Two months and eight days

That is how long it has been since my knee started its recovery process. I am still improving, receiving therapy and anxiously hoping for normality to return. I am able to do a little bit more all of the time. I hope I don't turn soft in the long awaited return to normalcy, because I notice that I avoid physical exertion more than formerly. I did do the route on the bicycle yesterday evening after we returned from our temple shift. A nice thing happened to me on Friday. Dan was in the area on business and phoned that he would like to come out for a little visit. I welcomed him gladly. He volunteered to cut my lawn which I overwhelmingly accepted, because I had walked on it and noticed how uneven it was and how it made my knee wobble, and it's growth was accelerating. I also mentioned that my rain gutters were stuffed with leaves. My ladder is a bit big and unwieldy, so I knew the gutters would continue to overflow until I got stronger. Actually Phil had agreed to come out and clean the gutters. Dan just got here before Phil did. So now my gutters flow freely once again.

The last few days I have spent some time thinking about our family's part for the D. G. Hatch reunion in Pasco, Washington on July 3 and 4. Dana has been doing yeoman service in pulling this together. Carol has been so helpful to assist her and get some of us moving. At last count, there were 21 of us going from me and my children's families. Margaret has also done yeoman work in scheduling the Henry Hansen reunion in Oak Creek Canyon. I have forwarded to my family members the notice on that event on July 30 and 31. Because of temple commitments on 31 July, Clarine and I will only get there for the activities on 30 July. gwh

Slow! Slow! Slow!

I am still crippled, but not so much as I was. If I look back with perspective, I can see the progress that my knee is making. I even look a little bit more natural as I go up and down the stairs alternating my feet. My sore knee doesn't feel as warm to the touch as it did earlier on, and my toes and leg are not swollen as much. That almost sounds as if I am healed, but the speed with which I move betrays all allusions that I am that well off. I was well enough off so that I was able to spray dandelions in the lawn with weed killer and to spray some Round Up on the grass around the rocks and around the trees. As you can picture the lawn doesn't provide a very flat surface to walk on and it gives my knee a good work out. I have to be more cautious as well, as I do not want to go down again. There was another first on Wednesday of this week. Clarine and I went to the Tooele swimming pool for the first time in two months. I swam my usual five laps, carefully climbed out of the pool, and ambled over to the current pool. We did our five laps against the current - backwards, frontwards, sideways-left leading, sideways-right leading and finishing off going backwards again as the finale. So I am happy with the status. We also did shifts in the temple on Monday and Saturday. They were tiring but satisfying. After completing our shift yesterday, we drove to Plain City, Utah where they held a birthday-farewell party for Clarine's grandson, Jeremiah Davies, who is leaving to fill an army commitment in Afghanistan. He got his army commission as a Lieutenant from Weber State ROTC last year. I was quite tired after that day was ended.

Grotesque

Grotesque is probably how someone would describe how I look going up and down stairs. There are parts in the endowment session of the temple that require participants to go up and down stairs. I am avoiding those particular assignments for the time being as I would be more of a distraction than I would be an instructor or teacher. However, on the positive side, I am now able to go up and down the stairs alternating which foot goes first. It just isn't very smooth yet. Yesterday, there was a first as in the evening, I decided to ride my bike around my usual route - about a mile and one half. Getting on and off the bike was worrying me so I stayed on the side of the road where there was a curb ready to put my right foot on in case I had to stop. I didn't have to stop until I got home. Then I pulled up to a "right-foot-curb" and dismounted, wheeled my bike across the street and stashed it in the garage. So that is progress. It is slow. It will be 2 months since I fell on the 17th of April. I am beginning to feel now that I will recover fully in time without any more invasive procedures. (I wondered a little for a while.)

Here is some breaking news. We have known for a while, but just hadn't chosen to say anything about it. On the 30th of August we are going to fly to Anchorage, Alaska, stay a a couple of nights there, drive to Mt. McKinley, return to Anchorage, and on 1 September, we will board a cruise ship in Seward, Alaska, and go to Vancouver, Canada with several intervening stops - Hubbard Glacier, Juneau, Skagway, Icy Straight Point, and Ketchikan. At our age, this may be our last cruise. Yet again, who knows? It is getting to be a very busy summer. At the end of May we will spend a week at Bear Lake. July 3, 4 we are going to attend a reunion for my father's off spring in Pasco, Washigton. We no sooner return from that and we fly to Rochester, New York to spend some time in the Hill Cumorah area with my daughter, Amy, and her husband, Tom Russell, who live in Canandaigua, New York. While there we plan to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant. After that, I guess we will build up our stamina to get ready for the cruise. Love, Dad/Grandpa/George

Easter - 2010

We have just finished listening to LDS General Conference on this wonderful Easter Sunday. It wasn't necessarily the weather that made it wonderful, although it wasn't really bad even though we had an inch of new snow this morning. We have had some visitors for conference time for which we are grateful. Carol came to see us. She came with Keith Blonquist. Her car went to Provo with her room mate. Then Beth and Hanna took it over and they too joined us for a while - getting lost both coming and going. Keith and I went to the Priesthood session of conference together last evening. After breakfast this morning, Keith and Carol went to Coleville to visit his family. Carol's room mate will drive her car from Provo back to Logan. Lisa, Phil, Sheridan, Zack and Max arrived half way through the morning session had lunch, part of which they provided. They left part way through the afternoon session. They are going to attempt a trip to Leman's Cave in Great Basin National Park tomorrow.

My knee is still healing slowly. I can now go up the stairs , one foot after the other. Going down is some what less than that. We are planning to do our temple shift tomorrow, even though I will be a little slow.

Clarine's 77th birthday was 2 April. She got ever so many best wishes by phone and mail. Yesterday before Priesthood Conference, her daughter Karen had her children come for a birthday dinner. It was yummy. Lisa, Phil and family treated us to turkey dinner Friday night - yummy too. There may be other things to report, but this it for right now. Love, Dad/Grandpa/George.