For one thing, you don’t post on your blog for three weeks in a row because all you can think about is your back, and that’s boring. I’m still getting things done, just . . . differently.
My back has gone bonkers. I just spent my third weekend babying it. The only semi-comfortable position is upside down with my back flat on the floor, the bed, or the deck. See photos. The world looks quite different in reverse. The clouds are gorgeous. The ceiling looks like a new world I’d like to explore. The dog is intrigued. She sniffs. Hmm. What’s going on? Then she barks until I take her out for a walk where I moan for a block, then turn her around, saying, “Mama has to go lie down.”
Please don’t send advice. I’m drowning in it. I’m seeing the chiropractor every other day. I just want to share some of the quirky things this has caused me to do:
* Binged the 8-episode series Clickbait, a mystery-thriller that kept me guessing right up to the surprise ending, which I watched in the wee hours this morning. Highly recommended.
* Watched “The Starling,” a movie with Melissa McCarthy, and “An Unfinished Life” with Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez and Morgan Freeman. Both good. Put them on your list, too. I also watched some real stinkers, but I won’t mention them.
* Decided to rearrange my office again, ordered a table and a high-rise chair to go with my standing desk, coming Thursday, assembly required.
* Decided to digitize 50 years’ worth of sheet music and ordered a new tablet, coming tomorrow.
* Joined the Walmart shopping club for the free delivery.
* Sampled an online mandolin course, which now keeps telling me to start my first lesson.
* Shopped for guitars and cars. Now my computer is full of ads for both.
* Soaked in the hot tub for hours, trying out all the features on the control panel. If I could move my computer desk to the hot tub, I would stay there all day.
* Listened to a bazillion podcasts, most of them stupid.
* Zoomed countless poetry readings, changing location every few minutes. I honestly don’t know how I will ever sit still in a chair when COVID lets us meet in person again.
* Revised my memoir one more time, sitting, standing, and lying with my laptop on my belly.
* Planned landscaping and redecorating projects that I will undertake when I can move again.
* Continued playing music at church, where I was grateful Catholics change position a lot—sit, stand, kneel, walk up to Communion . . . Stand up straight! I thought I was.
* Let the mail stack up and the dirty dishes wait.
* Thought about how maybe I can’t live here by myself anymore even though I love my place in the forest.
* Counted my blessings that I could still walk and move and plan even though it hurt. Lots of people can’t do those things.
Is it getting better? I’m honestly not sure. I’m not crawling around with two canes now, so that’s something. I can stand without screaming, but . . . I don’t know. I’m doing what I can to mitigate the effects of sitting at my computer all day, mostly by just not doing it. Hemingway wrote standing up, so I can, too. Meanwhile, the floor is calling me.
Unleashed in Oregon 