A note to readers

Hey, y’all, just a short note to catch you up on my current
situation and my plans for the coming weeks.


Long story short: I have tendonitis in both arms. I’ve had
problems with pain in my forearms for years, but it always faded
or went away after a while and was manageable. A few months after
quarantine started, in 2020, it started getting worse, to the
point I had to give up playing bass guitar — my one non-computer
hobby. Then, a few months ago, it started getting a lot worse,
quickly.


I have been to see two physical therapists, done stretches and
exercises, received regular therapeutic massage, bought a split
keyboard and a vertical mouse, worn compression sleeves during
the day and braces at night, iced both arms every day, taken a
bunch of goofball supplements (hoping for some placebo effect at
least), and even ordered one of these widgets.


Nothing has worked, at least not yet; it’s just gotten worse and
worse. It feels like a boulder rolling downhill. Nothing slows
its momentum. (And don’t bother suggesting resentment and
self-pity — I’ve tried those too.)


One result is that typing has become a chore. I can get through
about a paragraph before my wrists and forearms start to ache and
I have to take a break. What’s worse, it has messed up my
thinking. Over many years of writing, the act of laying my hands
on a keyboard has become a somatic cue that triggers my thinking;
I can not write without it. But now it involves pain, and the
pain is clouding the thinking.


This has made it difficult to write the next piece in my minerals
series. It’s made it difficult to write anything. Just
contemplating writing makes my arms ache.


Of all the advice I’ve gotten, one bit seems reliably true: the
only thing that fixes this problem is rest. I’ve got to stop
doing the repetitive motions that damaged the tissues. In my
case, that means I need to cut way back on holding my phone and
typing. I’m told these things take from four to six months to
heal.


Four to six months of no typing obviously presents something of a
challenge for someone who makes his living with a newsletter.
Quite a challenge indeed. [eye twitches]


So, just to be fully transparent about it, here’s my plan:


Next week, I’m taking the week off. It’s winter break and my
16-year-old and I are heading down to Bend, Oregon, to see
friends and do some snowboarding/skiing on Mt. Bachelor (where it
hasn’t snowed in weeks, sigh). I’m going to endeavor to get
through the week with a minimum of screens.


After that, I am going to shift — at least temporarily — to doing
more podcasting and less writing. This pains me. As much as I
make writing a misery for myself, I love it. But working my way
into a permanent state of diminished capacity is not something
I’m ready for at the tender young age of almost 50. Six months of
no typing sounds bad; 20 years of no typing (and no bass playing)
sounds way worse.


I’m also going to have a go at dictation software; if I can’t
type, I can always speak. I admit this fills me with horror. I
hate Siri. I hate Alexa. I hate talking to computers. It’s …
demeaning. This has been one of my stalwart Dad Things for years;
it’s a running joke in my house. But I’m going to bite the
bullet. (By the way, Dragon no longer makes dictation software
for Mac and apparently nothing else is as good. Let me know if
you’ve heard of alternatives. I’m aware that Mac has built-in
dictation, but trust me, it sucks.)


I’m also going to start doing hot yoga again. I did it regularly
for years and it was a blessing. It cured my lifelong back pain
and generally warded off the decay of my aging body. I stopped
doing it early in the pandemic, and it feels like, in the last
year or so, all that aging I held off for those many years has
found me at once.


Hopefully I can recapture some of the magic. Or at least keep
from puking or passing out in my first class back.


So, that’s what I’m thinking, at least for now. I don’t know how
this will ultimately impact Volts and I’m somewhat reluctant to
make any promises at this point — this thing could get worse or
it could get better. I need to put my health first. If any of
this, now or going forward, affects anyone’s subscription
decisions, no worries, I get it. We here at Volts management
apologize for any inconvenience.


With that said, I’m going to sign off, pack for my trip, and try
to forget about my arms for a while. I hope you have a pleasant
week and that when I return, the climate parts of Build Back
Better will have passed.


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