Hurtin' cowboy

Remember the picture of the snow shovel from the previous post and how high the snow reached on it? Tonight, a week later, you'd hardly know we had a big storm last week. The snow is still there, but it has compacted down so much. A product of the time of year.

We're still getting cold air from Canada, but the sun is so much higher now, and once we get air from the west again, the temperature is going to shoot up quickly, and the snow will go bye-bye.

Transition time for me, too. Basketball season ended last night when the team that I cover lost in its state quarterfinal game. I think our team was better--but not on this night. The other guys (two losses all season) simply outshot them, and our team's first loss of the season is also its last. No 1000-mile round trip to Lansing--I would have been driving down there today.

So it goes. I love sports, but it's just a game. Fun to watch, and there's lessons to be learned, certainly, but they lost and the world goes on spinning. (Of course, try to tell me that if the Detroit Red Wings make another first round exit from the Stanley Cup playoffs next month.)

Now that I'll get some time to relax at home now (I'm watching the world figure skating championships from Calgary with my wife tonight), maybe I can rest up and start feeling better. Truth is, I'm a hurtin' cowboy right now.

It happened last Wednesday, while I was walking home for lunch. Due to the snow from two days earlier, the only place to walk was along the street. Anyway, my foot hit a patch of ice and skidded. Down I came, crash, on my hip--right at the hipbone. Ouch. I checked for a bruise that night. Very little.

But in the days since then, my hip and upper thigh have made up for lost time. My butt, right where the hip bone ends, is close to black right now, and the thigh is darkly bruised. But I'm walking OK, sitting OK, squatting and climbing OK. It just aches a bit, especially last night when I was trying to sleep after the two-hour drive home from the basketball game.

Today, I basically took it easy. Stayed at work only until noon, rested at home this afternoon. I've been going pretty hard lately. Time to give it a break for a day. Tomorrow, back to the plow.

Now that basketball is over, maybe I can finally take my wife to the quilt shops in Eagle River she has been wanting to visit for some time. But with my goofy schedule and my mom's condition, it's been so hard to get away for a day. Maybe now ...