Brokeback Something

I'm home today, for the second day, with some pretty weird back problems that started late last week.

I've lost a bit of weight and have gone from a size 14 to a 12 -- some size 12 jeans are still a bit snug, depending on their age. So, I put on a pair of size 12 jeans the seemed quite find, and went to work. As the day progressed, the skin that contacted the jeans was beginning to feel irritated and sensitive to the touch. It stung, like it would if it had been burned.

By Friday morning, I had a really tender spot on my back, right about where the lady in the picture is holding herself. I decided to wear a pair of size 14 jeans, so they wouldn't be snug against this spot. It felt bruised and tender, and the skin was still very sensitive. It was weird because it didn't hurt to move in any way, just to touch it.

By the time I got home from work Friday night, it had started to hurt pretty good when I moved a certain way.

Saturday we went down to Le's to take Vanessa home and to fix Le's shower (it was disgusting, with the walls all rotted out...yuck!). I was pretty much useless to Lisa as my back was bothering me pretty good by that time. I was extremely tired and just didn't feel right. We spent the night at Le's -- Lisa in Vanessa's bed and me on the couch -- big mistake. By Sunday morning I could barely move.

I worked Monday and had such difficulty sitting or sitting AGAINST my chair that I was unable to focus on much of anything. The skin had become ultra sensitive and the "bruised" feeling had spread from my hip to just below my shoulder blade.

I went to the chiropractor yesterday and he beat the dog-snot out of me. He said that sensitive, burning sensation on the skin was the nerve endings firing up. He instructed me to ice it every hour for about 20 minutes a pop, and if Ibuprofen helped, to take some of that too. I stayed home sick after that, and am home sick today. While I have some relief (thanks to my chiropractor), I'm still a hurtin' puppy. I'll go back to the chiropractor tomorrow and Friday, and see how things go from there.

Today my shoulder feels odd, and the sensitivity of the skin has spread up to that area as well.

The thing is, I have no idea what happened. It started off small with what seemed to be skin irritation, and just got bigger and bigger. A year ago today I fell on the ice outside work and busted my tookas pretty good. I still have some tenderness in my tailbone from that from time to time, but this is clearly something different. I worry sometimes that the MS is rearing it's ugly head again, especially when something weird like this pops up. I've been in remission for 15 years now and live a normal, full life. I had such a mild case of MS that it's possible the myelin has repaired itself and I'll have no long-term problems from the scarring that occurred. BUT, I can't help but worry when things like this pop up with no explanation.

This is the time of year that I start planting seeds for the spring. It's tedious work sometimes, requiring long spells of sitting and hunching over the trays. Hopefully this crap will clear up soon because I'm ready to start!

Of course, around here, Spring doesn't break through until we've had one last snowstorm in March. They're predicting up to 6 inches for tomorrow, so hopefully we're getting it over with early, but I doubt that. The ice storm in '91 happened on the 4th, the blizzard of 93 happened on the 14th, the ice storm in '96 happened on the 7th, and the ice storm of 2000 (or 2001?) was in the middle of March as well. It's sort of like winter's last hurrah before letting go.

But then again, we've hardly had much of a winter, when you look at the big picture. At no time has there been any piles of snow where snowplows came through, and for the most part, we've seen our yards most of the winter. During January they actually started to green up a bit, and our spring bulbs had started to push through the ground. The last time we had such a mild winter, it rained and was cool most of the summer.

I finally had the discussion with Lisa last night about selling her antique truck. We've not been able to do a thing with it in the past 2 years, and didn't even get it out of storage last summer. She agreed that she's largely held onto the memories associated with it (from when she was in college) and that it may be time to just let it go. With all the work and time and money put into it restoring it to it's ORIGINAL state, we decided that $8,500 isn't outrageous. It's middle of the line in classic car value for it's make and model year. It has only 1957 F100 parts on it, no hobgobbling or cannibalizing from earlier/later models or anything like that. Purely original. So, if you know any antique truck buffs, send 'em our way. Lisa wants to sell it to someone who will keep it in it's original state, and not chop it up for a street rod.

Basically, when Lisa was in college in the late 80s, she had an internship opportunity in Buffalo, Wyoming (she has a degree in Conservation). She needed to get out there somehow and her father bought this truck for her to use to drive out and back. At the time, Lisa was with her first partner, and the two of them drove cross-country out to Wyoming and back that summer. Afterward, her father took the truck back and eventually sold it to a guy, who sold it to a guy, who sold it to a woman, who sold it back to Lisa. The woman was meticulous about tracking previous owners and, when Lisa ran into her at a car show some years back, she was excited to learn that she had found her old truck. She told the woman that, if she ever decided to sell, to give her a call. That call came about 4 years ago.

The reality is that Lisa wants to get into woodworking, and is planning on buying a table saw with her Christmas money and gift cards. She can't do that kind of stuff with that antique truck parked in the garage. She insists that she could park it outside, but I believe that would be an open invitation for the little assholes that live in the neighborhood to engage in tomfoolery with it. And, frankly, I want my garage back. It's a 2-car garage, but that thing is so big it takes up pretty much the whole thing.

We had a great time with Vanessa last week. Friday we went to the Strong Museum and the National Toy Hall of Fame.






We really had a great time, and the week with Vanessa seemed to go too fast. But, I think that towards the end of the week, she was missing her Mom. She's a great kid. I love the picture of her and I with Big Bird, even though there was a lot of eye-rolling prior to the picture. Lisa and Vanessa had a great time with each other -- it was like having two kids.

Le asked us if we were considering having children together. I told her to BITE HER TONGUE and get that thought right out of her mind. Perhaps if we were 15 years younger I'd consider it, but no way now. I do think that if there was a way that we could put both of our genetic materials together, we'd make an interesting kid together, but that's not gonna happen, and the world will just have to be deprived of that.

Besides, who the hell wants kids that are younger than their grandkids?