My Cross To Bear

   Well, I feel good. Today was my first actual day working out again. I felt free, I felt enabled….and most of all, I felt normal again for a moment. Not being able to do some of my daily activities has made me feel as if I was just wasting away. I got to almost 400 push ups. Of course this was over the course of about 15 minutes but hey, it made me feel better. I also got to toss the dumbbells around a bit too.

   On a sadder note, upon going outside for my first time in ages to visit my little garden, I found what could likened to the scene of a disregarded and patient occupied assisted living center. All of my plants were on their last leg and had not been cared for for about a week. My plants were on one of the first things I tended to once I got home. They were my calming solution, kind of like my happy place if you will. I think my wife knows how important those plants are to me, but I don’t think she was very concerned with making sure they got water on the daily bases. But then again, I can’t really be mad at her. She did not cause my injury, I did, and I guess I can’t expect her to take care of EVERYTHING. But I have raised all of those plants from simple little seeds and I am not the type of person that you can sit down and talk to and say, “Yep, he’s a plant guy”.

   You know maybe it’s mental, but every now and again I really start feeling like the reject in the house now. I feel like the daily chore. I feel like as long as I don’t tumble down the stairs or put up too much of a racket, I could just float on by like a ghost or something. Speaking of floating by, I found out first hand today that there are two inherent dangers to look out for when you are bound to the limpy sticks (crutches). The first obstacle we have to look out for is the unsuspecting bathroom rug. Those things feel really secure under a regular foot, but too much pressure generated in a small area at a slight angle, and you will be doing more tricks and flips with your stick than you would see at a typical martial arts exhibition.

   The second boobie trap we need to look out for is wet spots on smooth surfaces. I encountered this happy little heart rate increaser this afternoon while my wife was away and I was, a-roaming. I had just finished working out and I had worked up quite a sweat, so I decided to hobble my way back upstairs to grab a drink. I have linoleum floors with this really odd print on them so seeing a puddle is quite difficult unless you look at it from the right angle and/or you have the right lighting, which apparently I did not have. Now I came to the refrigerator and as I passed the fridge to grab a cup, my life was paused after I felt a slight shift in my foundation. It was almost like when you are driving on a snowy road, and you take a turn and somewhere in that turn u realize that the medium you are traveling on is not asphalt, its ice.

    Well now, all though I know I am very lucky I had not leaned my full weight on my crutches and got into my forward swing, but I was still in a pickle. My left stick was starting to slip and I was afraid to put too much weight on my right stick because I did not know rather or not it would hydroplane on me too, and my knee was in the ready to push off position. So, while my life was paused I figured the best thing I could do was to apply pressure on both the right stick, which had not start to slip, so it could assumedly be safe, and apply a little weight to my good foot and lean back slightly so if I fall, it would be straight back on my butt. The right stick worked well, “Yes”, the good foot…did not, “Crap”. So now the good foot with no socks or shoes on is starting to slide a bit and to top it off, the water I stepped in as cold as heck and that shocked me a bit which did not help my stability.

   Now that I am at the point to where it’s time to brace for impact, my left stick has slid itself into a dry patch and has enough traction to stop sliding, but I have already went in to damage control mode and I was positioned and bracing for rear impact……hmmm, okay that did not come out right. I was ready to fall on my a$$. But, being the stubborn person that I am, I figured I was not going down without a fight, so with one crooked stick and one straight one, I attempted to balance myself on what support I had to try to regain balance. To my surprise, it worked. I felt like one of those guys in the Olympics doing the ring routine and trying to hold my strenuous position for 10 seconds, while keeping an ear to ear smile the whole time.

  Once I recovered I was actually pretty impressed with my performance, but I was about as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs or a crutch bound man working the fries at McDonalds. I guess I am not as old as I thought because I did not injury anything during the event. But then again, if I did I probably won’t feel it until tomorrow. So until then…..