Big winds
Was it really just a week ago we were awaiting Cyclone Bianca? It now seems such a long time ago. Bianca just fizzled out in the end and left us just a bit of morning drizzle and light rain. As it turns out, the thunderstorm that rolled through last Saturday caused quite a bit of destruction once it had passed out of the Perth area. And for once, we weren’t the suburb that missed out on rain locally. We returned to the normal summer drought early in the week and watched as Cyclone Yasi did its damage on the other side of the country. We had some absolutely gorgeous weather here on Wednesday evening with a beautiful sunset and perfect temperatures. It was just so peaceful and calm here. Meanwhile, the monster storm was battering northern Queensland. It was a weird feeling to be so safe while watching the destruction from afar. Perth may be out in the middle of nowhere in this world, but we have it pretty lucky where natural disasters are concerned.
The school year officially started this week and I got started on more structured program with Lego Lover. We had a fair bit of conflict one day over long multiplication but otherwise it started off well this year. I will enjoy that while I can.
I had my post-op appointment with the surgeon on Thursday and I am doing just fine, as I expected. Apparently most people with this surgery find the belly button wound is the slowest to heal but mine is looking more healed than the others. And when I mentioned the extreme tiredness  from earlier, the surgeon said that he hears that more from gallbladder patients than any others. I was there no more than five or six minutes, much like the original consultation. I was surprised, but had no complaint, when I discovered there was no additional charge for the follow up visit.
We bought a gps recently and I used that to find the best way of getting to this last appointment, which was at a different hospital to where I had surgery. This is where the surgeon usually works and I was able to get a more timely appointment so decided I’d go a bit further. As it turns out, the trip was probably faster than going to the “closer” hospital and the parking was a lot easier too. I was going to be scheduled for surgery at this hospital but specifically asked for it at the closer branch where I ended up. I guess it’s something to keep in mind for the future.
Although I’m still having trouble with my left foot, I decided to try exercise again yesterday. I found earlier that wearing proper shoes seems to help so I did my Wii routines with shoes instead of the usual bare feet. It seemed to go pretty well but I didn’t feel like I’d had as much of a workout as before. I guess my stamina has really improved over the past week. I was back at it again today even though I was tempted to avoid it. I decided to work on harder routines this time since I hadn’t felt particularly challenged yesterday. Instead I overdid it by doing one routine too many. That last one was also an advanced workout so I expect to be a bit sore tomorrow. My foot doesn’t seem to be any better or worse so maybe the foot problem had nothing to do with my previous exercise.
We may not have got a cyclone last week but we are definitely getting a share of strong winds this weekend. I went to hang clothes outside earlier tonight and had a tough time getting things on the line. I think some items may have dried before I’d hung everything up and it was no surprise to find it completely dry when I went back out a couple hours later. Should be another noisy night so I hope sleep will come easily.
