Sylvia's Journal

The fifth snowstorm since I landed nearly 3 weeks ago has announced itself. This is why some of my colleagues like to travel to assignments in warm places this time of year. Many people are getting very impatient for spring but I know it is a long way off here in new England. March here has nothing to do with spring.

But I don’t mind the winter and the snow. I actually like snowstorms – at least under certain conditions: I don’t have to be on the road or have a flight to catch (or land), our snow plow contractor shows up, we have dry wood for the fireplace within reach and the electricity stays on.

Snowstorms greatly advance my knitting. I completed another sweater for Faro from the wool Sita and I bought at an enormous wool/knitting warehouse that happens to be in her neck of the woods. I was like a kid in a candy story and spent a chunk of my Kabul danger money there.

Both Axel and I have body parts that need healing: his thumb and my foot. Both of us started off a little too enthusiastically exercising our tender parts too much and too quickly. Now there is push back and we are told to back off.

My impatience makes me forget that the body heals at its own pace. I should know better. But I want to walk, hike and ski (cross country) again. The ankle doctor told me I should count on a half year for 90% recovery and a full year for a full recovery. I am only 3.5 months into the process.

My physical therapist creates adjustments to my exercises to avoid the pains and aches that have surfaced and counsels ice packs more often and short ‘ice-naps’ with my foot elevated above my heart. “Can you do that in your office?” she asked me. I surveyed the office landscape in my mind, searching for a place. I think I can find one where I have a view of the outside and no one has a view of me.