Music and work and a bum leg.

Went to work on Monday and Tuesday. Not today - my body is screaming "NO"! When I got home yesterday, after only 5 hours, I was exhausted and in pain. It was raining and I slipped on the crutches but didn't fall thank God. However, the clenching of my foot and ankle from the slip gave me hardcore pain for the rest of the day. Its incredible how sensitive everything is. Aches and pains come from all sorts of weird places in my hips and lower back. The bottom of my foot (broken bones side), gives off these bizarre phantom pains that stretch all the way up to my thigh sometimes. I call the pain phantom because I don't know why or where they come from - I'm sure they are part of the healing process though ...

Tomorrow I play a gig at The WISE Hall (www.thewisehall.ca) with Eldorado (www.eldoradotheband.com). We play with the Abramson Singers and Buffaloswan. It will be a great down-home country swingin'/hipster fun night at a great hall. I love play at the WISE Hall!

After I see the kids today - yes, I'm excited! - I am going to band practice for a couple new songs we are working on as well as I Won't Back Down by Tom Petty. Easy enough tune but, as always with Tom Petty, beautifully constructed with his signature laid-back tempo. I'm hoping I won't be too exhausted for tomorrow, when I see the surgeon and I get my cast changed and stitches taken out. I'm looking forward to that!

Work Day 1

Went to work today. Lasted 4 hours. I'm exhausted and in pain and happy to be back to my friendly couch. I talked to my boss today and I'm going to work 1/2 days at the museum and the other 1/2 at home this week. Next week if I'm still struggling, I will begin with the sick days (since they start on May 22). Also, next monday is a holiday, which makes things easier.

Porch jam yesterday. Fun playing on a porch with banjo, mandolin, guitars, acoustic bass and a dobrow and accordian! Yeeha!

Already, I've Been Remiss

Wow. Three days since I last wrote.

Friday:

Macieg came over in afternoon and we set up outside. Basically moved my couch paraphernalia from the living room to the back porch and had a huge smorgasboard of food and drink. A little messy back there since I have not had the chance to get anything done but gorgeous weather and fantastic friendship. Other friends came over a little later and a few beers were had. By evening, I was too exhausted to even contemplate going to a potluck/party ... the last thing I wanted to do was sit on a couch in someone elses house with the heat of summer and bodies around me. So I just made myself to bed and finished off "The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo". Genre: murder mystery/thriller. My least favourite but I got stuck on it and just HAD to finish it. I recommend it but only half-heartedly.

Saturday:

Katie came back from her two nights away refreshed and ready to go to G and J's wedding. I had fed the kittens (took about 10 minutes!) and eaten all of the easily to eat food in the house. I had told Katie that I would not go to the wedding - I felt I didn't have the strength - but the temptation of putting on a suit jacket and trimming my new-found beard was too much to ignore.

So, I did it. Put on a black jacket over white shirt. Black slacks and boots (well, one boot - covered the other foot with big black sock!) and sunglasses and I was ready to go. Katie looked gorgeous in an almost black, printed summer dress, colourful scarf and big/tall black boots. Of course we forgot to take pictures of ourselves so I have nothing for the blog.

The wedding was in a gorgeous little Anglican church called Church-In-The-Woods in West Vancouver, just outside Lighthouse Park. Stain-glass fantastic. Music touching and sentimental. I Corinthians reading about Love. The reverend spoke well and plainly, which is always refreshing.

The reception was in a restaurant that overlooked West Vancouver, the bay, Stanley Park, Vancouver and UBC. Wow. Great food, people, booze, music, speaches and lotsa love. I'm happy for G and J. They seem to be doing everything the 'right' way. We were able to meet and chat with some pretty cool and interesting people.

Now its almost 1 pm on Sunday. I'm just recovering. 8.5 hours out of the house nearly killed me! Today is Porch Jam at Dave's place at 5 and a bit of cleaning at home.

Weather: Overcastish, breezy, possible rain later in afternoon.

Lazy Thursday afternoons.

Sometimes I get panicky and paranoid when I am not in absolute control. That worries me and certainly makes life difficult for Katie. We have had some arguments about this because it is really hard to be humble and accept that it is me that creates tension and confusing situations.

Its almost like I choose to act panicky as a way of getting people to give me the attention and assistance I believe I deserve. I play victim a lot ... and that's all I will say about that.

Is this really what blogging is for? Feels more like a diary to me ... a diary that the whole world can see. Ouch.

So instead, I will describe my surroundings. Kitties are napping (its 2:45 in afternoon). The morning went by really quickly and the plug on my laptop is screwed so I had to wait to blog and do computer work (e.g. finding venue contact info for Pawnshop or emailing work) with Katie's laptop. I'm sitting lengthways on our white cotton couch (kind of a dirty white now though), which faces our large picture window in the living room. The window lets in the evening sun. Across the street is the city block sized park - small soccer field in background; foreground has tennis/basketball court (middle/left) and playground at right. In front of these are a couple huge trees and to the far right a nightwatchperson's home/public washrooms building. A sidewalk runs around the park. The photo really tells the story.

Weather today is blue skies, slight breeze and high of 20 C. Geez I'm missing out on some fantastic weather!

They call it Hump Day

What an awful name for a day of the week. Honestly. Hump Day? It sounds so crude and rude. Images of humpback whales are interspresed by pornographic movies of people humping themselves on their way to work ... Do people really get excited about the fact that Wednesday is in the middle of the week?

Its almost like we measure ourselves by milestones and events to bring some sort of cultural meaning into our life. Check off the day and move on... don't call it Wednesday, call it Hump Day. Instead of enjoying the day, lets just look ahead to the weekend because work is not supposed to be fun (right?) and fun is what counts (right?). Geez! No wonder our lives are so fast and fleeting and inconsequential ... even as we insist on being of some consequence.

