Like a kid in a candy store, I’ve been sorting baseball cards for the last few days. My son brought over his collection of sports cards, many of which were mine many years ago. I simply put them all in order, removed all the duplicates, and added some of those to my binders. The triplicates I’ll take to Blue Breaks, my local store and put them in the kid’s box – free cards to perhaps motivate a youngster to adopt the hobby.

Since I’ve been nursing a sore leg, sitting and sorting seems like a good idea. However, then it stiffens even more and makes walking miserable. It seems to be getting worse rather than better and a call to the doctor’s office yesterday didn’t seem to speed up the process of getting an MRI. No one knows what to do for me until I get these results, so progress is at a standstill. I’ll work out the pain in the morning and then am able to do my workouts at the gym or the pool. However, sedate evenings of watching TV or distractions like baseball cards, lead to hours on a soft couch. This seems to aggravate the nerve. It’s like a hamstring injury, with stabbing pain running down my left leg into my calf. Ice provides temporary relief, but a heating pad last night didn’t seem to help. I’m lost for a solution.

The baseball world that I live in this time of year keeps me sane. Kyle Schwarber hit 3-homers in a single game this week, the first, a lead-off shot, tied him with Alfonso Soriano for the season record. Japanese phenom Shota Imanaga hurled 7-innings of no-hit ball for the Cubs, and two relievers combined to finish off the game, holding the Pirates hitless. Aaron Judge pursues the 60-mark and Shohei Ohtani inches closer to the 50/50 Club. However, the White Sox continue to lose at a record pace. I still check the box scores in the middle of the night and go to the Topps Baseball site every afternoon to purchase cards that capture those moments of actions. History is made almost every day on the diamond. In another month or so, my entire focus will shift to I.U. basketball. Too much idle time, like this, is driving me crazy. I need to find something constructive to do with my days. 

My wife spent another day teaching school, while I took the dogs to the park. She almost didn’t get home, considering the fact that her Lexus key fob fell apart, and she couldn’t get the car started. Fortunately, she was able to improvise and drove to Sarasota to pick up a pricy replacement. The nearly 20-year-old sports car, her baby, needs an oil change, tune-up, and struts, so hopefully the rest of it won’t fail in the near future. She has errands tomorrow and I’ll need it Saturday, but school is on hold until Monday. I need this leg to heel, so I can go back to work.