HOW TO DRIVE A BEAR CRAZEE

Really, it's simple.

All you have to do is mess with the spring weather.

Tuesday: Blizzard. Snow coming down so fast, I couldn't see the river, which is only 100 yards/metres from the apartment my cave. Heavy, wet snow.

Wednesday: Sunny, but cool. Temperatures below freezing. Where the sun was shining on the roads, melting, then turning icy. Water running in the streets in a few places.

Thursday: Combination of sun and cloud. Temperature to -6°C (21F). Streets a bit wet, often icy.

Friday (today): Mixture of sun and cloud. Temperature of about 5°C (40F). A little rivulet of water running into my cave where I was trying to do some late-winter hibernating. Running into my cave and on to my head. Lots of water running in the streets, making everything splashy, and messy, and yucky.

Best description of the situation (in Bearspeak): @$%#^*&%^@#$**

Or just, "Sigh!!"

And, no, I didn't get to hibernate. Not this winter. Not at all.

§                §                §

Some of you may recall that this time, a year ago, Bear was in hospital very briefly. My faithful companion, Her Ladyship, Miss Sadie, was trying to look after things for me. Things had gone from bad to worse. My mental and physical pain had become un-Bear-able. Even suicidal (thought Miss Sadie didn't tell you that last year).

This week, I've been back in that same un-Bear-able position. With no Miss Sadie to look after things for me.

This year, I have not been hospitalized. Fortunately. I have had a completely horrid time, and I'm not out of it yet. But at least I have not been hospitalized. I did not, and I do not, expect things to get that bad this year. It's a different year, and I have different resources available to me. Some things are better. In particular, I'm developing a better way of living with this ongoing, nagging, physical pain. YES!!!

IN WHICH BEAR MAKES IT THROUGH WEEK 4, AND STARTS ON THE "HOME" STRETCH

Week four of the Pain Management Program of the Health Region's Chronic Pain Clinic has come and gone. And Bear is a bit more mobile. And in quite a bit less pain. At least in some places.

This week, we are not at the clinic. We are at home. Putting our new skills into practice. Getting through the "everyday" of life, finding out what hurts. It is a week for being very observant of our behaviour.

The most important thing I have learned thus far is how I can get a great workout without having to go to the gym. Now, if you want to go to a gym, and be trendy (and all that good stuff), that's a good thing. But I've found that I can stay home and get a good workout.

That's one of the things on which the staff at the Clinic focuses intentionally. I could go to the gym and walk on the treadmill, or I could walk on one of the treadmills in our apartment building. Or I could walk the hallways in the apartment building. Or I could walk four blocks to the grocery store, and four blocks back home. It's all in the distance you cover when you're walking.

Then, to build up my heart strength (through cardio exercise), I could walk on a stair climber at the gym. Or I can walk up the stairs in the apartment building. Or, I could combine the cardio and strength by walking up a set of stairs, the along the hallway, then up another set of stairs, and along another hallway, then . . . well, you get the idea. It's all in your imagination, this business of how you want to get fit and stay fit. It's just simple — part of your daily life without need for special equipment or extra money. Your workout is a by-product of your daily activities.

And then, what about some weight lifting? Well, there are the weights in the laundry/exercise area of our building. Don't want to do weights downstairs? Fine. Lift cans of soup for your exercise. In the privacy of your own house or apartment. No, I'm not kidding. You can do things like biceps curls or military presses with a can of soup in your hand as well as anything. The total weight is not the important thing; the number of repetitions you do is the key item. But don't try too many too soon.

And what about warm-up and cool-down exercises? Worried about doing them and not having time for your exercise program? Hey, they are part of the exercise program. Bear gets up, has breakfast, has a shower and gets dressed in the morning. (Or, I could feed the cubs — if we had cubs — and get them off to school, and then have my breakfast and get dressed.) Then while my muscles are still nice and warm from the shower (or bath), I gently stretch those muscles and joints, and get them ready for the day.

