Well Wednesday started out rather early for us as we rolled out at 6:30 to get ready for our all day trip to the big city of Winston-Salem. The skies were blue and the sunshine was bright as we headed down the mountain and of course the temp's were on the rise as well. We saw 93 for the high downtown and we were so looking forward to getting back on the mountain by late afternoon and cooler air. It was rather humid as well and it didn't take much to work up a sweat.
We wanted to do some birthday shopping for Annsley and Gabriel and found some nice buys at Sam's, Target and Wal-Mart and got them what they were wanting plus some extra surprises as well. We will have a combined party on the 27th of this month as we will travel back to Florida for a week or so to celebrate with them at Bobby's condo with our families. After shopping we still had a couple hours to kill as Eddie was in physical therapy until 3 or after. We made a lunch stop at Applebee's for a delicious lunch and supper combined before heading over to Baptist Hospital for a visit with Eddie and Kimberly at 3:30.
Eddie was sitting in a motorized wheelchair with a hand control which was such a change for us to see him from our last visit. He now has some limited control of his predicament. He is able to move both arms and except for his left wrist which is still floppy from the cast that restricted his movement while it healed from an operation, he now has good control of the upper limbs. He is able to move his right leg and has some limited movement with his left leg but he does have feeling throughout the body which is just a wonderment considering what initially was thought to be total paralysis from the broken vertebrae's. He is having some attitude problems with his inability to walk out of the hospital in the time he allotted for himself to recuperate but we were thoroughly encouraged that he will walk again to some degree. He is one tough feller and verbalizes he will ride horses again.
It seems he will be going to a more advanced spinal chord therapy hospital in Richmond, Va. in the near future. That will make it more difficult for Kimberly and for visitors but should benefit him greatly as he is making advancements with all of what Baptist has to offer for his recovery. This new facility has more advanced techniques and is a major therapeutic hospital for these types of injuries. He is talking about when he is discharged, so that is a major step for him and his recovery. It's sad to hear of his friends in the area who he has helped with farming and horse training to now have abandoned them completely, especially those who at one time was considered family and have not even visited him since the accident. We had a good visit and Nancy brought them a bag of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies.
We headed out around 5'ish for the drive back to the mountains as I had a 6:30 game on the pickle ball court, so we stopped in Elkins for some last minute grocery items before coming up the mountains. We watched the thermometer on the truck drop from 87 in Elkin to 74 as we climbed the mountain. It seems the mountains received another gully washer while we were gone. Our driveway was rutted once again from the sudden downpour. Nancy dropped me off at Roaring Gap pickle ball court where I met up with neighbor Gerald and 6 other players all from Cornerstone. We played for an hour and a half before the two of us called it a night. The play was awesome with some incredible rallies and great shots and once more I must commend the skill and enthusiasm of these guys who now love this game.
I wasn't long after Gerald dropped me off that I was in a hot shower relaxing those much tired muscles and then shortly some horizontal lab while reading a few chapters of the Sandra Brown book, ALIBI, LATER
