absurd

Gone West felt like Liberia yesterday. 

That is an exaggeration, of course. It is never as humid in warm weather in Gone West as it is all the time in Liberia, but I stepped outside yesterday into hot air smelling of burning wood. 

In Liberia, people burn the jungle to clear fields for planting, and the air fills with smoke and the smell of burning wood.

Sometimes I struggle to imagine explaining to modern parents in the US exactly what sort of playing we did as kids in Liberia. Example: after a field was burned, we loved to go play in it, in the soot and the still smoldering bits. While wearing rubber flipflops. 

Safety first, guys. Safety first. 

Somehow we did not get hurt. Sometimes I think kids live up to what you expect of them. 

...

I am beginning to be seriously annoyed with my shoulder nerve impingement situation. 

I re-injured it on Friday. 

Would you like to know how I re-injured it? Because it was ridiculous.

I was in a cafe with a friend, and a woman came in with a baby. She set the baby's seat down on the floor next to me while she hugged an older man. Meanwhile, the older man's wife tried to take the baby out of the seat, and couldn't figure out how to unlatch that middle latch across the baby's chest - the one that you push in the middle button and pull the pieces out to the side.

I braced my right arm against the table while I leaned over and pushed the button with my left.

Bam. Re-injured right arm.

It's completely absurd. This is absurd. The situation is absurd. Arms should not be that wimpy.

So I'm annoyed.