For the third day in a row, it did not rain, although a light snow was falling this time. As usual when it is not raining, I went for a walk of at least an hour. I have found a circuit that goes over a hill and down on the other side, then around it and back; it is about an hour and a quarter if I don’t make any detours.

On my way home, I slid on the slippery ground and fell backward. I slightly bruised my hands, but only the thick part between the wrist and the palm. I am not sure what it is called (in fact, I don’t even remember its Norwegian name, if it has one.) I believe my head did not actually hit the ground, but it hurt slightly, probably from the jolt to the spine. Apart from these things I seem completely unhurt, which is somewhat of a pleasant surprise. I am no youth anymore and out of practice with falling, and the ground was stone hard.

In the late evening, another health challenge has developed. My chest feels like pneumonia. I mean, it probably isn’t, but it feels the same way. It is not the feeling of lacking oxygen and having an iron band around my chest, which is more of a neurotic thing I think. This is simply the feeling you have right before a deep chest cough, as if phlegm has gathered in the lower bronchi. Which it may possibly have, since my nose has been stuffy for a couple days now. Still, it hasn’t been a real cold so I don’t see why it would settle in my lungs or bronchi. It is highly unpleasant, mainly because of my childhood history with asthma and the memories that evokes. Incidentally, I have taken asthma medicine and cough medicine (the latter being placebo, according to one popular science magazine, but I need any placebo I can get). There is no noticeable effect from either. Right now it is neither worsening nor bettering.

This morning I woke up (which is good) and my knees hurt (which is not so good). The right especially is tender and sore. I am pretty sure I know why, though, and it’s my own fault. Yesterday I walked right into the shower after a walk, and my thigh muscles contracted pretty hard. I believe that is what pulled on the knee sinews. In fact, my right thigh at least is pretty stiff today, so that is probably it.

Although it certainly looks like a coordinated action by various circumstances to keep my from walking so much. Realistically, though, the circumstances are probably complexes in my subconscious, subtly manipulating me into behaviors and feelings that discourage all this healthy stuff. Why? Just out of spite? Trying to get sympathy? A more likely explanation is that I always was small and weak and sickly when I was a kid. It kind of defined me as a person. So there may be a big part of me, buried from my childhood, that feels really uncomfortable with me being healthy and strong.

Ah, perhaps if we replaced half our somatic doctors with psychiatrists, we would all live longer and healthier lives. Well, if they were really good psychiatrists. I have a vague impression that the field tends to draw in people who are already pretty close to it. Or to put it more bluntly, if you take an interest in psychiatry, it is probably because you or members of your family have had some serious need for their services in the past. Case in point, my brother works as a psychologist and I believe he has said that he chose this career because our uncle was a very strong case of autism. It is likely my (non-paid) interest in the field comes from the same source.

Well, I somehow managed to get back to all about me. This is meant to be my personal journal, with no health advice, economic advice or reflections on the world economy and comparative religion.

Speaking of which, I’ve repented again. Why does it always feel like I’ve never really repented before whenever I repent? This time I actually repented before I got disgustingly sick, instead of during or right after. So I guess that’s a good thing at least.

The muse in my head is very happy about my Tamriel-based fiction, but the Voice in my heart was sad, and I didn’t want that. There are other issues as well.  But that’s OK. People who are always satisfied with themselves tend to be dissatisfied with everyone and everything else, but we who are dissatisfied with ourselves tend to be more grateful for being allowed to live and enjoy many things we don’t deserve. Like knees.

New whine from the old skin! Starting this afternoon (around the time I left the commute bus, I think?) my right arm has been hurting. More as the hours went by. It hurts all the way from the neck now, the neck chiming in quite a bit later than the arm itself. There are only a few poses that hurt much less. Actually I can still type, but I probably shouldn’t.

I also have a head cold. And a sore throat. I am not sure that is related to the arm thing though. Perhaps. But it’s not flu season here yet. Still, if I can’t shave tomorrow morning, I’m not going in to work.

Usually my arm doesn’t start hurting until midway through NaNoWriMo. And it doesn’t feel quite the same as those.

It’s been more than a week, perhaps two, that I have not done my daily long walks. I still walk half an hour a day simply by going to work, as there is a quarter of an hour’s walk to and from the bus both ways, but that is not exactly impressive. I did that already back when I developed pre-diabetes.

The reason for my non-walking is that the skin under my left foot has cracked – first in the front, now at the heel – making it quite painful to walk on. I’ve treated this with foot baths and now salve and compress on the heel, and things are getting better. I took a walk this evening, but much shorter than before.

One suspicious coincidence is that I seem to go to bed later when I don’t walk, whereas the opposite should been true, since I have time to do the same other things earlier. I can only assume it is because I don’t feel as sleepy in the night when I haven’t taken a long walk during the day. But I do feel sleepy in the morning.

If all goes well, my vacation begins in a week and a half, on October 31. Basically it is set to cover all of NaNoWriMo (the month formerly known as November) and weeks that include any part of NaNoWriMo. I have taken this month off for several years, and one interesting side effect is that I tend to synchronize completely to American time when it comes to waking and sleeping hours. I wonder if that will still happen if I take long walks each day? But the future is anyway not something we can take for granted, although I admit I tend to do it without thinking, even at an age of over 50. An age which at the moment seems to manifest mostly in the skin on my feet.

I assume unsolicited advice will be forthcoming as usual when a human mentions any kind of health challenge. ^_^

I should probably mention that although my feet are not happy, I am. But reading about happy people is not very emotionally engaging, is it?