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Monday 23rd 57F, 14C, heavy overcast with rain. Potential for clearing up this afternoon. My leg has improved thanks to the cold compresses and complete rest. It still hurts when I put any weight on my toes but is not the agony of yesterday. I spent the entire day sitting at the computer, resting my leg. I don't feel any pain [at all] until I try to climb the stairs.Tuesday 24th 51-65F[?] 11-18C[?] heavy overcast, slightly misty, damp start to the day. My calf is recovering well but I have no idea how I'll manage the shopping on the trike until I try. I don't want to find myself unable to progress miles from home. The car will need the clutch depressing which may actually be worse than pedaling. There is always the bus but I haven't ridden on a bus in decades. Knowing Denmark, it will cost £10 [equiv] per stop plus VAT and green taxes and then more VAT on top of the green taxes and more VAT on top of the VAT. Plus an extra £100 for failing to have a pre-paid ticket before boarding. The Danish railways demand extra of those without a ticket to avoid fare dodging and then the damned ticket machines never work according to the Danish press! No doubt the same rules apply to the buses which have been ferrying <cough> "train" <cough> passengers across Fyn due to endless repairs to the tracks.
I will probably need the exact fare [and my passport and travel visa and bio-data] or I will be put off the bus. Or not allowed on in the first place! I had better do some homework on timetables and remember which side of the road I should wait. It gets worse! It seems I would need to get off in the target shopping village and change buses just to do the final extra mile of only three miles in all! That, or hobble the entire length of the village just to reach the shops. Now there's a sensible route plan if I ever I saw one! The bus does a sharp turn to nowhere before it reaches all the shops. And they wonder why people drive everywhere and the rural buses are always completely empty when I see them? Dogh!On the way back I would have to do the same walk in reverse but uphill. Except that I'd be loaded down by then with a huge sports bag stuffed to the gills with a week's shopping from several different supermarkets. Well, I've just tried the clutch pedal on the car with my calf bandaged up tightly and it doesn't hurt. Problem solved. Shopping accomplished, but with a seriously clown-like hobble everywhere I went. Charlie Chaplin would have been proud except for the lack of a stick. Pressure off riding the trike for another day and no bus drivers were upset by my pidgin Danish. You always need another, completely new and untried vocabulary set for every new venture over here. It's exhausting at my age not being able to whip out one's Babelfish Universal Translator with a well practiced flourish!
Will gentle exercise now aid recovery or merely prolong it? I have been resting completely for several days now but cabin fever is really beginning to set in. I might just see if I can reach the road and back on foot. The shared section of the gravel drive is so potholed by the neighbour's countless car journeys that it will prove a good training exercise. I just hope that I don't get run over! ;-)
I managed two return trips to the road for about half a mile in total. I discovered that I am not yet free from pain and climbing the stairs afterwards suggested some regression. There was some free entertainment to be had at half way watching an elderly tipper truck under the complete control of the even more elderly driver's "TV zapper." As he effortlessly left a neat pile of gravel precisely where expected on a prepared tarpaulin. Though, sadly, not more gravel for the battered drive. If it gets any worse I shall have to resort to technical aids rather than free climbing the potholes. Though fixed ropes might be considered overkill at this time of year. I am still torn between inflatable dinghies and kayaks for the wider stretches of open water.
After my "walk" I was safely glued to the computer chair as the sun came out, the wind picked up and the birds did what they do best. It's all getting a bit H.G.Wells sitting here in my dormer window watching the fresh birch leaves trembling. Somebody has left the wind coming from the north. Which will never do.
Click on any image for an enlargement.
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