What a drag it is getting old

As I write my January column, it is a few days before Thanksgiving, and I am getting ready to go back to work. You see, somehow I managed to injure myself back at the end of June. Don’t ask me how; I woke up on a Saturday morning with severe pain in my left shoulder. I know that my wife had nothing to do with it, as she claims, but … just kidding, dear.

It turns out I had a torn rotator cuff, a torn bicep and arthritis. The doctor told me that wear and tear over the years did it. Hidden meaning: I got old. Nonetheless, surgery, physical therapy and exercising the shoulder from three to four hours or more per day are taking care of the situation. My wife has been a tremendous help in getting me back to my former self. I couldn’t have done it without her.

Being home all this time has been great, but dare I say it: I miss my job. I miss getting up at 5 a.m. and heading to the office. Well, maybe not the early rising part so much. But this is what I know. I’ve been in manufacturing since 1977 and writing for Cutting Tool Engineering for 19 years. Boy, does time fly.

I look forward to getting back and working with the rest of the management team to decide what we need to do to meet our quality and delivery goals. I am eager to attend the daily management meetings to monitor how we are meeting our goals. During the early part of my medical leave, I couldn’t resist going online and checking how things were going. Believe it or not, the management team survived without my input.