Since late August, my usual activities have changed.

Three heart surgeries slowed down my outdoor pursuits. I had needles poked in both arms and hands to take blood, start IVs, and insert catheters in preparation for clearing heart blockages, inserting three stents, and replacing a bad aortic valve.

I had multiple large bruises from the needles. My right wrist had a hole where the stents were put into an artery. The surgery took just over an hour. A plastic tourniquet filled with air was around my wrist to compress it to stop the bleeding from the hole left behind. Every half hour, air was released from the device to see if the bleeding had stopped. Air was pumped back if the bleeding was not controlled. After my first surgery, it took over nine hours for the bleeding in my wrist to stop and the tourniquet to be removed. I was told to treat my right arm like it was broken and not use it for anything for a couple weeks to prevent the bleeding from starting again.

No major problems after my second surgery. My third one, the new heart valve, had the same problem with wrist bleeding as the first. It took 11 hours to get the bleeding to stop. I couldn’t use that arm again for a while.

This restriction prevented a lot of metal detecting. I also do a lot of woodworking, using my band saw, drill press and wood lathe to make wooden pens for sale. I couldn’t hold my wood lathe tools, so that eliminated that activity.

My garden had more weeds than normal because I couldn’t pull the weeds this late summer and fall. I don’t understand why weeds always grow so much faster and bigger than the vegetables I plant in the same spot.

Susie had to carry a lot of groceries and other heavy items, since my lifting restriction for several months was only 10 pounds. Our grandson carried all of our Christmas decorations out of our attic, my neighbor cleaned my gutters and poured salt into my softeners, and my riding mower never got put into the shed for the winter. It’s still sitting outside with a tarp over it. My snow blower is still inside the shed.

After two months of cardiac therapy, I am getting back in shape again. Susie told me I am fit enough to carry the trash out again. I carefully pour the 40-pound bags of salt into the softener. Susie handled the 22-pound Thanksgiving turkey, but I was able to control the 23-pound Christmas bird myself.

Now, I am almost back to normal, whatever normal is. Santa brought me some new wood lathe tools and I can get back to turning pens on my lathe. Of course, my kitchen duties never slowed down, and I will be able to handle that job all winter. Spring will finally arrive again and my garden awaits. The weed trimmer will need to start making a dent in all the areas that grew while I was unable to knock them down.

Spring will find me (and Susie) back in yards and fields with our metal detectors as soon as the weather warms and the ground thaws. While cold and snow doesn’t bother the detectors, it does bother us now. I can spend some time this winter trying to talk to people about getting permission to search their yards. History is buried in most of the town of Pendleton. I have found a penny dated 1803 in a yard in town and another penny valued at $150. Please contact me if you would like us to hunt your yard for lost items. We also give metal detector lessons.

Short of going to Florida for a while, I guess I will just stare out the front window at the birds on our feeders for the next few months.