August

 

Well here we are again. Can you believe it? Of course you can. I just read 'July'. It is pretty bad. I'm blanding myself out. I'm just trying to keep all my monkeys in the circus until I leave work. It's not easy. Quite frankly, my monkeys are going a bit mental.

I didn't really take my good camera out in August, I'm not sure why. Too much lumping things around. All that heat. Couldn't be bothered with anything.

I haven't got much to say about running except I still do it. I've been feeling a bit shit so I've been going easy - not pushing. Maybe I've got long Covid, or tall or small or short Covid, or none of the above, or maybe I'm a wee bit tired.

I'll tell you about my frozen shoulder if you like; the potted version. Shoulder no functiona  since March at least. No worky. No bueno. Round about June I thought maybe I should do something about it so I did a lot of googling, got some theories, got some youtube videos, read peoples' opinions, got some books, did some exercises. Sometimes I hurt it. Sometimes I left it alone.

Last Saturday night it was keeping me awake in the middle of the night so I made an appointment to see a physio. The wonders of technology. I had buyer's regret the very next day because if there's one thing tighter than my shoulder capsule it's ...ah...me! That's my first ever frozen shoulder joke. Did you like it?

Anyway, I went to see Lianne Brunton at Balanced Physiotherapy today and she was bloody marvelous. Knew her stuff. Apparently ladies of a certain age are very prone to a frozen shoulder, they're not exactly sure why. There's been some research done. It can stay for a year and a half. It can go away on its own. Sometimes it doesn't go away.

I have an option, which would be to get saline injected into the joint to create space again, followed by a wee snifter of Cortisone, and then it would be free and pain-free and me and Lianne could get down to business and do some serious rehab. I wasn't keen on this idea at first but actually it's growing on me. I've got some exercises to do to see if I can get it to improve on my own and I'm going to give myself at  least a week to think about it, but...I'm kind of longing to have old Sammy the Shoulder back in the game. I'll need to go private and I can have it done in Edinburgh for too much money or I can have it done in Falkirk for half the price. Guess what I'm leaning towards.

Somebody in Leith would probably do it for a good bit less. Lol. That was a joke.

Damn it, when I get my shoulder back operational I'm going to make it beeg like Rocky!!!

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That's your lot with the FS for now.

I should tell you about the pandemic and all that for history and everything.  Well most of England is squeezed into Edinburgh at the moment and I'm finding it a bit of a tight fit. Everybody's now out rubbing themselves all over each other as you know. Nicola's said 'try not to' but without much conviction. Are the infections up or is it just that more people are getting tested? It seems like there are really more because Peter's brother's family came down with the Covid and so did my sister and her family over in the West. They're all recovering, which is good, but they said it wasn't nice, and they're all double jabbers.

The death rates went up, but I notice this week they seem to be down again. What's going to happen? Nobody knows do they? Meantime, the climate has been catching everyone's attention by laying on some spectacular floods'n'stuff. I'm finding it refreshing not to have someone called Donald trying to make out there's no problem. I don't think there's anyone left saying there's no problem. 

That's enough World Affairs.

I'm away to get my tea.

Pandemoanium

I'm a little sick of this global pandemic. It's going on too long. And now I see a bunch of photos have disappeared from my last two blogs. Clearly the government. Or Blogger has an issue. Or the butterfly police.

Let's write a list of pros and cons. I'm always telling people to do that.

Coronavirus pros;

Peter is much happier since he stopped doing any work.

Apparently the air is cleaner.

It is genuinely much quieter although without the ambient noise actually smaller noises are more nippy.

Less cyclists on the cycle path.

Less people at work.

Some genuinely funny stuff on the social media - particularly enjoying the swing to home hair-cuts.

Smug enjoyment of not caring about the things that have stopped that other people like, like the cinema, restaurants, pubs.

Like the lack of traffic.

Enjoyed a bit of tourist free sight-seeing although that has worn off already.

Coronavirus cons;

Primarily sick of being stuck in the city.

What's the point of the weekend?

I went a run around Arthur's Seat and then the Meadows today. People everywhere. You have to go round them. Everybody was talking. Why doesn't everybody just shut up? The worst is people talking on their phones and gesticulating with their hands.

Everybody should exercise in silence. There should be a rule. Single file and no talking.

The cycle path is now full of families on bicycles instead of commuters, also joggers, also dog walkers. It's not bad in the morning on the way to work but on the way home it's chocca. A few times I've gone by the roads because they're not busy any more, but actually since week 3 of the lock-down, the roads have become noticeably busier again.

It's sunny but it's cold. Okay, that might not be the virus.

It looks sunny outside my work windows and when I got outside there's a knife-like easterly.

Maybe it's not going to get warmer this year. Maybe the earth has gone off its axis but people aren't telling us.

I'm on 1st terms with the first minister now and I have conversations with Nicola about what she should do. On the whole I think she's doing a good job but I'm tired of this lock-down. Obviously it's pointless making everyone stay in the city because that means there's less room. She could have people pass a test to show they understand how not to spread the virus and then give them a free pass to get out of town - although I can't imagine where would be quieter now. I think everywhere I go there are going to be people power-walking and waving their bloody arms about talking on their phones.

I read nearly every word of her recent paper where she addressed the issue of how we are going to e-a-s-e out of the lock-down. "Things won't be the same," she kept saying, "there will be a new normal". Alright, alright already. Start with people talking and eating in the cinema. Ban that.

Ban people looking at their phones in the street because that means they're not looking where they're going. Stop traffic going through the park. Why would traffic need to go through the park?

Stop the Thursday night clapping. It's stupid.

Maybe  I'll have more news for you next time.