Curse of the Three Legged Cat

Sometimes we receive unwelcome reminders of our physical limitations.  It has been well over a year since my serious stress-related illness sidelined me for three months.  In the aftermath of that, I was left feeling physically much weaker than before, my stamina greatly reduced with even modest exertions leaving me tired.  As time has gone on, I've felt stronger and more robust, with my stamina returning and the tiredness fading away.  Indeed, over the past couple of months I've been feeling better than I have for a long, long time.  Then I decided to do some 'gardening' over the weekend.  I've been putting off trying to tidy up the garden for weeks,  I hate gardening and it had turned into a jungle out there.  So my 'gardening' consisted mainly of lopping overhanging branches off of trees and hacking down overgrown weeds.  I was left aching in every limb afterwards.  In fact, I still ache.  Although some of the aching is the result of the flat tire I suffered yesterday.  There was a time when such a thing wouldn't have bothered me - I would have had the car jacked up and the wheel swapped with the spare in a few minutes.  But yesterday I found myself without the strength to operate the jack properly - I kept trying to turn that handle, but the car just wasn't going up and I was dripping with sweat and exhausted.  Worse still, I could feel my blood pressure rising - something I have to avoid at all costs.  In the end, to my embarrassment, I had to call the AA out to change a wheel.

Consequently, I spent today feeling a wreck.  After sorting out a new tire for the car, (by the time the spare was on yesterday, everywhere was closed), I retired back to my sofa for another Bank Holiday weekend of catching up with films I've recorded over the past few months.  (Today it was Doctor Strange - I could have done with his mystic healing powers to help my own recovery).  It's just as well that today was a Bank Holiday and I didn't have to go into work - this long weekend has completely knackered me rather than having been the relaxing break I was hoping for.  Anyway, if I was a superstitious person, I would be thinking that I should have seen that flat tire coming, as I'd surely had a premonition of it the day before, while I was doing that gardening, in the form a three-legged cat.  Said cat - which I'd never seen before, was sat in the garden when I went out to do my deforestation, and proceeded to watch me while I hacked things down.  He even came back after wandering off for a while.  I mean, it's obvious, isn't it?  A cat with only three legs - a car with only three working tires.  See what I mean?  A clear premonition.  Luckily though, I'm not superstitious - the cat was just a cat, albeit one with only three legs.  (He was actually a very nice cat, very friendly and good natured, not to mention surprisingly mobile and agile, despite the missing leg.  And no, I don't know how he lost it - I asked, but he doesn't like to talk about it).  So, no 'Curse of the Three Legged Cat', just an unwelcome reminder that I've clearly some way to go until I can consider myself fully recovered.