Back Attack

All I can say is crap! I’m falling apart bit by bit this week. My thumbs have been hurting and the cold is hanging on and now my back has gone out. I think the cold has contributed because I’ve had several strong coughing periods and some very strong sneezes which put stress on my poor vertebrae. Then I lifted something improperly and bang—there goes doing much productive today.

I did very little physical work today.

I did go to the dentist and finally my new crown is in place properly. My dentist is falling apart too. I told her about my thumbs and she actually gave me a short thumb massage to show me the technique her massage therapist uses on her. She has elbow problems and it makes it hard for her to do her work—especially when she has to pull a tooth. It took her an hour to get the crown fitted properly. We chatted about all sorts of things—well I mostly listened because my mouth was being worked on. I asked her if she ever had to use her dental records to identify a body (that actually worked itself into our conversation naturally) and she said yes. She was involved in identifying some of the marines that died in the blast at the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing.

We are planning a 9 day trip to California to revisit San Francisco and the area around it. SF has been our favorite destination. We decided, now that we have seen what this administration is doing about the economy, that they are planning to pay for their spending with a period of hyper-inflation. That will likely make our monthly income, which has some surplus now if we manage it well, inadequate. It also makes saving useless and we all know the market is not going to rapidly bounce back. Therefore it is time to use some money while it has value to us. There are some very reasonable vacation packages available right now, too. Part of our spending involves buying a new GPS unit to replace our 2.5 year old bottom-of-the-line Garmin. We will finally have one that has a touch screen, color and announces street names. The idea is to make travelling around California easier.

Brie has taken to lying right in front of me as I type. Her long hair hangs over the keyboard and she twitches when my typing on the top line of keys pulls her hair. She used to lie off to one side. That didn’t get in my face sufficiently so now she is as close as possible—actually causing the keyboard to try to slide off the desk into my lap.

Isn’t it a comfort the way the critters follow you around and just want to be with you?

If my back reacts as it has in the past I’ll be bent over and sore for a week or 2. That’s just more fun to look forward to. It’s doing something that my Dad would understand. The pain in my back is taking my mind off the pain in my thumbs. Dad would always offer to squeeze our hand and roll the bones around. The pain caused would take your mind off whatever hurt you were complaining about.

Now I can’t wait to see what breaks on me tomorrow.