Month: May 2024

6 pulled muscles in my torso.

“I’m kinda impressed you’re still standing upright and walking,” the doctor said after checking me over. “You have to have a really high pain tolerance.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” I wheezed.

“Yeah, that wasn’t a compliment, Swift,” he said. “You need to rest, and you’re going on ‘light duty’ at work for a week when you report in on Monday.”

“What are my restrictions?” I asked. I’ve seen a few postmen reporting in while on ‘light duty’. One of them had so many restrictions, in fact, that he was shunted into a small office and told to check over all ‘postage due’ reports and gas receipts. That wouldn’t be something for me, though.

“When you get back,” the doctor was saying, “you’re to not push, pull, carry, or lift anything over 10lb, nor can you do any repetitive movements from side-to-side, such as twisting.”

That’s how I move when taking mail from the lap desk to the mailbox.

“So,” I drawled, considering, “the majority of my job is off-limits?”

“Basically,” he said, “for at least a week. At home, it’s more like two weeks. You’ll be home this weekend, so you’re to rest and not do what all of us know you’ll want to do.”

I eyed the doctor and raised a waiting eyebrow. Small towns can make for relationships like this between professionals and their clients: while there’s still the emotional distance required to maintain the authority of the professional, there are moments when the walls are dropped and both parties can be ‘people’.

“Swift,” the doctor sighed, “no, you can’t mow your land, or cut down that row of trees you’ve complained about, or any of the other things you think you need to do.” He looked at me frankly and raised his hands imploringly. “You have to remember to look after yourself, not just the rest of your world.”

I didn’t have a good rebuttal to that, but I do have a remarkable scowl. I used this scowl, but the doctor had the best defense: he was correct.

With that, I took the reports and paperwork I’d need for the office, dropped those off, and went back home, reminding myself along the way that for once, I was going to actually rest.

-Stay safe out there, folks.

-JB Swift

Don’t let the title make you worry; we’re still poor but we’re doing all right.

It’s going to be a quiet day of house maintenance, seeing the family for Cinco de Mayo (meaning I’ll be fighting the drive to talk about the awesome history surrounding the day in 1862, while nearby restaurant customers are indulging their want to drink tequila), and preparing for the work week ahead.

But during the later hours of last night, I was looking over my notes and recent writing when I saw a “Daily Word Count” entry that I forgot about: I took a day off from work to rest pulled muscles (yes, they’re still there, and I’m annoyed at how long it takes to recover nowadays) and couldn’t do my usual housework that required lifting. With nothing else for me to really distract me, I took an eight-hour day to write, with headphones on and even the kids respecting my wish to whittle away at the keyboard.

I logged 5,800 words, which is a personal best for me.

My first thought: “I need more paid days off like that.”
My second thought: “Ain’t no way I can afford that.”

In the area of content-creation that I’ve watched grow and develop over the years (with mild envy, I’ll admit), I’ve wondered what I could provide as suitable content to satisfy subscribers. I’m a writer, so that’s the medium I understand. I’m not much for video logs (and I hate how I sound on recordings) and I don’t know enough coding to make computer-related content. If I want to justify taking a day off solely to write, I’d need to be able to compensate that with a full day’s pay.

Which is… somewhere around $250 before taxes.

Glances at subscriber amounts and current tally of subscribers (thank you, by the way!), and sighs in vexation.

I know I have the option to puts ads on this website and I’ve seen that such can generate revenue, but I really do not want that to happen here. If I were actually sponsored by something, then sure I’d write up advertisements for them, but I promised myself that I wouldn’t flood my own little corner of the Internet with random ads. That’s annoying to me, so I know it’d be annoying to you.

I’m going to have to figure out what I can provide to garner enough subscriptions to reach this personal goal, and I will, somehow. For the moment, however, it’s a moment of amusement and frustration. I want another 5,800 word day. Hell, a month of those and I’d have a novel done and edited!

A man can dream.

Stay safe out there, folks. ¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

-JB Swift