Filler, mostly

May 26, 2010
18:12
Plakias, Crete, Greece

I realize my last blog entry was several days ago (May 22, 2010 to be precise). Sadly, between then and yesterday I hadn’t really done much. Every morning and every night I do a series of exercises that supposedly will help keep my back in shape. I do crunches (or is it crunchies?), whatever you call those butterfly-style crunches where you bring your elbow to your opposite knee (you know, the ones that work out the love-handle regions of your abs and back), followed by leg lifts and topped off with some stretches that are meant to specifically open up the lower-back spinal area. If I do these core exercises, in theory it will greatly help my back improve, and if I keep doing them, it will help prevent my back from damaging itself like this in the future. So I’m committed now to be doing these exercises every morning and night for the rest of my life. As much as I hate exercising, I hate hurting my back one million percent more.

I also had an Aussie roommate who was a park ranger (I talked about him before, his name is Robert if I’m remember correctly) who said he has back pain from time to time. What he found works for him is to go on walks that go up a steady yet slight incline. He says if he does this regularly, the back pain will go away. So I’ve adopted a similar routine—in that I try to go for a walk every day. The walk to the old mill is a pretty nice walk from here, it’s not too long (maybe two or three kilometers), and it is almost entirely a slight, steady incline. Of course, that means I have a slight, steady decline on the way back. But I have yet to find a path that goes round-trip on a slight, steady incline the whole way. I’ll keep looking for that. I’m pretty sure I’ll only find it in an M.C. Escher drawing though.

So sadly, there’s been nothing of interest to report of the last few days. I get up, do my exercises, eat breakfast, surf the internet for a bit, go for a walk to the mill, or for a walk into town and buy some vegetables or a coke, then come back, lay down, relax, get up again, sometimes maybe watch a TV show that I downloaded onto my computer, then I do my exercises, take my pain meds (can’t sleep with the pain in my leg without them), and go to bed. That’s been most of my routine for the last several days. One of the days I think I did laundry. One of the days was my mom’s birthday so I was able to skype and wish her a happy birthday which was nice.

Anyway, so that’s it. No real news. Nothing interesting or exciting. Nice, relaxing few days.


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