I missed writing last week because, well, read on.

In spite of December continuing on as significantly warmer and drier than usual, last Saturday into Saturday night we got some light rain that turned into an icy, crunchy snow when temperatures finally dropped below freezing. Sunday was sunny and forecast to warm up to freezing. The crunchy snow was only a thin layer, and by the time we got on our bikes to go grocery shopping it had begun melting off the streets. 

We did not have our studded tires on our bikes yet, having not expected snow and ice. But since it was melting, we very carefully made our way to our food co-op and did our usual two weeks of grocery shopping. Actually, since it was 10% off an entire shop for members, we stocked up on some things.

We loaded up my e-cargo bike with all but one light bag of groceries that James put in his rear basket. And off we went home. Everything was going just fine until we turned down a short, but icy road. On the way to the store we had also been on this road and when we realized how icy it was we detoured onto the snow covered sidewalk where there was more traction.

Back on this road heading home, me in front, I detoured up onto the sidewalk again. James was not expecting me to do this, and made a quick turn onto the sidewalk to follow me, slipped on the icy snow, and went down.

I heard him fall. Instead of doing the smart thing of stopping and then turning around, my immediate reaction was to whip my head around to see if James was ok. And then I slipped on the ice and went down too with a very heavy cargo bike. I hit the sidewalk hard on my left shoulder before I even realized what was happening. This was actually a good thing since I didn’t try to put down a foot or put out my hand, I just went over onto my side.

James was fine but for a twisted ankle that was better in a couple days. I was really shaken up, had a bit of shock, and sat on the sidewalk for awhile before trying to get up. Except for a throbbing shoulder I was fine. I could move my arm, no weird noises or crunching or numbness in my hand or arm or anything that seemed worse than a very bad bruise. We got back on our bikes and pedaled home with no further incidents.

At home I took some ibuprofen, and babied my shoulder. 

I biked to work on Monday, did a workout on my bike trainer Monday night. My shoulder was swollen and colorful, but I thought nothing of it. Between rounds of icing, and liberal application of comfrey for the bruising, surely it would feel better soon. I wasn’t in any pain unless I moved my arm certain ways and I assumed it was from the bruising.

I am one of those people who rarely needs to see a doctor for anything but a checkup, and even then I resent having to go. Friends and coworkers kept telling me to see a doctor just to be sure everything was ok. Fine. 

Wednesday I saw a doctor who ordered an x-ray. The tech let me see it, which was super cool. He said he didn’t see anything, but the final opinion belonged to the radiologist. I felt pretty good and sure everything was fine. And then Thursday morning I got a message from the radiologist: fractured clavicle, no displacement. See an orthopedist immediately.

I didn’t even know where to find an orthopedist. James freaked out a little. I found an in-network orthopedist office across the street from where James had his hernia surgery and it’s easily accessible by bus. I suspected, correctly, that it wouldn’t be a good idea to show up for this appointment on my bike. I got an appointment for Friday morning.

The orthopedist, Chris, was super surprised to see me walk in swinging my arm like nothing happened. I explained I had thought it only bruised and that it didn’t really hurt unless I raised it over my head or tried to reach behind my back. She looked at my x-rays and showed me the very faint hairline fracture. No surgery needed, only a sling for a few weeks. 

Chris and I hit it off really well. She said right away, you’re going to push the limits, aren’t you? And I said, absolutely. Then she got serious and said that she has never had to do surgery for my sort of fracture before, but if I didn’t follow her instructions I could do some serious damage. Don’t be the first person who needs surgery for this. Gulp. Ok, I said, I promise I will be good. Then we talked about what I was and wasn’t allowed to do. She got me a sling and put it on me. 

Given how active I am, she acknowledged how hard this was going to be for me. She gave permission for me to ride my bike indoors on a trainer, I can even do workouts, but I have to wear the sling and I am absolutely not allowed to lean on my left hand/elbow/arm/shoulder. I go back in two weeks for her to check my healing progress.

One extremely gratifying thing Chris told me. She said that if I hadn’t been sitting in front of her she would have thought she was looking at an x-ray belonging to a teenager. Yes! All my hard work cycling, lifting weights, doing core workouts, and eating healthy prove to be completely worth it. And now with only having one useful arm, I am finding a strong core, strong muscles, good flexibility and balance are really nice things to have. I have never liked weight training, but I will never complain about it again.

With my right arm completely serviceable, my left arm now belongs to a T-rex. All my cardigans, a librarian requirement, will serve me well. Because of the upcoming holidays, I only have 3 days of getting to and from work on the bus. I’m optimistically hoping that when I go back to work on January 3rd, I will be able to ride my bike, but I won’t be surprised if Chris makes a frowny face at me and tells me no way.

Solstice is on Thursday and thankfully my menu does not require heavy two-handed work. I’m not going to tell you my menu at this point, you will just have to wait and see!

At least garden planning doesn’t require my left shoulder. I’ve worked through all the tomatoes in the catalogs and gotten James to decide what he wants to do with tomatoes, and narrowed it down to three varieties. 

Next I will have to prompt him through peppers. Unlike me, who can spend hours mentally tasting all the various vegetable varieties, James has a very short attention span. I need to go through everything and narrow things down and present them to him.

We saved some jalapeño seeds from our CSA box peppers, hopefully Eduardo didn’t use a hybrid variety, but if he did, it will be an adventure. For non-gardeners, hybrid seeds do not grow true to type in general, so planting them you might get something like the original plant as well as plants that are like, but not completely the same as, the plants used in creating the hybrid; it’s a bit of a grab bag. They will all be, in our case, jalapeños, but not the same as what we had in our box this last summer. Fun times! Of course, if he used an open pollinated variety, our seeds will grow exactly like their parent plant.

After peppers, I need to get James to focus on beans and herbs. All the rest I will cut him out of the decision making. That sounds mean, but it’s not; it’s what’s best for our relationship and the garden. Heh.

I know there are comments on past posts I have not responded to. Please be patient since I can only type with one hand it’s going to take me a bit, but I’ll get there!

Reading

• Article: Why dozens of North American bird species are getting new names. The American Ornithological Society (AOS) announced November 1st, that they are renaming 152 birds species that have been named after people. This means no more Cooper’s Hawk or Wilson’s Snipes. All North American birds with a person’s name attached to them regardless of who that person is, will be changed. It’s going to take a long time to change all the names but I think it is the right thing to do. For more information direct from the AOS, visit their FAQ page and their English Bird Names Project page.
• Article: Jill Krementz Photo Journal: A Celebration of Cats. Mostly writers and their cats, but some other famous people too. With all the bad news in the world, we need nice stuff like this too. It really made me miss Waldo and Dickens.
• Book: All About Love by bell hooks. This was good reading, but also sad. Published in 2000, hooks was certain she was seeing signs of a cultural shift towards real love. She died in 2021, and a quick search has found me nothing about how she saw the book later on. I wish she had been right. The book, however, has much to say and is still good reading since her ideas do not hinge on her belief in a cultural shift.
• Book: Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner. I know so many of you have read and loved this book and I am so happy I finally got around to reading it. I must say I struggled a bit through the first 2/3 over Lolly being such a doormat. But then the claws came out, or at least the Devil did, and I ended up completely loving the book.

Listening

• Nothing of particular note

Watching

• Movie: The Holdovers This was such a lovely movie. It’s a good reminder that what you see on the surface of a person is often hiding all kinds of things we know nothing about.

Quote

Without justice there can be no love.

bell hooks, All About Love

James’s Kitchen Wizardry

We heard a story on public radio that included a lot of words about latkes, so James made us some. He made tofu sour cream and we also had applesauce. So delicious!