It must be true that ...

It must be true that the curve of happiness has the shape of a U. It peaks both when you are a child and quite some years later when you've become an old man. I'm 44 and thus fairly unhappy, treading my way down at the valley below. There's hope ahead, at least.

I had my second renal colic ever last night. Two miserable hours of intense pain before dawn. As fast as it came it went. A square function, a pulse. If you have never experienced this kind of pain, and I hope not only that you haven't but also that you won't, you may fall quite short to even get an approximate idea of the wonderful state you suddenly find yourself in when the pain comes to an end. It ceases so abruptly that the wave of wellness it brings can almost make you cry of joy. (And you may have been crying of pain seconds before.)

I went to work today. I gave two lectures, one-hour each, keeping a watchful eye on the tiniest hint of the pain returning. I'm rather uncertain about what may happen next, given there was no actual detection of a kidney stone being expelled. So far so good, but I cancelled my run today.

This was my second time, yes, the first one about ten years ago. A trend? I dunno. If it is it has a long wavelength if nothing else, but never long enough.