Elbow Grease

This morning I got up to a new, happy feeling - a real sense of relief from pain I've had in my right elbow early August. There have been days when I would wake up and my elbow hurt less, or hurt more, but today it was a qualitatively different feeling than just a mathematical decrease in pain. I think it's finally getting better 

We got bikes over the summer, calculating a savings cost and health benefits for getting to and from school in the coming months. Meanwhile, to get the kids (and myself) in biking shape we used them to get to and from playdates. One day coming back from picking Gabe up, I lifted the bike quickly over a curb at an awkward angle and felt a sharp, intense pain in my right elbow. 

That was the first injury. I iced it, took Ibuprofen, and tried not to use that arm too much, but it hurt even to try to open a pickle jar, or to scrub a pot while washing dishes. 

Then, about 10 days later, I was foolishly trying out Gabe's hoverboard and fell hard backwards, hitting my head on the low wall of the balcony and also landing on that same right elbow. 

I was truly frightened about possible head injury, because school was just starting, but I was fine as far as that went. 

The elbow, though, was bruised and swollen. Over the next few days it got better, but I was stuck with chronic pain that was exacerbated by knitting, using the mouse, and using the handbrake on my bike. Anything that involved grasping with the thumb and first two fingers on my right hand. 

Physiotherapy was the next step. Turns out that the radius was very slightly dislocated, but the therapist shoved it back in place and gave me a series of exercises to do. That helped, but the pain continued. Less, but still there. 

I went back again and got instructions to prop up my forearm while using the mouse or typing, and I think this has done the trick. It's the ergonomics of it - plus continued careful stretching. 

We're coming to the end of the first quarter of the school year and I finally am feeling some relief - both in reduced stress overall, and relief from this chronic pain. I am so thankful.  

Shpella Pëllumbasit - hike to a cave

We had this week off from school, a nice long Fall Break, so it seemed like a good opportunity to head out of the city and explore more of Albania. The weather had other plans, however, so we spent Monday and Tuesday hunkered down with books and Minecraft while it rained, and rained, and rained. 

Thankfully, Wednesday dawned clear and beautiful and we were able to borrow a vehicle for a lovely day trip to Petrela Castle: 

We had gone a few years ago when my parents came to visit, but this time the weather was nicer and we're all in better shape so made the short climb to the top to see the amazing view from the top. It was pretty amazing to envision the people who built it, strategically located to look along the valley to Durres.

After that we made our way to Pëllumbas, a small village where we got a bit of lunch to eat before following a well-maintained trail along the mountains to an amazing cave called Shpella Pëllumbasit (the cave of Pëllumbas). 

The silence of the mountains was only disturbed by the rushing sound of the river below, and the occasional braying of a donkey from the village. The trail was not too muddy, and there were handrails and steps installed in the trickiest spots, as well as a few benches at lookout spots like the one above. We saw a lot of mushrooms, beetles, and grasshoppers. 

I was about to give up when we finally got to the cave - it was pretty impressive, having been inhabited by humans since the Paleolithic! (well, not continuously - I don't think anyone lives there now)

There were steps carved into the cave wall here near the entrance.

Apparently you can rent lanterns and helmets to do a proper spelunking, and hire a guide, but we just moseyed around the entrance and imagined being ancient humans living there. The cave floor was quite dry, so it seemed like a perfect ready-made place to hunker down in bad weather between hunting and foraging trips. 

 We don't know much about mushrooms, but there were a number of different kinds visible and I imagine some are edible. 

It was a beautiful, amazing day trip and I'm so glad we did it.

A bit of a melange

It's October already! Life continues to be full and busy. I'm slightly less tired than I was a few weeks ago, and only 30% as scared on the way to and from school. Yesterday Terry used my bike to pick up the kids since I had a staff meeting after classes, and he got a flat tire, so I was spared (ha ha) from having to deal with that. I'm still, overall, really enjoying biking. 

So, can anyone identify the tree that is in this picture, with the broader/bigger leaves? There are lemon, tangerine, and olive trees in the garden at school, and the students are telling me that this new tall tree (upper left quadrant) is an avocado. I'm skeptical but willing to be convinced! 

In yarn-related news, I'm very excited to have all these beautiful new yarns from Indigo Dragonfly! I ordered them a while ago, before I knew whether we would be able to go to the US this summer or not and they'e been living at Rosanne's house. Now a friend of hers has unexpectedly come to Albania and he was able to bring them to me. Yarn heaven! One of these days I will have the energy to decide what to knit next, download the patterns, and get started. The pinkish one is Corona-virus themed (it's named for Dr. Tam, who has headed up the Canadian response to Covid-19; the pattern includes "droplets" in sets of 19 and the colors are based on a photo of the virus).

We recently went past this mural, which you can see has been repainted to match our current reality. 

This is what it looked like before: 

Masks are starting to feel normal, to the point that I showed my students a photo of a crowd of people in Tokyo from several years ago and their reaction was "it's so strange that they're not wearing masks!"

Next week is Fall Break! We're hoping to go somewhere outside Tirana