At this point it’s not surprising that I’ve spent the last 2 hours trying to download an image for this post using the command line, unsuccessfully. I just don’t get what is going wrong. I need to get that off my chest, and hope that this time serves to teach me that next time I should just download an image via the website instead of the command line. Use the tools available to you that you know how to use. So with my most recent instance of computer-related incompetence out of the way I can talk about what’s been happening over the past few, or five or six months since I last posted.

I went from primary physiotherapy to tertiary physiotherapy, immediately followed by a return to work doing 4 hours of each per day. That lasted for more-or-less 2 months and ended on Friday. Now I am back at work full time and for all intents and purposes I’m healed and pretty much recovered. I still can’t quite run properly and I can’t hop on the one leg, but I can take a slip on ice without pain in the leg. If I neglect my home workout any more than I already have then I will likely get worse. Not working out during and shortly after the healing process is recommended to heal properly, but if nothing is done after healing it will just remain weak. My gains from physio will wear off if I don’t work to maintain them. It’s just an hour 3 days per week.

At physio they have a book called Explain Pain by David Butler and Lorimer Moseley. I was able to read a little bit each day and finished it quickly enough. I would say that I was so impressed with how the book imparts understanding that I bought the sequel, but I also have poor spending habits, and that’s probably the stronger reason that I paid $260 for the second book. I’m not going to say 100% unequivocally that they’re both worth the price and worth the read, but I’m pretty sure if I only did physio and didn’t read these books, I’d still have a painful limp.

One potentially good thing about physio and time off work is that I’m now ~162 pounds body weight. It’s potentially a good thing because wanting to be a certain size is allegedly not a healthy goal to aspire to, and also because the 20-30 pounds I’ve gained is possibly nothing but fat. Although, even if it’s a shitty goal to aspire to and even if it’s all fat, at least now I know I can gain weight without making it my whole life. I thought I’d be 120 pounds forever before I put on any more weight, and then when I put on weight I thought my whole life would be cooking, cleaning, eating and sleeping. It’s nice to have struck some semblance of balance.

Work has been fine, I am working Saturdays again. I have my weekend split up between Sunday and Wednesday. While I appreciate having a weekday off to run errands while everything is open I still don’t feel like I’m getting my full weekend. Work requires sacrifice but that doesn’t make the pill any easier to swallow.

close enough to rappelling

During physio I heard an advertisement for the Easter Seals Drop Zone. Instead of simply wishing I was brave enough to do it like every other year I decided to sign up and donate $50 so I am invested in following through. Rappelling 21 stories down a high-rise building will probably be an experience worth having, as will working to fundraise the $1500 necessary to participate. It all goes toward disabled youngsters in my province getting a chance to go camp or use assistive technologies. Now all I need to hope for is that I can maintain motivation for the event by not stressing about the effort involved in fundraising or the possibility of dying via a fall… or falling just far enough to break every bone in my body but not kill me. Healing one broken bone was as much as I feel I need to go through. If you stumbles upon my blog then any donation would be appreciated.

I don’t recall exactly when but it was probably some time in January, I was informed that there was a volunteer English tutoring opportunity at the library. I tried to go to an orientation session but it turned out I had to be registered first. So months later I have an interview on April 24th. I figure I can speak and write English almost as well as, if not just as well as any native English speaker that hasn’t taken an English class in 12 years and doesn’t have knowledge about English composition floating around at the forefront of their mind. Whether that will be good enough to qualify for teaching is up in the air but it’s something to hope for. Of all the things I could volunteer for this feels like it would be quite fulfilling and reasonably helpful. I would get to work in a climate-controlled building which compared to the warehouse I work in is pretty fantastic.

I also joined a 6-and-6 driving class and I take my first trip on the 24th after the volunteer interview. It will go well. If it’s anything like learning to drive the forklift then it will come with sufficient time. As with maintaining motivation for the drop zone, as long as I don’t ruminate on the myriad things that can go wrong, and listen to the instructor, then I should be alright.

I’m almost done Learn Enough CSS and Layout to Be Dangerous, it’s just a matter of finishing the new chapter on CSS grid and taking notes and then I get to attempt to learn Javascript for the second time. This time I’m not a stoner stuck in depression and I’m taking notes so I have a higher degree of confidence that this time I’ll persist through the difficulty of the material and the boredom of not making a project until the end of the tutorial. I will take notes. I will not meander too far but I will investigate concepts outside the tutorial. I will persist.

So that’s about it for the last several months, and maybe next month I’ll be in a better position. Maybe I’ll even post again sooner than 4 months from now. I’m just too boring to have something to write about every month, let alone every week like the original plan was.