Sunday, September 20, 2009

All packed up and unable to go.

So my fly tying/fishing club had scheduled a weekend outing to camp and fish in SE MN.  I had been looking forward to this the past two weeks.  Campfires, trout, friends, fall, nice weather forecast...you get my drift. 
Wednesday, I had most of the stuff put together and piled up in the living room, since I had to go to the club meeting Thursday night and had planned to take off right after work Friday.  It was week of mounting stress as another person quit and the department was short staffed to begin with.  I also had several things to take care of myself to complete my transition from a temporary contractor to a permanent employee (which is a good stress, but still stress).  Plans were going well, with a surprise appointment that had at the end of the day for a pre-employment exam for my new job. 

I got home on time according to "my plan" and commenced loading the Tahoe with our tent, cookware, fishing gear, chairs, table, stove, clothes, etc. etc.   Jen came home as I grabbed the final thing to put in the Tahoe, which was a sleeping bag.  As I went to toss it, I felt a shock to my lower back and my eyes instantly went wide open as I felt the pain!  My damn back went out.

I sat down with a pack of ice and had to make a decision.  Should I stay or should I go.  Is this a quick warning shot or is this going to hurt all weekend.  Jen pointed out some logic that my narrow focused fly fishing mind wasn't thinking about.  So a decision was made that I take care of my back for the night with an ice, take some lame weak ibuprofen, and lay down in bed to see how things go. I called Ben, who I was supposed to rendezvous with in the south part of the cities and reported the bad news.

Saturday morning came uncomfortably, and I surf the net till I found a chiropractor that was open on Saturdays.  I found one who was open for two hours.  After the typical initial paperwork was out of the way, he did an adjustment, and I went home to put an ice pack on again.  At first, I wasn't sure that he helped it or made it worse.  The muscles were more tense then they normally are when this happens to me.  I wasted the day in and out of bed. We did leave the house for a little bit just to get out and went for a "real burger" over at Moe's Grill, but I needed to get back as sitting straight wasn't giving me much comfort.

I was kind of cranky, in part due to the pain of my back, but more so I think because I missed out on a weekend camping with friends and Jen and fly fishing for trout as the season closes soon.  If there is a sliver lining here, I guess it is that I started reading a book that I just bought by Jack Hemmingway called A Life Worth Living.  At least I could read a little bit about fishing if I couldn't actually be out there doing it.  Jen just unloaded the truck since I won't need half that stuff for my adventure next weekend where I am going to northern Wisconsin for a guided Muskie fly fishing trip that my buddy and I booked last year. 

Hopefully next weekend will go more as planned then this one did.

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