Out of nowhere, Publishing

With the trip to California I went cold turkey without playing pickleball for over a week. On Friday/Saturday I made up for it and inadvertently paid a price along the way. My first session was Friday at lunch with my crew. It was sweltering hot but that is the status quo for many months to come. However while I was playing I suddenly got this uncomfortable and painful sensation in my left knee. It sort of felt like the tendons along the outside of the knee were suddenly out of whack and incredibly tight. I tried to treat it like the Fonz, smacking on the area several times. The sensation subsided but would come and go during the games, unexplainably. It’s not like I did anything out of the ordinary that would have tweaked it that I could remember.

Friday night I had ANOTHER pickleball session with my friends that I play with semi-regularly. All of them have been out of town for close to a month so I did not want to skip out on them. I again had knee pain episodes where the pain sort of floated around but would be enough to send me into an immediate limp. Brian’s back was hurting so we stopped a little early which was fine by me.

Finally I had my third pickleball session in less than 24 hours Saturday morning, this time playing with Sue. We had fun playing with a couple sisters, one of which is actually a pickleball instructor. The knee pain continued to randomly make an appearance but now it felt more centered inside the knee. Since I have been dealing with knee pain for roughly the last 25 years my theory is I have some loose meniscus or other cartilage material floating around in there that is causing the discomfort when it gets pinched the wrong way. I have had this scenario often. At this point I just have to wait it out until whatever is causing the pain moves to a better spot.

I have spent a lot of time this weekend going through all of the various pictures and videos I have connected to the trip and posting stuff to my various social media. I also made a video Saturday where I talked through my overall thoughts regarding the trip. Getting everything sorted, edited and posted consumes a LOT of time. Luckily my schedule this weekend has been on the light side so I have had time to do it.

I have to pack for a very quick work conference in Orlando. I drive up there tomorrow afternoon and will be reversing direction Wednesday around lunch so it will be a brief stay. My brother is in Orlando with his family this week so I am going to meet them for dinner Tuesday night. I last saw them in January.

Once I get back from Orlando that will be the last significant event in what has been a very busy July. I look forward to a more “standard” daily pace, at least for a little while. The trip to California reminded me of the benefit of putting yourself out there, taking risks, and not allowing past decisions to dictate choices in the present. The worst that can happen is you fail, so what…..