Although I began the day following my breakfast by stretching out on one of our new webbed patio chairs on the balcony in the blazing morning sunshine and shamelessly dozing, after the courier arrived with my stuff from Dixon’s, I got onto my bicycle. I didn’t make it to the Village of Pakenham along the Ottawa Valley Trail (as did His Lordship). Instead I contented myself to expiate my guilt by wheeling about the neighbourhood as I customarily do these days, just up and down the local roadways and along the river. My balance and control of the bicycle are not exact and predictable. More and more I adhere to my first inclination upon returning home 2 weeks ago; namely, get a tricycle. Bill Barrie Jr is looking into it for me. He is extremely reliable. I am anxious to learn what he recommends.
Tomorrow morning is the pre-op instruction gathering at the hospital in Smiths Falls. Thereafter it’s a biopsy and later a cardiac assessment; then the knee surgery. And this is only my agenda. We each have our own. For six months over the winter we escaped these medical, dental and optometric conventions; but they have come back full throttle. It must be the condensed time period that has made it feel so endless.
In an effort to re-establish my bearings and recover my independence, I went for a drive this afternoon in my 2022 Lincoln Aviator to Stittsville and back. It was the standard car wash routine, listening to schmaltz, windows open, expressing a nonchalant attitude. Knowing that I will reserve this car for at least the next year has altered my expected pattern. Yesterday we had each contributed to cleaning the interior of the car, removing the Buttonwood gate decal, securing the Riverfront Estates decal, cleaning the windows, checking the glove compartment and the other storage cabinets, big and small, front and back. At the gas station today I examined the front and back seats and the trunk. All in order. Ready for another venture to the car wash! I never tire of that casual drive along the Appleton Side Road and then onto the highway to Stittsville. Perhaps soon I’ll extend the drive to Arnprior and back through White Lake and the Village of Pakenham. Meanwhile we have an engagement scheduled in Renfrew so I shall perhaps wait until then. It is an adjustment for me to turn this unexpected corner; that is, rising above the world of new automobiles. For the moment the only necessity on the horizon is the renewal of my license plate. Now we have a plate with no identification of date of birth so the process is all the more fluid.
And the trees continue to blossom. The river is flowing. The horizon is huge and unobstructed.