Cabernet and an Allen Wrench

In the amputee world, if you are an above-the-knee amputee, you don't call your prosthesis your leg; you call it your knee. It took me a while to figure this out, but in reality, I get it. The world of being an above knee amputee is a world of difference from those who got to keep their knee. Think about it-- your knee, and to a lesser extent, your ankle, are what keeps you walking, running, getting up and sitting down, sitting on the floor, kneeling-- you name it. I was fortunate enough that my prosthetist wrote a killer letter to Medicare to get me a really good knee. It has a microprocessor in it. It is intuitive, and yes, it is adjustable. I generally don't mess with the adjustments except when I'm doing some Pilates exercises so my knee won't bend. That has been incredibly useful. Also, I can put it in a kind of freewheel for cycling. Also useful. But what I had never messed with was the resistance, that is, how "difficult" it is for the knee to bend...

Jerry and I are in our hotel room in Paris, having a glass of wine after a day of visiting the Victor Hugo house, having a very late lunch and making a pilgrimage to Babka Zana for cinnamon babka and poppy seed brioche. Every day we increase the number of walked steps, but in the back of my mind I worry, is it enough? We head to Bordeaux tomorrow and I'm really not sure how much walking we will do every day, so I'm concerned. I wish I had had another week with my new foot before the trip. I'm still getting used to its springiness, and if I don't put full weight on it going downhill, my knee will bend too much. I'm still not brave enough going down these inclines without holding on to Jerry. But we are having a lot of fun. We ended up coming to Paris earlier than we had originally planned because of the impending French Air Traffic Controller strike. It was called off, but I'm still glad we didn't take a chance. And while I'm walking pretty well, I f...