Guy talk

Yesterday I walked my son to his swim lesson. Mindful that guys tend to be most comfortable talking about heavy stuff when standing abreast and doing something together, like shooting baskets, I said I was glad it was a short walk and that we had plenty of time.

"Why?" he asked.

"Well, you know I told you my legs are stiff a lot--"

"Oh yeah," he interjected.

"And I have trouble walking. You may notice that I limp."

"Yeah," he said. "What's a limp?"

"That's when your walking is not smooth."

"Yeah," he said, "A limp is when your leg kind of goes hard. And then soft and then hard."

"Sure," I said. "So I'm talking to some doctors about it like you suggested, to see what they say."

I might have mentioned my sore, tight muscles more than once. I may have repeated myself a few times on the doctors too. But for narrative simplicity I discard the repetitions in this account. The topic did not seem to bother my son. He was calm. He was focused on his swim lesson. My approach made it not seem like the Big Announcement it would have been had I brought it up at the dinner table.

Our kids are funny in that they often absorb the syntax that my lovely wife and I use. The last thing he said about my walking was "It is sadly true that you have a limp. But the good news is that... Is that ... Oh, I forgot. What was the good news?"

"That we have plenty of time to get there?"

"Yeah, that was it."

He did well in his swim lesson.

If I skip a day as I did two days ago, it's not very often. But if I do, I usually fill in the spreadsheet with the prior day's data, and marked it 'assumed.' This is to provide continuity in the graphs. I want the only gaps to be from ceftriaxone infusions (one of which I will start today), or from out of town trips.

Left grip is 39 pounds (34, 37, 39), right grip is 88 pounds (88, 85, 86), and left leg balance is 8.54 seconds.