The animals seemed Surprised to see me walking around with my camera,

bending down to their level. I'm kind of surprised myself.

Early last week, I woke up feeling not bad,
which was pretty damned good as far as I was concerned.
As the week progressed and I was able to resume my regular activity level,
I was nearly ready to publicly proclaim myself healed. 

Erring on the side of jinx-free caution, I kept my mouth shut.

And then I sneezed over the weekend and it barely hurt.
 Take that, broken ribs. You're done.
I've got better things to do than deal with you.