In yesterday's post, I mused that some strain I was feeling within the actual joint of each shoulder was probably due to forcing myself to use as much strict form as I could in performing one-arm curls with a 43½-pound dumbbell.
I am no longer convinced that the dumbbell curls are wholly responsible. After publishing that post, I attempted my usual exercises out in the backyard toolshed ─ the opening exercises are chin-ups using a length of piping suspended across the shed's roof rafters.
The piping is too wide to actually hold with a wraparound grip with my hands ─ at best, I try to ensure that the ends of my thumbs are at least around the bar and (just barely) touching my hands.
This sort of grip makes it impossible to extend my elbows, leaving my arms with a crooked posture.
Well, I found it dangerously painful to try and 'chin' myself up ─ the socket joint rebelled in agony.
I then attempted a pull-up (overhand grip) and found that this movement was also too painful to attempt.
Ditto for trying to pull myself up between two such pipings with my palms facing to either side of my head.
I had performed these movements just two days before that without any issue ─ I've been doing so on a more or less regular basis every second day for many months.
So just what has gone amiss? Why suddenly have my shoulder joints become so stressed as to feel damaged? I just don't know.
Maybe the dumbbell is at fault, but the harm or strain that was caused on Friday now translates over to chin-ups and pull-ups.
Whatever the reason, it was most dispiriting. I am 70 years old, so any layoff of exercising results in rapid loss of ability ─ and of course, that is quite apart from any sense of loss of self-worth when I am forced to be physically idle.
This morning I wanted to test myself with the gymnastics-style rings at an elementary school that is maybe ¼ to ½ mile from here. I meant to do so very early in the morning while on my way to do some shopping at the Real Canadian Superstore outlet (Google map) 2¾ miles away from my home.
The store opens at 7:00 a.m., so I hoped to try and arrive there as soon after its early opening as I could.
Well, I failed to get to bed last evening as early as I had thought I would, despite not having my younger brother home to complicate my evening ─ he spent the night at the home of his girlfriend Bev.
As I recall, it was quite possibly after 11:00 p.m. before I was to bed. And then as I lay there trying to relax into sleep, I heard a text arrive on my cellphone.
Concerned that it might be my mostly absentee wife (she likes to spend her weekends somewhere in Vancouver ─ such is my sorry marriage), I risked taking a look at the phone's screen.
It wasn't a text from my wife, but I saw that she had texted me earlier at 8:28 p.m. to say that she needed to take "another $200" from my chequing account because her friend and employer at the Thai restaurant where my wife works was away to somewhere and would not be back until the 7th.
This chequing account is where my monthly pension money gets direct deposited. My wife has her own wages that she consistently blows through (she parties regularly through each week, and has a gambling problem to boot), and then she begins grasping my precious pension money, putting our monthly mortgage payments at risk.
An online check revealed that she had already taken $100 on the 3rd, but nothing as yet the evening of her text. However, the account was already nearly $40 less than the required mortage amount that will become due (by debit) as early as the 22nd ─ 18 days away.
Meantime, I have other bills that need paying, and I do some occasional shopping.
Her two adult sons who both have jobs live here and do not pay any rent, but they are forced to help out when the date of the mortgage payment is imminent and my chequing account needs topping up.
Having so little in the account already bodes very badly.
I texted her and warned her of the situation, but she just acknowledged that she was aware, and would pay back some of it when she got paid.
There's nothing I can do. I don't drive ─ I can't chase after her.
And she is something over 23 years my junior ─ she has so many damned friends, she could be anywhere. Heck, I don't even know who the hell it is that she stays with in Vancouver, nor where.
The helpless stress that befell me last evening was pathological, and it took me a long time to settle down enough to eventually get to sleep. I even had to fight tears, once again crying out to God why it was that He has abandoned me to this wretched fate at my age.
My younger brother lives here too, and contributes maybe a ninth of the mortgage every two weeks. However, we have other expenses in common, so he performs a monthly overall reconciliation and pays me the difference.
He did so by cheque yesterday ─ something just over $222. This will of course help a little.
I wanted to get that cheque deposited this morning on my hike to shop.
It was around 4:00 a.m. when I checked the time this morning and got up, soon getting to work on the post I am creating at one of my six hosted websites. I figured to leave here very shortly after 6:00 a.m.
Meantime, as I worked on the post, I would experience some intestinal cramping. Upon rising, I had consumed several tablespoonfuls of apple cider vinegar with a little water, into which I had dumped a larger quantity than intended of baking soda.
