Epidural Injections Today for this Swimmer

Maybe no swims for a couple of days.  I got these steroid/lidocaine epidural injections at the VA Hospital in La Jolla this afternoon.  So far, my pain is greatly decreased, but I hear that I'll know in a few days if they help for 2-3 months.  As for right now, I wish someone had thought to give the shots to me years ago-and also in my neck.

Well, I might as well tell you my secret, sagacious sentence of advice from my long-ago Teacher.
We all have heard of the pervert Catholic priests that have run rampant with their sexual predation over the decades-and probably centuries-with the silent blessing & approval of the hierarchy of the Catholic church.  My old Teacher was not a priest, but a member of the Christian Brothers.  The Christian Brothers are a good group of men who are not perverts and have taken vows of poverty and communal living, and they serve as teachers and missionaries.  My experiences with them was back on the East Coast.  This Teacher, the late Brother James Curran, of the Bronx, taught me Spanish in high school. He was also a source of humor, exemplary behavior, and a fine Teacher.

The advice from him to me: "Don't take the easy way out."  Simple as that.  When He told me that, I was a senior and, of course, I DID take the "easy way out."  And I regretted it and let him down.  I still regret it now.  I try not to "take the easy way out" but can't always meet his standard. 
This truism has come back to me again and again over the years and I find that it applies to one's daily life in a myriad of ways.  Example: Cheat on your homework-you're only cheating yourself. Example:  Don't finish your own tasks at work and leave them for your co-worker.  Easy way out.  The co-worker suffers.  You can go on and on with examples from your own lives.  I don't think that I'll add it as a tag line at the bottom of my blog posts, but feel free to use it.

"The first time you quit is the last time you try."