Icicle days
Knees, dogs, snow, and an anniversary
A lot to get to today … I’m feeling good enough that I should be back to regular posting here at least twice a week. Thanks for your patience. Let’s get right to it!
Knee update
Today marks 18 days since my knee replacement surgery … everybody says the first two weeks are the toughest so I’m excited to be through that part of it. I’m still pretty stiff and sore but haven’t had the agonizing post-op pain that some friends and readers have reported. Feeling lucky and grateful.
I took my bandage off yesterday … I’ll spare you the gnarly photo but it looks pretty good, all things considered. The other big milestone yesterday: I could bend enough to put on my own socks! Alix was extremely happy to hear this.
The physical therapy folks are working me hard but are very kind. It helps that they have a sense of humor. This is on the wall at the PT clinic:
I also have an excellent therapist at home … although I’m not sure who is therapy-ing who.
Dog news!
We watched Penny the Doberman pinscher win the Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday … when I saw her go into an absolutely perfect stack (about 1:15 in this video) I knew she was the one to beat. Most dogs naturally vibrate with energy, so to be that still in the middle of such chaos is the sign of incredible training and discipline.
I did wonder if the judge, David Fitzpatrick, might pick the Maltese given Fitzpatrick’s love of toy dogs—he won Westminster twice as a hander with Pekingese. But he made the right call.
(If you’re new to the Writing Shed and you’re asking yourself “how the hell does this dude know about Westminster?”, well, I wrote a book about it! If you enjoyed the show, you will definitely enjoy the book.)
One thing that really warmed my heart at Westminster … Striker, the Samoyed who is the canine star of DOGLAND, was invited back this year to be part of a Living Legends celebration. Laura King—Striker’s handler, and the human star of my book—got to take him around the ring one more time.
A couple of other dog tidbits:
—Audio producer Sarah Montague interviewed me for her documentary THERE’S ONLY ONE: WESTMINSTER AT 150, about the 150th anniversary of the dog show. It’s excellent.
—We can’t move on without saying goodbye to Catherine O’Hara, who was brilliant and hilarious in everything from SCTV back in the ‘80s to SCHITT’S CREEK just recently. But for the purposes of this section, she will always be the comic heart of BEST IN SHOW: Cookie Fleck, the gal with a checkered past but a deep love for her husband, Gerry, and their Norwich terrier, Winky. I laughed at so many things in BEST IN SHOW, but the thing that made me laugh hardest was just these few seconds of Cookie trying to walk after hurting her knee:
God loves a terrier, and God definitely loved Catherine O’Hara.
Wintry mix
Like many of you reading this, we got whomped by a big snowstorm a week ago today. We think we got about 8 inches at our house, but the official Charlotte total was 11 inches—the fourth-highest snowfall here in recorded history. It was gorgeous as it fell, a billion feathers pillowing the sidewalks and windshields and porch railings.
Then on Sunday it melted a bit and refroze. And that’s when the icicles came out. Alix got some great photos:
For the last few days we’ve heard the occasional crash as the icicles broke free and shattered on the ground. Everything has pretty much melted now, although there are a few stray patches of snow in random places, like beer cans strewn around the yard after a really good party.
We got lucky—this snowstorm and the ice storm a couple of weeks ago didn’t cripple us like it did in places like Nashville. But I will tell you, as a Southern boy, that I am pretty damn ready for this cold weather to move on. It’s currently expected to hit 68 here on Wednesday. That’s more like it.
Anniversary time
I wanted to acknowledge a milestone I missed while doing rehab: Feb. 1 was the fourth anniversary of The Writing Shed! Some of you have been around even longer, back when this was a MailChimp newsletter, but 2022 was when I moved over here to Substack and things started taking off.
More than 6,000 of you have subscribed to the Shed in that time … the world is so fragmented these days that it can be really hard to find your tribe. I’m really glad we’ve found one another. Thanks so much for your support.
Let me ask two small favors.
One, if you know somebody else who might enjoy our little community, share this post with them and let them know we’d love to have them come aboard:
And two, if you’re not a paid subscriber, I’d ask that you consider becoming one. I know there are a million places to spend your money, but if you enjoy the Shed and it has value in your life, I’d be grateful if you supported my work in that way.
As long as I don’t hit “mauled by bear or ninjas” on the pain scale, I should be back in this space a couple times a week from here on out. I hope y’all enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy making it.
Upcoming events
March 21: Q&A with Valerie Bauerlein about her book THE DEVIL AT HIS ELBOW at the Mt. Pleasant Literary Festival in Mt. Pleasant, NC
Buy my books DOGLAND and THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM! They’re available in all formats pretty much everywhere books are sold.
Great stuff as always, and glad to hear how well things are going with the knee.
I've been fortunate in my life to have not been in a lot of physical pain. I had double-hernia surgery over the summer, and part of recovery was to be able to eventually move around to get up and use the restroom. Once you can do that OK, they let you go home.
Given my lucky lack of pain in my life, I didn't have a good handle on the pain scale. What is real pain, anyway? And besides, I didn't want to be a wimp.
I finally feel like I'm ready to try the bathroom thing. My wonderful nurse, an older southern woman, asked my pain scale. I said, "Uh, maybe a three?" She said, "OK, go on and try to get up and use the restroom."
I go to move to sit up and just howl in pain. Clearly, everything has mostly worn off. I crumble back into my recovery bed.
Nurse pats me on the chest and says, "Honey, that ain't a three, that's a two."
I was hurting, but I could still be incredulous. "Two?! That's a TWO?!" Wha?????"
"Yeah, baby," she said. "As in two Vicodin. Stay here and I'll get 'em. You've still got a while."
God bless Nurse Vivian.
The scritching of your therapist made my day. Cats are good medicine!
Glad to hear you're on the mend!