Daily Success January 2 – Failed. And I didn’t even have to look at the scoring system to know that. While going to Selinsgrove for the New Year’s Day feast took more time than planned, and left me more tired than expected (complete with stress neck-ache) from all the driving, the real failure was an innocent Internet Monster slip. It took only one ndnation post from Marine Domer in answer to my own to suck me into the loss of critical time that I did not have. I linked the general site rather than the exchange because I dare not open the page to give the right link.

That Internet Monster slip was a small one, and would not have shown up on its own, but the time lost was the difference between “Disappointing” and “Failed” big time.

Yesterday

I screwed up yesterday. A slow start to the day, the Internet Monster slip, five hours in the car, and four hours at Jerry and Anna’s left little time for success. The headache getting home and the comfort of ibuprofen and whisky were the final straws that broke my will. Along the way, my Daily Success post was left unfinished and never uploaded, and I failed to submit an essay to La Concha. Despite a lot of time invested in various starts on an essay, I simply never produced one that was worthy of submission.

Today

Today I simply must get back in harness. There is a LOT to do, with SurveyorBot, SAGEbot, seniorpilgrimage, exercise, Jan’s and my relationship, and even a visit with Dr. Kelly to be told I’m … what? … still alive? … getting older? … wasting absurd amounts of the limited time I’ve got left? … what? In any event, I’m going to the appointment to get my 800-milligram ibuprofen prescription renewed.

The Future

Tomorrow is all medical stuff: Higgins; Sheikh; Monika; and Larry with just enough time between appointments for the drive. Lovely. Just lovely. Old people have to retire just to have the time needed to go to all the medical appointments.

In the longer run, who knows? My left knee is a bit better, rekindling hope that the injections will give me more walking / hiking / trekking miles. The piriformis continues to recede, but it hides there, waiting for an opening that it always seems to find, albeit with less and less effect and longer and longer between bouts. The sciatica hides, waiting for some signal only it hears or understands, upon which it attacks with a suddenness and severity that I had to experience to appreciate. Hopefully Dr. Sheikh will give me four or six months of lessened fear of that when he uses his needle tomorrow.

Then there is Saturday and more hours thrown into the journey to and from South Dakota. Being there for my boy is more important than Camino success. Much more important.