When I wake up, I will have less time left (Day 40)

I got through a full day with crutches.

The hardest part of today for me was going down the stairs from my apartment to my car and getting back up them when I came home. Other than that it wasn’t so bad.

I woke up and was still in pain, much to my dismay. I still kind of had hope that my mysterious injury might have gone away the same way it came, without warning and during my slumber. Unfortunately it did not, so I thought I should follow the doctor’s orders and use the crutches they gave me.

My goal was to get to work before most other people arrived so as not to call attention to myself and my new walking aid, and I was successful. Only one person saw me coming in on my crutches and I don’t even know his name, so he must work on the other side of the office, the business side. I received an email first thing from my mom saying that the doctor’s office from last night had left a message at her house, likely because that was the home number I listed, and I was to call them back.

When I called the office they asked me for my insurance information again. Since they didn’t even look at it last night because I am from Canada, let alone take down my info, I thought they might have changed their minds. Instead, I guess the person I spoke with last night just left my information there for someone else to deal with. The woman who called me wasn’t sure why they hadn’t entered a zip code into my file. When I told her I am Canadian she just said okay and that was it. I asked her when I might hear from the specialist and if they would take my foreign insurance and she gave me the number and told me to call them.

I called the orthopaedic specialist’s office and spoke to a guy who was extremely friendly and overly talkative. He seemed very interested in my situation, but I figured that could only help me in the process. The man said he had to talk to someone in the international office or something like that, before they could figure out how to deal with me, so eventually the conversation ended and I just had to wait to hear back.

I still had not finished the bios I started yesterday so I went to work on the Hall of Famers. My research was done but I had to start putting together the drafts and then conjure up something that I could send off to Editor 2.

I was hard at work on the bios when Editor 2 came over to ask if I was going to try to crutch to lunch or if I wanted him to bring me something back. I told him that I would make the effort on my crutches, mostly because I like taking some time away from the office in the middle of the day. It helps me if I am having trouble staying focused on something. It is a good distraction.

The temporary absence from my desk also helps me get to know the people I go with. Today it was just me and Editor 2 again and during the ride he told me about his wife and how last year (or maybe the year before) she broke her leg in two places. She was on crutches for a long time, had two surgeries and was in the hospital three times, just because of a slip and fall accident. She now has to live with a metal plate in her leg and currently also has a battery pack in there that was helping muscles grow or something. Presumably the batteries are dead now, and Editor 2 thinks that his wife is probably going to want it taken out because she can feel the pack in her leg and sometimes it can be bothersome. I would imagine it might get to be a little irritating, or at least strange.

We also talked about the crazy weather that London is getting right now, the worst December snowfall in what seems like forever, and certainly in my lifetime. I told him it is so bad that my mom has resorted to asking my dad to drive her to the Buffalo airport on Saturday when she is flying to North Carolina to come see me!  Since my parents haven’t been a couple for a very long time and the general feeling in the air when they are around each other is dislike, I can’t imagine it will be a comfortable ride. My guess is that my mom will either fall asleep or pretend to be asleep for the duration.

Editor 2 asked me about what my dad does for a living, or what he did, since he is now retired. Editor 2 knew that my dad had worked for GM, but he didn’t know in what capacity. I explained that my father is an electrician by trade, and worked steady nights for the last bunch of years since my parents split up.

Then we discussed what the GM in London actually made and I think it might have just been locomotives and LAVs but I really have no idea. My dad didn’t make anything, he was an electrician. And we talked about how it switched over to become Electro-Motive Canada and I’m pretty sure that’s why my dad had to retire when he did, so that he could have a GM pension instead of one from EMC. It was a solid discussion that accompanied great pizza from the awesome pizza place we have gone to a few times.

I finished my Hall of Famers from yesterday pretty soon after lunch and sent them to my mom for proofreading and editing before sending to Editor 2. While I was waiting I went and got two more names to start on. I grabbed Sam Rice and Kid Nichols.

Rice didn’t start playing in the majors until he was 27 years old, but his story is pretty inspirational in itself, considering he could even play at all after the tragedy he went through in 1912. The pitcher-turned-outfielder was working several miles away from his home when it was struck by a tornado. The storm took out not only his house, but his family, too. He lost his parents, his wife and his children. He went on to be a pretty good baseball player, but he kept it a secret from everyone, even when he remarried several years later. His second wife only found out when the press brought the story back up in the 1950s.

Nichols was a pretty great pitcher and his legacy will live on forever in the fact that he won 30 or more games seven times. That’s definitely a record, in case anyone is wondering, and is unlikely to ever be matched or beaten. Pitchers don’t even get near 30 victories in a season now, with five-man rotations and pitch count and inning limits. Nichols also had what ESPN ranked as the greatest playoff performance in history. In the 1905 World Series, he threw three shutouts in six days, in Games 1, 3 and 5, to take the Fall Classic four games to one. He allowed a total of only 14 runs over the three games, which is pretty ridiculous.

I haven’t finished the bios on my two newest picks, but I am sure I can finish them in the morning hours tomorrow. My plan is to head to work early because when I called the specialist’s office at the end of the day to find out about my status, I was told that the guy I talked to still hadn’t heard from the people who deal with foreigners. He said he would call me first thing in the morning, and since he will be calling my work phone, I figure I should be there for it.

From work I went back to the apartment and dealt with the stuff from my car and the climb up the stairs. I made it and then made myself a smoothie and finished off the last of my cereal. I am dreading having to buy more cereal before I leave because it will be impossible to go through the grocery store on crutches and actually get what I need without embarrassing myself. So I am hoping that I can survive for the next two and a half days on whatever food I have left. I can’t believe that I am only going to be here that much longer. I am getting Baseball America sick I think...it is kind of like being homesick, except instead of wanting to go home, I don’t want to leave BA. Yes, it is something I most certainly made up, so if it doesn’t make sense, that is my fault, but the message I’m trying to get across is that I don’t want to go.

I’m not ready to leave in such a short time. I hope I have contributed as much as I could and helped everyone out, with a smooth and easy transition. It certainly felt that way for me, but I can only wish that it was the same for everyone at BA who took me on.

I will be happy to see my mom and go back to my own apartment, and to my mom’s house, too. But I am not looking forward to heading back into the record snow and cold. Those aren’t the reasons I would like to stay in North Carolina though.

I love BA and writing about baseball and reading about Hall of Famers as a job. I like seeing my name in the magazine, and as an editorial assistant in the books. I love the people and the conversation about drafts and prospects and the fact that baseball happens every day somewhere. I would love to stay in that somewhere.

I almost don’t want to fall asleep because when I wake up I will have less time left. But I am tired, so I will just have to make the most of my time.