Pickleball, Sunsets, and A Penumbra Eclipse

We decided to go play pickle ball and went down to find the courts half full. There are special rules here, the main one being that you should play with your own partner and so Renita and I played three games against the same twosome. We got beat all three games, but the players were fairly good, and it was the only time we have played since last August.

Taking a water and rest break, I walked around the area to keep my steps up and promptly rolled my left ankle as I had been on a steep edge and it gave way. I rolled onto the gravel besides the concrete and was lucky to have missed the concrete. Back home we did the ICE treatment, (ice, compress, and elevate), and later decided to go see my doctor.

After x-rays, I found out that it was a moderate strain with no broken bones, but they did discover I had rheumatoid arthritis, bone spurs, a bone chip.  That pretty much wrapped up the exercise program. Besides the Ice treatment, the doctor told me to take naproxen sodium, and that evening I broke into a rash.

I stopped taking the pain pills but the next night the rash reappeared and spread all over my body. Concerned about a drug reaction we took off and went to the emergency room, eighteen miles away.

The service was prompt, but the doctor said that we may never find out what caused my allergic reaction. She also prescribed a steroid, and we returned home. Now we are trying to figure out what is causing the hives.

So, the rest of the week was uneventful, besides reading books, we watched sunsets and listened to fireworks. The sunsets are especially pretty as smoke from fires in Utah are causing a reddish color. Renita took some images of the sunsets.

On the fourth of July we stayed home, and, in the evening, we walked down to the east side of the park to watch some fireworks and to try to take some images of the penumbra eclipse of the moon. The fire works were nice but very few and the moon rose, while eclipsed, over the Salt Mountains.

Having hosted numerous star parties, comet watches, and lunar eclipses, and traveled to two solar eclipses, I knew that penumbra eclipses are usual pretty mediocre and this one was its usual disappointment. It was ok as the moon slightly darkened. Turn your flashlight on an object to see its shadow. Your will also notice a lighter area around the shadow and that was what the moon was passing through, (I used the wrong lens and the image is overexposed).

It has now been a week since my accident and the ankle is improving but still needs to be placed in a brace that the doctor gave me. We hope to go fishing, camping, and rock hounding next week, but it will all depend on how my ankle is doing. Clear skies