finished the heel

 I got the heel flap done, and the heel turned and the first round of stitches picked up:

Now it's just maybe another 64 to 72 rounds for the foot. 

I picked up 17 stitches on each side (this is more to help me remember than for any reason) and on the flap I reduced one stitch midway on the first row, so I would have 32 rather than 33 - which makes the turn easier.

***

I did another 15 minutes on the cross country ski exerciser this afternoon. It was kind of hard - I'm slowly trying to use my arms more again (at first I felt I couldn't balance without holding the handle, or like my knee hurt more without holding on). It's kind of shocking how much fitness I lost in 2 months - this is the longest I've gone without working out since I was in my early 20s - I think 3-4 weeks was the longest before. 

I also did more of the stretching exercises. They do make the knee feel better and be more flexible; I need to make time probably every other evening to do it. I'll see how I feel tomorrow - I felt not great on Monday, after doing the workout Sunday afternoon, but then better today during the day. So I'm hoping I can slowly build back and especially get more flexible and less painful. Right after doing the workout I feel a lot better, it'll be tomorrow I will hurt if I do

I also think I might have pulled a back or abdominal muscle - a lot of the exercises work the "core" and I hadn't worked my core in quite a while. 

I'm hoping that before too long I can give up the cane. Already I mostly don't use it at home, and if I'm just walking the few steps down the hallway at work to get stuff form the shared printer, I don't use it. It does make my left arm hurt - I already have arthritis in that elbow (from having broken it some 30 years ago) and pressing down to take the weight off my right leg, or even just carrying it, does fatigue the leg. 

I can also still see a faint bruise on the front of the knee? maybe it's just taking this long from all the blood to disperse from the area around the bone where it had pooled? Hopefully this means I'm even better soon.

***

Like most people (I THINK, "most people") I saw the news stories of the bridge collapse in Maryland with some horror. Six people have died. 

But, news that came out this afternoon really made me feel better about it: apparently as soon as he knew it was going to be bad, the ship pilot radioed (and this was without power/without full power on the ship) and warned first responders of what might happen. And then the first responders scrambled - apparently someone called the workers on the bridge (six of them were the ones killed, but the only ones) and they blocked the bridge and apparently the only vehicle on as the ship approached (a semi) was off the bridge before it hit. And there were folks sent out - dive teams and rescue boats - and everyone was in place, and while it was a tragedy in that six construction workers died (and a tragedy for their families and those who loved them), it could have been SO MUCH worse. (It could also have been much worse if it weren't at 1 am, when few people would be out driving).

And, I don't know. I find it remarkably comforting to look at the stories I've seen and go "oh yes, there are some people who behave honorably in this world"- all the people who scrambled to try to reduce the impact of what happened on human life. 

There have been far, far, far too many stories of people who lie and cheat and steal and harass and just generally do awful things. And pace Taylor Swift, I cannot help but get down about the liars and the dirty dirty cheats in the world (even while listening to sick beats), and so hearing people who did their jobs competently and fast, is somehow a weird relief. 

I mean, yes, I suppose most people really do go about their jobs competently and honestly, but you don't hear about them enough; a lot of days it does feel that what I would consider aberrant behavior is what makes the news and seems to get "celebrated" (I have complained that there's no difference now between celebrity and ignominy, or that "notoriety" is seen as a good thing now)