Tuesday, August 7, 2012

The Long Weekend, Healing, Ideal National Getaways


I’m outside tonight writing this, getting a free concert blaring from the Ex bandstand, probably getting a free high from the odd stray drifting cloud of pot-smoke wafting in from the schoolyard-become-parking lot, just waiting for the fireworks to spark up any minute. Someone was digging up the fossils of 80’s rock bands for the entertainment here, and managed to blow the dust off the bones of Foreigner, who is playing on stage right now. Actually, they still are sounding pretty good, even from a few blocks away.

It turned out that going to the lake for the long weekend wasn’t a favourable decision for me after all. The pelvic and leg pain was only worsening. Ordinary, a decent amount of rest would usually help settle it, but out of the past three nights, I only managed to get a total of maybe eight hours of quality sleep (due to what I mentioned noted in my last entry, and more). Not even the peace and solace I usually get out of fishing was there for me. When I’m this exhausted and pain stricken: being open, social, or being forth-coming with anything else for conversation and entertainment just doesn’t happen. All I was doing was struggling to stay calm and composed, trying to contain my misery, trying not to dump the resulting negativity on someone else. Trying to drink it away didn’t work. I returned home on my last night only to discover more disappointment, regarding Ella and the mischief she caused for herself and her sitter.

I took myself on a trial run yesterday after breakfast. I could only perform well enough for a strain-loaded nine kilometers before I was forced to walk (limp) the rest of the way home. I seem to be back at square one with the sciatic nerve pain and its interference; any progress, or benefit, from the chiropractic treatment I had during the week was totally canceled out by the conditions I had to deal with this weekend.

I finally underwent massage therapy today. It helped a lot afterward, but during the time that I was receiving it I was doing all I could to keep from yelling out loud as my masseuse was tearing at some of my badly knotted muscles (basically 75% of my back, and 80% of my leg). I felt completely useless physically for the rest of the day. This is not the way I wanted to spend my holiday time.

What would be my ideal summer holiday time? I don’t know, I’m still trying to figure that out myself. I do know it wouldn’t involve sitting around with a half-buggered lower back and leg, listening to extra street noise, squabbling riff-raff, and near-geriatric rock stars from my deck. Some ideas that strike me as great summertime getaways, were I fit for it, within my country, would be:

1.       The Just for Laughs (Juste Pour Rire) Comedy Festival, Montreal, PQ

2.       Crawling through every brewpub along the waterfront of Halifax, NS (SOCIABLE!)

3.       Bumming around Stanley Park/Granville Island, Vancouver, BC

4.       Touring the shops around Whyte Avenue, Edmonton, AB

5.       Visiting the Viking settlement and ruins at Lanse-Aux-Meadows, NF

6.       The Royal Tyrell Museum (thinking of fossils), Drumheller, AB

7.       Canoeing on the South Saskatchewan river from Lake Diefenbacher back to Saskatoon, SK

8.       Tofino Beach on Vancouver Island (the furthest point west in this nation)

9.       Kensington Market, Toronto, ON

10.   Waskesiu, SK (or any lakeside park in the Parkland/Boreal Forest of this province)

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