When sitting is a pain in the arse

and you are walking bent over a bit, waddling like a toddler, and look like you might be wearing a loaded diaper under your nice dressy pants, life sucks. It’s the lower back pain again for the second time in a year – a very old injury that seems to be coming back to torture me more often than before. A recurring storm.

Since May 4, I've been standing or lying flat. Sitting is uncomfortable but getting out of a chair made me call out, “ow-ow-ow!”, and I have a high tolerance for pain! Good news: as of this past weekend, I’m better and walk like a pain-free person.

Having a desk job isn’t cool when sitting is a problem, so I cut my work days two or three hours short to go home and stand and walk around and walk around and stand. During standing and walking around, I managed to publish a few posts in tiny increments that stretched over an entire evening. Took a lot of miserable photos, too, but here are a few that are not so bad.

I don’t know the name of this common evergreen shrub. Its perfume knocks me out when I step outside and I hate it. Honey Bees love it, as there are always hundreds or thousands of them swarming on its nectar.

It’s my fault that I suffered with the bad back for so many days, for a few reasons.

The pond is growing top speed right now.

One reason is that I have an aversion to taking medication, even ordinary Ibuprofen.

A stop at the pond on the way home from work one day was sweet. I saw a pair of Green Herons (lifer). They were an interesting pair who didn’t sit for long.

Instead of taking medicine, I’m always inclined to work through the pain. Just do it. Work it out. I thought planting a red maple sapling and a few pink Lavenders one evening might help. Big Mistake. Then I started taking the Ibuprofen several times a day out of desperation.

Another reason I suffer is because I avoid exercise. Frankly, I’m tired of blaming my hardware-filled left ankle for not taking brisk walks with my Discman like I used to. Then, I was strong, at least ten pounds lighter, and happier when I walked three fifteen-minute miles every day. Now, twenty minutes of walking to start would be enough but I whine about being too tired, too busy, too hot, too cold, and it’s raining…WaaaWaaaWaaa!

I have a new IPOD Shuffle in the bottom drawer of my nightstand but I have no clue how to use it. Gina? Help me load my Janet’s Design of a Decade and Robert Palmer’s Mercy Me? (Good walking tempos when I need the beat.) My hamstrings and quadriceps shrunk. I know they’re there but I can’t see them.

There were a few times when I completely forgot about my back pain.

I saw a little Green Tree Frog. Can I wake you?

Its cool, sticky, little body relaxed and molded itself into my hand.

Kind of like Bella, who melts into me.

Much better.