Class Thoughts

I love my doctor! He is a very personable caring man who is involved in many ways int he community. One of his service projects is being the doctor adviser for the area Fire Departments. He has been concerned about the overall health of Fire personnel. To help all of us get fit he has arranged for us to have yoga classes two days a week for the next year.

Over the next year they will monitor our blood pressure, weight, pulse and so on. It is a bit intimidating to be weighed and measured by your doctor. Even though I like and trust him. (He was not that pleased with my blood pressure)

I have now been to two classes. My first class I came right from physical torture ... I mean physical therapy on my shoulder. So I was sore and miserable when I walked in. I won't say that the class was a complete disaster but I threw up at the end of the class. Not one of my most shining moments though thankfully I did make it to the bathroom before I publicly embarrassed myself.

Last night was my second class. I did much better ... though I would have called it a success if I did not throw up at the end. In fact I felt pretty good and am rather looking forward to my next class Monday.

I have always believed our bodies want to be well, it is just a matter of developing the habits which will help and heal my body.

Why though .... does it have to be so hard?

Just Connie

Beach Trip

I am just back from several days at the beach thanks to a generous gift from my congregation. I did a lot of sleeping, a lot of reading and not much of anything productive. Here are some photos from my trip.

Sunset

Moon at Dawn

Morning Walk Finds

Gorgeous Day

Moonlight on the Ocean

Shoulder Thoughts

About a year ago my shoulders starting aching at night. Being a mature adult I said to myself, "Suck it up Sissy Pants!". But over the past year it has gotten progressively worse until shoulder pain is waking me up every night.

I finally decided to go and see my doctor, I really expected him to say, "Hey you are old, and 35 years of softball, 10 years of gymnastic, 20 years of competitive racquetball and assorted injuries ... what do you expect?" I was very surprised when he did not say any of those things, instead he x-rayed me and then referred me for physical therapy.

Yesterday I saw the physical therapist for the first time. And the first thing I found out was that he was not overly impressed with my "Suck it up Sissy Pants", way of treating injuries. The next thing I found was that he could put his finger on the exact tendons that were causing me problems. (He is very, very fortunate that his hand was no where near my mouth, because I swear I would have bit him at that point)

The outcome of all of that poking and prodding was that I was given a set of exercises to do at home and a series of appointments with him to try and open up that shoulder joints so that the tendons can heal. Hooray things I can do at home, I am all for that!

Like most medical professionals, he had  good news and bad news for me. The good news is that I do not have to curtail any of my activities ... and yes I told him everything that I do from rope climbing to hauling 50 pound sacks of feed. The bad news is that because I waited so long to come in, there might be scar tissue on that tendon. Which means to heal, it will have to be stripped off. The process of stripping it off is .... well not pleasant as I understand it.

So I am faithfully doing my exercises and planning for there to be no scar tissue.

I mean what scar tissue would dare .... right?

Just Connie

Fun Afternoon.

People have told me that some of you could not play the video of me rappelling off the hose tower, so here are some photos instead.

It was a great day of learning new things and stretching myself. Boy did I stretch myself .... I was so sore the next day I could hardly crawl out of bed.

But I will do it again and again as I remain in training.

I can hardly wait until the next one ....

Just Connie

A New Lesson

Some time ago I decided to sign up for the Ropes Rescue Training Course at the Fire Hall. I have to admit that as the class drew nearer I began to be a bit nervous that I would not be able to keep up.

But as the class progressed I found that I was really enjoying it. The video on the left is my first time rappelling the four stories off the hose tower at the Fire Hall.

As I have thought about how easy it would have been to talk myself out of doing this, I realize that I would have missed so much. I would have missed out of the camaraderie and laughter of working side by side with the crew. I would have missed the sense of accomplishment as I learned things I had never learned and tried things I had never tried before.

How grateful I am for the people who encouraged me to do this, for the people in my life who push me to explore my limits and learn and grow. How thankful I am that I can still push myself physically and live a full and exciting life.

I can hardly wait to see what comes next!

Just Connie