Tammy's Recovery Continues, Snowshoeing, Glass projects and More

Tammy has made significant progress in her hip replacement surgery recovery. The first 5 days post-op were more difficult than either of us anticipated they would be but she's been making steady improvement. She's graduated from a walker to crutches and now to simply one crutch. We expect that she'll be abandoning the crutch soon for a cane we purchased for her. She's mostly off her meds and is okay to drive but I've still been taking her places because of the abundance of ice and snow between handicap parking and the entrance to wherever she's going. I like being able to drop her off right at the door to minimize the risk of a fall which could be catastrophic to her recovery. She's busy making plans for a small vacation to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary this summer—a vacation where we plan to do plenty of hiking with her new hip!

I'm one month out from walking away from Facebook and while I do miss many of my connections there, I'm happy to report that there were no withdrawal pangs whatsoever. It's possible I'll return to it someday but not now.

I was out for coffee with some friends last week and they were talking about their snowshoeing adventures and how much fun they have snowshoeing the mountain bike trails. For the past few years, I'd been toying with the idea of buying some snowshoes. Our conversation was motivation enough for me to get my butt over to REI and check out their selection.

I'm good-to-go!

I hiked 5 miles on Monday and another 4.6 miles on Tuesday. It's a good workout in addition to being a lot of fun but I think I injured my lower back from so many miles so soon. I want to blame it on shoveling out the bottom of our driveway but Tammy suspects it was two days back to back of snowshoeing that did it. I suspect she may be right.

I've taken the past week off from my stained glass work due to a busier schedule than usual but I hope to be back down in my studio today to begin work on a project. I'm redoing one of my larger panels I made about a year ago that sold last summer. Tammy and I were both somewhat saddened to see it go.

I finished the piece to the right last week. I did a variation of this style last year and thought it would be nice to have another for our sunporch. It's for sale but I'm content if it stays with us.

I'll often mention on my Etsy site in the description for a miniature panel just how difficult it is to work with such tiny pieces of glass because I think some people are maybe put off by the amount I have to charge for something so small. The panel in the photo to the right took roughly 20 hours to fabricate (not including design and prep time). This miniature panel took me 14 hours. I likely can't charge more for my smaller panels and expect them to sell but I can for the larger ones, and so I do.

I'm waiting for Keith to get back to me with an idea he has for some windows in his and Tracee's home. I'd like to get them done before spring arrives and I close up the shop until next winter. I'm not even going to pretend that there's even the slightest chance I'll be able to work on any projects once the weather warms.

I bought tickets months ago to see Mandolin Orange at First Avenue in Minneapolis. I thought I was going to have to take a pass because of Tammy's surgery but my neighbor, Mark, offered to go with me. It was an excellent night. Mark and Becky brought over dinner and wine before Mark and I left for the concert. The ladies remained behind and rented a movie while chatting the night away.

That's all I've got.