I got up out of a comfortable chair, grabbed my lower left back, and howled.
It doesn’t take much to pinch a nerve or throw something out of whack when you lead a sedentary life, and unfortunately, our shore time is spent indoors more than out.
Being a writer with deadlines doesn’t help. I have a new release to promote, another novella releasing April 5, and the first draft of a third book waiting for me to be serious about editing. Plus, there’s daily tweets (nice ones), posting to regular and author pages on Facebook, and preparing material for a newsletter.
Who knew?
All this is going on while hobbling around, looking like Igor in Young Frankenstein, trying to find a hard chair that allows me to get up and out easily, and wincing if I try to straighten up or move too quickly.
What happened? It couldn’t be that I’m carrying around a little too much weight (okay, a lot), or my forays into the desert to hike are only about twice a week. Even hefting grocery bags up one flight of stairs pulls and tugs at places in my body that were once fit.
All this makes a good argument for cruising. I can eat what I want without gaining, I get exercise on the boat while underway, and off the boat walking to grocery stores and laundromats.
I do remember a painful incident on a sailboat off the coast of Iles de Saintes in the Lesser Antilles. The same thing happened to my back and a visit to a pharmacy by Capt. Mark (who was a guest on the boat, just like I was), helped me function again. It was a good thing because we had a nice dinner planned in town (we had to anchor and go by dinghy), and I certainly didn’t want to miss that.
Or the plane we had to catch the next day.
I’m hopeful that by next week I’ll be talking about hikes and outings again. I won’t be jumping out of chairs or twisting to get a book, or whatever got me in this fix, that’s for sure.
Lesson learned: be cautious as you age, even when it’s something you do every day.