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Road to Recovery

Road to Recovery I wish my road to recovery could be at lightspeed. Unfortunately I have to take my time. Yesterday I had occupational therapy again. The therapist seems pleased with how things are going; and has added some gentle squeezing exercises to my regimen. She even gave me an old tennis ball to use. I still have to find ways to do many things one-handed, though. Yesterday afternoon I wanted to open a small can of mixed vegetables, to heat in some squashed sauce. It was a pull-top  can — should be easy, right? Wrong! The pull ring broke off; and I had to figure out a way to get that can open. I didn’t want to keep it for later in case the seal was broken. If my left hand weren’t out of commission, the can opener would have done fine; but that hand can’t bear the hard gripping needed to operate a [manual] can-opener. I had to use the tool right-handed to pry open a small slot at the edge of the can’s lid. Then I fetched a heavy screwdriver; washed it; and wiggled the shaft tip into the slot. Finally I was able to pry off that lid. Along the way, I had to use my left fist (to keep stress off my thumb) to brace the can. Even that is probably more than I ought to have done. The road to recovery is long and slow, and it’s hard to be patient; but I don’t want to ruin things! Today I didn’t go ride a WattBike®. Such pedaling tends to make the inside of my left knee hurt; so maybe it’s better that I don’t do it daily. I suspect that part of the problem is, I have to use clip-in pedals like platform pedals. I hope I can get in a pedaling session tomorrow. But when it comes to meal prep, I sure miss being able to use a pepper mill!  

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Nouvelle Cuisine?

Nouvelle cuisine as it’s supposed to be, probably would not include hot dogs! I did try another new twist on chicken tikka masala today, so I got the “nouvelle” part right, at least. To be precise, it’s another version of “Chinese hot dogs“. Yesterday at the salvage store, I found sweet & sour sauce. It’s not the same brand as last time, but that’s OK. It also has a different flavor, but that’s OK, too. It seems sweeter than the brand I had last time. Maybe that’s all to the good, as this time I put in curry powder; and the sauce doesn’t clash with it. I needed to use the whole jar of sauce, and had a good time scraping out the residue with a finger and licking it up. Then came the sad part — discarding the jar. My upbringing screams at me to keep it; practicality says NO, I don’t have room to keep any more jars on my shelves! Naturally today wasn’t all kitchen work. I had to ride to the supermarket to get the yogurt; and after I was home from the store I went out on the road bike. At 10 am the fog hadn’t entirely burned off; and the sun was also dodging in and out of clouds. I didn’t know when the weather might turn bad; and the wind seemed to be getting stronger. I went sissy and turned back early. I got home; ate some lunch; and then launched into preparing my new invention. Part of the fun of nouvelle cuisine is inventing names for your new creations. “Kung Bo Hot Dogs”, maybe?

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