energy

5 Things — Distractions

Fandango6 Comments

Dr. Tanya, over at Salted Caramel, has this prompt called “5 Things,” where she asks us to list five things about a particular topic. For this week’s topic, she wants to know what five things distract us from blogging.

Tanya said that she began the draft for this post way back in August 2022. And if she had posted it back then, my answers would be very different than they are today, since the first five months of 2023 have been a whole different ballgame for me personally.

Prior to this past January, the most significant injury I had was when I tore my Achilles tendon in my right ankle while playing basketball and had to have surgery to repair the tendon. I remember the pain of the injury and having my leg in a cast for six weeks after the surgery and having use to crutches and even a few weeks of physical therapy after the cast was removed. But even with all that, I was back at work and doing fine within a week of the surgery.

Of course, I was 30 years younger then than I am now, but five months ago I fractured my hip and had emergency partial hip replacement surgery. I was shocked at how that drained my energy. I continued to post a little, but way less than usual because I just didn’t have the energy. And even today, I still don’t have the same energy I had before the accident.

So distraction number 1 is a lack of energy.

Distraction number 2 is going to physical therapy three times a week and spending at least two hours each day at home doing my rehab exercises.

Distraction number 3 is watching TV, especially when we watch a streaming channel like Netflix, which often releases a whole series season on a single date. I’ll start out watch the first episode and eight hours later I realize that I watched the entire season in one sitting. Now I have wait 18 to 24 months for season two. And by the time that comes out I will have completely forgotten what happened in the first season and have to binge watch that all over again.

Distraction number 4 is sleeping. If I didn’t have to sleep at night and occasionally take a nap or two during the day, I’d be able to have more time to dedicate to blogging.

Distraction number 5 is spending quality time with our dog, who hates to be ignored and demands a lot of attention.

Torpor

Fandango14 Comments

I have this app on my iPhone, Word of the Day, and I get some of my FOWC With Fandango Daily prompts from that app. Yesterday’s word was “Torpor,” a word I’d never heard of.

Torpor is a noun meaning “the state of not being active and having no energy or enthusiasm.”

And even though the word is new to me, its meaning — and the feeling — is not. It pretty much describes my frame of mind since I busted my hip three weeks ago.

I’m inactive because my ability to be active has been significantly hindered. I spend my days slowly walking around my house using my walker because I can’t walk at all without it. I’m doing my assigned physical and occupational therapy exercises, eating, and napping. And yet, that is taking a lot out of me.

I can’t say I’ve lost my enthusiasm for blogging, but I have lost the energy it takes to keep up the pace I was at before my hip fracture, to participate in all of the daily and most of the weekly prompts I used to. And until I can get through this torpor phase I’m stuck in, I just don’t have the energy to read your posts, either.

I’m really sorry about that.

No Energy

Fandango71 Comments 

No energy
No energy to talk
No ability to walk
Can’t get in and out of bed by myself
Can’t go to the bathroom on my own
My left leg feels like dead weight
Muscles not responding to instructions from my brain
Physical and occupational therapy sessions four times a day
Painful, grueling, and exhausting
But as they say, “no pain no gain.”
Who the fuck are they?

All I do is eat a little
(No appetite for this hospital food)
Between therapy sessions
Spend most of my time trying to sleep
Lots of weird, strange dreams
Where I’m able bodied
And then I wake up in this place
In the middle of my nightmare
Is it any wonder I’m depressed?

They say they’re sending me home next Friday
For the next phase of my recovery
I’m doing what I can
Fighting through the pain
To be ready for that
In the meantime
No energy to open WordPress
No energy to write
No energy to read, like, or comment.
No energy to thank all of you
Who have wished me well
Wished me a rapid recovery
Thank you

Weekend Writing Prompt — The Key

Fandango7 Comments

“It won’t work,” Sam said. “I’m sorry, Ben, but your plan is just not viable.”

“Of course it is viable,” Ben said.

“What about the weather?” Sam asked. “Your plan depends upon it being windy enough to get and keep your kite afloat. And on top of that, you need a bolt of lightning to strike the key attached to your kite string. It will never happen. Pulling energy from lightning? You are crazy, Ben.”

“Yes, crazy like a fox,” Ben said.

(Exactly 82 words)

Written for Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt, where the word is “viable” in exactly 82 words.

The Track Meet

Fandango24 Comments

0F9029CA-0416-46BE-81B5-49FB451E1230When I was in high school I was on the track team. Each year, the local school district would sponsor a track and field tournament and invite each school in the district to send representatives from their individual track teams to compete. My specialties were the 100 and 400 meter hurdles, and I was good enough to be selected year after year to represent my school in those meets.

009E09D1-5D5D-4BD8-AD1D-E54842377A2FAnyone who runs track knows the that one of the elemental factors for success is achieving a high energy level going into your race. What I used to do back then, before today’s dedicated energy bars or drinks were on the market, was to consume a Mars Bar. I felt that eating my Mars Bar right before competing gave me an edge. And it always worked for me. Until the tournament in my senior year.

As usual, I had my Mars Bar and headed to the track. I was limbering up and feeling good when we were told to take our marks for the 400 meter hurdles. The starter’s gun fired and I got off to a good start. But then the wheels came off the bus at the fourth hurdle. I don’t know if it was the Mars Bar or something else, but just before I reached that fourth hurdle, my stomach started to cramp. I tried to power through the pain, but it slowed me down enough that when I tried to jump the hurdle, I came up a little short. And with my leading leg over the hurdle and my trailing leg behind, I didn’t quite have enough height. As a result, my balls smacked into the top of the hurdle and I fell to the ground writhing in pain.

I was on the ground, doubled over in agony, and I’ll never forget the inspiring words my coach said when he ran out onto the track.

He said, “Get up kid and walk it off.”

Written for these daily prompts: Your Daily Word Prompt (tournament), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (meter), Word of the Day Challenge (elemental), Swimmers (Mars), and Ragtag Daily Prompt (walk).