Repair job

Things in Ganomeland have been a little sketchy lately. I tore a muscle in my leg in around Xmas and I am still limping along and trying like mad to avoid physical therapy. At the same time, I caught "the cold that will not go away".

I finally broke down and went to the doctor last week.

Now I know the distaff side of you folks out there are all saying, "Just like a man! Why didn't you go sooner?"

The answer is pretty simple. I knew, in advance, how this was going to shake out. I have a cold. It's a virus. They can't do anything about it. It will go away eventually.

As to the knee related problem. I tore the muscle and it will heal if I take it easy and stop acting like a jackass.

Not acting like a jackass is the real problem. There is a genetic predisposition on the male side of my family to say things like, "I can lift that!" Or "I'll be damned if I'm going to waste a half hour till someone can help me."

This form of jackassitis leads to situations where skinny little men do things like move old Steelcase desks by themselves or move full filing cabinets. By move a Steelcase desk, I mean upend the thing onto a dolly, move it down the hallway, load it onto an elevator, unload it, bring it to the storage unit and offload it from the dolly. (If you are unfamiliar with Steelcase desks, the old ones are about the same size and weight as a Buick.) I think it goes without saying that these behaviors are not conducive to allowing torn muscles to heal and which may have something to do with the fact that I now look like Festus in Gunsmoke when I go down a flight of stairs. To add insult to injury here, I wasn't even doing anything stupid when I initially injured my knee. I slipped on some ice.

However, having been threatened with a physical therapist, I am attempting to behave myself. I have been staying off all the cardio equipment at the gym that bothers my knee. Unfortunately, this means all the cardio equipment. I am also NOT doing squats with the Olympic bar and my own weight loaded onto it. I have actually gone 2 weeks without doing a leg routine, period, and this week will only be trying to do a workout with light weights, which I have promised myself I will stop if I start to feel like I am straining the muscle too much.

All of this goes against the grain. Partly because I am a jackass and partly because I am having to deal with the fact that I am no longer in my 20's. Or my 30's. Or even my 40's and that it just takes longer to heal from injuries, get over colds and in general self repair when I have an insult to my body.

All of this is making me reflect soberly on where I am and where I am headed. I am trying to deal with the idea that some things are just out of the question now and that as time continues to fly by, more things will fall into that category.

I know that eventually my knee will heal and I will be able to get back into my regular routine and try and stave off as much of the inroads that time and age are making in my life and well being.

Then I will go out and do something really stupid. Hey, there are still a lot of heavy pieces of furniture that need to get moved around the department!