Osteo, Photos and Dying

Whoa!  I was elated during my osteo appointment yesterday.  Simon knows one word in English- Stop- which doesn’t really count as that is an example of an English word that the French use as if it’s a French word.  Weekend is another.  If you learned ‘fin de semaine’ in Canada don’t bother using it when in France; ‘weekend’ works.  And you also don’t need to know that terrain de stationnement is the term for a parking lot- just say ‘parking’ as in ‘le parking’.  See how complicated French is?  You need to know all the French words, whether they are feminine or masculine and when to use ‘tu ou vous’ and now I have just told you that sometimes you don’t even use the French word at all!  Anyway, I have gotten way off topic as usual…..  back to the appointment.  ‘Stop’ came in handy when Simon had pushed my discomfort; we settled on when it reached 4 out of 10 on the scale he had gone far enough.  But even before then I was able to answer his questions to set up my file.  Sure, they were easy questions, like date of birth but still, I had to understand and respond in French.  We had a conversation during my treatment too; how long I am here (3 months), where I live in Canada (that one always throws people- that I live nowhere), how many other children I have (2), where he went to school (Nantes), how long it took to get his degree (5 years).  And for me my friends, that is a great accomplishment.  Today I really felt like I had made language progress.  Maybe it was talking in French to a 4 year old all weekend that helped. 

I had only once before had an osteo appointment (here’s looking at you Andrea) and it was gentle yet powerful.  More like an energy healing experience.  This was more a –’Let me climb on this bed and push on your sacrum and press hard on your hips and rotate those legs experience.’ It was FULL ON but it really, really helped.  He thinks that I could be running again (just a little) by Thursday and if I am not feeling good by Monday then to call and he will get me in for another treatment before I leave the following Friday.  (Note: I have managed in person communications; I think if I need to make another appointment I will be asking Francois to make the call.   I am not as effective when I can’t supplement my response with a blank stare and an assortment of charade moves.)

By the way, osteopath treatments are quite common here, not only for adults but for infants and children.  Baby Nina had one when she was 4 months, making sure everything was aligned after birth and another a few weeks ago to ensure that in mobility everything was as it should be.  Very proactive right?  Making sure all things osteo are okay before a problem appears.  Parents will also take their babies if they, the babies, not the parents, are getting flat heads from spending too much time on their backs or in chairs. 

With the walk to and from I got my targeted 10,000 steps in today for the first time in almost 2 weeks.  It was less painful walking home than walking there.  I rewarded myself with a croissant before the appointment.  That made the pain while walking in a little less important. 

Other than Simon at noon, and accompanying Emily on an errand in Saumur, I worked on cleaning up photos on my laptop.  Am I the only one who has let this get away on me??  I have this great mélange of thousands of photo memories dating back years that I am slowly sorting into more manageable folders.  At least I hope they will be more manageable.  To make it worse I don’t really understand how they are sorted and stored on my laptop.  There seems to be one big photo album and then they are all duplicated in my I cloud and I have to delete them in both places.  Oh, and at some point ALL the photos got duplicated so I have double the sorting and dumping to do!  Does it sound right that they are both on my hard drive and i cloud and have to  be deleted in both places?    I googled it but couldn’t really understand the various answers.  A start up writer I might be but a techie is so not where my skills lie in the remotest of ways.

Oh!  And because I am that kind of person I also started updating what I laughingly refer to as my Death Document and sent it to my children.  You know, that one word doc that will tell them where my bank accounts are (there’s two), my pension info (stops anyway when I die), funeral arrangements (don’t bother- where would it even make sense to hold it?) etc.  I am nothing if not practical.    They came back to me with questions including; how do we get your body back to Canada if you die in France?  I told them to use a ziplock.  They come in all sorts of sizes.  🙂  Besides, I want to be scattered all over the world so there won’t be any need to transport all of me back to my native land.  I reminded them too that whatever they spend is coming out of their inheritance.  That nugget of knowledge might keep their celebration of my life modest.  🙂

My new little website now has 120 subscribers; if all of those keen people brings just one more person to the group we will hit the 200 target soon and I will keep my commitment and release The Fireman dating story.  A story which, in optimistic anticipation of hitting that #, I have started writing.  Which brings up a myriad of mixed emotions at the memories…..

A bientot!  xo

PS: Photo is of Em and Co’s family pets, dog Otis and cat Opera, walking in front of us on a stroll around the neighbourhood.