Closed for Repairs

Please click the photo above to play the daily videoThe day started with a complaint, and it came from my own stomach. I woke to a dull, insistent ache low down, the kind that doesn’t build up to anything but makes its point well before the alarm does. It didn’t take long to work out what had happened. Something from last night’s dinner had clearly decided to stay on and cause trouble.

There’s a familiar sequence to mornings like this. First you assume it’ll pass. Then you assume it’ll pass after coffee. Then, somewhere around the second hour, you admit it isn’t going to pass on any timetable of yours. I got through the morning on a mix of stubbornness and careful posture, but by lunchtime even I could see the sensible decision. The afternoon clinic was closed, and I chose to take things easy instead of performing being fine.

That’s harder than it sounds. Most of us are better at pushing through than at stopping, and stopping always feels like it needs a note from someone. Today the stomach wrote the note, in fairly firm language.

I was home after lunch, which on any other day would have felt like a treat. Today it felt more like being sent home from school, relieved and a bit sheepish. Still, the house was quiet and the sofa was free, which was about all I needed from either of them.

I didn’t do absolutely nothing. A little paperwork got done at the kitchen table, at a pace the paperwork probably found insulting. It’s surprising how much easier forms are when you’ve given up any ambition of doing anything else. Then a nap arrived, unplanned and entirely welcome, the kind where you lie down to rest your eyes and wake an hour later not quite sure what day it is.

The rest of the afternoon went to the weekend’s games, finally caught up on now that there was nothing else asking for my time. Watching sport you already half know the result of has its own calm. The tension is gone, which leaves you free to admire things you’d normally shout through. As a way of recovering, it isn’t in any textbook, but I’d recommend it.

By dinner the ache had faded to a vague memory, and I could think about food without suspicion, which felt like real progress. Dinner was cautious. It was also a quiet sort of peace offering to the stomach, which I’m told has accepted it, provisionally.

Looking back, the stomach ache was probably the least important part of the day. The rest was what mattered. It’s easy to go weeks running on routine and momentum without noticing how little is left in the tank. Sometimes it takes a minor rebellion from the inside to make the point.

So the afternoon was handed back, the paperwork got done slowly, there was a nap I didn’t plan and a few games I’d been saving up. I didn’t choose to take the day off, but I’ll admit I needed it.