pity party

Running through the fall colours

A fair warning:  this post is mostly a pity party for yours truly.  Although you are all cordially invited, you are also welcome to skip the text, and just take in the pictures, or course!

Bike fixing workshop with some young apprentices

For anyone who has been following along with the blog for the last few weeks, my hearty adoration of everything autumn has been no doubt apparent.  And if you'd asked me last week, I would have happily told you that this particular fall had so far been at its very best, promising many more weeks of awesomeness to come.

This week, however -- this week I have soured.  I feel a bit like a jilted lover. The weather is still gorgeous, the leaves are beautiful, and the days still beckon for me to come take advantage of them.  But I am now stuck inside, watching fall from my window, knowing full well that by the time I'm able to enjoy the outside to it's fullest extent, autumn will have officially become pre-winter.

Hanging with Oli, who is walking now!

So what, you may ask, is the cause of this overly dramatic diatribe?  It is the result of feeling incredibly sorry for myself, no doubt.  You see, last Monday -- directly after posting the blog, in fact -- I went for what had become my daily morning run/walk in the woods. It was the absolutely perfect way to start my day.  I listened to an audio book, ran through these amazing trails in the forest, and walked the bits that were too rocky/rooty to be safe.  I got exercise, filled my lungs with fresh air, was surrounded by the woods, and was entertained all at the same time.

But last week, as I was on the return loop, I suddenly just... I don't even know.  Hit a rock, I guess.  I rolled my left foot in some unholy, unnatural way,  and could barely breathe from the resulting pain.  I called Clark, and he came to rescue me as best he could.   He got me home, procured some ice, and for two days I hobbled around very slowly and painfully, willing the sprain to get better.  At that point, however, I showed the picture of my brilliantly blue foot to (among others), my sister Andrea, who is an orthopaedic surgeon.  She ordered me to get straight in for an x-ray, and, 4 hours later, I was home with a walking cast, protecting my broken foot.

Father and son walk through the grasses

That's right folks - I am spending the rest of the most glorious time of the year hobbling around with a broken foot.  Don't worry, though - I will still get out of the house, as I have some appointments booked to go redo my two root canals!  Hurray! (what's better than getting a root canal?  Getting it done AGAIN!) I found out this past week and a bit that the two root canals I had done in the States were both done poorly, and I have had ongoing infections in my mouth for the last 2 years.  So now I need to go (hopefully) fix them both - if they can't be fixed, they'll have to just get extracted.  So. This is why I have been feeling so very sorry for myself.  Between my foot and my teeth, I feel like fall is enacting some long, drawn-out joke at my expense.

Practising on her very own violin

But the good news is that my foot will heal.  As Andrea so helpfully informed me, a 5th metatarsal fracture is one of the "best" breaks you can get in your foot.  And though it will cost me a fortune that I do not have, and a whole lot of pain and suffering, getting these botched root canals taken care of will hopefully mean that I will start feeling a whole lot better, as my body will no longer have to be fighting off continual infection.  These are things, I suppose, that I can be thankful for on this Canadian day of thanks.  That, and the fact that I will soon be surrounded by some awesome people who will be coming over to celebrate and partake in a large Thanksgiving meal with us.  And the fact that, despite the fact that it has forsaken me, autumn is as gorgeous as ever - especially today.  And I have a lovely little family. And I finished that hat out of the luscious alpaca wool, and it is warm and soft.  And that next week, surely, I will be able to post about something other than myself and my woes... perhaps the awesome thanksgiving we are about to have, and the birthday of a soon-to-be 4 year old?  Stay tuned for that!