here

, but it's been on my radar for a while. I feel distracted by my knee issues and other stuff, so I don't think I'm going to get a 2nd estimate from someone else. I just kind of want it taken care of.

That's my tool shed in front of the tree, which my dad built the year I bought the house.