Picture this: Colorado blue sky, puffy white clouds (most of the time except when they are black and pouring), aspen glistening in the breezes (except when they are closer to gales), on the side of a mountain, across the highway the biggest reservoir in Colorado, white capping in the wind, and outside my window right now a lilac tree, bushy and healthy. The entrance to the clubhouse is alive with columbines and flowering bushes. We will have dinner in the clubhouse tonight and meet our neighbors, of which there are about 200. Not all of them will come to dinner, but probably 50 will. My “room” in this club house has all I need, all my own clothes, furniture, private bath, and if I get tired of this rehab center, I can start the engine and find a better one, which we will do for sure on the 23rd.
Now having worked a greater part of my professional career in rehab centers, and knowing that that “rehab center” for anyone over 65 is code word for nursing home, I’d say my fortune is great indeed. How I used to dread and be bored with those slow walks with the elderly patients who needed me to get them on their feet!!! I walk here 3 times a day, which is more than Medicare requires, and enjoy mountain air at the same time. But now I do know how those elderly felt. It is painful and difficult to get back to an acceptable level of activity after somebody has chopped your leg off and reattached it to your pelvis with a piece or two of titanium. How amazing is that??? I still am grateful that I only have two legs and two hips and I’m done!!! The slowness of the walk is my style of stretching, far cry from sitting spread eagled on the floor and bending forward till my chin touched my knees, only about 8 years ago. Not that I am showing my age, mind you, but things change. It only took 5 years for the hips to go to hell in a basket, and when it started I was in the best shape of my life, in love, life was good. Still is. I just approach it at a different pace now.
Oh yes, did I mention the ad free radio via satellite in my private room??? And my cat, who likes to be naughty and dart out the door at every opportunity, HD TV in the evenings, or if nothing out of nothing is on, we put on a DVD from Netflix, and transport to another realm. Medicare won’t foot the bill for that.
While at home, David was busy getting the transmission fine tuned and reprogrammed for mountain roads, and the brakes adjusted. He installed the new slim line HD TV, and a multitude of other things to give us the comforts of home and then some. Then he had to do all my gardening, as the weeds out grew me as I became unable to get to them. Rain has blessed this whole state. The western slope is lush and green in August. Can you believe that? Pastures are bogs, rivers full but controlled, and reservoirs full to the brim. Remember 5 years ago when Dillon Dam was empty?!!!!!!!! Life’s cycles do provide. eventually.
I hope some of you watched “America’s Got Talent” this week. A 10 year old girl sang opera with a voice of a trained 30 year old. She was beautiful, and in awe of the reception she received. Watch for her – Jackie ?????- . She already has a Carnegie hall date.
Dinner time. Watch for more from me soon. Wish you all were here – well sort of. I hope Colorado can keep some of its free space for my lifetime. But I do miss you all. Lois
