I’ve never been big on asking for help but yesterday we had to call in reinforcements to help stack the rest of our wood. This wood was delivered in April and every time I thought about stacking it I knew that a killer headache would stop me so I left it there in giant piles next to our driveway. Everyday those piles would mock me. I would drive by other people stacking their wood and actually get mad that I couldn’t do the same thing. Joyce did what she could to get it stacked and she probably did 2 cords over the fall months, which is incredible considering her schedule. A whole crew of helpers showed up yesterday to move the wood that had already been stacked closer to the house and then stack the remaining piles. My awesome crew of helpers included two of my brother-in-laws Joe and Steve, my sister-in-law Lincoln, mother and father-in-law (aka Noni and Poppi) and my wonderful neighbors Fred and Jeff. I can’t thank all of you enough!
I was actually able to participate in the stacking which helped alleviate my feeling of being useless; as long as I didn’t bend over I was OK. When I did bend over it felt like my brain was trying to escape from my skull so I mostly drove the truck and formed part of the “chain gang” we set up to move the wood to the truck and then from the truck to its new home. I wasn’t the only member of the crew that was hurting; our crew included a bad neck, a bad back (or two, maybe three), a ticker with issues, and one hangover. Most of our conversations were punctuated with the following questions…Are you OK? Do you need a break? My apologies to the crew but it was actually nice for a change that I wasn’t the only one having to answer those questions. Again thanks for helping even though some of you were hurting.
Next up is installing a storm door and windows in the mudroom before surgery. Again something I can’t tackle on my own thanks to Chiari. My brother-in-law Harry and good friend Jason have signed up for this duty, I’ll thank them in advance and again when we’re done…Thanks ‘H’, and thanks Jason.
A little bit about Harry...Not only is he a helper; he is also a major source of Chiari headaches. You may remember from an earlier post that laughter inflicts brutal headaches for me. Harry is one of the funniest people you will ever meet; so any time I spend with him results in laughter and the accompanying headache. He is also a comedian, no really an actual stand-up comedian. I plan on going to one of his shows Tuesday which will result in much laughter and much pain. You would think I would try to avoid laughing due to the pain it inflicts, but I would rather get a Chiari headache then live a life without laughter.
Found out today that I’m not the only one falling apart. I got a call from my best friend Jim, we haven’t been able to get together a lot over the years due to our crazy kid schedules but when we do get to talk it’s like we didn’t go a day without speaking. Last week he had some type of heart episode; they haven’t determined if it was a heart attack or not so he’s going in for tests tomorrow. What the hell is happening to us, we hit our mid 40’s and our parts start acting up. Just thought of something, if Jim ends up in the hospital at the same time that I’m there all hell could break loose. On our own we are manageable but together we would be nothing but trouble for the poor nursing staff. Sure we’d probably be in different areas of the hospital but we’d find a way to get together and have some fun at other people’s expense.
I am now counting in days instead of weeks…11 days to go!
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