Here’s a pretty picture taken this morning to thank you for all the notes about my ankle. I didn’t mean to alarm you. I’m really fine. Sort of. I have the cold and flu thing that’s going around, and since my ankle gave out at the same time and I have a headache and my back hurts, I’m a little worried it may be a rare form of bone or blood cancer. My husband assures me everyone feels bad when they get sick, and if I’ll just lie down for another day I’ll be fine tomorrow. I wish there was a better story for the Ace bandage ankle wrap. Heli-skiing or ice climbing, or even a yoga twist gone awry. It just swelled up and hurts. I have been walking a lot in rubber boots on uneven sand and rocks, and must have strained it. As my husband says, I’m fortunate that I have the flu so that my foot will heal. (And people think I’m the Pollyanna.) Since I was lying on the couch anyway, I was looking forward to watching the Academy Awards, but we couldn’t see them because there was (apparently) a big fight between the Alaska ABC affiliates and the Direct-TV dish people about the cost to broadcast it, so ABC pulled the plug on some (maybe all? I don’t know) Alaskan households with no warning and blacked out the channels carrying the awards from our TV. (My husband said I should be thankful that I had not gotten all dressed up to go to an Oscar party, or worse, spent the day preparing to host one.) We watched the Gold Rush finale instead (we record it). It was nice to see friends on TV looking good and speaking well, and you know, making us sort of famous here in Haines. Parker has always been more enthusiastic than most kids about his favorite activities, from hunting and trapping to mining. Not many of us have such a passion at 19, or the resources and confidence to pursue it. Of course the real worry is less about the mining or college choice than the whole TV stardom thing– but his folks will do their best to keep the lid on that, and in Haines anyway, we live in a kind of perpetual celebrity blackout, you know? Time to ice my foot and take a nap, as Pearl spent the night barking, whining, panting and running up and down the stairs. The wolves across the river were howling again, but the call of the wild wasn’t as thrilling, somehow, when she responded as if it were 4th of July fireworks. About two a.m. I had a sneezing jag, which hurt my foot, which made me remember that our will still needs to be updated. Maybe later, after the nap. I’m hoping to revive enough to see at least one of the basketball games tonight between the Haines girls (5pm) followed by the boys ( a double header!) against Yakutat. That, and with any luck, limp out to throw Pearl’s ball and breathe a little fresh air this afternoon.
