If this is May, we're supposed to be in Europe!

Dear Family and Friends:
So, how’s 2010 so far? Let me count the ways!
1. January 17 and 25 – Kristen’s and Haydn’s Birthday – if I don’t think about being the mother of a 39 year old and the grandmother of a 15 year old, it’s all good!
2. April 1 - Rebecca’s Birthday (see #1 above and substitute 38 for 39)
3. April 27 - Phil sprints across the street and tears his Achilles tendon
4. May 4 - The day we DIDN'T fly to Holland or ‘This totally sucks’ Day
Coss Family Goodbye Lunch (L-R Husband/wife in front) Andrew (brother) and Rosemary Coss, Phil and Sharlene Coss, Garry and Judy (sister) York

One day we are wining and dining and saying goodbye to family and friends and the next day, we are in the emergency department of our local hospital. With only a few days to go before we were scheduled to fly out, we were running some last minute errands. Phil needed to get a new part for the weed whacker so he could mow the lawn. As he was crossing the street, he quickly sprinted forward to get out of traffic and suddenly heard a loud pop. His Achilles tendon was torn at the calf muscle and he needed orthopedic surgery. OUCH! Instead of a much anticipated cruising season through, Holland, Belgium and finally to France - here we sit in Nanaimo waiting for Phil to heal.

Healing from an Achilles tear is a very long process as we've discovered. It is also serious enough that you have to be patient with the process. During the first 8 weeks, he is absolutely allowed NO weight bearing activities. Weeks 8 - 12 involves putting partial weight on the leg with mild exercises and then putting full weight on the leg only after week 13. However full recover is expected to take anywhere from 6 months to a year. While the initial pain has gone, Phil finds it very frustrating hobbling around on crutches. His daily activities are severely limited to crawling up stairs on his knees, sliding back down the stairs on his bum and becoming best friends with his computer and TV. (My days are severely limited to carrying and fetching and trust me it is wearing a bit thin!!!) We do try to get out on nice days for a coffee or lunch but he's not allowed any real physical activity.

Crawling UP the stairs!

Sliding DOWN the stairs!

TV, computer, maid service - He's all set!

Big decision - when do we rebook our flight? Granted the recovery is slow, but we decided that Phil could sit with his foot up on the aft deck of Calypso as easily (sort of) as he could sit in front of the TV in the family room here in Nanaimo. So we said, to heck with it - let's rebook for June 10th. He has a doctor's appointment and follow-up x-ray on his birthday June 8th and we are out of here 2 days later! We definitely won't be doing much cruising so will probably hang out in Vollenhove, Ommen, Leeuwarden and Sneek for the summer but at least we finally get to see the renovations that were done over the winter. The shower will be very handy for Phil (he won`t have to hobble to the marina`s facilities)and we'll be able to organize our clothes in the gorgeous new storage cabinets that Len and June built.

Our first blog of 2010 is not exactly what we had in mind when we were planning a cruise south through Holland to Maastricht, Belgium (Ghent and Bruges) and the ultimate - 3 weeks in Paris!! But here we are - patiently waiting until we can leave. The good thing about staying in Holland is that we have a better chance of meeting up with cruising friends this summer and that is a definite bonus!

So here we are - June 1 - and only 9 more sleeps until we fly out of here. Talk about long goodbyes - we`re on our second round! But now that we are down to the nitty-gritty so to speak, we can start re-packing, organizing the house to be left behind and arrange to get to Vancouver where our KLM flight originates. Holland here we come!