2017 My Annus Horribilis, kind of . . .

Queen Elizabeth had her 'annus horribilis' in 1997 - twenty years later I had mine . . . kind of!

My husband's hobby is building wood strip canoes. They are beautifully constructed, with each one taking up to two years to complete - mainly due to financial constraints; each canoe can cost over $1,500 not including labour. Anyway, his first canoe was finished in 2012; this was quickly followed by one specially built for me, which was finished in 2014. Due to many family commitments, I was unable to go out in my canoe until January 2017. We picked a beautiful, still, summer's day for my inaugural outing on the water. The lake was like a mirror, with barely a ripple. I was having a wonderful time gently paddling through the water in a canoe that 'tracked' perfectly. The hubby was paddling behind, trolling a line in the hope of catching a fish. As we passed a weed bed his line went taut - he had a fish on! After a bit of a struggle he pulled in a lovely flathead that was 51cm in length - dinner was going to be good that night!

After about an hour or so of drifting and paddling it was time to go home. The hubby pulled in to shore first, got out of his canoe and then positioned himself to help me. Although my canoe is wonderful to paddle and drift in it is extremely unstable to exit, so help is needed to balance it as I climb out. Sounds easy doesn't it? Yeah, right!

As I said, the canoes can take my hubby up to two years to build. He is very proud of them and treats them with kid gloves. Well, the area where we took the canoes had a lot of rocks near the shore so the hubby was worried that the bottom of the canoe may be scratched or damaged. To lessen the likelihood of this happening he stopped my canoe just shy of the shore; held its bow, and then told me to get out. As I have total trust in his judgement, I didn't think to question if the boat was stable enough. Lesson learnt!

My right knee has severe arthritis due to many knocks through my youth. After a full hour being kept at a certain angle, when it came time to bend it so I could climb out of the canoe, my right knee wouldn't bend - my left leg was already in the water. So there I was, left leg in the water, right leg stiff, in the canoe and pushing on the opposite side thus moving the canoe further away from me. Suddenly my left leg twisted, fell to the side and gave a loud snapping sound - under water I might add. I promptly fell into the water - but, at least I was now out of the boat.

I walked out of the water covered in weed and sand; sat on the shore laughing loudly as I pictured in my mind what it must have all looked like. My husband is a gardener at a funeral home and at one time 'scored' a body bag, which he keeps in the boot of the car - but that's another story! Anyway, he laid the body bag over my seat in the car and, after packing everything up, drove home.

When we got home and tried to exit the car my left leg gave out under me! (Adrenaline must have helped me walk to the car at the lake.) The bottom half hung loose as though it was no longer connected. To cut an extremely long story shorter, I later discovered that I had completely severed my Anterior Cruciate Ligament! No healing here!

So, that was the beginning of 2017 . . . as you are already aware, 2017 ended with my brain being fried! So, from top to tail my body di not find 2017 to be a very good year.

On the plus side, my youngest daughter, who was told she could never have children, gave birth to a beautiful little girl on Father's Day! And there is yet another story . . . but I'll save that for another time.

One thing is for sure - my life is most certainly NOT dull!

Here's to a better 2018!