My Aching Back and Other Random Musings

My workouts have been put on hold while my back recovers from some sort of injury, most likely related to snow removal. I'm not exactly sure what I did but I've never had a back injury quite like this one. It began one week ago and while it felt a little sore at first it became much worse over the next few days. I call it a back injury but it mostly presents itself as a searing pain in my left buttock and down toward my left calf. I went into an orthopedic urgent-care Sunday morning where they took x-rays. The images showed nothing out of the ordinary, suggesting it was some sort of soft tissue injury. I'm on a burst of prednisone and a muscle relaxer. I'm feeling better today but I'm not quite ready to resume my workouts—maybe tomorrow. I need to strengthen my core—it's that simple.

My Subaru Forrester turned 5 years old this week just as its odometer racked up 50,000 miles (80,000 km). It's been a good car and I'm happy with it but if I had to choose a favorite car that I've owned it would be my 1982 Mazda 626 which I purchased new after returning from the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City.

Stopping to ponder memories of my 626 I can still feel everything about the car, from the driver's seat with its adjustable lumbar support to the tacky feel of the rubberized steering wheel grip. I can still remember how it felt to move the gearshift through its 5-speed manual sequence to bring it up to speed with the ever so slight vibrations I'd feel through the shifter. Those memories seem just as clear as they were all those years ago. It was such a good car.

Tammy taught me something yesterday. In the photo to the left, take a close look at the gas pump icon. Do you see the arrow pointing to the right? It's there to tell you which side of the car you pump the gas into. And now you know, too! I'm not sure I ever noticed the arrow until she mentioned it.

I finished a few stained glass projects in the past week—here, here, and here. It's been a productive few days of work. My Instagram site for my stained glass work has been taking off over the past several weeks. Each time I post a photo I pick up quite a few additional followers. I have a link in my Instagram profile to my Etsy site and it's having the desired effect. About 25% of the visitors to my Etsy site are coming from my Instagram link. I recall not being overly impressed with Instagram when I first began using it not quite 7 years ago. Now it's one of my favorite apps.

Speaking of stained glass—I'd been thinking of a way to reinforce the bottoms of my larger panels so there will be less chance for them to sag over the years. I purchased some 1/4" x 1/8" rebar strips that I cut and soldered in place around the outside bottom edge of each panel in a U-shape. I feel better about having reinforced them all.

I drove into Farmington yesterday afternoon to meet with some fellow retirees for our weekly get-together, affectionately referred to as a mandatory team meeting—a holdover reference from our working days. I'm more often than not a no-show but I've managed to make it the past two weeks. I always enjoy my time with everyone but I'm too easily distracted with other stuff it seems and I fail to show up. I'm trying to do better.

We've had our fill of snow for the year but there's a major storm making its way toward us and there's a chance we'll see another foot of snow from it. I shot the video embedded below this morning.

Time to head down to the studio.

That's all I've got.