Keeping Moving

Hello from one of our local bobcats!

We woke up to snow this morning - a few inches overnight that weighed down the pine boughs.

During our snowbike ride (my first attempt at riding with wrist splints - woo hoo - I knew it could be done!), the snow bombarded us occasionally.

Shyla and I played a few training games. First we played fetch with a ball in the snow.

Then, she made up her own game of "hiding" her ball in the snow and digging it up.

I was so proud of her when she did one of her "commands" outdoors for the first time. I use chemical handwarmers a lot in the winter (for Raynaud's Syndrome), and I drop them in the snow regularly. In the quiet of our house, I taught Shyla to "find" a handwarmer for me, pick it up gently, and bring it to me. Today, I dropped one, and I couldn't find it under the fluffy snow. So, I said "find it" to Shyla, and she instantly went to work, using her nose to find the handwarmer under the snow. To my surprise, she fished it out of the fresh snow and presented it to me in short order. We had a big celebration!

When we arrived home, Shyla curled up for a well-deserved nap. Doesn't she look cozy?

Despite the pain in my neck, arms and hands, I try to keep moving, not allowing myself to become paralyzed by it. I learned yesterday (from delightful EMG and MRI tests) that it's probably caused by nerve impingement at multiple sites from my neck all the way down to my wrists. We're going to start by trying to reduce the pressure at my wrists. So, with wrist splints in place, I headed out for a little more snowbiking while the pups napped.

I stopped for some photos with a fabulous macro lens loaned to me by a friend. What fun! It'll be even more fun when the sun shines again on our snow-covered world.

After many years of pain from my spine, my strategy is always to fight back and keep doing what I love, even when I feel the temptation to give in and wallow in my pain. Even though I find it hard to force myself to get moving some days (like today), it almost always helps. Today was one of those days.