As you may know if you've been watching the news, Hurricane Irene and an earthquake passed through the east coast this past week. The earthquake was more of a curiosity than anything else. The interesting thing is that they can be felt from much greater distances here, due to a lack of fissures in the earth to dissipate the force. So it's not unusual that people in Detroit felt an earthquake in Virginia, but it is highly unlikely that people in SF would feel a similar sized earthquake in LA.
Hurricane Irene took aim at the I95 corridor. I'm not a big fan of hurricanes or tornados - I kind of prefer natural disasters for which I don't get advance warning. We're far enough inland and north that there isn't much danger of us getting anything hurricane force, but we do get the edges of things that hit Boston or NYC. Fortunately for everyone, Irene did not hit with nearly the force that was anticipated. At the moment we're getting a lot of rain and wind. I'm using it, and my sore back, as an excuse to be lazy.
I am getting old. I have noticed that if I run hills or do a vigorous downhill hike, I am prone to tweaking my back later that day or the next day. It's not a problem if I just run flats, but here in Ithaca that pretty much limits me to the track or the treadmill. I did it on Monday, and then retweaked it worse on Friday. It hurt to walk and I had a pronounced lean to my left. So in my case, Hurricane Irene really should've been called Hurricane Ilene.
Cowdude and I were supposed to go to the New York State Fair yesterday. Due to my trip to CA later this week and the bad weather today, yesterday was the only day we could've gone. (Cowdude may have to do booth duty there next weekend.) I was really looking forward to it because I like state fairs, and because I was curious to see Cowdude in his element. Unfortunately, walking long distances and sitting for long periods was not in the cards yesterday. So Cowdude came to my place instead and we had a relaxing evening and waited out part of the hurricane. He gave me an extremely good massage and popped my back, which got rid of the lean and a lot of the pain.
While I welcome the massages, at the moment I'm not crazy about this getting old business. I like the wisdom, maturity, and better financial situation, and I accept the wrinkles, slowing metabolism, and grey hairs as part of the process, but I really don't like the aches and pains. Between my bad knees, carpal tunnel syndrome, this back thing, and the tendinitis in my shoulder,* I can't swim, run, play soccer, or do certain yoga/pilates/weight training exercises. Not coincidentally, I have gained a few lbs since moving here, and feel like I'm in a catch 22 situation where I need to lose weight to help with the back/knee issues but that is a lot harder with most of my preferred exercise options not possible at the moment. I was in a similar situation before and immediately after my knee surgery. It's too early to tell, but I hope that physical therapy will help to at least get me back into the pool, which was what helped me to get over the hump and get back in shape after knee surgery.
*Note to the unaware: All my health complaints are due to exercise or work. None are from lying around being a slug. Not that it matters one way or another, but sometimes I wonder how I would be physically if I had not exercised very much after childhood and not stayed in the lab after graduation. I suspect I would have be less physically sore but might be more at risk for heart attacks, diabetes, etc. So it's dammed if you do, damned if you don't.
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