Back Off

This back pain thing is still with me and the improvements are only incremental so it’s extremely frustrating.  Now that the weather allows us to get outside I’m forced to watch instead of participating.  Yesterday’s indignity was watching my wife using the weed whacker to edge around the house.  She’d never done this before and actually listened as I tried to explain how to do it.  This is not something she’s used to doing, listening to me that is.  I think she’s actually enjoying these tasks that are usually reserved for me.  She really has risen to the occasion and forcefully reminded me not to do anything that would stress my back.  It’s so incredibly frustrating, I’m not sure I’m going to agree to get any older as this is not much fun.  I forget to mention one of the highlights of the past weekend up in Keene.  We stopped in, at my wife’s insistence, at the best friend of my mother’s.  She’s in her eighties and was a big part of my life growing up.  She was at every Christmas and major family event and we always referred to her as “Aunt” even though there was no blood relation.  She was in reality a second mother and much gentler than my own mother, which was a welcome necessity at times.  I get up to Keene a lot and always mean to go by and visit but most times lose track of time and fail.  My wife absolutely insisted and I am so glad that she did.  Outside of my close friends I am not the most outgoing person and I need that push sometimes.  I learned she had gone through some tough health issues earlier in the year but she looked good and was even back driving.  We all pledged at my mother’s funeral almost ten years ago that we would stay in touch and I haven’t done enough.  Thanks to my wife I think I’ll be better at it.  Now if I can just get this damned back to work again. 

Great Lady - My Second Mom