It is Valentine’s Day. And I’m thrilled to report that after 2 surgeries - one on his spine and one on his hip - that Ralph is finally on the mending side from all that. Gotta love that news! After almost 5 months of cocooning from the world in order to tend to the care and keeping of one reluctant patient — I still HAVE some patience. I am crazy about this guy. Which isn’t to say this guy isn’t driving me crazy and vice versa. But I think true love is like that, whether we are talking couples, siblings, parent and child, family and friends. The thing that makes any relationship durable is the constant tug between enduring and endearing ourselves to each other.
Not that I would have ever wished any of these ailments on him, yet we have actually been having a pretty decent time navigating through the ebb and flow of his recovery. Like everything else, it is a process. And there is always a learning curve — which means there’s usually a relevant take away. For example, it takes both of us and the handy dandy walker to get in and out of our current residence, especially in the snow. Negotiating the seven steps between the bungalow and the van provides ample opportunities for deepening one’s communication skills with one’s partner;) It is also helping us to look very carefully at the finer details of embedding elements of “universal design” into the lodge in both practical and aesthetically pleasing ways. Nothing like primary research eh? As convalescing continues, so too does the burgeoning of creative decisions for the interior of the lodge. More about all that later. For the moment we are just thrilled to say, hip hip hurray, R is OK!
PS: SHOUT is also on the mend as her hip has been bothering her too. Luckily she’s been able to still motor around under her own power. For a moment there I thought I was going to have to steal R’s walker to make some sort of sling by which to move the dog around. Instead the note to self is to be sure her new dog door doesn’t require jumping on and off a platform. Always something…