Hi Donna,

I would never try to pedal up the St. Charles-Cisneros-Snowslide trails.

In the last few years, I've seen a few hardy bicyclists on those trails.

But there are lots of places where a bicycle just won't go--they get off, hoist the bikes on their shoulders, and struggle up on foot.

In contrast, I rely on the engine of a trials motorcycle.

I am--well, was a road bicyclist, not a mountain biker.

***

Yesterday was devoted to helping a long-time client with hardware problems and then fighting my puzzling new iphone, which has quite a few quirks for a novice--it took a while to make it take my Vivaldi ringtones. Wrestling with computer problems felt good, even though I was cursing Apple and their insistence on ringtones from itunes.

***

I'm waiting for Matt the Physical Therapist to arrive. He runs me through lots of leg-waving exercises to keep or increase my range of motion, but no weight for a few more weeks. He measures the angle and says that my knees are bending more and more, up from 85 degrees a few weeks ago to about 120 degrees now.

Later--I blush to write this--will be my third date with Maddie the Occupational Therapist, very gently twists my arm this way and that while telling me to relax as she very gently pokes at tendon--I think of it as holding hands with her. She measures how far my right arm will bend or straighten (not very far) and says encouraging things.

But she does all the work while telling me to relax. ISo far, i's more like having a gorgeous masseuse than occupational therapy.

In other medical news, Karen, today's nurse, gave me a whole new catheter and said that no, the question of when it will be taken out after training my sphincters did not come up at the Wednesday meeting yesterday, even though I'd been told that it was on the agenda, so maybe next week they'll discuss when I can try to pee on my own.

Meanwhile, the insurance company has blindly tried to toss me out again, despite having its nose bloodied the last time. They argue that I should be at home, but then we appeal their discharge attempt and the doctor who reviews my case takes about five minutes to squash the idea, since I'm still four limbs non-weight bearing and about as helpless as a turtle on its back, assuming that a turtle could type stuff like this.

When I say "we appeal," I actually mean that my sister does all the paperwork and phone calls--I'm very lucky to have so many friends and relatives taking care of everything from my taxes to the legal aftermath of the accident to my basset hounds, plus all sorts of medical matters that would be beyond me

Cheers,

Carl Fogel.