“Thank you for being here.”

It is getting a bit tiresome hearing customers at the department store where I work saying “Thank you for being here.” I know it comes from a good place and I appreciate it. I’m not going to fight anybody who says it. I usually say “You’re welcome” and the conversation moves on. Still, it feels a bit uncomfortable at first, and wearing over time. During this pandemic those retail workers who have to still work have become some sort of heroes, often getting grouped with health care workers “on the front lines.” (Though I hope that we aren’t getting anywhere near the praise that health care workers are getting.)

While I’m not above being worshiped as a hero, I can’t honestly accept it while I’m stocking baby wipes on a shelf. Okay, nobody’s worshiping me exactly, I only wrote that for a humorous effect. The point is that I’m not doing anything special. I’m simply showing up for my job because I work for one of the businesses that didn’t close. Honestly, I wish we did. There should have been a better infrastructure in place for something like this so businesses didn’t have to stay open.

I can’t even join those of my co-workers who are self-isolating because I don’t have a valid reason. I don’t have asthma and I don’t smoke. I’m not old. As far as I know, I don’t have a mental health condition that prevents me from dealing with the stress of the work—and work is stressful right now while we only have a skeleton crew running the place.

Despite any noble or philosophical reasons that I could come up with for not thanking me for showing up for work, the flat-out truth is that it got old real fast. It’s just starting to get annoying. Again, I know it comes from a good place (though I fear for some people “Thank you for being here” is going to become as automatic and therefore meaningless as “Stay safe” is becoming). If somebody honestly says it I’m going to reply as graciously as I can. But don’t be surprised if I respond swiftly as well.

I went jogging today… oh wait, no I didn’t.

I just attempted to go out for a jog. Yes, I realize that there’s a bit to unpack in that statement. As you probably figured out right off the bat, I didn’t jog. But I tried to go out to jog. I made it outside, at least.

I have been very bad with jogging over the past few years. I keep meaning to get back into it but I keep coming up with reasons not to—some valid, some not, but they all apply to today.

I looked at the sunny weather outside and then I looked at my thermometer, telling me that it was in the sixties (Fahrenheit) outside. I knew that it was supposed to get windy later in the day with thunderstorms passing through, but I had plenty of time to go out and exercise. Considering that I haven’t done so properly in about a year I wasn’t going to spend too long this time, anyway. I also knew that the sun was shining right on the thermometer as this was in the morning and the thermometer is on the east side of the building. Still, I figured that once I work up a sweat that I would feel more comfortable.

I put on my gear (nothing fancy, just gym shorts, a t-shirt and running shoes, plus my iPod) and headed outside. I crossed the road to the street where I do my warmup before the actual jog starts. This was where I realized that I had made a mistake and turned around.

Without boring you to tears* about my jogging route, the street in question is about a five minute walk to the next road down the hill that runs parallel to mine. Then there is a large creek and then an island before you hit the Atlantic. While the air might be warm enough on my road to run around in shorts, once I hit the intersection at the top of the hill I felt a huge gust of wind coming off of the water.

The fact that might jogging route runs alongside the water is nice but that also means that there are only certain times of the year when it’s comfortable jogging next to. At least it is for me, anyway. I never got so invested in the exercise that I would spend money on “proper” running clothes that might help with the cold.

I do have a couple pairs of sweatpants, though, so I turned around with the thought that I would go back to my apartment to change. However, it was around then that I started feeling some pain in my upper back again. While I’m feeling a lot better from my work injury a few weeks ago, I have still not fully recovered. Add to that the fact that I’m back to overdoing it at work again and I won’t be fully recovered by the time I should be.

Should back pain prevent me from running? I don’t know. Yet I think in the back of my mind I realized that if I overdid it at work yesterday, I probably need the rest anyway. This brings me to another question: if I’m doing so much physical labor at work, should I not bother to exercise on my days off in lieu of rest? It’s not like my work is as regimented as a proper workout should be. I’m still not in great shape.

Perhaps I’m just coming up with excuses. I might just be lazy after all. Yet I think that these are valid enough questions that I should look into before I hurt myself with exercise. I can at least wait until next time that I’m able to go out to jog. In the meantime, I have some research to do.

*More than I already do, of course.

Not much happened lately, just an injury at work.

After resurrecting this blog recently I then had a lapse of new posts. It wasn’t that I had enough to write about—quite the opposite, really. I had too much to write about. But more than that I was so overwhelmed, I couldn’t commit to sitting down to write a new blog post. With the stress of current world events plus things happening in my own life I needed to take a break from doing anything productive and just try to enjoy my free time as much as I could.

The biggest thing that happened in the the past few weeks is that I got injured on the job. Yes, I’m still working. The department store where I work sells food and other “essential” items so we’re staying open throughout all of this. A  little over a week ago I was unloading a trailer (as I often do) and one of the first pallets on this particular shipment had some large patio rugs stacked upright onto a pallet.

Putting these rugs onto the trailer probably wasn’t a problem for the people at the distribution center as they would just brush against the trailer’s door going in. However, trying to bring them out was another matter. They hit the door, which then came down onto the top of my head. It wasn’t fast, but if you’ve ever seen the back door on a trailer I think you might understand how heavy those things are. Fortunately I had no head injuries to speak of—I had no concussions or anything. The EMT’s had be called per company policy, but they recommended I didn’t bother going to the hospital.

