Return to the land of the living

This past week I have been working nonstop on two separate grant applications. On one of them I am the only applicant, and on the other I am a co-applicant. Both are due tomorrow. There are some exciting things that go into grant writing, like thinking about what research I might be doing next. But for the most part, it is a relatively unpleasant process. Also, because of the timing, the last week is a blur– I feel like I'm emerging from some kind of twilight zone. Hopefully this won't be something I have to do very often!

The week before last was much more pleasant. We took a brief trip to California, to get out of the snow, and visit some friends. First, we spent a bit of time with my friend Elaine and her family, which now includes three kids under four years old. With the nonstop energy that comes with three small children, we didn't get the camera out as much as we would have liked, but we did capture a couple of things:

Jeff the human slide

Me with Elaine and baby Adele (in the stroller)

Next we visited our friends Kristi and Andrew, who have zero kids and for the moment, three small dogs.

Jeff the human dog park

We went for some nice walks in the UC Davis Arboretum,

and the Tennessee Valley area in Marin County.

Kristi and Andrew impersonating the dogs

As you may notice in the pictures above, I got a fancy-schmancy new walker, with all-terrain wheels that make it possible to do some off-road hiking. There isn't a distributor of this walker in Canada (it is designed in Sweden, and there really isn't anything else like it), so I ordered it and picked it up while we were in California. I had been looking for something like this for about six months, with no luck. It is challenging to find mobility aids for active people. There seems to be an assumption that anyone who needs a mobility aid is too decrepit to be going out on adventures, and I really don't think that is true. At least it's not in my case.

The real reason that I wanted to find a walker that can handle more serious activity is for this:

I can only go for about ten seconds at a time right now, and after a few bursts of that I get quite tired, but I feel like with practice running may be in my future. My physical therapist put an elastic bandage wrap around my leg and foot to try to keep things in place, and keep my left leg from flailing, in the hope is that with time my body will learn how to stay aligned. It's both exciting and difficult – having a goal to work toward, but feeling so far from that goal.

On a completely unrelated note, is this on shelves in Safeway in the US, or is it just a Canadian thing?:

Jeff stumbled across this when he was shopping, and found it completely hilarious :-)