Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Well, I wandered out into the world of air travel last week for a work trip.  My flight was scheduled for last Monday from the local, rural airport to Denver then on to Texas.  Perhaps you have read there has been a pilot shortage and our little airline only pays about $21,000 a year (process that for a sec, the PILOT makes about the same as the fry guy at McDonald's). I would say something about safety but honestly, they have some skin in the game, if the plane goes down they're going down too.  But still...no wonder there is a pilot shortage.  Anyway, I got a call on Friday that my flight was cancelled so I had to drive to Denver in the snow on Sunday. For those of you unfamiliar with this part of the country there is a whole lot of nothing between my home and Denver so it was a long drive with few safe places to get out of the car and walk around.  Thankfully, I made it to the hotel, so one leg of the journey down!

On to the airport adventure.  When I was checking my bags, I asked how far it was to my gate.  It was like 1000 miles, or it might as well have been.  People were scurrying around, swinging bags and luggage about, not looking where they were going and I will admit I was scared someone was going to crash into me and I would die.  Or fall down where I would be stuck on my back waving my arms around like the guy in Kafka's Metamorphasis.  All in all, not an appealing mental picture, so I sucked up my pride and asked for a wheelchair. 

Now, this is where my story gets awesome.  When you are being pushed in a wheelchair you cut to the front of every line.  So that long security line, yep skipped it all and straight to the front of the line and right to my gate.  Hmmm, embarrassing perhaps but I found that convenience was a definite balm to my ego.  Who knew?  One of the dubious benefits of being wobbley, stupid slow and lame.  

At the meeting two of the AVPs came to talk to me to see how I was feeling.  It turned out they had both also had back surgery. I am just amazed at how many people I keep encountering that had back surgery and recovered fine.  They were both so positive and understanding because they had been in a similar situation.  My co workers all seemed glad I was back and I only almost fell down once when I lost my balance,  got tangled in someone's computer bag,  tried to catch myself on the wall, naturally the accordion section of a dividing wall, which gave when I leaned on it, and down I was headed.  My boss caught me in mid fall so tragedy averted!  Oh, such beauty and grace! 

Anyway, I made the journey safe and sound.  It was exhausting and it took two days to recover once I got home but it was because it was tiring not because I was in a lot of pain, just as usual, achey.  Maybe I'm not ready for any big vacation trips yet and that is good to know!  Better to find that out while still in the U.S and not hiking through some foreign airport, right?

Escaping the Clutches of Death

So, I have found that insanely, intolerably, miserably cold weather makes the giant screws in my back ache.  According to my car's thermometer it was -10 on my drive home from work today.  Here, let me write that out...ten degrees below zero. So, my eyeballs freeze and my back aches.  Why...why do I live here...? 

I'm working full time now, I spend half the day standing and the other half sitting on my excercise ball.  As instructed by my doctor, I get up and wander the halls periodically, peering into offices and dragging my numb leg.  Sometimes I mutter to myself for effect.  People are getting accustomed to it but I feel like I should be rattling chains, like the ghost of managers past.  

Yesterday, the parking lot was snowy and as I was staggering from my car to my office I slipped!  Oh, the panic!  It was all ok thankfully, just a little slide,  but the first thing I did was go on a quest for the company provided grippy traction shoe things (yes, I do think that's the technical name).  I found one of the other managers and said "I slipped a little in the parking lot, I need the teethy, grippy things".  So, what did this little statement cause behind the scenes?  Today I had an employee come to me and ask if the white truck was mine, it was so I said yes.  He asked if it looked clear and safe for me to walk to my truck, I said "ummm, yes...it looks fine"?.  So he told me yesterday he was told I nearly slipped and died in the parking lot so they better make sure I was ok and the path to my car was Honolulu.  I told him I was just looking for grippy shoe things, not complaining.  Oh, the rumor mill!  Apparently I barely escaped the cruel grip of Death yet again!  

So, I'm almost back to normal...slow, stupid normal, but I am starting to do things without thinking about them so much.  Little things like picking up small dropped items off the floor like a normal person instead of just saying "well, it's on the floor" like it just got sucked into a black hole and is gone forever.   Every day is a little bit better and that's all I can ask for.  Well, that and a million dollars.