Eagles and Ankles

Sunday morning, I saw this eagle on a log on the lake, and he stayed around for a long time. At first I thought he was hurt, so I watched him through our telescope for a while. He was huge, and didn't really seem in distress. He just hung around, drinking out of the lake. After watching him for a while, I went outside to take the picture. He still didn't fly away, and I was able to get within about 30 feet of him, before he took off. Obviously he wasn't hurt, he was just enjoying the sunshine.

We have about a dozen eagles in the area, they are constantly fishing and hunting (ducks mostly). People with small dogs (really small, like less than 10 lbs) have to be careful because the eagles have been known to snatch them. B is about 16 lbs, so I think he's safe, besides he's never outside by himself. The interesting thing is occasionally I'll find a dead fish in the driveway or in the flower beds, obviously dropped by an eagle (lol...none of the fish in the lake are flying fish). A few weeks ago, one of our neighbors got hit on the head by a fish falling from the sky. It was a glancing blow, but he said it really hurt. I guess you just never know what's out there waiting to get you....

My right ankle has really been bothering me since Saturday afternoon. About 6 years ago, I really messed it up when I fell off a ladder. At the time, the doctor told me he'd never seen such a badly sprained ankle, and that it might never be right again. Well, I worked really hard on physical therapy and had acupuncture. I even tried moxibustion from a massage therapist in Hawaii (he called himself "Dr Darko"...quite a name, huh?). I guarantee Dr Darko was not a medical doctor and his method of moxibustion was not a medically approved procedure. It actually burned my skin, hurt like hell, and left scars…but the big surprise was it really helped. The ankle still looks kind of disfigured and it's covered with broken blood vessels, but it's been mostly pain free for the last few years.

It does still flair up occasionally, the last time was after I hiked the volcano on the Big Island last year. And now it's bugging me again. I think all this walking on uneven trails has tweaked it, even though I have really good shoes designed for trail hiking. I have been taking ibuprofen at night and that seems to help...but if I forget to take it every few hours, it starts to hurt again. (Like right now, it hurts a lot.) I have also been thinking about wearing an ankle brace so I can keep trail hiking, but hub thinks I should just walk on stable surfaces for a while, like pavement or the treadmill. He says "YOUR ANKLE IS TALKING TO YOU...LISTEN TO IT!" Okay, maybe he's right (I hate that).

As for the "EEEEK…I've gained 4 lbs" situation that I posted about last week...I've been wearing my size 12 uniform pants for my mental health. I still haven't had a lot of time to work out, but I'm eating carefully (to be brutally honest, I think maybe I'm not eating enough…I tend to restrict when I get in this mindset. I know I have to be very careful about this.). Today I noticed the 12's are starting to loosen up a bit. I tried the 10's on this morning, but they were still a little snug. So I put the 12's back on...no use being miserable or uncomfortable…by next Monday, I should be back down to around 162.

Well, I'm going to try to sneak out a bit early from work so I can go to Curves on the way home. That's low impact. Give the ankle a rest.

Have a great evening!