The Big Mistake

For the last week I've been playing some pickleball and working on my golf game at the driving range.

I've been pretty happy with my progress in both sports.  I'm still working on the basics for Pickleball and trying to make a lot of changes to my golf swing.

This has been going well.  At the end of the day, I've been tried and there have been the usual back soreness that is gone for the most part by the morning.  Barb and I have been doing some routine car maintenance too.  I got some products over the holidays and we've been polishing head lights and washing the beasts.  We had a lot of black gunk come down from the trees this winter.  It needed a strong hand to get it off the paint.  Our theory is that it's ash reside from the summer fires that the trees trapped and then released with the winter rains.

My winter car, the VW GTI, asked to go to the service shop.  It has not been there for a year.  It had all of 3300 miles since the last service, but there are time limits too.  To get ready to take it in, I got the summer car out from its hibernation under its cover.  Even while it's covered, it still gets dusty and dirty.  So it needed a wash too.

So Monday I play pickleball, then go to the range, and then go wash the car.  Lots of "bent over" time to wash and wax and dry the car.  And thus we come to this morning about 3 am, when my back is a problem.  I got up to get some Ibuprofen and I almost can't do it.  Standing and walking is a real problem.  I take the pills and manage to get back to bed.

In the morning, I hobble down stairs to send a message to my buddies at Wente to tell them I'm not going to meet them in the morning.  I start to go back to bed and walking is suddenly a real problem.  Perhaps if I spend some time on the couch?  Well, I can't get to the coach.  It's too low and bending over is not really possible...

It takes a while of holding on to door frames and stair rails to take some pressure off the back and I manage to get back to bed.  Getting dressed and going down stairs later that morning was also a trial.  Today has been a series of sitting carefully, popping pills and hoping for relief.  The good news is that things are getting better and actually, I can't complain about how quickly it's happening.  I expect to be ambulatory tomorrow, but no sports for a few more days.  And the cars, ha, they are on their own for a bit.