Day 4

Day 4 : Slow and steady

I woke up feeling very sore. 100 pushups, 100 pullups, and 200 squats left me in pain. Good pain.

I really had nothing planned today, so I decided to take it easy. I spent most of the morning cleaning the house. Then I made lunch and just chilled for a while. In the evening, I went out to see my dad again.

He was watching TV when I got there. I asked him if he had eaten lunch and he said he couldn't eat much because he was not feeling well. He did have a piece of bread that was served.

Then I started to do some exercise with him again. The same thing as the last time. Today he was under the cover so his feet were warm. He didn't mind moving his ankles by himself, which was very encouraging. I held up his feet and tried to improve the range of motion. I went up from his ankles to knees, hip, hand, arms and neck. I have not started adding resistance yet. This time I asked him to take some deep breath to open up his ribs. This was something I found very helpful when I got my shoulder injured. At the end, I sat him up on the bedside and rubbed his back. After all that I laid him back on bed. He didn't want the cover back on because he felt hot. It was a good sign.

While doing the exercise, I chatted with my dad about stuff, which started to show me some of his rather skewed view of life and people in general. I'm not ready to write about it in details, but all the things I heard from him today, I was able to compare to what my mom would describe about him. I kept a distance from him for my entire life up to now, and I just started to see him as who he is. There's no doubt that the root of the whole problem is bigger than I can imagine. I am reconnecting with him and trying to make small changes, which will hopefully bring out some progress that may inspire him to change his beliefs.

I came home after doing some groceries. It was a bit later than I hoped and when I got home, my mom suggested to go out for dinner. I had to say no to this offer. This is our vacation as well and we are planning to go many places, so unless we are out and about and we have to eat out, I'd rather eat at home. My mom looked a little upset and the whole time she was making dinner for us, she was very quiet. I did not mean to force her to cook, but I didn't make it clear that I didn't mind cooking, so that was my fault. I did insist to do the dishes if that means anything.

Tomorrow I'd like to take a positive turn and have some fun with my boys.