Sunday morning

I woke up in a fair amount of pain, as usual, and grabbed my pain pill. Had my coffee, did morning prayers / meditation / study, and decided to try a short jog.

I only went about three blocks, but I generally felt fine. The only thing that stopped me from going farther was that the impact of jogging was hurting my shoulder. This probably could have been mitigated by adopting a shuffling style, with my feet not rising very high off the ground, but that's precisely the thing I need to learn NOT to do - it's the reason I tripped over a 3/4" crack in the sidewalk and broke my arm in the first place.

I found the exact spot where I had my accident: the driveway in back of the direct-mail marketing business on NW 17th between Kearney and Lovejoy.

The main thing is I want to stay in a recovery mentality, not an invalid mentality. Each day I try to find concrete examples of specific tasks that I can do, that I couldn't do the day before.

So, running will have to wait a little longer, but I'm looking forward to getting back to it. I've already decided I'm going to make three specific changes to make it safer: (1) carry NOTHING in my hands, because I need my hands free to make best use of them for balancing and, if need be, to break a fall; (2) no music, even on a hands-free headset, because I need to be alert and paying attention to where I'm going and what I'm doing (even though I've been pretty careful in the past about muting the sound when I have to deal with traffic); and (3) stay carefully focused on the road ahead of me, watching for hazards, and always pick my feet up instead of shuffling.

So that's the moral of the story - stay focused on the road ahead.

Sunday afternoon

I was supposed to try to get together with a good friend this weekend, but last I heard from her her 20-year-old son was quite ill with a high fever and was in the hospital. That was Thursday, I think, and I've gotten no response to emails, texts, or voice messages, so I am getting a bit concerned.

As for me, I'll be getting set up for the CompTIA exams Monday and Tuesday. I'm not hugely confident that I'll pass the first time round, but they give you feedback indicating what your weak areas are. I'm prepared to re-take the tests as many times as I need to until I pass.

I'm giving myself the rest of the evening off from worrying about CompTIA stuff. Have promised myself I'm going to hit the gym and do some time on the stationary bike. Estimate chances of breaking an arm on stationary bike are quite low.