Taking the back roads

I have a lovely sun room on the side of my house.  The room is relatively small, about 8 feet wide by 14 feet long.  It is right off the living room via a sliding glass door on the side that goes into the house.  The other 3 sides of the room are all windows/screens which can be opened by moving one or two sections. It's not the most efficient kind of windows/screens and the windows aren't glass but a type of glazed plastic.  Be that as it may, the room has an east view and gets sun from early morning till late afternoon. Generally I have my breakfast in the sun room and it has been very comfortable.  I get to look out on the street and watch all the morning dog walkers.  Since I'm not an early riser by anyone's standards, by 10:00 or 10:30 AM when I'm having breakfast, there are just a few walkers.  One morning I was sitting there at 7:30 AM and could not believe all the people and all the dogs walking up and down the street.  Cali, my ever f...

Here I sit, with an ice pack on my left knee, recovering from the final knee replacement.  Generally, I don't make New Year's resolutions or those kinds of things but I tend to make goals throughout a year.  But I did make two specific goals for 2013 and I've accomplished both so far and we are only into the 3rd month of a new year. My first and foremost goal was to get my left knee replaced so I could start to live a life pain-free from most physical activities.  I had been walking around on a badly damaged knee for almost 2 years, not being able to walk very much and being in constant pain.  In 2007 I had my right knee replaced and it was such a change in my lifestyle and how I did things.  That recovery seemed to go very well and within a month I was back to my regular life and walking with no pain or limitations.  Looking back on it and comparing it to this recovery I have to remember 2 very important things:  (1) I was 5 years younger and (...