I’d love to be all chipper and happy, but it’s not happening today. Sorry. I’m at DEFCON 2 in terms of pain. The only way it could be worse is if I were being wheeled out of the operating room and the anesthesia was wearing off. And they couldn’t give me any more because my blood pressure was too low. Which is what really happened when I had my spinal fusion last summer.

Johnny Cash keeps going through my mind. Except with knives.

And it burns, burns, burns. A ring of fire. A ring of fire.

So after dropping the kids off at school, dropping Stephen off at work (we’re still a one car family at least until I can find a car I’m willing to buy), getting my paying work done, cleaning up around the house, and throwing some laundry in the wash, I was on fumes. And when I say fumes, I mean it. Fumes.

I had to find something I could do in less than five minutes. Otherwise, I was going to be coming up empty for a blog post and I would be playing a game of blogger chicken.

So on the way back in from taking Eddie outside, I grabbed this from the garage:

I have no recollection as to where this basket was before it got moved to the garage. Nor do I recall how everything that is in it got there.

The easy stuff first: the foil and cling wrap got put in the appropriate drawer in the kitchen. The papers I no longer needed got put in the recycle bin. Trash was put in the garbage can. That left this:

The green reusable rags were put away under the kitchen sink, and the basket and dental care supplies were put under the kids’ bathroom sink, along with other items that needed corralling under there.

The tea got put in the pantry with the other teas and I put all of the muffin cups and birthday candles in an empty drawer. But I’m not sure if I’m going to keep them. I think I’ll mark the Ziploc with a date a few months from now and if I haven’t used anything in there by then, I’ll find another home for them.

That’s all I could muster today. But you know what? Even five minutes gets something done. And moves you forward. So, if you’re tired and overwhelmed, just tell yourself you only have to do something for five minutes. Part of a drawer. A corner of a shelf. One small stack of paper. Today’s mail. Three articles of clothing.

And then you can say you did it. Because, sometimes, that’s all you really need to keep you going.

Tomorrow

I’m scheduled to have another round of spinal injections tomorrow. I hope they work. But let’s be honest, I’m not too optimistic given that they didn’t help the first time. It will take 24-48 hours to recover, so I’m not sure what Friday’s blog post will look like. But, I will find five minutes. And then I will blog about it. But if I make no sense whatsoever, and it comes out as gibberish, chalk it up to drugs.