Our Winter Sundowner was held just over two weeks ago. I have been attempting to write a Detailed Report of this event and other news from the East End Gallery ever since. The words have been whirling around inside my skull at their usual frenetic pace, but the motivation to actually place my fingers on the laptop to complete this usually pleasant task has been sadly lacking.
Back during the time of the dinosaurs, when I was a younger whippersnapper, the thought of piling up my days with activities, often until the wee small hours, was entirely natural. I joined committees and boards galore, spoke at every opportunity to better the world, ran a support association, administered Alex's intensive intervention programme (along with OT, physiotherapy, speech pathology, day care, school and structured play), collaborated with other organisations and would often carry out housework at night after everybody else was in bed.
Age related conditions began to creep in surprisingly early. I have worn reading glasses since my late thirties. I began suffering injuries such as tennis elbow (repeatedly) when I had precious little experience of that game. Running for ten years prematurely aged my knees and ankles as I always preferred tarmac to uneven surfaces. Tweaking of my shoulders by the Boy Wonder Ben Kimberley began back in 2010, following a school incident when I was working as an education assistant. Then came a broken ankle, another school related wrist and lower arm injury followed by my left knee replacement four years ago.
Much to my dismay, I have turned into the clumsiest woman in the known universe. If it is possible to trip over still air on a flat path, I can do this. I am sure that my latest injury - a torn meniscus ligament and associated cyst - was a premeditated plan by Michael's Gallery chair to hurt me. I chose to sit on that malevolent piece of furniture for a split second until I went one way and the blasted chair another way. Next I knew I was on the floor, thoroughly embarrassed and hoping that all my generous body padding had protected me from potential nastiness.
Plus, I also recently tripped over a highly visible crack in the concrete next to our undercover washing line. Although I had gone down like a sack of potatoes on my left side, I had wondered about repercussions to my right knee, which was already quite sore by this stage.
Michael hasn't been immune to the inconvenience of age either. Three surgeries on his right wrist, hand and lower arm and tendon surgery on his left thumb has improved his ability to continue his art work. His shoulders have been cleaned and vacuumed, his left foot broken and healed and he is still getting used to his new hearing aids, courtesy of the noise during both his misspent youth and work life.
Throw in a lively Sundowner over a busy long weekend and the boom was lowered. I was just shattered after that night. So was Michael. After seven years of running Sundowners at our beloved Gallery well into the night, we have come to a startling realisation.
We are becoming wrecked by these activities. This epiphany has caused us to rethink future occasions. The Meerkat themed September Sundowner will begin earlier - from four o'clock and the curtain will come down at nine o'clock. We then hope to transition to the afternoons as the time for our Sundowners, which would involve the cessation of celebrations when the sun goes down. And, we intend to hopefully hold art demonstrations before our Sundowners, so we become more family focused. The last card making "workshop", prior to the Winter Sundowner was enthusiastically received by an extended family looking for an activity on a cold day.
Like it or not, we now have to begin taking our bodies' limitations into account. We have rediscovered chiropractor Liam Welfar, who comes to Beverley once a week. He has taken us In Hand to try and keep our bodies as flexible as possible. Ben Kimberley performed an arthroscopy and meniscectomy on my right knee on Friday. I am waiting with bated breath to discover if I am on a slippery slope towards my next knee replacement. Michael's neck and back arthritis is progressively worsening and he also needs both his hips replaced. We are working hard with Liam to be in the best shape we can for our much anticipated Epic Road Trip through Queensland in less than four weeks. Then we will attend to repairs as required.
Friday continued the theme of self inflicted exhaustion. I had also undertaken to drop Alex to his afternoon treatment for the eye condition keratoconus, fully aware that I would be a day patient myself under Ben Kimberley for my knee arthroscopy. Hence, four hours after my general anaesthetic, Michael and Alex picked me up and we proceeded to the Perth Eye Hospital. I stayed with Alex until he was under sedation. We grabbed a quick bite to eat whilst he was receiving the treatment and finally headed for home just before six o'clock. Michael's tenacity and skill at getting us all safely to Beverley in the dark resulted in severe back pain as his reward.
Thus, at the completion of this latest twaddle detailing our business/busyness of the last two weeks, I shall be retiring to bed for an afternoon kip. The Freemasons' Tavern is our venue of choice for dinner. Following that, we intend to watch a riveting few hours on the telly before settling onto our deliciously comfy bed for the remainder of tonight. We need to deliver the Autistic Superstar home to his digs sometime tomorrow.
The washing machine has just finished and Alex's wet clothes are waiting for me. I shall attend to this task before blowing kisses to the universe whilst I gratefully enjoy an afternoon snooze.
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