Thursday, March 17, 2011.
Rolling Around. Like Being On Vacation.
Mary Ann left in mid-morning to run errands and have lunch with friends. She first made sure I'd be able to make it through the day without problems. I told her I could.
Almost as soon as she was gone, I rolled my desk chair into the living room. There was the walker MA bought for me last week. I tried using it then, but didn't find it immediately comfortable. Watching me set off MA's alarm bells. She launched into telling me what I was failing to do correctly, and how naturally clumsy I am. (The latter is true.) She said we could get our money back on the walker and try something else.
Without her to distract me with her play-by-play, and with great care, I pushed myself out of the desk chair onto my good leg, and put my hands down on what look like bicycle handlebars (complete with hand brakes). I lifted the knee of the bad leg onto the seat cushion between the handlebars, and let about a third of my weight down on it.
I stood there, getting a feel for the thing. With my good foot (really not so good, with the gout still making that foot hurt more than the broken one), I gave myself a push forward. The thing rolled easily. I kept going, and turned it around, to the threshold at my office door. A light push got it past what had been a difficult barrier for the desk chair.
This will work.
At radio showtime, there was no show. Today and tomorrow, the radio station is contractually bound to run ESPN's coverage of college basketball games. It's "March Malarkey," or something like that. They completely pre-empt my shows today, tomorrow, and Saturday. I am concerned, not for myself, but for the listeners who would e-mail urgent wonderings as to whether my injury has turned for the much worse.
On the other hand, it's like being on vacation. I filled the time working on the Lost Restaurants book.
Mary Ann came home from lunch with some of the spectacular rabbit pate they make at Chateau Du Lac. And a pizza from a new shop in Covington called Colonna's. It was a pretty good piece of work, I'd say. I ate three slices with Mary Ann in a celebration of my new advance in walker skills. She was as proud of me as she had been when our kids did anything cute when they were little.
I have mixed feelings about that.
Colonna's Pizzeria. Covington: 842 N Collins Blvd . 985-893-0910.
