Brittle old queen…
Had to take a few days off from the gym due to a recent injury, one that comes on the heels of an injury when i was back home in PA… we’ll go in order:
But before that, is there some reason I never get butch injuries? I never jam a finger playing rugby or anything more masculine, always some crazy little thing (possibly due to the fact that I don’t play rugby or do anything masculine? I mean, I did karaoke for like two hours on Thursday night… alone… in my apartment… no injuries, though.).
So, first injury. I’m grocery shopping in Pennsylvania and enjoying things I tend to never do in California, like use a shopping cart. With rare exception, whatever I usually buy at the store ends up in my backpack here, so it’s a lot of mini-trips rather than the big bi-weekly, fill-up-the-car stock-up that they do back home. As we approach the car, I just up onto the shopping cart and ride it toward out car. We empty the cart and, once again, I jump on it to ride it to cart return thing.
Now, I’m not stupid. I intentionally rode the emprty cart differently and choked up on the handles to further lower my center of gravity, but apparently not enough. BAM! In an instant, the cart is upended, and I’m on the ground. My knee ripped its way out of my pants, and is bleeding. My left wrist is sore, and the wind is almost knocked out of me. But, despite all of that, I’m laughing at the stupidity and frivoloty of it all. I bounce back up, return the cart, and get in the car. The left wrist takes several days to not be sore. The knee scabs up nicely. The "wind" being knocked out of me ends up being a bruised rib or two, which affect me for about a week, sending a flash of pain whenever I roll out of bed, get up from a couch, etc., etc.
So, upon my return to CA, I end up sleeping on my couch because I didn’t make my bed before I went to PA. I had washed all the sheets, etc., but they were all bunched up on the living room chair. It isn’t easy making the bed, because it is a loft bed jammed into a corner, so you have to make the bed while crawling around ON the bed, basically. After a few days, I concede and make the bed and, for the first time in nearly three weeks, sleep pressed up toward my ceiling.
Like all middle-aged men, in the middle of the night, I get up to pee. So, I get up, dangle my legs off the side of the bed and…
I think I was still in mid-air when the words "LOFT BED!" filled my brain and I crash into the floor, a half-conscious 6.5 foot drop at 4 a.m.
Somehow, I am not cut, bruised or seemingly injured.
When I go to the gym, though, my bosy is giving more resistance. I figure it is just shaking off the atrophy of my vacation. But, after a few more workouts, it seems like I have injured my tibia, probably a hairline fracture or something. It is fine with normal usage, but when I do a cardio workout, it is throbbing by the end.
So, I gave it a few days off and tomorrow, I return to the gym. I will still adapt my workouts to it, but not end them. That could mean using one of the older, less punishing ellipticals or, heaven help me, go on fat row with all of the people languishing on the bicycles and calling it a workout. We shall see…
I don’t think I would mind butcher injuries, or something more age-related even, but falling off a shopping cart and rolling out of bed? Please…
