Monday, November 22, 2010

Wildife

Part of the appeal of living in the remote wilderness of the Kootenay's is the frequency and variety of wildlife that can be seen. Our only disappointment so far is that we never got to see the teenage black bear living in the area. We suspect it was him that knocked our BBQ over one night early in our stay (unless Pete has taken up sleep walking). And with the cold and snow having set in, we're guessing he's nesting somewhere in the mountains and not to be seen until spring. Dang!

Oh well, here are some pictures of what we have seen!



We see at least one of these white tails through here every few days. We've had as many as four holding caucus in the back yard at once.


Never have I seen these before up close, and suddenly, we see them almost every time we drive to town. Amazing!


Look at the size of that thing! Our good friends the Schwieger's brought their boat and took Pete fishing for three days on Kootenay Lake. They caught this 23lb rainbow trout! Unfortunately, it was 24 hours before the start of a local fishing derby, wherein this catch would have been in contention for the win. Their next two days on the lake saw nothing near this big.



This ball of fur is the home owner's outside kitty, Lojzik. While she looks all cute and cuddly, don't be fooled. She plays a fierce game of staring-until-I-go-outside-to-pet-her. I haven't won once.

Not pictured here is me. I can be bumped from the category of "human" to "animal" when I get up in the morning and my foot aches. Luckily for Pete, I easily return to my human form with doses of codeine and dill pickle potato chips.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!? #$%@!&!!

Who wrote that bloody awful song anyways? I'm going to find him and give him a face wash.


Snow is not supposed to come to this area until around Christmas, but we have been getting it in buckets. Maybe it's not such a bad thing to be laid up with a bad ankle, watching all the snow fall while sitting by a warm fireplace. But you can bet that we will both be cursing tomorrow as we drive to Vernon to get my cast changed.

Only 27 more sleeps until we trade white snow for white sand! I guess we can handle it. =)

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Pop Goes the Ankle

It always amazes me how in just one quick second, things can completely change from good to bad, and the best laid plans can be completely wiped out due to a wrong turn or a misstep.

It especially annoys me when I am the subject of said misstep.

All of my plans for hiking, kayaking, biking and otherwise just getting out to enjoy my beautiful surroundings were wiped out in one fell swoop on Tuesday evening. More specifically, they were wiped out in one loud POP, which was the sound of my achilles tendon rupturing as I dove to get a volleyball during one of our rousing community games.

I thought something had fallen on the back of my ankle, or that some madman had just taken a swipe at me with a crowbar. I crumbled instantly, let out a string of expletives (to the delight of the young children on the bench beside me who had come to watch their parents play), and was finally drug to the sidelines by Pete and another player where I winced in pain while Pete ran to get the stuff we needed before we made the half hour drive to the hospital in Nakusp.

The doctor immediately called ahead to the Vernon hospital to get me an appointment with a specialist the following morning (Nakusp, being only a town of ~1,500 people, has very little to offer in terms of medical services). Pete and I were up at 5:30 in order to make the first ferry and the two and a half hour drive to Vernon the next day. After then waiting two hours to get in, two doctors looked at my ankle and declared my achilles to be a mess. They then also gave me two options: surgery or not. Historically, most doctors would recommend immediate surgery to stitch it back up, but recent studies show that surgery is no more effective then progressive casting for healing. So I opted to stay out from under the knife; I don't want to risk any complications with having a surgical wound when I am meant to be on a plane to a third world country in six weeks.


And so now, here I am, laid up in my first of three casts. This pretty purple one will last three weeks, then it will be replaced with another that will have my ankle adjusted to different angle. Finally, the last one will hopefully be a walking cast, so that I will be walking onto my Honduras-bound plane without crutches.

In one instant, everything is gone. My dreams of kayaking every week - gone. My plans to do several outstanding hikes in the area - gone. My goal of making an effort to be more swimsuit-ready for Honduras, gone. Everything is also infinitely more difficult, especially given that this house has many stairs. I am living in one of the most beautiful places in this country, and I am forced to only enjoy it as far as my crutches will take me. I am sad, bitter, and a bit of a downer these days.

I know, I know, there are definitely worse things in the world that can happen, and there are people that are much worse off then I am; whining and lamenting of my situation is pretty pathetic.

But it's my blog, and I'll whine if I want to!


(Ok. I think I'm done now.)