Death

Not really relevant to this so called "blog" but ever since high school I've always had nightmares of girls choking or burning me to death.  I had one last night, and it woke me up.  When I woke up I was sleeping on my stomach, with my head jacked up on three or four pillows so that my neck was really kinked.  And I had vomited.

As terrible as it is to have those nightmares, waking up from one into a reality where I'm still choking and can't breathe is a totally new kind of horror to me.

My ankle is finally fixed.  I'm supposed to be getting better.  Really, I am getting better.  But setbacks are upsetting.

I Swimmed

Yesterday I went swimming.  I forgot to count laps, and so I stopped swimming laps pretty quickly.  Instead, I just treaded water.  It's simple, and easy.  I was also able to swim more than half the length of the pool underwater, despite not having swum in quite a while, which is further than any recent attempts in the past year.

My odometer has missed a lot of walking, so it's not very accurate.

I still have pain in my ankle, but not the really bad pain.  It doesn't hurt to walk, or swim, or lay on my left side, or have a cat step on me.  I can touch my leg by my knee and it doesn't hurt as all.  I have every hope the remaining pain will clear up. My right foot is injured worse than my left at this point.  Something got onto the bed of my sandal.  Something sticky that irritated my foot.  I couldn't scrub it off well enough to make the sandal wearable after several attempts, so I simply bought new sandals.  The bottom of my foot is still red and tender, but it is clearing up quickly.

Saturday

Saturday, I hiked to here:

That's about 2k from where I started walking, and at an elevation of 2412m.

Once I got there, I hammocked.

And I hammocked in style!

I feel highly motivated

Having my ankle fixed after so many years of pain and misery is a little like being really optimistic about my future.  Actually, it's a lot like that.

I weighed myself two days ago.  In pounds.  I was about 262 pounds.  Not great, but also down a little from a week or two ago.  I sort of not want to post things like that because I'm ashamed of how heavy I am right now.  On the other hand, maybe the shame will motivate me to do something about it again.  TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY TWO POUNDS.  I should probably use a real unit system, and post in kilograms instead.

My steps are at  19791 steps since I reset it.  About 4947 steps per day.  Given how much I sit lately, I'm still somewhat happy.

A long time ago, mostly for curiosity, I tracked the odometer on my bicycle every day.  I should get an odometer again, and start tracking that as well.  Maybe it will motivate me to ride my bicycle more.

I should have a silnylon poncho today.  It should be smaller than my rainpants and rainjacket, so I'll be more likely to keep it on me, and it should accommodate my  backpack under it, unlike the jacket, so my bag will stay dry.

A Hike!

I went a hike last night.  It was just about 1 whole mile of rough, but mostly flat, terrain.  Today I was stiff and sore, and very tired.  I assume the recent ankle surgery has a lot to do with that.

I need more goals!

It's been more than a week now.  I'm still sitting a lot.  I need to go back to standing, but I'm uncertain about that.  Probably next week, when the surgery is two weeks old, will be a good time.  I get the stitches out Thursday of next week.

I need more build-up goals.  Goals to build me up to my other, more difficult goals.

1) Weightlifting needs to happen again.
2) Hammock on top of the mesa in Water Canyon.
3) Climb up and out of Copper Canyon again.
4) Trek from South to North Baldy.

ONE WEEK OF FREEDOM!

I'm a few hours shy of one week of freedom.  I had surgery a little after noon on Monday of last week.

Within a couple of days the hives that have covered my body since they put the plate in nearly four years ago cleared up.  My ankle hurts, but it gets better every day.  I can only imagine that when my ankle is healed that it won't be in constant pain.  It's been sore and inflamed since 2010, and that has definitely stopped as well.  I accidentally bumped it today, and while it hurt (recent surgery) it wasn't nearly the deep bad pain that it would have been last week through the past few years.

My pedometer reads 374805 steps in 71 days.  1357 of them were taken so far today.  Roughly 5729 steps per day.   And now it reads 0 steps.  So today is going to look a little light.  This whole week has looked a little light, really, since I don't walk much and spend my time laying down and wincing in pain.
                                                                                                                                            
I need to get back to this project, Death By Mountain.

My blood pressure has been very bad in the past month or so.  I didn't feel bad, so I was assuming that it high because everytime I had it measured I was at the doctors office, and being at the doctors office makes me livid.  But I measured it myself not at the doctor, and it was still bad.  I've put on a lot of weight in recent months.  Weight is bad.  That needs to come off.

Goals:
1) Float from Escondida to San Antonio.
2) Visit Devils Elbow again.
3) Visit Turkey Creek Hot Springs without breaking my leg.
4) Try again to take up running, but succeed this time.

John Brook's has been selling me grass-fed USDA Organic beef.  It isn't as good as what I can drive to Albuquerque and buy at Whole Foods, but it is half the price and doesn't require me to drive to Albuquerque to buy it, so it's definitely a great deal, and I'm very happy.  On the other hand, John Brooks isn't doing well on getting in USDA Organic berries, so trips to Albuquerque are still needed.

Goal 1 has become ever more complicated, but I shouldn't give up.

Goal 2 might be stupidly hard.  Normally it would be a one day in-and-out, but a flash flood last year scoured the upper canyon and destroyed the lower canyon.  Devils Elbow is probably intact, but I've heard from a witness that the way there is a treacherous wasteland of debris.

Goal 3 is scary.  But I want to.

Goal 4 has been tried several time since breaking my leg.  It has had many crippling setbacks.  But all those setbacks probably originate from that plate, and the plate is gone.

I have a pair of non toe-shoe barefoot shoes.  I think I like them.  I stepped on a cholla the first time I wore them though.  That kind of sucked.

I suppose I should mention my inflamed lungs.  They aren't inflamed anymore.  They were inflamed, probably, from September through January.  I got really sick in September, and I just never got better.  I often have lingering coughs, though, so I didn't think much of it.  But it kept lingering.  In December a doctor figured it out.  It got better pretty quickly.