The Happiness Thread

I have a bad knee myself. I hate not being able to push myself harder physically, I can do more then a lot of people with bad knees but damn!!! on the brighter side, I can run/walk so that's a good thing. The 2500 lbs steel beam that broke my knee came within inches of crushing my head.

 

@T.Trian

I'm genuinely very pleased for you. I'm looking forward to experiencing the same myself, because my body seems to be falling apart at the moment! It all started with a dodgy Achilles a few months ago and has now progressed to a dodgy Achilles and something wrong with the top of my calf on one leg and an inflamed knee ligament on the other. Can't really do much in the way of aerobic exercise at all.

I'm sorely missing the endorphins, but I'm still assuming that I'll recover eventually, and when I do it will be fantastic.

 

Today I'm happy that my car started right up this morning despite bitterly cold weather last night.

I can thank a fairly new car battery for that.

 

I'm happy that music and other art makes me sad. Couldn't live without it.

 

I am happy for my family and my writing. Just wished that my writing could make me money! Would be nice!

 

Cheers. Sorry to hear about your health issues. It's always frustrating when injuries/illnesses keep you away from exercise.

Could your leg maybe handle swimming? It's my favorite sport of all-time, even above combat sports, and I really hope I'll be able to hit the pools within the month.

 

I am very happy because I have triplet grandchildren They are 10 months old and are very cute. I love them very much



When they were three months old

 

That's great news, Mans! Congrats! They're all very cute.

 

I'm happy because I finally have a complete first draft for my novel. 91,491 words of it.

Took me over a year and a half, which some people will think is a ridiculous amount of time for a first draft.
I was also trying to learn how to write well at the same time, so not the NaNoWriMo way of doing things.

Still I've got there.

The amount of time it'll likely take to edit it is a bit daunting. But I'll not worry about that today. Today I'll be be happy.

 

You're not the only one . The editing process has taken even longer..

 

Wait, are you guys in the editing process? Why did I not know that?

 

I'm happy because I found a great bottle of red for under a fiver. I'm happy because I have invested time in my passion for reading and writing.

 

We've been editing our WIP forever now. One big problem is that you can't do it for very long at a given time 'cause you become blind to your mistakes.

Another challenge is to make the world you've built cohesive and plausible. Writing contemporary fiction felt like much less work in comparison to hard sci-fi. We're also morbidly afraid of lazy writing, so sometimes it takes a while to figure out if what we decided to write six months ago still makes sense... if that makes sense.

Plus it's two 100k works written back to back and we want both of them to be not good enough, but as good as we can ever make them.

 

Good for you! You make me feel guilty for not exercising more. I don't have any chronic pain, so what's my excuse? Question about the ab wheel: do you do it with your knees on the mat or do you straighten your whole body like a plank? Either one is impressive with the chest-floor contact, but I am curious.

In other events that belong here, I'm going hiking with a cute Austrian lady in a few days. However, I'm a little awkward around her; I asked if she liked chocolate milk (yes), then promptly left.

 

I saw a skipping granny yesterday. Like, really, she was happily skipping down the street as I biked past her. Made me happy, too.

 

I feel happy to hear all of your responses! Thanks so much!

 

Not sure if I mentioned it before, but I can hear a little better than I used to. With severe hearing loss + backed up earwax, you can imagine things sounded muffled, but after my ears started to drain on their own accord, things seem to be louder than before.

Hey, I'm not complaining. If anything else, I like it. Guess not shoving Q-tips into my ears does wonders for my hearing. Now I have to actually tell people to not talk so loud because my hearing aid is working more than perfectly.

 

Day off and it looks like someone up ended a jar of marshmallow fluffy across my neighborhood. It really is quite lovely.

 

I saw a colleague today, the lovely lady who took me under her wing when I started in the organisation. Since I had my promotions and moving for work etc, and her recent illness, I've not seen her in almost a year. And it was really lovely. She kept saying 'oh my god you look SO well!!' in a very enthusiastic voice. I think it was her way of saying 'you look a lot less fat' which was also nice.

 

I'm happy because my life seems to be on the up (although I've probably just jinxed myself now haha )

 

Awesome dinner with friends and singing along to the new Decemberists album on the way home. Life has, indeed, been good to me today.

 

I'm happy because I twatted my knee on the pedestal under my desk about 5 minutes ago and the pain has finally subsided. I can now walk out of the office without the embarrassment of a slight limp.

 

I'm happy because after being told I was "a waste of money" and didn't "have enough ambition" at my last job as a waitress I got a second trial at a restaurant.

 

At least you are still alive to train even if in more limited amounts. But yeah, I can sympathize with just how frustratiing it is when you could do so much more but one part of your body or another keeps getting in the way. Too bad the back affects just about everything I can do except maybe grip strength exercises. Not that it's not fun to play with Captain of Crush grippers, but it just doesn't give the same endorphine rush as e.g. gym workouts, swimming, running, or a few rounds of thai boxing or submission wrestling.

About the ab wheel: at this point I do it only on my knees. The only way I've ever been able to do it on straight legs is when doing negative reps, i.e. I start standing up, roll down, stay planked out for a moment, and then stop 'cause I can't get back up like that. That's one of my "maybe someday" -moves along with one-handed pull-ups (I can only manage 1,5 handers, i.e. one hand on the other arm's wrist or bicep).

Good luck with the lady.

 

Just watched a play for a script I wrote. It was nice getting the positive feedback.