A few weeks ago I tried to send my friend Geoffrey a text message from my phone to his in reply to a question he’d asked. At the time I didn’t realize that I’d incorrectly entered his number into my phone’s address list, so I couldn’t understand why he never replied.

Three weeks ago, mind you. I’ve since fixed the typo and all is right with the world. I didn’t really pay much thought to the minor issue of the poor confused soul who might have read my terse missive. Nothing came of it at the time, so it was no biggie, right?

“Wrong!”

I went to bed early tonight on account of sheer emotional exhaustion. For the first time in ages, I was actually asleep before midnight. Perhaps it just figures that such bliss couldn’t last…

My phone rang at just past midnight. The caller hung up about the time I managed to answer, and while the number looked vaguely familiar I couldn’t quite place it. Had it matched anything in my address list it would’ve displayed a name along with the number, so I figured maybe it was a coworker trying to reach me about a problem at the office. I decided to wait up a few minutes to see if they’d call back.

The caller did try again, but it wasn’t who I expected. See, this complete stranger called to ask if I’d just sent him a text message.

Nope, I replied, I haven’t sent a text message all evening. What did it say?

“Enemy Territory.”

Aroo? I did send a message like that, but it was weeks ago… and oh yeah, there was a problem with having the wrong number. But… that was weeks ago!

Turns out this gentleman had received the original message, wondered what was going on but decided to let it slide until it happened again. Here’s the weird part: It happened again. Tonight. Somehow either his carrier’s SMS got wonky or mine did, because a message I sent three weeks ago (he still had it on his phone, thus the date checking) was re-sent at midnight tonight.

I explained this likelihood to him, and we had a good laugh. I’m fairly certain he doesn’t think I’m some sort of weirdo who likes to play pranks on random strangers via SMS, anyway.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see if I can manage to fall asleep again…

Long story short? On Wednesday I did something stupid, something that more than three years of working pack-and-ship taught me not to do. I lifted and twisted, and my lower back went into the most intense spasm I’ve experienced in years. I ended up on the floor of my office grimacing and cursing and quite upset at myself.

I sort of got through the rest of that day by sheer force of will, and figured I’d be okay the next day as long as I took it easy that evening.

Ha! As if!

At about 11:30 Thursday morning, my back got worse. I couldn’t transition from standing to sitting or vice versa without incredible pain. As much as possible I stayed in my chair at my desk, and then slowly made my way home.

Friday morning, I tried to get out of bed. No go. I called work to say I wouldn’t be in, and I stayed in bed or on the living room couch all day and night. It was much the same for most of today, though now I’m more-or-less able to get around and function normally. Bending at the waist is still a no-go, for the most part, at least not without considerable discomfort.

Ah well. I needed the rest and (enforced) relaxation, right? Hopefully I can continue to recover tomorrow so I can be functional at work on Monday…

Saturday? Well, other than the parts early in the morning I only vaguely remember, the day was taken up mostly with trying out the Return Of The King game on the PC, and having Geoffrey over for chit-chat of the idle and not-so-idle variety. (He also took at stabbity-stab at a bit of Enemy Territory.)

Sunday? Well, other than the fair amount of cleaning I got done in the kitchen and dining nook, and a brief visit from Mari (during which the kids and I traumatized her with the first and third episodes of Bottle Fairy), the day was mostly taken up with playing games and taking it easy.

That reminds me. I need to review Bottle Fairy on yonder neglected anime section. Whoopsie.

How are we doing, the kids and I? Not too badly, really. This single-dad thing isn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it might be. I’m even keeping the house up pretty well.

Who knew, eh?

Long overdue, tonight was Take Down The Xmas Tree night. I set myself that goal for Wendi’s first day in Arizona, figuring that if I accomplish nothing else while she’s gone at least I’ll be able to show that I can keep house on my own. While the kids picked up the living room, I ran a load of dishes, then took on the tree chore.

Wendi had cajoled the children into de-tinseling the tree on Friday, and the ornaments came off over the weekend. Lucky me, I got to unstrand the lights. This wouldn’t have been so bad but for the fact that Wendi had lovingly, carefully wrapped the strands around limbs as well as up and down along the trunk. (I’ll be the first to admit that the tree looked very pretty when lit up. But.)

The job took me forty minutes, folks. I have scratches all up and down my arms, and I smell strongly of pine. Occasionally I considered taking the pruning shears to the light strand that wound along the trunk. Oh yeah, I wanted to. I persevered, though. The tree’s finally gone and we have our living room back. Huzzah.

On Saturday, Lilith and Geoffrey and I travelled north to Seattle. The impetus was a party thrown by the proprietors of the forum called Pool, but as a fringe benefit we were invited to visit some new friends Lil’ and Geoff’ had made online recently. First we stopped there for sandwiches and lots of fun getting-to-know-you conversation, then Lil’ and I took off for the party.

Pooligans, and friends of Pooligans, are some of the nicest, cleverest, most interesting folks to spend an evening with. Jak and Karawynn’s “ReLease” shindig was one of the nicest parties I’ve ever been to, no question about it. I even managed to operate quite far from my normal comfort zone, and yet lightning didn’t strike me dead on the spot. Good times indeed.

Lil’ and I finally started zonking out about half past midnight so we very reluctantly said our goodbyes and exchanged lots of hugs, then trekked back to our hotel room for the night… or morning, if you prefer. After some mild amusement involving the fact that we’d both forgotten to pack toothpaste, we finally conked out.

We hooked back up again with Lil’ and Geoff’s new friends the next day for a tasty brunch (you can not go wrong with eggs, bacon and toast, you just can’t) and another few well-spent hours of chit-chat and comedy. Mind you, at one point early on I pulled a stupid move: I doubled over laughing at a joke, fell over sideways… and conked my head but good on the wood trim part of the armrest on the loveseat I was sitting on.

Ow. Yeah, I gave myself a nice little concussion. The pain went away after about an hour, but I sort of faded in and out of coherence until we were almost home that night. Ow.

Even with the stupid headbanging moment and not enough sleep, it was a fabulous weekend during which I met a number of damned nifty people. Not bad, not bad at all.