Waking up without extreme pain (for now)

 

Last night, I tried resting on my side to minimize the type of pressure on a section of my spine that comes from laying on my back.  And I can't be sure that it helped.  However, I was functional when I got up, and had few problems when closing up my large suitcase and getting it ready to go down to RQS's place.  And I hope I can feel this way for the next few weeks, while waiting for doctors to figure out how best to relieve my pain for the long term.

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Don't think that I am not feeling "fine" today.  My legs won't carry me for long, especially with heavy luggage.  But I had to get my suitcase to RQS's place, and I had to move slowly to do so.  So, I lugged my suitcase down my staircase, one step at a time, and tossed it in my car..  And I started down to RQS's place at 1 pm on a Saturday afternoon.

Normally, I take a simple path to lower Westchester county, and then take the Hutchinson River Parkway to the Whitestone bridge.  Not today.  The Hutch was backed up, so I took local streets to bypass the jam, and get back on the approach to the bridge.  And then, traffic moved until I hit the area where I had to make a go/no-go choice: Do I take the Jackie Robinson Parkway to RQS's place, or do I drive through Forest Hills on local roads to get to her place.  Given that traffic started bottling up around Jewel Avenue, I took local roads.  

Now, driving through this section of Forest Hills is almost pleasant on a Saturday.  The Orthodox Jews are not driving their cars because it's Shabbos.  This means that half of the usual traffic isn't there.  And I made it through this bottleneck with relative ease.  Then, I was on predictable local roads the rest of the way to RQS's place.

Next was the headache of finding a parking spot.  Like many older, more densely populated neighborhoods, there is never enough parking for residents, much less their guests.  I was prepared to drive around for a while, but I found a space less than half a block away from RQS's place - I was very grateful for that, as my legs were weak, and I couldn't walk far or long.

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Once at RQS's place, I knew we weren't going to go far for dinner.  Luckily, there was an old standby 2 blocks away.  That put me at my limit for the day.  Tacos were the only meal in walking distance, and I could barely finish what I ordered.  At least, I will likely not eat too much while on the cruise....