I considered that maybe this was behind the occasional cramps.
Right around 6:00 a.m. as I began readying for my journey, I realized that I needed to evacuate my bowels.
And boy! Did I ever!
I sat for some while, and of course had to clean myself up afterward.
It could not have had nothing to do with the drink ─ it was clearly attributable to something I had ingested yesterday.
Anyway, it was already after 6:30 a.m. by the time I left home. I hate being out after the morning starts to get busy, nor do I care to be shopping when stores become crowded.
As a result, I chose to abandon the pull-ups I had planned to attempt at the elementary school; for if I was able to perform them, I had meant to engage several sets, and then maybe even do some chin-ups and overhand pull-ups if I could find the means in the school playground.
I did not have the time ─ I needed to get to the store as soon as possible so that I could be on my way back home before the morning was abuzz with drivers and other pedestrians.
Of course, I did take the time to make the ATM deposit.
It was already 7:30 a.m. by the time I got to the store.
There were three products on sale that I was after, but I was to find the shelves empty of one of them. Nevertheless, I also bought two other items, and I ended up with a fair weight in the tote bag I had brought along.
One of the sale items was honey in a one-kilogramme container. I bought three of those.
As soon as I left the store, I knew that I was in for something of a workout, having to bear the full weight from just one hand as I trekked the 2¾ miles back home. I had no choice but to walk slower than I otherwise would have, for there was considerable strain due to the lopsided weight of my purchases.
It was nearly 9:00 a.m. before I was back home, and I felt beaten right down.
After I put everything away and got myself dressed down, I came here to my computer and put some further work into the post. I badly wanted to return to bed, but I was also extremely hungry.
I hung on until 10:00 a.m., and then finally broke my fast with a large and hot caffeinated beverage. This drink I create is comprised of instant coffee and some unsweetened cocoa powder that is then creamed with liquid whipping cream, and sweetened with some honey, demerara brown sugar, and blackstrap molasses.
This drink is most sustaining, let me tell you! It quells hunger beautifully.
I was still finishing up the work I wanted to put into the post. My brother arrived home before I was done, and soon he was watching an NFL game.
My outing had left me extremely stiff and sore. When I had gone downstairs to fix up my drink, I had first stood at the top of the stairs and wondered if I was going to have to plant both feet onto each step as I painfully and gingerly ricketed my swaying body down the stairs, wincing because of cartilage-damaged knees that have been with me since my 20s.
It took some force of will, but I refused to do that. Oh, to be sure, the hobbling dance as I worked my way down the stairs was there, but I refused to step both feet upon any one of the stairs.
I know that I likely looked much like an awkward chimpanzee walking upright.
I think that it was around 11:00 a.m. when I returned to bed. It had earlier begun to lightly rain.
I napped, and checked the time about an hour after getting to bed. However, I felt so tingly good just lying there, I probably spent another half hour doing that before at last forcing myself up.
My brother was still watching T.V. But this time, I realized that he had the men's gold medal 2020 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships game on, and it was nearly over. I quickly fixed up a very small meal and joined him to watch it play out ─ Canada was to beat Russia with a score of 4-3.
What was remarkable was that at one point, Canada was losing 3-1. Somehow, the team stopped any further scoring by the Russians, and then came on and made three unanswered goals to win the game.
I would have liked to have seen the darned full game!
My brother seems to have been of the belief that the lads were the 'under-18' (i.e, under the age of 18) team, but Wikipedia seems to be claiming that they were the 'under-20' crew ─ see IIHF World U20 Championship.
If that is so, then why were the Canadian women who played the States yesterday for the gold medal (and had to settle for silver) the 'under-18' team? See IIHF World Women's U18 Championships.
I find this very confusing.
Do the men have both an under-20 and an under-18 hockey team, whereas there is only an under-18 women's hockey team?
And if so, then why were the women's under-18 playing at the same time as the men's under-20 team, while the men's under-18 team played by itself last year and fell to the States in the bronze medal game? (See 2019 IIHF World U18 Championships.)
Gosh, I need to put this post to bed. My evening is already upon me, and my brother ─ who headed off to the bar at the end of the noon hour without his usual restorative rest in his bedroom ─ could well be showing up now at any time.
I can't imagine that he will be in any shape to watch T.V. this evening, so if he actually does not come home until nearer mid-evening, I want to be set to hie myself off to bed and leave him to himself.
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