Data Collection

I'm the family archivist. I like to keep track of things. Everything, really.

My husband is not so very interested in organizing or archiving or quantifying or planning. He's more of a live-in-the-moment kind of guy. Not that I'm knocking it! These traits, and more, have enabled him to become a successful entrepreneur. And he's really fun :)

So we balance each other out.

After all these years, he's taught me that I don't have to plan everything. I'm still a planner at heart, but I also realize that, to be happy, I have to be willing to change mid-course if the current plan isn't working. And I think I might have influenced him to believe that occasionally you do have to plan some things. (If we want to go out for the evening, for example, we have to arrange a sitter in advance. Stuff like that.)

Back to the archival tendencies... I keep notes on vacations, down to the room number of the hotel. In addition to photos, I've saved nearly all the greeting cards and letters and ticket stubs and other memorabilia we've collected after all these years. (I'm primarily visual and tactile, so I enjoy seeing and touching objects when recalling specific events.) I've saved all of my old calendars, back to the 1980s. They're sort of a non-annotated diary of my/our lives.

I've tallied how many pieces of candy we gave out at Halloween, and approximately how many children came trick-or-treating. (I know: that's just geeky.)

And now here's an odd one... The other day, as I was changing, I looked at my legs and noticed that one was visibly larger in circumference. To make sure it wasn't just in my mind, I asked my husband if he could see a difference. Sure enough, he could. It was real. Hmm. Remember, I've been on crutches for the fractured hip for 5 weeks now. The left leg has basically just been dangling there, as I'm not to put any weight on it. The muscles in that leg have completely atrophied. In contrast, the right leg has been doing double duty to support my weight all this time. The muscles are taut and firm. Hence, the difference in size.

But just seeing the difference wasn't quite satisfying to me. I just had to quantify the difference. So I got out the tape measure, of course. And I found that there's a 1/2-inch difference between the circumferences of my calves, and a 1-1/4-inch difference between the circumferences of my thighs! (The only thing that would have improved my empirical study would be to have a third leg, a control leg. Alas, I was born with only two. So I could test only the atrophy condition vs the overworked condition.)

To quote from Elton John: Such a sad, sad situation.

Eventually, I'll get back to working out. My strength trainer will help me to gradually improve the atrophied leg muscles so they're even again. It will take many months to accomplish this goal, but I know I'll get there. I'm not bothered by it, as I was a couple of weeks ago. This is merely one chapter in the book of my life.

So. Those are the results of my at-home study. Now I'll get back to organizing and labeling those archived photos...