recovery

I’m recovering from my tumble two weeks ago. I spent most of the first week lying down, with sporadic bouts of hobbling around. My left foot displayed a shocking palette of colours for a while, some of which have not yet faded.

I’m thankful I’ve a resilient body, and the ability to work from home.

You’d think this would mean I had plenty time to write, watch movies, and read, but for the first period I was incredibly lethargic and unfocused. There were times when I just did nothing – this is difficult for me, but I decided to take the injury seriously and rest completely. Coincidentally, Martin was away on a scheduled trip a few days after my fall, and I found myself completely alone (except for my excellent dog companion) and on bed rest.

About six weeks ago I bought a Nintendo DS, and that is the only thing that saved me from utter boredom. I don’t own many games for it yet – most of them are the “edutainment” variety. However, I’m now pretty damn awesome on the hard level of “Germbuster”, the Tetris-based game that is bundled with the Dr. Kawashima’s More Brain Training cartridge.

Alas, my scores on the strategies and puzzles plummeted for a couple of days (my brains must have been knocked about), and Dr. Kawashima shook his weeny head at me and clucked in disappointment. Still, he expressed pleasure at my regular attendance. I’ve more appreciation for how useful a Nintendo DS can be to someone who is incapacitated. I will have to invest in a few more games so I have a more diverse selection.

As a rule I don’t game very much. It’s not that I don’t possess the urge, it’s that I recognise it as a gigantic time-sink. In my personal time management wars games always become an early casualty. (That is until Diablo 3 comes out, because I am a diehard fan of the game – I’ve played Diablo and Diablo 2 multiple times.) However, the portability of the DS, combined with its huge range of titles, means that it is becoming the main outlet for my gaming impulse, which I continue to moderate.

Despite all this I kept up with work, rewrote my film treatment, and sent it off for opinion.

Today, I’m suffering from insomnia, which hit sometime before 5am. It gave me plenty of time to think about life, the universe, and my writing plans for the future.

A couple of days into my thumb-twiddling bed rest I decided to quit coffee, as it wasn’t doing me any favours physically since I was so inactive. The caffeine withdrawal came in fast and brutal (an eye-watering migraine), but departed quickly. So, I’ve been off the black ichor for ten days now. I don’t even crave it. It’s not a permanent change, merely one that’s useful for the moment – although since I’m sleep-deprived today coffee seems like an attractive solution. I suspect I’ll refrain.

In the run-up to Halloween, as I began feeling better, I watched a bunch of movies. I have opinions I’ll share about them, but in the next blog post.