The Unexpected Pitfalls of Delivering Flyers

I have been delivering flyers for over three months now.

I started when the weather was fine and the daylight hours lasted past supper time. I watched the days get shorter. I almost appreciated when it cooled off a little. I expected the cold, the snow, the ice and the wind.

It is a little bit of an inconvenience to have to squeeze in delivering the flyers before &/or after my daycare responsibilities. I prefer morning deliveries, but I can't count on the flyers being dropped off on time. So it is a little bit frustrating when a parent picks up their child late and I'm finished my deliveries fifteen minutes before the 8:00 p.m. deadline.

I expected as much. I have done this before and I know it isn't a perfect world. I knew there would be sacrifices along the way.

What I didn't expect?!? Sore thumbs.

I feel like I've pulled muscles in both of my thumbs. If I had a chronic 'texting' habit, I would swear that was the cause. But I don't. The only thing that I am doing differently ... is delivering papers.

I hold the paper that I am going to deliver in my left hand. I retrieve the papers that I will need with my right hand. It is pretty simple muscle movement. It doesn't hurt while I'm out delivering papers. It is the shooting pains that come out of nowhere when I go to pick up something (often a child) after the fact.

I have thought of the possibilities of spraining an ankle or breaking a bone as I weathered the icy days. But never in a million years did I think my flyer delivery career could be cut short due to sore thumbs.

Weird.

I don't like what is happening to my body. I am too young to be moving around like someone forty years my senior. My ankles don't work too well when I hop out of bed in the morning. I can't bend over to put on my socks right away. I can't move from sitting to standing like a spring chicken. I can't go from standing straight, to bending. And my thumbs get sore from delivering papers!!

Of all the preconceived ideas that I had about what this body of mine is capable of ... and the limitations that the years will bring ... never once did I think that it could be sore thumbs that do me in.

Do you think perhaps that I'm just a little bit out of shape?!?!??