For reasons I won't go into, my daughter's family and her in-laws -- who share a two-family house, upstairs and down, decided to swap residences. What this means is that all the furniture uplevels went down, and vice-versa.Fortunately, there were professional movers involved.
But, once the stuff was moved, there were all the boxed-up books and clothes and dishes to be put away. The furniture needed to be rearranged, too.
My wife went Saturday, but I was still coughing and wheezing and zoned out from whatever crud it was I'd contracted, and trying to decide if the bronchitis was pneumonia, so that I stayed home. But yesterday, I was feeling up to it, so most of Sunday was spent moving things around.
Felt like: Here is a big pile of rocks on this side of the yard; move them over there, to that side, and bring that big pile there over here. Wending your way through the big pile of rocks in the middle both trips ...
We didn't get it all done, but at least they can walk into every room without having to climb over stuff. My son-in-law, whose back isn't in the best shape, managed on Friday to bung up his knee, and really needed to be lying down icing it, but he soldiered on . At least the computers and TV were hooked up, so the grandsons were occupied.
Being a lousy patient, I had been lamenting that, being sick, I hadn't got to work out the last few days.
That'll teach me to be careful what I gripe about ...
4 comments:
I wrenched my knee last week -- then my daughter came home from college for spring break, and we all went to go play basketball yesterday, because that's how we roll.
This is perhaps not the smartest thing I've done lately. At least your son in law was doing something that actually needed to be done. Some days I feel so dumb I'm amazed I can breathe and walk at the same time.
Martial arts are supposed to be risky, but I see more guys on the injured list from basketball. Now and again, we turn on the tube to watch the local team play, and some nights, they are lucky to have enough guys to suit up five. And these are pro athletes with doctors and trainers and all, and who, if they are thirty-four or -five, get called the "old man."
Maybe it's just me, but it seems as if that's happening more frequently.
Pros have pushed pretty close to the limits of what the human body can do... and they pay for that. And that's before you get into things like playing while hurt to get to the pros. (And consciously ignoring the whole issue of pharmaceutical assistance in reaching those limits...) I also have to wonder whether or not we're seeing a price paid for over specializing too early.
For us weekend warriors... it gets even worse. 'Cause we launch full speed into things, try to "Do it like Mike" without really warming up and preparing.
That's where the more serious martial artists have an advantage. They learn the importance of proper preparation, as well as adjusting and reacting to or around an injury. Not anywhere near an absolute (we do plenty of dumb things to ourselves... as my left knee will testify...) but most of us do try to keep our body in reasonable working order.
Basketball is not a way to stay in shape. (Though it's probably a way to avoid complete collapse.) The last 6 months I've had very little gym time -- we went for a walk last Saturday for an hour and I broke a sweat walking in merely warm weather, which is a little pathetic. But I did manage to play 4 games of basketball Sunday on a bum knee -- I may be in shape for only one kind of exercise, but my body does know how to manage that one type.
The last decade, I've stayed in shape so I could play ball, not stayed in shape by playing ball. Anyone trying to stay in shape via basketball (past the age of 30 or so) is kidding themselves.
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