So what does one do when confined to a chair by a cast and the orders to “elevate the ankle” for two months?
Reading
I prepared for my ankle fusion surgery on March 6 by purchasing a number of books from Barnes & Noble. This seemed like a super way to catch up on guilt-free reading without feeling like I should be doing something else. My stash included “The Bright Sword” by Lev Grossman, “The Frozen River” by Ariel Lawhon, and “The Berry Pickers” by Amanda Peters. The latter was my book group’s selection of the month.
To my surprise, I spent far less time reading than I had anticipated. It took a few days for the anesthesia to leave my system and during that time, I had trouble putting sentences together and connecting them to one another. Also, I tended to fall asleep in the middle of a paragraph.
I did eventually read both “The Frozen River,” which is excellent, and “The Berry Pickers,” which is good, although I missed the book group meeting. I’m in the middle of “The Bright Sword” right now and enjoying it. If you like Arthurian legends and magical history, this one’s for you.
Writing
Once I could string words together again, I put my trusty laptop in my lap and started writing. But what? Well, posts for this blog for starters. My Q1 2025 roundup has links to all the posts I wrote both pre-and post-surgery.
I always have one or two novels in process, so I am spending time with both of them. Part of this process involves writing while the other part is editing chapters with the changes suggested by my writing group. I’m making progress, although I somehow managed to delete a complete 11-page chapter and now have to write it all over again.
Arithmetic
As I am not a math person, my arithmetic these days consists of counting the days out from surgery (32 days) and counting the days until March 21, when the cast comes off.
Lecturing
Longfellow’s Wayside Inn in February
Every year our church, The First Parish of Sudbury, has summer services put on by the congregation, because the minister is on vacation. I have done lectures on the roof of Cologne Cathedral, St. Elizabeth’s Chapel in Sudbury, and Boston’s Unitarian churches.
Right now, I’m working on one about how Henry Ford came to Sudbury to create the Wayside Inn Colonial Village. This big project covered thousands of acres and many structures. Some of them he built and some he imported.
Nine of those buildings still exist, although people may not associate them with Henry Ford and his project. This lecture will identify them and give a short history on each. People will be surprised.
Fun and Games
One of my tour guide friends suggested looking into an app called SetJetters. This app tracks movie locations and provides information about them. This includes clips from the movie or TV show, the location’s coordinates, and what happens in the scene. I like movies and local sites, so I have been entering two a day or so.
I find it amazing how many movies and TV shows are filmed here in Boston. My entries started in Boston but have since branched out to more rural settings. The location appears on a map that you can search. Or you can identify a movie or TV show to find filming locations.
At two a day, this little time filler will keep me busy for quite a while. And I earn points, which gives me some immediate gratification.
The jigsaw puzzle that we were doing before surgery still languishes on our table, however. I can’t sit up with my foot on the floor, so I haven’t gotten back into it. The solar system will have to get along without me for a while.
Watching TV
Well, what else do you do after a long day of sitting around? Once the nightly news ends, I watch a wide variety of shows, some of which my husband shares, but some not. So far, I’m enjoying:
I used to like Bosch but it’s gotten stale and I’m not sorry this is the final season. This season of White Lotus is also disappointing: slow and annoying. Most of the men are just awful people. It’s even warned me off from wanting to go to Thailand.
New things are coming up this April, like spring flowers, so I always have something to look forward to.
Getting the Boot
But the main thing I’m looking forward to is getting the cast off. Then I move into a removable boot for another month. This means I can walk and put some weight on my ankle. It may not be full mobility but it will be better than this forced inactivity.
By then, the weather might have warmed up to make short walks even more pleasant. Wish me luck.
