July 2021

We spent a good portion of the summer in Rock Hall and while we were down there we registered the girls for sailing camp. The first week both girls were in the beginner group where they learned on Optis. After the first week Sophie was “promoted” to the intermediate group and did another 2 weeks of camp. Lauren decided she wasn’t that into it and did “grandparent” camp instead.

The intermediate camp was a little more challenging for Sophie, but by the end of it she was really happy and confident. Which is great because she’s definitely the #2 sailor on our boat vacations. (I’m definitely the #4).

Here are a few shots of Soph in her Opti.

At the end of each session the girls got an award. Lauren was “Silent but Deadly” – appropriate in more ways than one. The first session Sophie was the top “Knot Tie-er,” and the second session she was “Fiesty & Fearless.”

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I mentioned in the previous post that at the 4th of July BBQ at The Sharps, Petunia ran right into the side of my knee. After having several sets of x-rays I found out my tibial plateau was fractured and required surgery to repair it.

On July 12th, I had that surgery at Penn. The surgeon begin arthroscopically, but ended up needing to make an incision to tamp the bone back into place, and then two screws were placed beneath it to hold everything together. Unless there’s an issue down the road, those screws will remain in my knee indefinitely.

The surgery was outpatient and took about 2 hours and I was home by the afternoon.

Below are x-rays from before and after. In the before x-ray you can see that the bone looks a little crushed down on the right (which is actually the left side of my left leg), which was then pushed back into place and held up with screws.

The first week after surgery I stayed downstairs exclusively and barely moved from the sleeper couch in our living room. Once the nerve block wore off I was in a lot of pain until I got the right combo of pain pills going. After about four days I started feeling better, and after a week I didn’t need to take pain pills anymore.

My view the first week home

I have another set of x-rays scheduled for next week and will have a better idea of my recovery plan, but for now I know I’m on crutches for at least six weeks, with little to no pressure on my left leg while the bone heals. It’s been both mentally and physically very challenging, but Dave and the girls have been my hands and legs. And my mom even flew in for five days to help out when Dave had to travel to Chicago (his first travel since the pandemic!).

My 42nd birthday also landed three days after surgery, when I was still pretty immobile on the sleeper couch. So we did a birthday dinner in the living room. As is my birthday tradition, I always have a hamburger, so Dave made a delicious one bedside!

Couch-side birthday dinner!

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This 4th we spent the holiday in our NEW house in Rock Hall! Over Memorial Day weekend we closed on a house of our own on Bayside Avenue, just a few blocks from The Sharps. Dave spent the first few weekends doing some work on it. The room that’s now Sophie’s needed a lot of work, so Dave spent two full weekends fixing it up, and it turned out really nice. He’ll slowly work his way through the rest of the house pulling up carpets, painting, and generally updating.

My family came up from Virginia and stayed until Monday, so it was a good long weekend.

The first night we walked across the street to the Harbor Shack (yes, we’re across the street from our favorite restaurant!), and while we were waiting for our table got some good family pics.

We spent a lot of time at the beach. The weather was really nice all weekend. The first day we had most of the beach to ourselves, but once the weekend got going it was packed. This is definitely the town if you’re looking for a small town 4th!

Rock Hall celebrates the 4th on the 3rd of July, with a parade in the morning and fireworks that evening. The parade goes down Main Street and is mostly fire trucks, local businesses, and people with cool cars driving down the street throwing candy. Very small and very Americana.

The gang waiting for the parade to go by

That afternoon the Sharp’s hosted a BBQ at their house. In addition to my family, Zoe and her daughter Maddie, Ed, Dot, Crystal, John and Bella were there too.

Zoe & Mo

After dinner, everyone walked down the street to our house where we set out chairs at the end of the driveway and watched the fireworks, which they shot off right across the street in the harbor.

There was one unfortunate mishap during the weekend. At the BBQ Becky brought her dog Penny and Zoe brought her dog Mo and we had Petunia. They were happy dogs, running around like happy dogs do. I made the unfortunate and mistimed decision to get a picture of Sophie and Maddie on the swing set at the exact moment that Petunia was shooting across the yard. She nailed me with her head right in the knee and I went down. Hard. I’m writing this several days later, after x-rays and a CT scan have confirmed that I have a tibial plateau fracture that will require surgery to fix. Just a moment later, or an inch to one side and it would be a different outcome. But it’s done and there’s nothing I can do now (except curse the damn dog!).

Before hobbling back to a chair I did manage to snap the picture I wanted to get. May it live in infamy!

THE picture. I’ll remind both of these kids for the rest of their lives the story behind it!

Before my family left on Monday we had a little July birthday celebration for Mom, Becky and me. It was such a great weekend (with one low point), and I hope we can make it a tradition!

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