Our Family: June 2006 Archives

After a long talk with one of the people I work with (I managed to go into the office today), he has talked me into giving the weights another try. I guess I will. He explained that the guy who took me through the routine had me on weights that were way too heavy, too many reps, etc. Basically, he didn’t know what the hell he was doing.

He suggested a lot of stretching first, then trying very very light weights with very few reps, even it it seemed that I wasn’t working the muscles that much. The main issue is to get more stretching and movement in the muscles. Then, add weight when they are ready for it.

That actually makes sense to me. I’m probably going to give myself a day to rest, and try this tomorrow.

God I hope I don’t regret this.

While I’d love to write on this (because I have a lot to say about this), I’m afraid I will have to pass on this one.

The Supreme Court today delivered a sweeping rebuke to the Bush administration, ruling that it exceeded its authority by creating tribunals for terror suspects that fell short of the legal protections that Congress has traditionally required in military courts.

As a result, the court said in a 5-to-3 ruling, the tribunals violated both American military law and the military’s obligations under the Geneva Conventions. [...]

“What this says to the administration is that you can no longer decide arbitrarily what you want to do with people,” Mr. Ratner said in a telephone briefing for reporters. “It upheld the rule of law in this country and determined that the executive has gone beyond the constitution and international law.” (source)

All I can say about it is, “Good! It’s about time someone stood up to the President and his misuse of power.”

On the personal front, I’ve been sick. Actually, it’s rather silly I suppose. And when I tell people about what has happened to me, most chuckle. Last Sunday, I went to the gym to work out. I asked if I was still eligible for the new member orientation. They said I was, and they proceeded to give me a full workout. I mean a FULL WORKOUT - one that would be a challenge to a 23 year old.

I’m not 23 years old anymore. We went though four full sets (12 reps in a set), with heavier weights than I should have been using, on five different weight machines. And all of that came before we did the free weights.

In short, I just wasn’t up to it. The end result, I have been spending my whole week, except for Monday, at home, on pain medication. Now, I know this sounds dumb and people think it’s funny, but I’ve been popping Percocet and taking hot baths like there is no tomorrow. Why? Because I can’t raise my arms above my waist! It hurts like hell. The only way I can describe it is by saying that it feels like someone stuck a hunting knife completely through each bicep. My entire body feels like it has a toothache going completely through it.

Tuesday, I stayed home. Got up. Had breakfast and had a hell of a time. An hour later, I lost my breakfast. Nothing was touching this pain. I went through it that day, and took an extra strength Motrin before going to bed Tuesday night, which seemed to do nothing. I was able to get to sleep. At 2:00am, I woke up in intense pain. After taking five minutes just to get out of bed, I considered going to the hospital, but then didn’t know how I would even drive my car. And, since Kent was out of town, what about my cats?

So, at 2:00am, I went to my medicine cabinet to see if anything could help with the pain. I came across some Percocet, and took one. The bottle said, “One table every six hours for pain.” I went back to bed and an hour later was still in agony and wide awake. At that point, I had had it. I got up and took another Percocet. After 20 minutes, the pain started subsiding, along with all the very bizarre and not-so-unpleasant side effects of Percocet. Then I fell asleep.

The next morning, I was feeling the other side of narcotics... the narcotic hangover and I’ll just say, I felt like crap. I thought coffee would help. An hour later, I lost the coffee. I went back to bed.

I won’t bore you with the rest of my week, but I will just say, it’s not been a funny experience for me. Just today, I’m starting to feel better and I have a bit more movement in my arms. And, I’m totally turned off now with weight lifting, along with personal trainers. I know some of you will think I’m over reacting, but I’m a bit alarmed that they didn’t even take some key factors into account, such as the fact that I haven’t lifted weights in a very long time. I’m 51 years old. And they didn’t even ask me if I was on blood pressure medication, which will effect what your target heart rate is.

All around, a not so funny experience. I’m looking forward to having a long weekend ahead of me to rest.

I’m listening to the Air from the Holberg Suite, by Edvard Greig. God, it’s quite unbelievable and beautiful. And as I listen to it, I can close my eyes and see myself in my college orchestra performing this work years ago with my teacher, Walter Cerveny, conducting the college orchestra.

I miss magical moments like that. I miss Dr. Gabbard, who always had kind words of encouragement for me when I was down (which seemed to be a lot in those days). He taught me that life was music and music was life. It’s true. Horror and beauty can be found in both.

Walter and Dr. G. are both gone now, and I miss them both, but they are etched vividly in my memory - word for word - action for action.

Today’s a difficult day for me. I’ve isolated myself with beautiful things. I’m getting a lot done at work, but I’ve also isolated myself with earphones that completely shut out the world. So now, I’m listening to the second movement from the Ninth Symphony of Antonin Dvorak with that beautiful English horn solo. Yeah, nothing but beautiful things for me today.

Tonight, when I go home, I’m going to take a photo of the wild flowers out in front of our home. They are nice now. All the darkness of the rain we’ve had the last week has made much beauty.

I don’t know why such memories come back to me, but they seem to come back to me when I need them most.