Well, it’s official – I’m cleared by my orthopedic doctor to be back on the roads driving and to resume as much of a normal life as I can.
He did caution me that there would be a lag in my stamina and strength but encouraged me to continue building up my leg muscles and other support systems as I needed them.
This basically means the soreness I feel from driving and physical therapy is on the docket until I’m back to my normal levels prior to the broken leg incident last September.
But, we all know that my mom is happiest about hearing that I can drive myself to meetings, and local events, and run her errands all by myself again.
And to be completely honest, I’ve been driving in town for the past two weeks or so.
Now, I still have some physical therapy to attend with regard to my healed leg, but I’m optimistic that I might only need one or two more visits.
After that, it’s back to lifting sacks of chicken feed, garden soil, and cases of water bottles – all things that my mom has been doing in my stead the past few months.
I hate to admit that I’m looking forward to getting back to some semblance of normalcy and helping take some of mom’s workload away, too.
Though I think the hardest part of the lingering ordeal is that my stamina is still so low and I’m struggling to attend long events without a chair to sit in.
Not to mention traversing uneven parking lots or withering sidewalks.
However, with the new TxDOT sidewalks running from East to West in Bay City, that issue has been solved for the most part.
I’m glad to see them and hope that they start construction going north to south, too.
Speaking of road improvements or construction – the roundabout is nearing completion.
I got to try my hand at it for the first time over the weekend.
Now, I honestly had no problem obeying the traffic lights and turning lanes that stood there for years beforehand, but, TxDOT apparently thinks that a roundabout is a safer option.
Well, keeping it a four-way stop certainly helped slow traffic down, so, maybe that’s the point.
Either way, it didn’t add too much time to my trip to Matagorda Beach last Sunday.
It’ll be interesting to see how things progress during summertime or when there’s construction for the new Matagorda Harbor expansion project.
So far, with the two flatbed grass semis and one tanker truck, I saw passing through the intersection, at least it forced them to slow down to a complete stop.
But, when the traffic cones and “construction/work area” signs are taken down, what will the intersection look like then?
It’s a little bit of food for thought and will definitely give me pause and time to re-evaluate my travel decisions when using that intersection.
Speaking of the roundabout and traffic safety, I hope everyone keeps that in mind during spring break this week.
Not to mention, please mind your manners at our beautiful beaches and pick up your garbage and avoid riptides!
Nothing makes for a more terrible edition of the newspaper than having to report on someone drowning at the beach.
