Well folks, I think I'm going to have to take a little break until the weekend. Last Sunday, after walking for almost 6 hours I believe I may have hurt my left knee. It's been hurting since then and yesterday's walk didn't help either.
About four or five years ago I went to Bigfoot Paintball. It's a giant paintball complex in the woods in Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez which is about an hour and a half away from Montreal by car. It was rated as possibly the largest, most intense and spectacular military simulation terrain on the planet. Ok, I think the claims are a little exaggerated, but the playing field itself is pretty awesome. Anyway, a group of about twenty friends and friends of friends rented a bus and all went together to Bigfoot for a whole day to shoot at each other. Little did I know, that day would change my life forever.
I had paid for an equipment upgrade which included an anti-fog visor, but sure enough the damn thing would fog up every time I started running, which happened quite a lot. I was able to get around most of the time but I had to move slowly and stop frequently to let the fog clear up from my visor. I mean I'm running on uneven terrain here in the woods tripping over rocks and branches, into holes and roots sticking out of the ground and I can't even see a darn thing. Eventually, we play on this field where there's a big wooden castle...fort...thing. I managed to climb up the fortification and I was moving along the top of the wall of the fort when a slew of bullets fly by my head. I was spotted and I had to run for cover. Behind me was a castle tower but I had to run because it was at the other end of the wall. So I make a dash for it and sure enough my visor fogs up and I can't see where my feet are landing. I can't take it off either because I'm being shot at and I don't want to lose an eye over some stupid game. And just... as I... reach... the tower... I suddenly feel like I'm falling down, my heart jumps out my chest and my left foot lands about a foot and a half below where I was and my left leg bends backwards with my full weight coming down on it.
I crumbled to the ground holding my knee from the sudden intense pain. I crawled the few inches left and got inside the tower for cover. I let out a loud scream from the shooting pain and my buddy climbs up into the tower and asks me what's wrong. I tell him what happened and he helps me to stand up and allows me to lean on him so I can skip along on my good leg and return back to base to take off my visor and sit down for a bit. The Bigfoot staff did not have any med kits on hand in the safe zones, nor did they have any ice at the main building. I was stuck there in pain and they couldn't even offer me a god damn Tylenol. So I waited for the pain to come down. And of course, they made us sign a waiver when we came in that stated that they weren't responsible for any injury. Also, I had paid a couple of hundred bucks for all the equipment and for enough ammo to last me the whole day. I didn't want it to go to waste so at the next round and I didn't want to look like a pussy so I clenched my jaw and played on, running through the woods on a bad knee. Stupid male ego.
That injury still hurts five years later. Especially during humid weather. I now have the superpower of a 90 year old geezer and predict when it's going to rain with my bad knee. And it just seems like it's gotten worse since I hit the big 3-O. Walking for 6 hours up and down the hill to the plateau and across downtown on Sunday was probably a bit too much too. I wonder how I'm going to fare when I go visit San Francisco later this summer.
So tonight, to pass the time I might join a buddy at his flat at the museum of the absurd if he's there or fire up the ol' Wii and pick up where I left off a year ago on Okami.
It sucks getting old.
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