Holy Crap!  I hurt my arm.

I medicated the heck out of myself last night, and went to bed by 10:30.  I woke up when my wife came to bed just after 5:00am (she’s starting to stay out later), and again when the phone range around 9:00am.  I ended up getting out of bed at 11:30am.  Thirteen hours sleep is more than I usually get in an entire week.

Oklahoma has been hit by a major winter storm, and I still had the last bit of my X-mas shopping to do: the gift for my wife from our daughter.  I headed out into the snow which was managing, despite the 30 mph winds, to pile up on top of the morning’s ice storm.  I made it to the shop (about 4 1/2 miles) in just over 1/2 hour.  They had a great selection of what I was looking for.  I bought it all, then headed home.

My wife sent me a message and said that MacArthur and NW Expressway were blocked by a wreck, so I should find another way home.  I said I’d just go down 63rd.  She said 63rd and MacArthur was also blocked.  I should find another route, like through the McDonald’s parking lot.

So I considered her advice, and decided it was good.  Visibility was down to about 25 feet, so I couldn’t see that the MacArthur and NW Expressway intersection was cleared until after I had already pulled most of the way into McDonald’s.  Unfortunately, my truck got stuck in a snowbank.  I walked home with the presents, grabbed a stocking cap, scarf, and a shovel, and walked back to the truck.

After 1 1/2 hours of shovelling and attempting to get the truck to move, I had explicated the truck from the snowbank, and over to a plane of ice in the bottom of a low point in the entrance, right next to the storm drain.  Yes, the lowest point in the road in any direction.  I remembered that I have roadside assistance and gave them a call.  They said that most parts of Oklahoma City were closed to traffic, they only had one truck available, and he was reporting a backlog with a 10 hour e.t.a..  I told them to not worry about putting me on the list and walked home.

Most of the time the snow was only around ankle deep.  This was because the crosswinds were hurling snowflakes and icechips around like rabid bullets.  However, anywhere there was even the slightest bit of shelter from the wind, such as between the trees in my front yard, the snow was up to the middle of my thigh.  For those of you who do not know me in RL, I am just a smidge under 6’4" tall.

I took a hot shower and drank a lukewarm beer.  Shortly after that I went to start making dinner (I can cook an absolutely awesome salmon).  It was in trying to get cooking implements out of the cabinet that I discovered an almost new injury.

I reported last Friday morning that one of the pains I deal with on a daily basis is that somehow, somewhere, I managed to pull a muscle in my right forearm.  Well, I was cold enough to not notice that while shovelling, and I managed to make it far worse than the original injury.  It is all flaring pain in my elbow and along the top of the arm.  I have very limited movement (I can’t even get in a position to fork food into my mouth), almost zero gripping ability, and the weight of my own arm is more than I can lift.

How’s that for awesome?

Anyway, I’m wrapping presents and watching bad romantic comedies on television.  They keep making me cry.

Merry Christmas, or whatever it is you do.