Not the years, it's the mileage

[mapsedge]

My daughter and I have this game we play when we're going down the front steps at home. I pick her up - at forty or so pounds, she's not too heavy yet - and bounce down the steps. I step quickly, exagerrating her motion so she bounces, a bobber on a suddenly rough lake. Stand at the top of the steps...sway backwards just a little...start the lean forward...bouncebouncebounce.

Last night, she put herself in my arms a little awkwardly. I couldn't see very well around her sweatshirt, but got her settled, and we stood, poised at the top. With every mental alarm going off and red flag waving, "HEY DUMBSHIT, YOU CAN'T SEE YOUR FEET", we started the lean forward...bouncebounceOHFUCK.

I totally misjudged the bottom step. It played out in my head as though it wasn't really happening to my body: my left leg splayed a bit as my right knee went down on the sidewalk, hard. I tightened my arms around her, one hand behind her head to keep her neck from whiplashing (figuring the safest place for her to be at that moment was plastered to me like being seatbelted in a car) and rolled to my left shoulder, then on to my back.

We lay there for a moment. M looked out the front door, called that she'd be ready to go in just a minute, and walked away. (It's not unusual for K and I to be laying in the grass - we play rough sometimes.) Katie looks into my face, says matter of factly, "I hit my chin on something." "Yeah," I said back, "Me, probably."

She gets up, starts toward the driveway, and the van. I rise, a little unsteadily, goal 1 accomplished: she was completely unaware that anything bad had happened. I limped after her, my left hip complaining, and my right knee stinging. I wondered which of the affected areas was going to really start hurting first: shoulder, hip, or knee.

Hip, as it turns out. As we got into the van to leave, I moved into the driver's seat and felt a sharp stab of pain from my left hip - one of my near ancestors must have been a German Shepherd, I was born with bad hips to begin with, and the fall exacerbated it. It was bad enough to tear a muttered "Oh, fuck me..." out of my clenched teeth.

I feel a little like someone punched me hard between the shoulder blades - the left set of muscles is extremely tight. The hip still hurts today, and I've been nursing it along. We'll live, my defective body parts 'n' me. We'll just have to play easier for a while.

Comments

[rowangolightly.livejournal.com]

Go see either a chiropractor or a really good massage therapist...like my friend Star. If you don't know her (and I can't imagine why not since I've know you both for a coupla decades) she's starwyse.

She's a really, really good healer and massage therapist. Please...you'll thank yourself (and me) for the next long while.

Really.

[billthetailor.livejournal.com]

I don't know Star very well, but we have met on two occasions. We have a mutual friend in aerie13 - last time I saw Star was at a music gig where I was accompanying Lezlie (the aforementioned Aerie13) down at The Brick.

Star, if you're listening, drop me an email at tailor at seamlyne dot com. I think I'll listen to my friend's advice, here :) (mljm, my wife, is very interested, too.)