This morning Finn decided she really wanted to play with the two boxes Mama left on the stairs, and while we were both out of eyesight she climbed herself halfway up to the middle of the first landing and contentedly helped herself. Mama has been working with her on climbing the stairs by herself, and while she’s had some success and failure, I’ve never seen the girl climb on her own before. After stopping to read a book, I coaxed her up to the landing and then all the way up to the top on her own. Knee, knee, push!
I had my second visit to the PT clinic Monday night, and got hooked up to the electrical stimulus machine for the second time. It’s an interesting sensation, that of having enough current applied directly to the muscle to tighten them involuntarily: Oh, look, that machine is making my arms twitch like a spastic Muppet. After the therapist spun my head around on my neck 175° until I could feel my spine creaking, he had me stand in front of a big crank machine and spin a wheel around in a circle six times on each side, which made my left arm feel warm, stiff, and angry after about five minutes.
When I got home I was sore but not in pain, which was a nice change. I was able to sleep well overnight—a far cry from Friday, when I tossed and turned for six of the eight hours I was in bed—and woke refreshed, but late for work. I’m down to one or two Advil a day from a total of five, which is a welcome relief, and I can move my head around a little more without having to use my whole upper body to steer it.
On the way home in daylight for the first time in four months, I felt the gnawing need for more sunlight, more outdoors, and more activity. Once this stupid shoulder heals up, I’m looking forward to some regular workouts with our neighbor, as well as some time on the bike and hiking with the girl. This sedentary shit has got to stop.
I took the girl on some errands this morning. One of us was ready for the time shift, and one of us wasn’t.
I’m still here. I had PT on Monday, and the doc says it’s stress, bad posture (due to sitting in a chair all damn day) and no exercise that’s got my neck muscles wired tighter than a drum. Two Advil over breakfast seems to dull the pain to a mild ache which allows me to get through the day. Of course, the high-pressure system sitting overhead gives me a sinus headache, which means mornings are a challenge not to throw up or pass out until I get moving. All of this sucks because I can’t help Mama with Finn that much, I can’t do anything around the house, and I can’t sleep very well. I’m going in for more PT early next week, and hopefully I can start loosening everything up before spring passes us by.
Strangely enough, I was wondering about this earlier today when doing a search for toner numbers: an explanation for HP’s ridiculous ‘License Plate Domain’ URLs.
So the tribute to John Hughes on the Academy Awards show last night was really thoughtful and well done. But did anyone else look at Judd Nelson and think METH WITHDRAWAL like I did? Wow. And Ally Sheedy, who I had a crush on in 1983 (after War Games) looks like someone stretched the skin on her face over a halloween mask. That kid from Home Alone is still annoying. And I miss the Farmer Ted version of Anthony Michael Hall, especially after having seen the last 45 minutes of Sixteen Candles on TV the other night.