One of the more useful developments so far in the program has been the goal setting process. The staff actually spend quite a bit of time on goal setting — real, practical, measurable goals, and how you build up to getting them done. I thought I was setting realistic goals. But, no, I was wrong. I was setting goals that turned out to be way too easy. But that's OK — early success is great. So now, I'll start goal three — working on the stationary bike in our apartment, to get ready for hitting the streets whenever the snow is gone. And do my cardio and strength training while I'm biking around the town.

Wow! I have found yet another way to terrorize the neighbourhood!

As I mentioned, this week is our "break week." No sessions at the Clinic. This is the week we try to put it all together at home. (Next week we go back to the Clinic, with all the questions we have about what happened during our home work.) I've set some additional goals for myself, and I'm waiting to see what happens!

One other really crucial thing. You're heard the saying, "No pain; no gain." Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's both silly and dangerous! You don't want pain. You want to exercise until you feel some tension in muscles. More action than that, and you're causing damage. It's that damage I'm trying to undo, through the training at the pain clinic. And, of course as I stretch those muscles, they start to get back into shape, and I'll be able to stretch them more. Meaning I won't feel the tension until I've gone past the spot where you felt the tension before. Now, is that easy, or what?

Footnote:

A major story is breaking in Canada about electoral fraud during the last Federal Election. There are complaints from as many as 31,000 (yes, 31 thousand) people in 50 of Canada's 303 electoral districts. It could get very ugly. We might have to do things all over in a large number of places, two or three years after the fact. It certainly Bears Noting — which is why I posted it over there on my other blog. Read it if you dare!

IN WHICH BEAR MAKES IT HALF WAY THROUGH

As in half way through the pain management program at the Health Region's Chronic Pain Clinic.

Friday was the end of week three, with three more to do.

I want to share a couple of observations. I think these are important.

1. Every morning, we have at least a couple of half-hour exercise activities. (We usually exercise for about half of that.) Some standing, some sitting, some on the floor. In addition to that, each of us has a personal exercise program — tailored to our needs. We're supposed to attend to that, too; some we'll do in class; some we do on our own.

The physiotherapists working with us noticed something Thursday, to which they drew attention. After only three weeks, we are noticeably more agile. A good thing. Believe me!

2. But it's going to take a lot more work. Most of us are crippled, at least in part, with muscle injuries. When muscles are injured, they don't give us much support. Which, in turn, leads to either pain or more pain.

The goal, in part, is to treat pain by getting muscles working, so they can support our bodies and decrease pain. As I mentioned, we're making progress.

Nonetheless, it takes about 12 weeks to heal and reorganized injured muscles. To re-align the fibres they way they're supposed to be. We've done only three weeks so far. Lots more work to do. But I'll tell you, this is really tiring work. When I get home for lunch, I'm beat!

§      §      §

It's been trying to snow all weekend, in the Great White North (which is actually the Grungy Brown North this year).

When it's winter in the city
And streets are brown and gritty
Then the city's not so pretty
As you know.

We got warning of a major storm planning to blow in yesterday (Saturday) morning. I could see the heavy clouds hanging over the city. And then . . . and then the snow didn't some. No matter how hard those clouds wanted to snow, t h e y   j u s t   c o u l d n ' t   d o   i t . So, instead of the six inches we were expecting, we got about one. Snowdust blowing around. Sheesh! Much sound and fury, signifying nothing, as "Bill the Bard" Shakespeare put it. Meaning we're going to have a dry spring for seeding crops. Not an auspicious start. Not a good thing at all.

Blessings and Bear hugs, friends.

P.S.:
Cowboy one: Ya wanna got to the theatre tonight and see the moving pictures?
Cowboy two: What's showing?
Cowboy one: It's supposed to be a pretty good Eastern.

That was for the Academy Awards, which doesn't seem to have a category for Easterns. Awards show was held last night (in case you missed it, like I did). Frankly, Scarlet, I'd rather be blogging.

SOMETHING TOTALY DIFFERENT, ESPECIALLY FOR AMERICAN FRIENDS

An Interesting Thought from the Bipolar Diva

Blessings and Bear Hugs, Everyone!

(with or without the Second Amendment)

            Please do not shoot the Bear with your second amendment arms.