(OT) Hot and Sore --

I'm sorry that I've been so inactive of late. Once again "real life" has interfered. We are just over a very nasty heat wave here on Vancouver Island. I'm not sure just when it started, but the past few weeks were brutal.

The temperature here seldom dropped below 30` C. (86` F.) even at night; and most days we were between 35 and the low 40s (say 95 to 110 F.).

Note: our home thermometer is in the shade and in a relatively windy spot so it doesn't "bake up" . . . the official temperature here is at the airport, right near the ocean, not in the "heights" where we live. Still July was the second hottest in 128 years of record-keeping.

Now I am of a much more than stout build. I am not built for warm weather, let alone hot weather; and my dear lady wife suffered even more than I did. Anyway we spent most of our time in the basement . . . and since our computer room is the warmest in the house, we kept it closed off and seldom ventured in.

Additionally I have been rehearsing a play which closes tonight here in the Comox Valley . . . and that eats up a great deal of time and energy. Add to that a fall I suffered a couple of weeks back (nothing broken, but bruises and sore muscles aplenty).

Finally, a very sore right foot. I thought that I'd pulled my Achilles tendon . . . because that is what was sore . . . but as the pain increased and the foot began to swell we discovered differently.

It was a gout attack in my right ankle. I've had a number of attacks of gout before (remember the one in my left big toe back in April?) . . . but they've always been in my big toes. I didn't realize that gout can attack other joints as well.

Anyhow once we knew what it was, I had medication to knock it down . . . but it has been a very hot and sore stretch of time . . . with no gaming (except for some reading).


-- Jeff