The rains are 'ere! Melbourne wet weather has arrived and the last couple of days are turning out to be ones with solid rainfall. This is likely to be the case for at least another week. It has been dry for such a long time that it is actually welcome right now. Plus it is not cold yet, just wet.
Yesterday morning I went out early for my first run in the rain for the year. I wore a long sleeve run top expecting it to be cold and immediately regretted it as I got hot and the sleeves just got wet and stuck to my arms throughout the run. However, it did feel good and although it was only a scheduled 20 minute run today, I felt fitter and lighter than I have for a long time. Also with the addition of puddles along the track I run on, the occasional leap across a puddle felt good for the legs. So, I ran back to my place expecting a good start to day. How wrong I was as I embarked on a day that I'd sooner forget..
Stuck
The first thing that went wrong for the day started in the car park that I share with the other 4 townhouses in our complex. It is an underground affair with a large remote controlled sliding gate to keep our cars secure. I jumped in my car to head to work and pressed the remote to get out. Nothing. Bugger. After multiple presses in the car, outside the car, close to the gate, away from the gate, I decided my remote was probably out of battery and the car was not going anywhere right now.
So, I called work to tell them I might be late and started planning how to get to work and also to find a place to get a battery for my remote in the short time I had today to get things done. As I was working this out I heard one of the young guys in one of the other townhouses leaving for work (he was the only other car left, so the others had left and gotten their cars out before me). I followed him downstairs to the car park, knowing that if he opened the gate for me I could also get out and then sort out my own remote during the day. Nope, his didn't work either and we quickly established that the gate must be malfunctioning.
So after more multiple remote presses at every conceivable angle, I called the mobile number on the gate's motor box and got the number for the technician who normally looks after the gate. The only person who has the manual override key in our group of townhouses had already left for work so no other option was available. After a failed attempt with the old "turn the power off for 10 seconds and turn it back on" trick, the technician told me that the gate might be jammed against the wall. As he couldn't get there for over an hour, he suggested that if we could lift and move the gate along the track to take it off the wall/open it then it may work.
Gate - 1, Kylie - 0
Rito. So the young guy who unfortunately is probably not much stronger than me and could quite possibly blow away in a strong wind, preceded to grab and lift the gate and pull it across the tracks. I have a feeling that running late for work was not going to work well for him today, he was pretty determined to get this thing open. This was working and I went over to the gate to help with the pulling, only to see the gate lift up too high and start tipping over towards the ground. The weight of the thing was no match for me and down I went to the concrete floor, now stuck with a dirty great gate on top of me. I was very lucky not to hit my head on the concrete or do more damage than I did. I had somehow managed to twist to my side during the fall, so that my right arm and leg took most of the gate impact. However, even before I moved, I knew already that my head, shoulder and lower back had copped a hit too.
My poor neighbor was beside himself trying to hold the gate up a little so that I could slowly wriggle out from underneath it. I wasn't sure whether hitting the concrete on my left side, or the gate impact on my right side was worse, so I decided to focus on the fact that I could still move all my limbs to indicate that I was actually ok. I reassured my poor neighbour another 20 odd times that I was in fact alright, and we dragged the offending gate out of the way so we could at least get out cars out of the car park. I called back the technician with the bad news and took off to work a little startled and very sore.
The fallen gate once dragged out of the waySaying goodbye to Ernie
I spent the morning hobbling around seeing my patients, wondering how much damage I'd actually done to my right shoulder which I can still not lift above my head properly today and my right lower back definitely copped a twist/strain. I now think that I had pushed up with my arm and leg to stop the gate hitting my head completely, and that has now caused muscle strains in my back and shoulder.
Painfully, I got through the mayhem at work, feeling strangely close to tears as I was stressed out and knowing that I had to race out of work on time at 1pm to get home and take my poor little sick cat Ernie to the vet today. Little did I know then just how much worse my day was going to get.
Ernie had been sick on and off for a little while, having bowel/constipation problems, losing weight despite eating, and now he was wobbly on his legs and had started leaking urine all the time from his bladder, so I was keen to get him to the vet hospital to help out. He didn't seem in pain however he was pretty miserable. My other cat Lucy, who normally likes to give him a swipe whenever she passes him, was licking him instead the night before which really worried me. I had spent a long time with him snuggling on my lap too, I had decided he needed this more than I needed to worry about his pee on my pants and I am now so glad that I did.
To cut a long, heartbreaking story short, the vet did an x-ray and found a tumour along with his other colon problems so great that they could not do anything for him, they had to put him down so I had to say goodbye to him forever.
Me & my much loved cats, Ernie is the fatty grey/white one :)
The rest of the day is largely a teary blur. My physical pain from being trapped under the gate was now amplified from losing my cat that I had loved and owned for 9 years. I am so grateful that he will not be suffering and it was the right thing for him (not that I really had a choice) yet as anyone who has owned a pet will know, they are such a large part of your world, and it feels like your heart is ripping out of your chest when they have to go.
My amazing man came home to comfort me as soon as he could, bringing me my favourite cheese & crackers and cooking up an amazing italian dish, things that I no longer eat very often in my quest for fitness and weight loss. He already misses Ernie too, they had an unusual bond. Ernie does not like men very much, but he did love my boyfriend. So a part of our household is now missing, and it will take some time for it to feel better :(
First training setback
So, at risk of further bringing down the miserable tone of today's post even more, I am also too sore and stiff today from the gate incident to do any training this morning. I know that there are no serious injuries as I am already feeling abit better in the back after using heat packs last night, but I am frustrated that I have come across my first need to miss a training session. If all is well, I am considering going for a swim tonight, hoping that swimming will probably not upset anything, yet I will hold off on the scheduled bike session until the back improves abit more. Getting up and down from a chair is hard enough at the moment. By the weekend I am confident that I will be back on track. A few bruises and sore spots are not enough to stop me completely.
These things remind me that life takes twists and turns whenever you least expect it and it is important to remain flexible, open minded, and take what comes as best you can.
RIP to my beautiful furry baby Ernie. You will be missed.
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