Date: 2017-10-01
To: Home
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

I¢ve now been home nearly two weeks, and I¢m still adjusting to post-hike life. It took Bill and me four days to drive home from Millinocket. The changes started before we even got in the car.  Eating: The day after we finished, I began reverting to my healthy pre-hike eating habits. At the hotel¢s breakfast bar, I poured juice and and coffee and selected one thing to eat, cold cereal. During the hike, I would have eaten one of each food on the bar: juice, waffle, eggs, bacon, fruit, cereal, etc. Next we went into Dunkin Donuts to get coffee, and I realized I now one have a one-donut limit. But since I¢d already eaten breakfast and wasn¢t hungry, I didn¢t get a donut at all.  Further on, we went into a convenience store. I wanted a soft drink. All summer I¢ve been drinking full-sugar drinks - think, real Coke ¢ amazingly refreshing when you¢re hot from hiking. I reverted to Diet Coke. I took the first sip and could only taste chemicals, very nasty. When I got home I wanted a cold drink, and Diet Coke was the only thing in my refrigerator. I opened one, and it tasted totally normal, not full of chemicals. I can only attribute this change to my brain realizing that I¢m now home and this is what I drink in my non-hiking life. How amazing the brain is to make this transition!  Changes to my appetite happened almost immediately. The first day after the hike I got hungry every two hours, just as I would on the trail. But the next day that phenomenon started to fade, and I now am hungry only at mealtimes.  There were some glitches. One night I woke at 3:00 AM ravenously hungry.  I no longer keep snacks in my pocket to eat the minute I get hungry.  The cravings for fresh fruit and vegetables that I had on the trail have not disappeared. Buying real tomatoes and fresh sweet corn at the farmers¢ market gives me a feeling of wellbeing, and eating them makes me unreasonably happy. I expect this to last for a while. I¢m really enjoying not having to rush through every meal. On the trail I nearly always had to hurry to finish the miles for the day, so I had to eat very fast. Now I can take my time and enjoy the food I eat. And when I feel full I can stop eating, instead of forcing myself to eat more.  Sleeping: On the trail I fell sleep as soon as I laid down and slept, mostly without interruption, until the alarm went off in the morning. If I woke, I rolled over and went back to sleep. I did not get up. At home I wake more often, sometimes get up, and sometimes have trouble getting back to sleep. Going from 12 hours a day of exercise to no exercise obviously has affected my sleeping patterns. Even so, I sleep better now than before the hike. I sleep till I wake up, not setting an alarm, about 8 or 9 hours a night.  Living indoors/being home: Being home in my own house feels peaceful and wonderful. It¢s so clean and light-filled. Showering whenever I want still feels truly luxurious, as does washing my hands in warm soap and water. Having a toilet is great. Sleeping in a bed is also nice. But I¢m not as settled at home as I would have expected, mostly because of my broken foot. I¢ve only slept in my own bed once and showered in my own bathroom once.  When I went to a doctor, the day after I got home, he put my broken foot in a splint, gave me crutches, and told me not to drive. The splint precluded my showering. Not knowing how long this would last, I moved clothing into the first floor bedroom and toiletries into the first floor bathroom. I gave my sister Diane and her husband my bedroom and bathroom upstairs when they came to visit.  We spent last week doing my settling-in chores: cleaning my camping gear and putting it away, doing laundry, redirecting my mail, restarting the newspaper, getting groceries, dealing with my accumulated mail, getting enough library books to last me a while, and replacing my iPhone (which I smashed and drowned on the trail). This was not restful.On Tuesday I finally got to see an orthopedist. The news there was all good. The fracture is not displaced enough to require surgery. I got a boot, rather than a cast. I can walk, not overdoing it, of course; I can take the boot off to shower; and I can take it off to drive. So I can now go back upstairs to sleep in my own bedroom, work in my quilt studio, and shower in my own bathroom. And I won¢t have to inconvenience my friends, who¢ve already been doing errands for me for five months, by asking them to drive me around.Reintegrating with friends: I¢m gradually catching up with my friends. My book group had a welcome home dinner for me the day I got home. Other friends have stopped by to say hello. This weekend I¢m staying with friends at their camp on the Greenbrier River. (This has been very relaxing. There¢s nothing here that I¢m tempted to jump up and do. We¢ve eaten good food, read, and gone to the Road Kill Cookoff in Marlinton.) I¢ll see my various quilt making buddies on Monday and Tuesday. And another friend is having a welcome home party this upcoming Friday. After that, things should quiet down ¢ to the extent that they ever do.  Photo of the day: The photo of the day is the work of Pam Bell. Isn¢t it nice? Pam is one of my sister Diane¢s quilting/art friends who I¢ve come to know in my visits to Wisconsin. She followed my journal faithfully (she was the one who asked Diane, ¢Is Charli crazy or stupid?¢). She mailed her artwork to me the day before I went up Katahdin based on Diane¢s assurances that I really was going to finish.  Up next: state of mind, state of body, and some oddments.