Well, damnit, I'm going to enjoy Wednesday! Here, on the couch.

Its 11:30 right now and I have paid bills, phoned three music venues to book Pawnshop Diamond for our Northern BC tour in June, played with the kittens, made arrangements for the kids this weekend and eaten. What's more is that the pain has lessoned considerably today. I only just took 1/2 a painkiller because it was getting a bit much. That is over 12 hours since the last time I took a painkiller. Still a lot of discomfort, of course, but hey!, I did break a couple bones!

Kittens charging around right now. I had to scoot them off the coffee table as they were eating my food!

Weather today is periodically slightly overcast. Strong breeze and a satisfying high of 18 C.

Tuesdays are for kittens.

I look out the window at kids playing basketball in the park and all I can think is thank God I don't have to throw a ball right now. I had a bath this morning, which was a rather complicated affair involving a milk crate, garbage bag, cushion, and long-handled pot.

To put it lightly, I feel waaaay better and 100% cleaner (which I probably am).

A week ago, Katie got two kittens to foster. The idea was that we would try them out on our roomate, who sometimes has allergic reactions to cats, and see what happens. The society gave us two little feral kitties that needed love and attention. Zoe and Joel and Katie and Anya (along with every visitor that comes through the door) jumped at the chance and now we have two kittens that charge around the house with no fear, fighting each other, racing down the hallway, cartwheeling across the bed. From feral to tame. Kudos to Katie.

So, the dilemma. Keep'm both, send'm back and adopt a different kitten or keep one of them. Me, I'd like to keep both of them but a little unfair for our roomate. However, the key is not to get too attached to them right now, although that may be too late. They even have names. From Ninja (the black) and Heart (the gray, and named by Joel) to Soleil Ninja Brooke Ormiston and Sarah Heart Alexandra Saffery.

Now, I've gotta find a way to water the garden. I planted a gorgeous clematis before 'the accident' and have not checked on them since.

A little oxycodone should help. Right?

Weather today? A gorgeous 18 C with moderate breeze. Blue skies.

Monday morning blues?

Today is my best day yet since the accident. I woke up with hardly any pain at 5:30 am and realized that I had slept the whole night, with the help of two oxycodones. When the pain returned this morning I took only one pain killer and have been able to work on show bookings for the band, arrange work for staff at the museum, find someone at work to do signing for staff hours, etc. and make a doctor's appointment.

I'm not allowed to do anything and really, I can't. Believe me, if I could, I would. Instead I need to lie on bed or couch. Yesterday I didn't even leave the bedroom except for a brief living room appearance in the morning. I was still pretty foggy, in shock and in a lot of pain. I spent most of the day in a total haze of drugs and movies, while today (so far) I have felt clear-headed and more alive. Less pain too ...

Weather today: light breeze; 14 C; sunny.

So far no blues today.

Of plates and bolts and ankles and legs.

I was going about 45 kms/hr when the toe-edge of my board caught a chunk of ice and I twisted through the air. This, in itself, is not necessarily a bad thing. Generally you hit the snow, pop back up and off you go. Things were different this time. My board caught, and when I twisted around my left ankle twisted inside my boot. The only popping I did was when I heard the pop in my ankle ...

I tried to get up to no avail - there was nothing to feel in my left ankle and bottom of the leg - and the pain ... oh my god! I took my boot off and moved the foot around. It felt weird and disjointed so I put the boot back on and sat there looking down the hill from the top of Blackcomb in Whistler.

It took about 30 minutes for a ski patrol guy named Dominic to arrive. He felt around, chatted, check my neck, head and shoulders. He also checked my other leg and my thighs. No pain except that damn ankle. In hindsight I realize that when the sled arrived I was in quite a bit of shock. I hadn't talked much except to joke a bit and I figured I would get down the hill, hobble to the chalet and drink a couple of beers. Instead, I was informed that an ambulance was waiting for me at the bottom of the hill. No special coffees, no food ...

After a trip down the mountain on a sled (strapped in like a mummy, looking at blue sky with puffy white cumulus clouds and wondering if I was going to be part of some slapstick comedy where the sled dislodges and hurtles down the hill) I was hustled into the ambulance. I still felt fine. I realised things were serious but, hey, a tensor bandage always does the trick. When the paramedic took off my boot however, things took a rather nasty turn. The purple ankle, on both sides, looked awful and it was triumphantly announced to me that I probably broke my ankle in two places ....

Waiting in the hospital. Only T3s in my belly even though they offered me something stronger. Fuck I need to pee! I have had two coffees and a bottle of water today and have yet to go to the washroom and now I have been sitting here (well lying here actually) for two hours.

Nope, not allowed till after the xray.

Xray time and all I can think about is taking a leak.

After xray my nurse announces that I cannot go to bathroom because I have broken my ankle AND my leg. She promply hands me a cardboard bottle thingy with a handle and closes the curtains with a smile. (With dismay and delight, I recognize that smile. This nurse stitched up my son's foot last year after he cut it with my machete while chopping kindling. We had been camping in Pemberton area - really up in the bush - and that cut really changed the rest of the week! And now she was telling me that I had to put on some designer hospital shorts and that although they would love to have me at Chez Whistler Medical Clinic, I would instead have to go to Vancouver to get all fixed up... Funny nurse. Worked better on my son then me.)

Well, today is two days later. I had to wait a day for surgery because of other more serious accidents and then they put me under. Two plates, three screws/bolts to fix a broken ankle, a broken fibula and the fibula and tibia being torn apart at its base.

And here I am sitting on my couch.