First Day of Summer

The equinox arrived at sometime after 1 am today. It's also my birthday, at least for all of the 50 minutes of June 21, 1960 that I was around for. It has been a day or more than a few days of feeling my age, thanks to my right knee. It has been giving me enough unrelenting grief that I am ready to call the orthopedist, who thanks to the Synvisc injections his PA put in my knees over the course of ten weeks, I have not had to cross paths him (or the PA) in the past three years. He or whatever colleague had damn well better have some non-invasive tricks up his sleeve. The way it's been hurting has me I am worried about having words like arthroscopic surgery and MRIs being used in reference to me. Three years ago I was 'the perfect candidate' for knee replacement surgery and I politely told him, "no", which may have come out as " bite me, no way."


Meanwhile we went to see Thomas the Tank Engine at the Strasburg Railroad yesterday, along with hordes of other parents and children. This is our third Thomas adventure - the last one was just before we went to China to bring Micah home. This time the weather was not on our side. There was a downpour right after we got off the Thomas ride that sent us right into the trackside cafe for lunch. And during this downpour with no inside toilets in the little restaurant, the Little Man announces he has to use the potty. Port-O-Potties. So Steve had to hustle him outside, getting drenched in the process. Everything got wet, but the pull-up remained dry.




The biggest fun seemed to be the Cranky Cars, the little hand-cranked carts that kids could power around a track. I remember them from KiddieLand Amusement Park in Langley Park, Maryland. Because the rain shower had cleared out much of the crowds, they could take a spin around the track, run out and back around and be going on another ride within five minutes. In 2007 Thea had to wait almost 30 minutes for one run around the track.



Meanwhile, Micah is down to one BAHA. His new one has been sent back to the manufacturer, Cochlear in Colorado, for a new battery hatch door. Thankfully, the pediatric audiologist at Micah's school took care of all the logistics. I hope that sending it back to the US mothership does not mean that Cochlear/Colorodo does not have to send it back to Cochlear in Sweden for something as trivial as a little plastic door. Note to Cochlear: Micah's surgery is August 25th and we may not need two BAHAs after that. Move it and get it back to him. Having two took some getting used to, for me, but now that he's back to one, he looks like a rhinoceros and all of his photos from Thomas look like they are from pre-January 2009. School has a loaner BAHA, but it's only for school.