Whine and Cheese

A Long Weekend

Sat, 02 Sep 2017 15:10:21 GMT

I was off yesterday. I originally requested the day off because I was going to be driving up to Detroit for the softball tournament. Since I got injured, I couldn't go, but then the patio door installers called and rescheduled for that Friday. And then it rained all day and they had to reschedule again.

I'm not devastated, as this just happens. And it allowed me to sleep in a bit and gave me time to get ready in the morning, which takes more time due to the boot.

One of the perks of being relatively couch-bound is that I've managed to catch up on my DVR a bit. I love watching "The Strain," about modern-day non-handsome vampires taking over NYC. It's definitely a dark show.

I'll be spending a bit of time writing issue #23 of my comic book while taking it easy.

And now I'm seeing photos of my team at the softball field this morning in Detroit on Facebook. Darn. Sigh.

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Boot Updates

Wed, 30 Aug 2017 01:41:24 GMT

The weekend was not terribly pretty in terms of the boot. Being someone who likes to stay busy, just sitting on the couch with my leg propped up is annoying me. It's also very distracting, which leaves me struggling to concentrate on things.

Night time has been the worst part of it. After I take off the compression socks to help with the swelling, my ankle becomes abnormally sensitive. The slightest touch of it can hurt, so finding a comfortable position to sleep in has been nearly impossible. This past week has been a lot of fitful sleeping.

The good news is that my foot seems to be on the mend. The pain is nearly gone and the sensitivity has disappeared. I slept so soundly last night, I didn't want to get up. I found myself very drowsy at work today, so I was happy to get home. I set the alarm for an hour nap and did not want to get up from it either, so my body is clearly ready to catch up on my rest.

The only negative is that my OTHER foot is starting to hurt now. Not in the same way, but like a strained muscle in my arch. I've relied to heavily on my good foot this past week, I know it's tired of having to bear my weight most of the time. I'm hoping it passes quickly too.

I want this boot off so bad. I missed out on softball again tonight. Boo.

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Back in the Boot

Tue, 22 Aug 2017 02:28:28 GMT

My cleats have been crushing my feet lately, but they had been feeling better. On Saturday, I re-laced my running shoes and did my usual 3.4 miles on the track. I felt pretty good when I finished and walked back up the hill to my car. After my shower, I went to lunch and started to notice a twinge in my right foot. As I ran more errands, the twinge grew into an ache, then into dull pain, and ending at sharp pain. I was thrilled to get home and take it easy, thinking that the pain would pass overnight.

It didn't.

I took it easy all day Sunday. I didn't even leave the house. My foot had swelled and was very red on its bridge. I iced it and kept it elevated, thinking that I had overdone it. As I went to bed that night, it hurt even more. In bed, I grabbed my phone and found that the local orthopaedic office had an urgent care just down the road from my house.

The urgent care is pretty well set. The lady at the front desk was a bit of a bitch, but I can live with as long as they see me. There were lots of kids in casts and even a prisoner in chains, decked out in gray and black striped clothes. The theater of the living was kind of fun.

They took me back, shot several x-rays of my foot in various painful positions, then put me in a room to wait for the doctor. The doc was a funny lady, just a few years younger than me, who listened intently to what I had done to myself. She said that she believes that I have stress fractures on my right foot. She said that we can't see them on the x-ray until they heal, but she pointed out past fractures that had healed. It was pretty interesting considering the pain I was in. She verified the fractures by striking a tuning fork and placing the end along each metatarsal on my right foot. As she moved the fork end down the bone, she would reach a spot that would hurt. The fork would cause the bone to vibrate and vibrating breaks... hurt. It turns out that two of my five metatarsals have apparent fractures.

She was going to put me into a boot, but luckily I still had the same one from a couple of years ago, so I was ready to roll. I made it back to work for a few hours, then home to catch up on the sleep I didn't get last night.

I'm in the boot for at least two weeks. No softball tomorrow or next week. And sadly, no softball tournament in Detroit. I should be out of it by the time Pride Night at Kings Island rolls around.

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Softball Ouchie

Mon, 14 Aug 2017 01:23:47 GMT

I've been having trouble with my feet lately. A couple of weeks ago, they hurt so bad after a softball game that I couldn't bear to wear my cleats. I took them off and walked in my stocking feet to the parking lot and my car. I blamed the cleats as they have been crushing my feet, so I think they were a bad buy.

That night, my feet ached like crazy, so on top of them being sore, I believe I had a gout flare-up. So I took my gout meds and went to work. The following weekend, I bought some new shoes in the hopes that it would fix the problem. I played in the new shoes last week and things went great. However, my feet started aching a couple of days later, which I believed was tendonitis in my heel.

I'd not been running as a result, which had been really bugging me. Today, even though my heel wasn't 100%, I decided to go for a run. I did a weird gallop the first couple of laps, but then my gait went to normal. I'm sure the endorphins were kicking in. By the time I was half-way through my 3.4 mile walk-run, the pain was pretty much gone. I've found this to be true in the past, that working out will often get whatever kinks taken care of. My heel hasn't hurt the rest of the day, so I'm hoping it will stay that way.

Softball is looming in a couple of days, I hopefully will not experience a repeat of the past week.

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Softball Douchery

Wed, 03 May 2017 03:25:50 GMT

It was incredibly cold night to play. The temps were in the low 60s, but it was overcast and windy, which made for a very chilly night to play. We had a double-header, the early game and the late with a hour break in between.

The first team we played was not very good, but both teams are in the recreational division. Several of them were working out injuries. We beat them easily, but we were courteous, taking only one base when we could grab two. One inning, we even gave them six outs so they could bat around more. Playing right field, I caught a pop fly for the final out of the game.

The second game was more aggravating. It's the team "formerly known as Shooters," named after a closed country/western bar. They were in the competitive division last year, but they claim they've lost and replaced players and now are in the intermediate division. I saw some of their replacement players and they are past players on the team. On their whole team, I'd say maybe two of them play at the intermediate level. The rest are still at the competitive level.

Naturally, they trounced us, 30-something to some single-digit score. Sore losers are bad enough, but sore winners are freakin' worse. One of our guys had three fouls and was about to bat again, when the pitcher said he should be out. He said the rule was one free foul, but the ump was allowing it. Now, the Sheldon Coopers of the world would say rules are rules, but when you already have a double-digit lead on us, it looks very petty.

Worse, I was catching the second game and had to listen to three straight, insufferable twats on their team sit on the bleachers and give ESPN-like play-by-play of every mistake we made. When two outfielders nearly collided on a high fly hit, dropping the ball, they were laughing and talking about our team's lack of communication. They communicate better, they said cackling. It grated on my last nerve.

Normally, I'm very jovial, cracking jokes with the batters as they come up, and I did for the first part of the game, but after this insult to injury I had no f**ks left to give. After they batted through their line up the second time or so, we finally got a third out. I was coaching first and the other team's first basement tried to joke with me, but I just smiled and let it go. Their scorekeeper tried to flirt with me, but I wasn't in the mood and just nodded without a word.

Ironically, while I ended the first game by catching the last out, I ended this game by being tagged out at second.

I think our captain is going to report their playing level to make sure they play in the right division. We're not perfect, but against an intermediate team, would have done much better. I don't want it to sound like we're sore losers. We lost both games last week and had a great time, but dealing with the overly macho crap with this team made it no fun at all.

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