lateral epicondylitis

Each winter we burn

fourteen cords of wood

to heat home and studio.

It’s a lot of wood.

And each piece is lifted,

carried, and thrown

into the furnace.

I do not play tennis,

but I have a bad case

of tennis elbow,

otherwise known as

lateral epicondylitis

17 thoughts on “lateral epicondylitis

    1. Thanks Cindy. Epicondylitis is simply too awesome not to use… Each April for the last 2 decades, this has been my plight. I should have taken up tennis! 😉

    1. Thanks Nicole. I’ve come to a place of acceptance with constant pain. I think this line from the Talking Heads captures it well: “same as it ever was…”

  1. This sounds painful, Richard, go easy on that elbow. 14 cords is a whole lot of wood! Where I lived in Michigan, there was a man that always had a few cords for sale along the road.

  2. My late husband and I used to heat our ranch home, which was located on 5 acres, with wood and the buck stove. It’s a lot of work. Hope your elbow feels better soon.

  3. My dad had a summer house in northern Sweden that he built, well me and my brother helped him (we were kids at the time). He had to clear the property to build the house so he cut down a lot of trees with his chain saw. After that my brother and I used an axe to cut up the wood. It was a lot of wood, it took weeks to cut, but it lasted for years. Later on he installed electric heat in the summer house. I am sorry you got tennis elbow.

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