Another old man injury

Today, I was using the roof rake to get some of the 1-2′ of snow off of our roof. I write that as though roof raking is normative behavior for me. Never heard of it before this year. Seems to me that it’s the Wisconsin equivalent of the Sports Hernia injury of a few years back. Suddenly, everyone has a roof rake and the big news story nowadays concerns the hardwares stores that have run out. Like most news stories, it is not a story at all. This is how it goes:

newsperson: “Has there ever been a winter quite like this before?”

hardware store person: “not that I can remember.”

newsperson: “Has it ever reached such a crisis level with regard to roof rake inventory?”

hardware store person: “not that I can remember.”

newsperson: “have you ever seen such a scramble, almost fighting, almost violent, to obtain said roof rake?”

hardware store person: “not that I can remember”.

Anyway, I was out raking the roof with a neighbor’s roof rake when I felt a sudden pull in my right quad. It wouldn’t make any sense if I had somehow injuried it - none. If there was one muscle I wasn’t using to rake the roof, it was my right quad. I tried to put it past me, not think about it, and I succeeded until I went to my neighbor’s house to return the roof rake. I could barely walk over there. I had pulled my quad pulling snow off my roof. As I write hours later, I’m not 100%.