However, I did have to go to walk-in care a few days later. The reason I didn’t get a concussion is probably because my neck, shoulder and back muscles absorbed most of the shock. As a result I was in pain and could barely do my job. Fortunately I didn’t need any physical therapy or anything. But I did get work restrictions, which I followed as best as I could. I also took days off when possible (I’m a key holder and also somebody else’s ride to work, so it’s hard for me to get time off). I’m feeling better now, but it sucked not being able to get my job done.

I feel better now. Still, I’ll have plenty of opportunity to get caught up. We just found out the other day that our distribution center closed. We’re not sure why. They haven’t told us yet. But this does mean that we’re not getting any new shipments in a while. That, combined with the fact that our sales are tanking during this crisis, means that our hours are severely cut and the early morning stock crew is the first to feel it. Even though I oversee them I’m fine as far as my hours are concerned. I do have to take a sick day next Friday but I’m fine with that. The less time that I have to be out with the general public the better.

DELAYED POST FROM TWO MONTHS AGO: “Random Thoughts: I’m out sick today.”

For some reason this post that I wrote two months ago didn’t get published. Instead, it’s been sitting in the drafts section of my WordPress account the whole time. Seeing that I don’t have a writing progress blog post to write for today—that’s not to say that I don’t have any progress to report, but nothing interesting enough to write about—I’m going to publish this old post instead. For a point of reference, I wrote this Random Thoughts post on a Monday when I normally write a book review. By the way, I may not publish a Friday Flash Fiction tomorrow. I fully intend on writing something but by hand. I’ll publish it online the following day. I plan on going to a concert in Cambridge tomorrow night and I’d rather take a notebook and pen with me instead of my computer.

• I’m swapping the Random Thoughts post with this week’s book review. I’ve been so sick today that I can’t really focus on something that involved. But I didn’t want to let a day go by without a post, and these Random Thoughts posts are a little easier for me to write. At least this way I’ll get some writing in. I’ll try to also start working on revisions on the screenplay, but it would involve me getting up and taking my laptop to my printer. I’m feeling better as the day goes on but I still get a bit nauseous.
• I was so sick this morning that I had to call out from work. I never do that. But I got very little sleep, especially as I was up vomiting throughout the night (you wanted to know that, right?) so I took that as my clue that I really shouldn’t try going in to work. I’m still not feeling very well as I write this in the middle of the afternoon, although I probably could go in at this point. But what would be the point of that, when I have to go back at seven in the morning tomorrow? I already have a lot of work to make up, I’m sure, by the fact that I took some time off from work last week. I’m used to having to make up work there anyway from time to time. What’s one more day?
• The one thing that I did miss that I feel kind of bad about was that today we were having free lunch paid for by the company, and they were going to make sure that they would have vegetarian food on hand. The store was also combining the free food with a pot luck. I don’t know what I would have taken but it would have been some sort of dessert. Granted, I wouldn’t have been able to keep anything down, anyway. But I’ll take in doughnuts or something tomorrow to “make up” for it. Honestly, I’m not a fan of pot lucks but now I’m worried that people might think I was just trying to get out of it. They probably won’t, but once the thought is there in my head it sticks.
• Soon after I called out this morning I did manage to get some sleep for a few hours. That definitely helped me feel better. I’m still a little queasy. I’m going to risk something spicy for dinner. But I think I might throw out the bagged salad that I was going to have with it. I’m 95% sure that that wasn’t what caused me to get sick, it was more likely something else I had last night. But I’ve had bad luck with it before. I don’t know—I’ll just have to see how it smells.

Tuesday Random Thoughts: in pain, working on Thanksgiving?

• I have been in pain all day. I can’t just pinpoint just one part of my body that hurt; it was all over my upper body and arms at various points. It started last night and got to its worst right before going to bed. I hurt severely primarily in my left shoulder and back, and couldn’t find a comfortable position, preventing me from going to sleep right away. This morning I woke up with the pain in the shoulder still, which shot down my arm. As my work day went on I was still sore in the shoulder but my back and sides also hurt. I have no idea what caused all of this. Could it be that the formal vest that I wore to work yesterday for Halloween had something to do with it? I didn’t wear a costume, I just wanted to dress up more. But that meant that I was trying to avoid ruining my “good” clothing. I don’t think I lifted anything differently than I normally do. I didn’t even hurt at work yesterday. But today I could barely stand for any length of time, it got so bad. If it continues for another day or two I’ll have to go see a doctor.
• I’ve made a point to not work on Thanksgiving at my current job every year so far. It’s already a paid holiday, so I get to enjoy a four-day work week. Besides, my family gets together for the whole day. However, in addition to my holiday pay the company has to pay time and a half to anybody who works on that day. We’re talking about some serious money at this point, and I really could use it. Everybody that would go to my father’s place on Thanksgiving is fine with getting together that weekend instead—except my father. Even though he’s retired, he wants every holiday celebration to take place on that day. He did seem like he might go along with changing the day. But if he doesn’t I’m not going to cry over not working. Still, I’m in a lot of debt. And he’s one of the people I owe a lot of money to. I would think it would be in his interest for me to work a full shift that day. That is, of course, I don’t kill myself working at that job ahead of time.