The Aerie

A Week a Month

The big news around Minnesota is that it's snowing. Okay, snow in Minnesota is never a surprise, and snow in April hardly notable - but this snow is taking place two weeks after record-setting 80 degree temperatures. So apparently those 80 degrees constituted "summer," and last week's declining temps were "autumn," and we're now into "winter" again. Basically we're experiencing a year's cycle of weather every month.

The shoulder is improving, thanks. While it is no longer as excruciatingly tender as it was Monday, the problem now is that I'm using it. In using it I discover the particular angles and configurations that REALLY hurt. For instance, sitting up and typing it's just fine (*phew*), but if I lean back in my chair the weight of my arm, unsupported by the chair back, really hurts. And if I try to lift or pull something, WHAM, it can be like a knife in the shoulder, or maybe it doesn't hurt at all.

But it's all improving, and fortunately it's healing up fast enough that I'm not sunk into a funk of depression about being so old I don't heal up when injured. A couple years ago I twisted my ankle, and I swear I could still feel it 18 months later if I stretched. That was depressing: I started to feel like my kids should load me on a sleigh and push me out on the ice.

It might be a problem with having too much of a tolerance for pain - maybe my ankle twist was just really, really bad and I didn't know it. I kept playing even though I'd blown out my shoulder: I kept taking pictures even though I twisted my ankle. Maybe I'm just too stupid to stop moving when I hurt myself.

The big project at work seems to have gone off successfully, although there's a boatload of paperwork to follow up. Fortunately it's already late Wednesday afternoon, meaning that the weekend is starting to loom up on the horizon. Of course, the weekend is just a big lie - the promise of ease and rest, when in fact it's merely two days of a different kind of work. During the week I anticipate making great strides on the weekends only to have the days speed past in a blur of family obligations and household chores.

This weekend promises to be fun however because we're going to go see our friend Ellis perform at our church as part of a concert series. Ellis is great! Meanwhile, the rest of the weekend needs to be devoted to my college homework... we'll see what I'm actually able to accomplish however...