The Weekend....back to back to back...

A bit of snow early Saturday morning left the roads, at least the back ones, slippery, on my way to Wayne Trace for the 7th grade boys basketball tournament up in Paulding County....by the time I headed home at 1 pm, the sun was out, and the winds were blowing...most of the snow gone with it...only to return yesterday afternoon, as another small 'Clipper' came calling.  That was pretty much the way of the weekend.  A mix of sun, clouds, wind, and small amounts of snow arriving at various times on both Saturday and Sunday.

I was more concerned about my back as I headed to Spencerville on Friday night....it was still acting up, and sitting made it worse, at least by the time I would get out of a sitting position....didn't seem to matter whether the chair was soft, hard, or even the Nitro seats....which I chose to drive over the van, mainly because of the better headlights, and not so much the four wheel drive. 

As I stiffly got out of the car and walked slowly into the Spencerville High School, I wasn't sure how the night would go, back wise.  I wasn't really worried about the game performance, I was more concerned about my back....and whether this would be the beginning of the fall of 2007 all over.  I needed not worry, and least on Friday, or for that matter, the double header on Saturday....the more I moved, the better the back felt...the less I walked or trotted up and down the floors, the more it hurt, so moving was good....and it was to be that way for the rest of the weekend...Sitting or standing, not so good, moving, walking, not so bad.  With back problems you never know what they will bring.

If you've never had back issues, you probably cannot understand, or relate to the issues they bring.  Trust me, there may be people who fake back injuries to collect some sort of perverted reward they might perceive they need or deserve, but if you've ever had major ones, you would know it's no laughing matter.  As for me, I am waiting to see how this round of back pain, one of many over the past 30 years, pans out.  Over the years I have avoided surgery, but with two epidural injections and a hundred trips or more to the Chiropractor, I have had my share of pain in the back, which becomes over time a pain in the ass.

Roundball Slow Down_____

The good thing, if there can be one, with this round of back pain, is that my basketball schedule is slowing down, with just 10 more dates on my calender...sure I might add a day or two, but for the most part, I can see the light at the end of that tunnel, which began with scrimmages in mid November.  Hopefully as the roundball seasons winds down, and baseball looms ahead, my back issues can either clear themselves up, or I can at least have time to use any options I need to get them corrected or resolved enough to move on.

This week I have just three dates to cover....a Junior Varsity Girls match-up at Spencerville tomorrow, followed by the same at Elida on Thursday, and a boys JV game at Antwerp on Saturday night. 

Meanwhile the weather, after a cold start today, will look spring-like for the next few days, with temperatures reaching the upper 50s for tomorrow afternoon, before they start back sliding towards more winter like temperatures and conditions over the weekend.

back later>>>>

Photos-my usual breakfast, along with a banana, has helped me drop most of the 10 pounds I gained over the Holidays...after losing 30 pounds since the fall of 2009, I slipped up and gained a couple of handfuls back this season, but have no reversed that back down to the 190 range...another 5 or 10 to go and I will be ready for baseball umpire work, as my basketball officiating schedule winds down.  Beer tasting was about, other than nursing the back and basketball officiating was what most of the weekend consisted of....and mild winter or not, I am looking forward to watching morning sunrises, like this one, last August as I looked out over Grand Lake...