Back to Back

Despite the fact I have to go to a chiropractor once a month (and did so this Monday) and the fact that this old bag o' bones got up early to run a few times this week (and did so today, too), I am not the one in pain today.

I'll back up a step. Last night while I was baking banana bread and jabbering away on the phone with my mom, Carter and Jim were in the batting cage next door hitting, pitching and catching. When Carter went to bed, he said his shoulder hurt already. Well he hasn't thrown a baseball in a month, so that didn't surprise me. But he seemed fine this morning.

About mid-morning, hubby calls my extension (we're both at work) and asks for a back pill or some sort of pain med. He said he wasn't sure if this was from catching so many pitches last night or what, but explained that his lower back just started hurting when he answered the phone. Now I know from personal experience that I can throw my back out doing anything simple like reaching for shampoo in the shower to picking up a jug of milk. So I took this seriously.

He took a few pills but called me an hour later and said it had worsened to the point it was hard to stand up and walk with the pain. So I got my work together, managed to wrangle a laptop for use this afternoon and called over to Kidz Camp to let them know we'd be coming early to get Carter. "That's good," said the director, "because Carter's been laying down with a sore tummy." Great. I wasn't planning to be Florence Nightingale this afternoon.

By the time we swing over there, though, he's got his pizza for lunch and is fine. Must have been too many sit-ups, that's all.

We go home. I get Jim situated (with little help from me really). Tell Carter to be at Dad's beck and call. Then head to the library to plug into their Internet and get some work done. For some reason our Internet connection at home does not allow me to log onto the server at work. It works from the library, though, which is where I spent a good deal of time in March, if you recall.

So I walk into the library and someone has the nerve to be sitting in my booth. Actually all 3 were occupied and the help desk lady said there weren't any other open connection areas anywhere. So I actually had to sit and wait, like a true squatter, until one opened up. Thankfully it wasn't that long and yes, it was my old booth again.

Kind of fun to be back and see some of those regulars -- the old guys still coming in to read various newspapers, gripe about the economy (and the Brewers now) and take a cat nap in their chairs. What a life.

When I got home tonight, Jim was not any better and had found he pretty much needs to be lying down for the pain not to be unbearable. This does not bode well for a golf outing we have planned over by Green Bay on Saturday. Forecast is not looking good.

We'll sort of have to see how the night plays out. I plan to work on Friday and take Carter to Kidz Camp so he is occupied. If Jim can't go to work tomorrow but thinks he may want to see our chiropractor (unlikely, he says), then he'll have to get a ride from some other Nightingale since our car is in the shop...

Yeah, we like to keep our challenges back to back to back so we appreciate the normal days when none of us is in pain or being a pain (oh, those are rare days).