I’ve been rather absent for a week or so. Not on purpose. I threw my back out and pinched a nerve loading up my Explorer. I bent over to position my laptop, projector, briefcase, and a box of class printouts for the trip up to north Seattle to teach a social media class when I felt a ‘pop’ in my lower back and that lightning jolt of pain down your leg and up your spine.
I toughed it out but wouldn’t you know it I had another 2 sessions in Tacoma that afternoon. When I finally got home about 7:30 pm I was in pretty miserable shape and headed straight for bed. Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep that night or for the next 3 or 4 for that matter.
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This back thing of mine happens every once in a great while. I’ve had my fair share of close calls through the years. I fell out of a big old maple tree as a kid from near the top and lucky (I guess) the lower branches caught me by the foot which saved me from crashing to the ground head first, but I was stuck and hanging upside down from about 10 feet up. My dad and a few neighbors had to rescue me. Or the time I was riding on the back of Danny Shaw’s Moped and we were seeing how fast we could go down Earlington Hill. When we got near the T in the road he slammed on the brakes, the cables snapped, and we flew over the hillside through the sticker bushes. |
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Then there was that boy scouting trip to the Cedar River Gorge when sailing over the ravine on a rope swing, it snapped and I fell about 50 feet into the river. Or that time in high school when as one of the smallest guys in class I decided I was as tough as any and turned out for football. Brilliant idea. (Not!) I lasted two practice sessions. On the second Pete Peterson, about twice my size, totally crushed me in a full tackle and knocked the wind out of me. I immediately returned to my dreams of a music career.
Oh, then the time I rolled my VW on the freeway in Kent the night before my first teaching day at Green River Community College. And don’t forget the time up on Interstate 405 in south Bellevue when it started to rain real hard and a car slammed on its brakes in front of me. To avoid the crash I had to dump the motorcycle on it’s side and went sliding through the gravel and grass and over the embankment about 30 yards.
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It’s never been dull, that’s for sure. I’ve been very lucky and amazingly so. I never broke any bones. Actually the worst back issues that ever happened to me was being in a band and moving all the musical equipment around. So while I’ve spent the last week or so mostly in a prone position, I wanted to write but it was really hard to focus so I just drifted along in a fog. The one constant thought at the very top of my list was to make absolutely sure I avoided any kind of movement that might trigger the pain. |
The meds finally kicked in and since Thursday I’m doing a lot better. But I can see even now, focusing might still be an issue? I didn’t mean to tell a story about my youthful misadventures and what a pain in the back life can be at times, but to acknowledge the fact I started my blog here on Activerain five years ago yesterday (November 22, 2008). I almost forgot about it.
It’s been a meaningful journey. I’m grateful for the friends I’ve made, the community, the staff and the resources. I’ve learned a lot from many of you and it’s been a great place for me to play with my ideas and experiment.
But more so it’s about all of you. Thanks for being here and I look forward to the years ahead, though they don’t need to go by quite so fast. Gimme Five in the Rain!
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