Wasn't that a party!

We had a most interesting anniversary celebration day yesterday.

We left here at 11:15am to head into the big city via the little city (had to stop at my eye doctor's office to drop off my glasses for the lens switcheroo).  I'm currently wearing my old prescription while my new one is being installed in my existing frame.  The glasses I'm wearing now are the ones I was wearing at the time of my 60th birthday -- I can see just fine for distance, thank you very much.  But I can't see worth a damn for reading!  Have to take them off to read, in fact.  Thank goodness I have my new computer glasses, with which I can read just fine!  Gosh, life can get complicated without even trying, can't it?

Anyway, from there we proceeded into the big city for my physio appointment, arriving fully a half hour ahead of schedule (ever notice how difficult it is to figure out just how much time you need from point A to point C when you have to stop at point B for you don't know how long?)

My physiotherapist was most interested to learn that, since I abandoned my "walking program" for the week since I last saw her, my pain level has decreased significantly.  I had suggested to her that since adding the walking program to my regimen, I had aggravated the bursitis.  She was hoping I was wrong.  Well, apparently I was right because since I'm not walking, the inflammation has gone way down and so too has the pain.  Now all I'm left with is the hip joint pain (as if that isn't enough!).

So, she now admits that it is abundantly clear that my bursa will allow me to do nothing extraneous that involves manipulation of the hips -- nothing, I tell you.  It is all sooooooo frustrating.  Fortunately, I'm not exactly inactive, in the scheme of things.  In fact, I'm really quite active, for someone who can't move without considerable pain.

Her advice now?  Use the walking poles to go for casual walks when I feel like it rather than for cardio work-outs and certainly not on a daily basis.  She suggested perhaps once a week I go for a very casual walk (she stressed the words "very casual").  Other than that, I should just continue my day-to-day activity as I do now -- listening to my body and resting when it tells me I need to stop.  At least, she said, until we get the appointments with the hip replacement assessment clinic and, possibly, the ortho surgeon, behind me.  Because once I've been assessed, we'll know better how to approach this issue.

We hope.

Having been fixed by my physio session, we then went on to John's appointment to have his hearing aids assessed.  One had to be returned, again, for further repair; the other is again on trial to see if its wonky behaviour continues.  If it does, it will be sent for repair when the first one is returned.  That way, he's only left without one hearing aid at any time (good plan, I think).

Throughout these travels, we were in constant contact with my little chickadee who was at work, sick.  She was gauging whether or not she needed a lift to get home (there were lots of variables coming into play).

As we finished at the audiologist's, MLC decided enough was enough and she would take us up on the offer of a drive home.  While it was a bit of backtracking for us, we were happy to do it ... that's what parents do for their children, isn't it?

We picked her up and she looked awful.  Now normally, MBB goes from school to daycare where he plays with his friends until around 5:00pm when his Mom picks him up.  But this day, when I suggested that we go get him and drop them both off at home (she otherwise would have had to walk to the daycare and then walk home again), she jumped at the offer.  The timing was perfect since school was just letting out as we arrived.  Poor guy had no time to play with his friends this day, but one must take the rides when one gets them!  (Besides, I managed to collect a gazillion hugs and kisses so that made it worth every bit of extra travel!)

Now, heading out of the big city at 4:00pm is a great big No-No.  We probably would have been well advised to visit with MLC for an hour or so and then head home.

But we were going for our "romantic pizza dinner" in town, remember?  So we headed right home.

The usual route wasn't going to work -- accident ahead and traffic was not going anywhere.

We bailed off and used one of the few alternate routes. Got on the highway further out of town and still met up with what I call the "parking lot that is Ottawa's Queensway," so we crawled our way beyond the city.

Have I mentioned that my hip joints have decided to limit me to about a half hour in a vehicle?

Well, they have.

For the past couple of weeks, I've noticed that after about a half hour in the car, my hip joints start screaming at me.

And once they start screaming, nothing stops them.

Traffic out of Ottawa at 4:00pm is a slam-dunk more-than-an-hour's drive to our home, guaranteed.

Of course, once we were headed home, we were committed to the trip and once my hips were yelling at me, there was no getting comfortable.

I endured, constantly shifting position trying to get some relief, to no avail. (I also had to pee.)

We finally got to our favourite pizza joint, and I commented on the vast choice of parking spots awaiting us.

Duhhhhhhhhh.

Of course there were no cars -- the restaurant was closed, due to "burst pipes!"

So much for our romantic pizza dinner for our anniversary.

So, we went back to the scene of the crime.  We went to the restaurant where we actually got married 14 years ago.

And we had a lovely dinner of beef ribs (a particular favourite of mine), followed by butterscotch pie (another favourite!) and coffee.

Then we came home (arriving here at approximately 7:00pm -- a full work-day after we had left) and had a glass of wine in our wedding glasses.  I must admit I was tempted to just use the glasses with water to take our evening meds by this point!

And that, my friends, is how we spent our anniversary.  As I said, we're such party animals, aren't we?