Well, it takes an disability-based websurfer to find these things!  In India, most ATR’s are caused not by sports but by slipping off squat toilets, or as they call them, “Indian-style toilets”.  Physical therapy is almost never really done because of the living situation of these people, and they regain 50-70% of their former tendon use. 

So if you are sitting here thinking how hard things are, think about how people in the Third World would deal with such an injury - IF they could get help or pay for it; or would they just become lame, disabled, or beggars.  One fellow here online was mentioning travelling there to India, so I wrote a comment that he should consider the toilets he’ll be facing.

An entire article about improving our Achilles tendon length through using squat toilets is here:  http://at.dodman.org/discussion/48/alexander-technique-and-the-full-squatting-posture/.

They also get ATR’s from dropped sharp knives, kitchen implements, etc, but because they use squat toilets, they have LONGER tendons than ours.

My own life sometimes seems like a small death - a death to all my tourism, to all my colleagues, and to my self.  How much reading, websurfing and so on can one do?  Or perhaps it is a short precursor journey to old age and infirmery life, when a person can’t do much but watch TV, etc.

Back in Oakland today, after weeks with my folks in San Francisco, immediately I had a problem I’d forgotten:  the heat.  It’s been weeks of cool, grey  and blessedly foggy weather in the city, so our house was never hot.  But back here, it’s cool at night and in the mornings, but not the afternoons.  My cast got very overheated for the first time in these two weeks, with the toes quite hot. 

Many tourists complain about the summer weather in San Francisco because the fog and wind is such a disappointment.  But if you have to recover from an ATR in a cast or boot, it’s the place to be!