Hoofing It

Last week I had my last (hopefully) appointment with the podiatrist regarding the issue I've been having with the second toe on my left foot. As I explained to him, from a pain standpoint it no longer feels as though I am walking on a marble. However, I do still have a burning sensation on the bottom of that foot at times. He performed his normal examination of feeling the toes and pressing on the bottom of my foot right beneath the toes.

orthotics

He is very pleased with the progress that has been made. He said it is nice and tight under the toe now, whereas before it was very loose due to the ligament being stretched out. In terms of the pain, he explained that it was to be expected as the healing continues. He does not want me to wear the toe splint at all, but wants me to continue to use the orthotic that they sold me on my first visit. In fact he said I will always need to wear them because I do not have any padding at all on the bottom of my feet. That is due to age and the bunions I have had forever on both feet. Because of that, I am never to go barefoot.

I actually had purchased a second orthotic from them at my last visit so that I always have a clean pair. I asked if I could trim a little off the front of them so that they would fit in all of my shoes, and he said that was fine.

So, overall very good news. I hope that eventually the burning sensation will disappear, but if not it is not the end of the world. The pain is very tolerable, and the fact that I did not need to have surgery is quite awesome.

Tianyu Lights Festival

Tianyu Lights Festival

Tuesday night several of us who are working on the lanterns for the Mount Holly Lantern Parade attended the Tianyu Lights Festival in Charlotte. Tianyu strives to bring authentic Chinese lanterns traditions to the US and Europe. We thought it would be fun to see how their lanterns are constructed, and also get inspiration for building our own lanterns. We arrived early enough that we could see the lanterns in the daylight, but stayed until it got dark out.

The theme for this year's Mount Holly parade is "Into the Deep Blue Sea", and we already know that we our entry will be based on the incredibly successful Baby Shark YouTube video. We will obviously build the main characters, but are looking for ideas for other items to add. The Tianyu show had quite a few lanterns that were water-related, and that gave us some good ideas.

While the Tianyu lanterns are constructed of wire, lights and fabric, our lanterns are wire, lights and colored paper. But still the ideas are somewhat transferable. The festival was very well done, and included some live performances as well. They had quite a few lanterns that were interactive for the attendees, as well as many that were mechanized. We were all happy that we attended the show, and it was fun to get together in a manner that didn't involve sitting and working on our own lanterns! 

Chinese lanterns

Welcome June

It is so hard to believe that it is the first of June! Sometimes it seems like the months drag, and others they just fly by. That seems to be the case with May. The weather has been quite nice, though we have had periods of heavy rain. That is okay, though, as we are trying to recover from drought conditions. Hopefully all this moisture will alleviate the forest fires we have been experiencing.

The birds have been very active out back. For the first time since we have lived here, we actually had two ducks under our bird feeder. That's unusual since we are about 100 feet above the lake. I guess they like good birdseed, too. 

backyard birds

This week will be quite busy with pickleball, making lanterns for the Mount Holly Lantern Parade, a followup visit with my podiatrist, and company coming for the weekend. I am hoping this will be the last appointment with the foot doctor, though I am not 100% pain-free yet. I'm optimistic that he will say things are still healing and that is why I still have some pain. Fingers crossed!