health

It’s just a restless feeling by my side

Just a typical Sunday hereabouts, one part New York Times crossword, one part writing group.

On my way home from writing, I picked up a kneeling chair I’d bought at the beginning of July, when my back was starting to hurt me more than usual. I have a friend with several herniated discs who swears by the chairs, but I’ve never used one. And finding one that seemed to be both high-quality and affordably priced wasn’t easy.

I ordered this chair online through Staples, to be delivered to my local store where I could pick it up. They estimated delivery around July 30th. Online, though, their website just said that it was shipping, and then earlier last week that it had shipped. I couldn’t get any more information. More often than not, their “track this shipment” option just returned a blank page. So I contacted customer service by e-mail. They said that the chair had shipped and had been delivered to the store on July 16. Meanwhile, this is now almost three weeks later. No e-mail, no call, nothing. The one time I was able to get any information out of the website, the tracking number was all but useless. The box was shipped by UPS, but that’s not what the website said. How I was supposed to know the box had arrived is beyond me. I guess they didn’t care, since I’d already paid for it.

Picking it up wasn’t much of a hassle. I just had to show ID, and then wait while they failed to find a record of it in their system — or at least the record that would let them print out some form I had to sign. Probably, the woman behind the counter told me, because it had been sitting around their store for several weeks and was no longer in their system.

I haven’t set up the chair yet — in fact, the box is still sitting in the trunk of my car — but I’m curious. In the time since I bought it, my back seems to have adjusted, and the pain it gives me has again become very manageable. But if the chair can help improve it, that’s all for the good.

Thursday various

This must be a Thursday.

Not much to report. The first week of summer hours, arriving early and working late, is at an end, with the half-day reward tomorrow. Already, I’m not entirely sure that it’s been worth it.

Meanwhile, I’ve been getting issues of Kaleidotrope ready for mail over the weekend — and, as I periodically do, thinking about going the online route with the zine. I love the process of layout and the physicality of a print zine, but going digital would open up some interesting possibilities — and, moreover, would free up some money that currently goes to printing and postage. It’s just a thought.

And, also meanwhile…well, my back hasn’t been so great lately, with the return of pain that had been pretty manageable (if not negligible) for quite some time. The pain is pretty minor, as these things go; I have friends who’ve been bed-ridden or had to visit the hospital because of back pain. I don’t have any trouble walking, or moving, or even bending — just increased discomfort when I do so. The most worrying has been some minor numbness and weakness in my right leg today. I’ve been starting up with the stretches again, which I’d been too lax about, and trying to lose some weight anyway. But if the pain and numbness keep up, I may have to revisit my spinal doctor and talk about options. It’s hard to tell if the steroid injections helped much the first time, though I think they did a little. I don’t even know if that’s something we can discuss trying again.

Something tells me I’d have to get another MRI, and man, I do not enjoy those.

Anyway, time for bed. I need to rest up so me and my back can get to work tomorrow. We’re not allowed to take vacation days and use the summer hours — if you’re off a day, you work a regular week the rest of it — but nobody’s said what happens if you’re unfortunately sick, especially at the end of the week. It would suck mightily to work those extra three hours all for naught. So, bed.

The longest day

Today is supposedly the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, but I can say as I noticed. It was mostly an unexciting day, despite its being my first back at work since last Thursday. I’m feeling a whole lot better, though I can’t quite shake this cough.

Today’s Forgotten English is “puthering,” meaning “pouring with rain,” but it was bright and sunny all day long, so it’s not exactly appropriate. Last Friday’s calendar page, however, offered “inexpressibles” as “a euphemism for trousers,” and I think I’m going to try using that more often in conversation. I think more perfectly innocent words like trousers should have euphemisms that make them sound naughty.

I am a little sad that tomorrow will have just a smidgen less daylight in it, but them’s the breaks.

Happy Father’s Day

I was woken up first thing this morning by my father, asking me to help him push one of the cars into the street because the battery had died. And, well, today is Father’s Day, so who am I to say no? It was incredibly hot and muggy outside, though, even before nine o’clock (which is what constitutes “first thing” on a weekend), so after we jump-started the car and poked at one of the taillights (which wasn’t working yesterday and might be the source of the problem), I came back inside and tried to go back to sleep for a while.

I mostly failed at that, but I did spend the better part of the day indoors, within the protective bubble of air conditioning. I watched this week’s Doctor Who Confidential and largely completed the Sunday crossword. (I liked this week’s a lot more than last’s.) I spent a little time out in the backyard, taking some photographs and some video, and reading a few stories submitted to Kaleidotrope, but the humidity got the best of me after not too long. And it’s maybe good that it did, because not half an hour later it poured rain for fifteen or twenty minutes.

I’m still getting over this cold — and now thoroughly convinced it is a cold, and not just allergies. It’s mostly just a nagging cough now, which, with any luck, will be gone before long. I’m feeling a lot better, so that’s good.

After dinner, my mother and I gave my father some Father’s Day gifts (mostly gift cards). My sister will be visiting next weekend, but she called to wish him a happy day. My father, unfortunately, had to attend a wake for an old family friend this afternoon, so we didn’t go out to eat or anything special.

Mostly, it was just a quiet Sunday.