OK so that's a lame attempt to Psychify my entry title. :-)
1. I rode my bike today, first time out since the Unfortunate Misstep. Went three miles around the farm, just to see how it felt and I wanted to avoid traffic for now. No problems! No pain. I just have to remember to put my left foot down when I stop, or it might get a little painful. So I think I'm good to go on part of the Pedal to the Point next week. (The problem, of course, is that I lost a month of training and so my thighs are way out of shape.) My plan is to start out doing the 30-mile stretch to lunch, and if I feel good enough I'll try to complete the whole 75 mile day. But that's just tentative, I don't want to overdo it.

2. Just watched the season premiere of Psych on USA, and laughed myself to pieces when there was a reference to my alltime favorite show. :-D grin grin grin! And loved seeing Cary Elwes as the bad guy. Mmmmm. Quite dapper.

3. Only one more summer teen program to do, tomorrow night's outdoor Battle of the Bands, (oh well, and also the judging and displaying of the teen photo contest) and then I can relax a wee bit, not feel so stressed--it's been a heck of a summer, I overbooked myself with lots of programs with lots of stuff to coordinate and then the stupid ankle making it all that much more difficult. I need a vacation!

That's all I can think of for now. Good night!

Went to med center today to have my ankle X-rayed, to satisfy myself and concerned coworkers who have been putting up with my hobbling around. No fractures, no breaks, no nothing. It's been feeling better every day, but I had a couple of weird twinges on Monday that had me thinking, better safe than sorry. Not to worry. It was even amusing--the doctor was pressing on various parts of my foot, saying "does this hurt?" No. "Does this hurt, then?" No. "I'm trying to find the hurt, here!" I was rather embarrassed that I'd waited so long to go... but she said I had been doing everything right for healing it, so there. It doesn't hurt any more except in the bruised part (duh), and I can move it all over without pain. But I got a nifty aircast anyway, because I had been feeling that just ace bandaging it wasn't keeping it supported enough when I walk on uneven ground (like barn flooring, which is lumpy mat). Just my luck I'd reinjure it. Man that thing is cool, although it gets to chafing on the sole of my foot after awhile. So, just an update that I'm getting better and better and will hopefully get back to riding the bike a little maybe next week, we'll see.

Gimpy out.

Well, I've been meaning to post for a couple of days, but it's been a crazy couple of days and I haven't gotten around to it. Work has been busy, with teen summer reading in full swing and programs like Recycled Crafts (where we made a wallet out of an old audio cassette tape, and tried to finger-weave a lei out of plastic grocery bags-- but did not have much success because despite doing it twice before at workshops, I just couldn't get the hang of it using only the photo directions :-( And we had a horse show at the farm two weeks ago; I took a bunch of photos of "my" horses in that, which you can see on my Flickr stream. (It rained for a solid hour during the English riding portion of the horse show, then the sun came out for the last half, when all the Western classes were on: does someone Up There have something against English riding style? :-)

My July Fourth started on Friday night with some great fireworks at the public park in Independence, Ohio--great place to be on Independence Day, eh? My friend Peggy had invited me along with her family and friends to watch the display together. I took some pretty decent fireworks photos, had some burgers and fair food, enjoyed the company. Then early Sat. morning I was up and in downtown Kent for the annual Kent Heritage Festival, which is a daylong party in the streets with craft and jewelry vendors, information booths, kids activities, a classic car show, lots of food vendors, and live music and dance troups on 3 stages. I sat at the PDC (Portage Democratic Coalition) booth for several hours, asking folks to sign a petition to get Single Payer Health Care onto the ballot in Ohio. Not the most fun way to spend the day--lots of people heard our "get health care for all Ohioans" plea and said "oh but I've got health care!" as if we were personally handing out health care to people. Sigh. And one woman was just so steamed at the idea that she spent five minutes yelling at the top of her lungs at us, despite our calm requests for her to stop yelling and just tell us her opinion like a civilized human being. We weren't twisting anyone's arm, it's just a petition to get the legislature to consider the idea for crying out loud. Anyway, that was a bit disconcerting. But I had the company of my good friend Kat and we enjoyed the weather (70's, sunny then overcast) and the smells (if not the sight) of the pig roasting on a spit right across the way from our booth. (!) The new cajun restaurant was advertising its pulled pork sandwiches (which were very tasty) with this poor naked burning pig, blecch. Quite a risky endeavor considering all of the vegetarians who live in Kent! But it was a very oft-photographed attraction...

The highlight of the day for me was getting to ride in the caboose! Of a train! Whoo-whoo!

It was only a twenty-minute ride up and back on the tracks running from downtown up along the river, but it benefitted the chamber of commerce and I've never been in a caboose before, so it was fun. We got to sit up high in the "cupola" seat and everything. Felt just like a little kid. Even had to wait at a crossing for the dumb car drivers to finish racing across the tracks: evidently the crossing arm didn't go down when it was supposed to, because we were sitting there for a few minutes blowing our whistle as these idiots kept driving across, right in front of us! Makes you wonder about people's IQ sometimes.



After the train ride we walked around enjoying the festivities, and ate a "butterfly fry", which my Nebraska friend cannellfan informs me is called a "spiral spud" or something like that where he comes from. I'd never seen these before, they were quite tasty--made out of one giant Idaho potato spun into one long curly strip. It was like a series of potato chips connected into one strip. Mmm.

I was to end the day with a quick jaunt down to the riverbank to watch the River Ducks Race: they drop about 1,000 rubber ducks (each sponsored for $5) into the river and the first duck to make it to the ending point wins. Something, I'm not sure what (enduring glory and its own song? Oh but Ernie already wrote that song.). So after stopping home to feed the horses I parked at the Kent Free Library and walked down the street to go to the river. THEN DISASTER STRUCK. (cue dramatic music, or rather, the silly Benny Hill music) As I prepared to cross the street at the curb, I looked up for cars, there were none, I glanced back down and stepped off the curb but wasn't looking closely and CRASH! I fell down. Landed on the outside of my right ankle instead of the bottom of my foot. I think I misjudged where I was on the curb; I thought I was on the high curb when I was angled to go over the ramped curb cut instead, so I had farther to land. I dunno, either way I'm an idiot. Passersby were very nice and helped me back up. Now I was mad, because all I wanted to do was see the silly ducks and then I was going to drive to my parents' house to enjoy a fried chicken picnic with them. So I hobbled over to see the ducks anyway, because I was that stubborn (and I was practically there anyway). That turned out to be more entertaining than expected, because one of the girls who dumped the box also had balance issues and slipped into the river! Got soaking wet. It was pretty funny, after we determined she wasn't hurt at all. (Those photos haven't been uploaded just yet, but the little duckies are very cute.) Then I drove home and asked my parents to come to me instead of me bringing the food to them.

Ever since then I've been resting my ankle, icing it, keeping it wrapped and elevated. I have had other people feeding the horses so I don't have to worry about that job, and I stayed home from the library for 3 days in a row. The ankle's much better now, still keeping it wrapped and staying off it as much as possible. But the swelling's all gone and it doesn't hurt unless I bump it. I have nearly all of my mobility back, but I'm not walking on it yet. I've been learning the fine art of walking on crutches, as well as a walker and a cane borrowed from friends, and I even used my office chair at home as a wheelchair :-) I will never take two good legs for granted again, lemme tell ya....