Monday, June 13, 2011

On the shelf


I hope to wear real shoes this week. That's after being on the shelf for more than two weeks now with an ego-induced ankle injury. One of those things, like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football, that you knew wasn't going to have a favorable outcome.

I don't take well to being injured. And semi-hobbling on a fat ankle, almost doubling-over in pain to hot-foot it across the Giant parking lot or turning sharp while cutting the grass, well... sucks.

This past Saturday I got in about a half-mile open water swim, while we were beached, hanging out on Jamaica Point, out on the boat. That accounts for the only real physical activity I've logged since the snap-crackle-pop of the ankle.

The hope is that it's a learning experience. The hope is that this time on the shelf reminds me not to try to kick the football. Charlie Brown had trouble with that lesson. But no one really wants to be Charlie Brown. And no one really wants a gimpy ankle, particularly when their (my) motivation for running, for longboarding, for biking, was just starting to crank with possibilities this summer.

Note to self: learn, motherfuc#$r.

Timing is an wily bastage. While I bide my shelf time, I've been reading Chuck Palahniuk's "Rant." In my reading encounters Palahniuk and maybe Tom Robbins each have a way of making you think about how you experience your life and what some alternatives are to how the rest of society accepts a shared reality by assumption.

I'm pretty well with Palahniuk and Robbins. I tend to be someone who likes to experience things for myself, even prior to shelf time. But taking a seat on the sideline hammers that point home.

I gotta watch out for kicking footballs. Next time it's held out there, I'm kicking Lucy.

6 comments:

Rain said...

Palahniuk is my favorite authors! His themes get a little weird once in awhile, but he always has something though provoking to say! Hope you are out there running again soon!

basiltydings said...

were you trying to ollie over picnic tables again?

Michael Valliant said...

Thanks, Rain! I am a big Palahniuk fan as well. The force of his language and insights are fantastic.

Mr. Tydings: not skateboarding or trail running have I ever managed to blow the ankle this way. We have to catch up.

Rain said...

Try Haruki Murakami, he is much like Palahniuk.

hannahrose_8 said...

Hey, was browsing through blogs and your Charlie Brown pic caught my attention, as I am a huge Peanuts fan. Never did understand myself why "Chuck" kept trying to kick that ball. I'm surprised Snoopy didn't slap him across the chops for repeatedly allowing himself to be had. lol

Hope your ankle heals fast.

Michael Valliant said...

Rain - we have shared literary tastes :) I am a Murakami fan, though I haven't read as much of his stuff. I have "Wind-Up Bird Chronicle," which is great and "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running," a non-fiction book of his. Certainly a bunch more to read.

Hannahrose - I have always dug Schulz and Peanuts. I think our girls and I can quote almost the whole Great Pumpkin and Christmas specials. "Trying to kick the football" seemed like a reasonable metaphor for doing something obviously stupid :)