It's been three days since the surgery, so it's time to remove the bandages and change the dressing. Sorta. The stitches come out in two weeks, but the covering comes off today.

The covering, though, holy crap, the thing f---ing ITCHES. IT. CHES. It's driving me nuts. Sure, sure, Kris keeps saying, "It's just your body healing," which apparently the same thing that Heather's mom always says, but that doesn't change the fact that the itching is driving me nuts.

Given that Martha hates my gruesome pictures of digging out warts, I'll give her warning about this, too, and let her know that the pictures really aren't so bad.

So, here we go: the bandages over my 2" wound:

Good lord, woman, where have you been? I'll tell you where I haven't been, and that's here. I haven't stopped writing, for the most part, I just haven't been posting.

Did you notice?

Dad once asked me why I blog, why have such a public journal. I told him that it helps me keep my thoughts in order. I've found that it also helps me be closer to my friends who stop by to read what I wrote. They may not live close, we may not talk every day, but my having stopped posting as much as I had been has made me realize that, hey, they're still very much in my life (which makes me happy!). And when I do see them, or talk to them, we always have something to talk about (though, honestly, I wish more of my friends also blogged so that I knew more about what's going on in their lives, but that's a different plea).

Maybe the one way postings of a blog aren't really so one way after all.

With all of that out of the way, hey, guess what happened today.

Yup.

A visitor! Whoo!

I forgot to tell Kris about her visit, though. Whoops.

Anyway, I've given up on the keep all the posts in order, and plan on backfilling for the last month. Go ahead, read away.

I'm really enjoying the flower arrangements from the CSA.

Heather called early this evening, asking if I'd be up for going on a hike. Kris and I have been going to Fremont Older frequently recently, me for the non-running exercise because of my knee, Kris for his hard-running training for his leg of the Wildflower Triathlon that Kris, Andy, and Kris' coworker and best hugger in the world, Marc; so I suggested Fremont Older.

I suspect with so many people having extra free time, I shouldn't be telling so many people about Fremont Older, lest they all discover the parking lot with (shock) parking spaces next to a great hiking spot.

I convinced Heather Fremont Older over Rancho San Antonio (where I seem never to be able to find parking), and off we went.

Oh, my, did the weather cooperate with us. Where the day was previously cloudy, windy and cold, our hike was cool, sunny and very nice. We even managed to see not one or two but THREE deer!

We made it to the top of Hunter's Point, and continued on to hike the Seven Sprints trail. As we started walking down various hills, my knee started acting up, hurting and locking up. Frustrated, I stopped us a couple times to adjust my knee brace, trying to follow the instructions from the knee doctor to adjust my kneecap to the inside of my knee.

I adjusted the straps, and again, and again, and again, and HOLY MOLY, the clouds parted, the sun shined and the angels sang as I found the sweet spot on my brace. I needed to pull the kneecap to the inside, sure, but also UP. UP! That's all I needed, up.

At least so far. I managed to finish the hike knee-pain free. Here's hoping this is, indeed, the (temporary) answer to my knee locks.