Winter in Osoyoos, Christmas in Osoyoos and 20 year-old Ankles

Winter in Osoyoos, Christmas in Osoyoos and 20 year-old Ankles

Winter in Osoyoos has been much more benign than that of last year.  Last year at this time, we had two feet of snow on the ground.  This year, we have minor patches from 2 weeks ago.  This is a picture of the valley taken at 3 pm this afternoon, and you can see there is no snow.  In addition, rose bushes had fresh blossoms at a dentist in town.  Beauty!

In the meantime, Christmas moves inexorably forward.  The evening of November 30, Osoyoos had its Santa Claus Parade.  The event was so fun.  From 5 pm to 6:00 pm, businesses were open and if you came indoors you were treated to a big variety of home-baked goodies, teas and coffees and Christmas drinks as well as a considerable amount of bon homme even if the Quebecoise didn’t know about the desert.

At the local Home Hardware, which is legendary for its marketing and offering of goods, a very good choir sang songs until the Santa Clause Parade started.

The parade was a treat because the kids were terribly excited, but well behaved, and marshals paraded up and down to keep control.  They were clearly fearsome beings.

The floats weren’t necessarily sophisticated light festivals but they showed the Christmas Spirit perfectly.

Kids weren’t fooled by plastic Santa, but the real Mr. and Mrs. Claus at the end rendered them completely hysterical.

So often the simplest of things seemed the most fun.

The next day, there was a Christmas Craft Festival at Rock Creek, a teeny community about 25 minutes to the east of us.  I meant to show a picture of the indoor hall, crowded by customers and vendors, but I couldn't even raise my arms to take a picture since it was so crowded.  This is essentially a farming community, so the sign in the fairgrounds parking lot said, "NO unloading of livestock in the parking lot".  We parked elsewhere, just to be safe.  Our trophy was a beautiful outdoor arrangement, 3 ft long by 3 ft high by 1 ft deep for a mere $40.  

In our neighbourhood, most of the named streets (all about wildlife) have amazing copper statues at the entrance of the area.  Our neighbours on Wapiti have already challenged the neighborhood with good Christmas Spirit.

On Friday, November 30, I saw my surgeon for the last consultation on my ankle.

When I entered the room, he seemed quite excited to see me.  Then he asked the question, “Did you hear it break?”  I was puzzled but answered that yes, I heard my ankle break.  Then he said, “No, but did you hear the screw break?”  I am now horrified, but I said I did not.    He shows me my X-Ray and one of the two screws holding my leg bones together has broken.  Oh, dear…………..To my complete surprise, he says, “Excellent!!!” and asks how old I am.  When I reply that I am 65 he says, “This normally happens in 20-year-olds!!!” 

It turns out that there were two screws holding the fibula and tibia together to prevent motion below while the fractures on each side healed.  Once I started healing, motion started to occur, and instead of further exacerbating the fractures, the screw failed.  Well!!  I can’t be more pleased.  With this, it means that there are no longer compelling circumstances to have the hardware removed, which means no requirement for another surgery which is a risk in itself.  Wait for information on the upcoming dancing classes………………….

(The picture below is way too much information, but we have to boast about what we can.)