The Forgotten English on my desk calendar for today is “weaponsalve,” meaning “a salve which was supposed to cure the wound, being applied to the weapon that made it.”
So I just need to find the boxes of books I carried two years ago in New Orleans, which I think was the injury that hurt my spine, and apply a healing salve.
I was actually fine for most of the day, staying a good quarter or half step away from the pain a lot of the time, but the discomfort really kicked up in earnest this evening. I fear I’m fit for little else but watching an episode of House and going to bed.
I’m not in real pain, and I actually had a pretty decent day, trying to track down reviewers for projects and digging through stock photo websites. Nothing exciting…and sure, this morning the train was ridiculously crowded, so much so that I couldn’t even put down my bag, much less find a seat, for most of the trip. I didn’t even have enough room to read my book — Ubik; and let me tell you, sometimes it’s all too easy to believe Philip K. Dick was a self-medicating schizophrenic. Still, the train tonight was much less crowded. And at lunch this afternoon, as I walked around midtown, I actually saw someone with spray-on hair in the wild. I never knew such things actually existed! This gentleman really wasn’t fooling anybody.
So that’s it. Turning in early to rest the back, hopefully relieve some of the pressure. I fear it’s going to be a whole lot more of the same between now and next Friday — assuming it doesn’t get worse — and it may not get better without some serious treatment options. It seems like every time I get used to living with this thing, working around the pain, the pain changes, and the coping methods I’ve been using don’t work as well anymore.
Oh well, I’m sure House will make it all better. That, or distract me by being really bad. I’ve really been on the edge of love-hate with this show since the end of last season. I watched the season premiere last night and didn’t hate it, actually found some things that really worked about it, but I don’t know. These are probably thoughts for another time.
I haven’t read Ubik, but I have read Valis, which I think is damn near proof the guy was schizophrenic, self-medicating or otherwise.
And I don’t know what to make of House at the moment, but I’m trying to go with the flow.
Hope the back improves… somehow.
I’ve read a few Dick novels before, but Valis isn’t one of them. From what I understand, it’s pretty out-there even for Dick. I’m liking Ubik so far — it feels weirdly both dated and prescient, like a lot of his books — but the whole idea of it seems like ample proof that Dick saw the world very differently than other people.
House is just… arrgh. They’re almost making the whole thing work, namely the romantic relationship between House and Cuddy, through sheer force of will. But only almost. I think I’ve come to accept that it’s not a very well written show, or at least that they’ve made some very bad choices and are very restricted by the show’s Patient of the Week format, but that there are some very good performances anchoring it. Particularly from Laurie — who was maybe never better than in last year’s never-worse season finale. I’m starting to think it’s a bad show acted extremely well.
And thanks. I’m hoping the back improves, too. 🙂