This morning I had the privilige of being allowed to go caching all on my own. The main reason for that was that mom went to see the doctor yesterday who, when he heard that she had already been on the trails again, was not amused. When he proved to her that her muscle has not yet healed completely by squeezing her calf gently in the crucial spot, she was not amused either. Doctors' offices clearly are not always the amusement parks one would like them to be...
The other reason she had little desire to join me had to do with the weather: we had some refreshing rain.
I went back to Campbell Valley Regional Park where on previous occasions one cache had eluded me: Clue: The Kitchen. Perhaps I have mentioned before that this is a series based on the game Clue. At each cache you get some information as to where the murder might have been committed or not, who might have dun it or not...You, dear reader(s) might as well acquaint me with your familiarity with the game so I can have you help us solve the mystery. Clue: not in the kitchen...Clue: not the colonel or Mrs. White. Rest to follow upon approved qualifications, yours. By now you, if you are worth your salt, have figured out that I found the cache, no?
I also found some others there, puzzles that you do not know where they will be until you solve them and get the coordinates.
Did I mention it was raining? I had to take the Shaggy Mane trail again for a stretch. They should change the name to Sh...y Mane trail...; again, if you are worth your salt, you have figured out what the name should be. You can mention it in your application if you are not averse to using that type of language...I will close my eyes so I do not have to be party to it...
Rain makes for puddles. Puddles bring out the little boy in me, the Dutch little boy. No, not the one with the famous finger, but the one that produces dry land out of watery places. That happens by digging canals so the water can move to where no one lives. I have not yet succumbed to the temptation of having a shovel in my cache mobile on rainy days, so I am reduced to the one, stone-age tool I always have with me: my stick. So on my way in I dig little canals, seeing the water gush out of the puddle, off the path, into a lower area. Such instant gratification this produces that one forgets about the rain and wet feet and all the concomitant misery of BC weather. And one wonders why the duo of cachers that calls itself Puddlejumpers is not with me but would rather shovel snow...or hang drywall...ah well...
So from puddle to puddle I hopped and skipped, humming as I went, puddle-de-dum, puddle-de-dum, until I got onto the Ravine Trail. Not much in the way of puddles there...the ground does not get mushed up and holes are not created by horses hooves...and as a result it is not a Sh...y Trail, as a matter of fact the ground is hard enough to make it a bit of a skating rink, especially when going downhill...four times I almost had my back join my feet at the level where they live, but thankfully my legs have become strong through all the exercise of this year that I was able to stay upright...
On my way back to the car I checked on all the work I had done. I had a hard time finding back the spots where I had laboured: most puddles had become dry land!!! Welcome to Holland, I thought. Puddle-be-gon, puddle-be-gon...
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Calf Is Owie
Mom is on crutches. What does that have to do with caching? Well, everything and nothing. Everything. because she is not caching. Nothing; because caching is not a matter of life or death. All the caching that got done in this family was done by my going out by myself and having a good time, but it would have been better, much better had we been able to do it together. The only positive is that now I could set my own pace and get an excellent work out walking the trails that I took. Oh, and the other not inconsiderable positive side effect is that she spends a good deal of her time at home working the puzzle caches which we until now pretty well have ignored. However, we are looking at too many areas where we have all the normal caches done and all that is left is the puzzles.
She is getting really good at it. At this moment she is wrestling with the Little Rascals. Part of this week she was in the company of the Three Stooges for two days. She has been in outer space tracking Star Wars episodes. Etc. etc. Now I can go out to find the caches.
The leg is getting better but we expect her to need at least two more weeks before she is ready for the mountains again.
We had some beautiful days this week but the forecast is for rain pretty well all of next week. So wet I will get...
Now to how this came about:
She went into the garage, (last week Tuesday) two steps down, and somehow tore her calf muscle. Excruciating pain evolved quickly. Phoning the doctor resulted in our going there an hour later. He could not really tell how bad it was because touching her leg put him in grave danger each time...like tickling a skittish horse, maybe? The leg would go airborne direction his face, jaw, nose, eyes...he has no insurance for that. He did come to a tentative conclusion that her achilles heel was probably not severed but that is as optimistic as he was willing to be.
Back on Thursday. The pain was down from a 19 (10 is high) to about a 3...much better. Now it was safe to determine that is was (only) a torn calf muscle...painful, not pretty, but heal-able. Get crutches and stay off the leg. Done.
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