Hello, October
It’s Buctober!! Yes, after that 20 season drought, our Pittsburgh Pirates are in the playoffs for the third consecutive season. This is the year. This is the one where we go further. I’m hoping with everything I have that this is the year that we go all the way. I mean, who doesn’t want to see the Batman go out on top? AJ has put it in for us and I hope we can return the favor in this, his last season.
You know that song isn’t only about the Battlin’ Buccos (#theseguys), but it’s also all good for the gridiron gang, the Renegades, the Steelers. Even though our number one guy is holding it down on the sidelines with a bum knee, we still take the field strong tonight against the hated, dirty, filthy Ratbirds of Baltimore. May the good guys prevail.
On to non-sports related items. On Tuesday, I caught up with an old buddy and we went to work out together. Good times! The text messages the next day were pretty hilarious as we realized that we’re a little out of shape and we commiserated on our pained muscles. Yep, we’re sore, but not so sore that we won’t try it again next week. Cuz we’re silly like that. And I need to get out of the house at least once a week to see people besides the one I’m married to. 🙂
In that same vein, more or less, for the last 2 weeks, I’ve been taking two supplements (which I got for free in exchange for an honest review). One is Ashwagandha (say that five times fast) which is sort of a stress reliever/fog clearer, and the other is a joint support formula that has glucosamine, chondroitin, and MSM. More for me than for you, so I remember what I want to write in my month-end review, neither produces immediate results, which is typical. I’m a chiropractic regular, so I asked my guy how long it would take before I might feel any effect from the joint combo. He said probably around two weeks and that’s where I am now. First, though, let’s talk about Ashwagandha, going forward known as Ash.
As I come to a close on the second month of my new job, I feel as though the Ash is helping. A new job is always a little stressful and this one is tie-one-on-inspiring. I promise you that three weeks ago, when I made it to 5 o’clock, walking away from my computer was the biggest relief in the world. Walking away was usually accompanied by some sort of relaxing function…like beer. Currently, 5 o’clock rolls around and I’m still happy to be done with my day, but I’m on a different mental level. I’m not feeling like I want to throw shit or punch puppies or bawl my eyes out. Just happy to have finished another day of work. I haven’t been overly upset with anything else either. And I’ve adopted a life’s too short kind of attitude. We’ll see how that all pans out. Go Ash!
Now, for the joints. Maybe you know, maybe you don’t, that I have a small partial tear in the labrum of my left hip. The tear itself doesn’t really cause any pain, but the muscles that tighten up around it trying to do their protection dance are real jerks. And, let’s face it, I’m not getting any younger and yet I keep putting my body through the paces of a younger person. In return, my body does most of this shit but lets me know it isn’t happy by groaning and creaking and sometimes crunching.
The crunching usually happens in the knees whenever I’m going down into or coming up from a squatting position. Has it stopped completely in the last two weeks? No. Has it gotten a little less loud? Yes. Joint point!
My feet. They’re a train wreck. My toes tend to raise up off the ground and I look ridiculous when I walk. Combining stretching, my gua sha tools, and the joint combo looks as though it may make things a little better. My toes almost lay flat on the floor when I put my foot down now. By the end of the bottle, maybe they’ll be normal and I’ll stop putting holes in my fucking sneakers because of my mangle-toes.
Back to those hips. They don’t lie. They also don’t really like me. But, they’re warming up to me as I keep feeding them the joint combo. Notice I said warming up and not opening up because, even though I put in work on them for the month of September, there was only a tiny bit of progress. But hey, I guess I can’t expect magic in 30 days after 30 plus years of abuse.
So, we’ll see what comes of another 2 weeks of this horse pill regimen. Because if I can keep choking these things down, I can do anything! Like stand on my hands. I WILL accomplish this…before I turn 45, lol. Giving myself a little buffer.
Have a great night, folks. Get behind my boys tonight. All of them! #blackandyellow