Infirmity gives columnist an excuse to clean out the bookmarks file.
Back spasms kept this columnist in bed and off the Web last week. But it's hard to keep a good columnist down so, as soon as I was able to assume a vertical - give or take fifteen degrees - position, I was immediately back on the Net. Of course, it wasn't just my selfless devotion to my readers that inspired me. No, the truth is I was looking for sites with information that could keep me from winding up flat on my back again in the near future.
I found good news and bad news. The good news came from the Low Back Pain Exercises page and Rebel Sport's Lower Back Pain page, both of which offered several low impact exercises for strengthening and stretching back muscles.
The bad news, courtesy of the Ergonomics and Lower Back Pain and Injury page, was that sitting for extended periods of time with the arms extended - as when web surfing- is a major contributor to back problems. It seems part of the solution to my back problems is to surf less and surf faster. At least that's what I plan to tell the IRS when I claim my new 56k modem as a medical expense.
Of course the modem won't do any good until I hook it up and I'm currently in no shape to be crawling around trying to sort out computer cables and phone lines, so I've decided to take it easy this week. Rather than spending a lot of time researching new sites, I've decided to use this column to do a little housekeeping and clear out a few sites that have been clogging up my bookmarks file for months.
After all, do I really expect to make use of my link to the Strictly Ballroom Home Page? Even though I'd like to think that I might one day trip the light fantastic - as opposed to just tripping - the truth is I've always been something of a menace to public safety on the dance floor. Now, with a bad back to go with a pair of left feet, I'm afraid any attempt on my part to Tango might constitute criminal disregard for human life.
Fortunately, I am still able to pursue my musical interests in less physical, nonterpsichorean ways. Which is to say that I'm quite capable of lying flat on my back and listening to music as long as I don't get up and change the CDs too frequently. My problem is I have only recently entered the nineties - at least in terms of audio technology - so my choice of CD's is rather limited. I borrowed a few from my son but, while I have embraced the current technology, the current music drives me crazy. I guess that explains why I saved the links to Sinatra.com and BobDylan.com. Perhaps I could pick up a few of their disks at CDnow, the online music store, and deduct them as a mental health expense.
It's not totally unreasonable, you know. According to another of my old bookmarks, the Biobehavioral Institute of Boston, a person's mental state can be a major contributing factor to his physical well-being - or lack thereof. It seems that mental stress leads to physical stress which contributes to injuries like mine. I should probably explore the Institute's IBM Stress Workshop, an online stress management program, but who has that kind of time these days?
Besides, I know my biggest source of stress at the moment is deadline pressure from my editor. And the best way to manage that stress is by managing to finish and submit this column. Once that's done, I'm sure I'll feel a lot better.
Even if it doesn't help my back, at least it will relieve the pain a little lower down.