A trying day was had by all.

Problems at work – there were questions about how a junior management person was treating the animals. I’d gotten a disturbing report of an incident that had happened at the end of the day, and wanted to follow up on it when I got in first thing this morning.

Unfortunately, when I got in this morning, a second complaint against the same person had been lodged. And one of my Co-Workers, whom some have heard me refer to as The Mouth, saw fit to talk about it in the public area of our department’s office, where the Boss overheard her. He demanded that we go to the head of the department that was involved and ensure that disciplinary action was taken.

So, before I was able to go to the accused’s immediate supervisor, senior management got involved, got their noses out of joint, and decided to make a Situation of things. When I got to the supervisor, the guilty party and a member of senior management were already in the office. I was treated to seeing the guy reprimanded and suspended for three days.

Don’t get me wrong. I hardly condone the mistreatment of animals. But there’s a difference between wanton cruelty and ignorance, and I interpretted this incident as resulting from ignorance. What I wanted was a letter of warning placed in the guy’s file, and an opportunity to do some training with him. Instead, he’s been shamed in front of his bosses, all his co-workers will know he was suspended, and his department is going to see to the handling training. I strongly suspect that when this guy comes back from suspension he’s not going to be in the right frame of mind to be trained. I see this as an opportunity lost, because the guy is smart and with a little work would make a top-notch handler in the area.

As I returned to my office from that little debacle, my phone was ringing. My doctor wanted to get blood to run a blood clotting test on me as soon as possible – could I come in this afternoon? *sigh* Yeah, sure, why not. It was raining cats and dogs, I had a pile of work on my desk and another meeting I had to deal with yet, and was tired as hell from my work out in the morning, but what the heck? I’ll bleed for them if they want. That was nearly two hours lost from the early afternoon. Oh well, at least I got to read part-way through an article on icing cakes from a two year old magazine before I got called in from the waiting room. Just as well I was called when I was – a coupon had been clipped from the backside of the page I was on about a paragraph and a half where I stopped reading.

Last night was the worst night I’d had for cramps yet. I got to sleep fine, but about one in the morning I half-woke up to stretch and roll over. I stretched my legs out straight from their curled position, and immediately both calves cramped into two of the most amazing charlie horses I’ve ever had in my life. They continued to cramp for the better part of an hour. The moment I thought they’d relaxed finally and I tried to shift they seized up again. I finally did get back to sleep in the one position that didn’t seem to make my legs cramp, and woke up in the same position almost four hours later. The muscles in my right calf were so torn that I’ve spent the day trying to hide the fact I’m limping. Not a pretty sight. I’ll have to ask Dr. Liver about this again when he scopes me on Friday.

To answer your question Jade, I need to exercise to maintain muscle tone as best I can. That’s why I need a personal trainer, because they’d know how to set me up so that I’m maintaining instead of building. I need to do just the right amount of exercise to keep the muscles active without actually forcing them. If I hurt any muscles right now, it’s likely that they’d repair weaker than they currently are. Since muscle building is essentially hurting muscles on a small scale so they come back bigger, I need to be careful not to cross the threshhold that would exert my muscles too badly. I am totally stupid about gym equipment and how to judge my abilities, and that’s where the trainer comes in. She’s assessed me, and is now showing me the proper settings on the machines she feels will do me the most good. I’ve only got her for two more sessions, and as much as I hate the workouts, I’ll miss working with her.