If you have never had quiche fresh out of the oven, you are in for a real treat. It is never quite the same after it has cooled off and been reheated.

As Julia would say, “Bon appetit!”

Two weeks ago yesterday I was in a back class with four others who were also suffering back pains. I learned a lot. The therapist said that if we applied some of the information we learned, she guaranteed we would see a difference within two weeks. She was right!

I have done the exercises we learned, but I have also modified my behavior and workspace. Probably the most important thing I learned was what she did and said at the very beginning of the class when she changed her chair from one that was too high to one that fit her better. I hope she did that on purpose and continues to do it.

I work from my home office and spend two to six hours a day at my desk. I have a desk with a pull-out shelf for a keyboard, but because I have a laptop, I have never used it. Instead I have been working on the laptop on the surface of the desk so my arms can comfortably reach the keyboard and so I can see the screen through the lower half of my bifocals. In order to do this, I have had my office chair adjusted to a height that allows me to barely get my legs in under the desk and does not allow me to sit against the back rest. My feet have rested on the metal ring under the chair because they do not reach the floor.

Desk configuration with laptop

Desktop configuration with monitor

After the class I decided I needed to make modifications. I purchased a large monitor to plug in to my laptop, a wireless mouse and keyboard to use on the pull-out shelf, a pair of drug store glasses that allow me to see the computer through the entire lens, and lowered my chair so my feet rest on the floor and I can sit back against the back rest. It has made a dramatic difference.

Within the week I quit having the phantom pains in my upper leg. The lower back ache at night has lessened and did not occur at all last night. And the neuropathy that I have had in a part of my leg for two years is dissipating and I am starting to get feeling back.

I hope the others in the class are having similar success.

Mary Lou helped found the Poetry Center San Jose and has published several books. I recently discovered her website and would love to share her poem. For those of you have been here, you know she has captured it perfectly.

Driving Bohlman Road

The last house on an unpaved road
looks over the mountain top,
a fire road to the reservoir,
the sharp drop of a ridge on the left,
greenery on the right. Goodbye

to good friends in late afternoon, goodbye
to two deer and the Steller’s jays harsh calls.
No time to ponder recent talk of poetry,
of haiku and lyric, of classic poems
reinvented, of Pound, Hicok, Bly.

The car makes turn after turn high
above the village. In the canyon below
a glimpse of vineyards.
Just beyond the mountain peak
the ocean, flat and silver.

Redwood branches droop. Oak leaves
touch across the road. Madrone, saffron
trunks bright against the green. Sword fern
fastened to banks sprinkled with fall red
of poison oak and brown of bark.

Passing the Scout camp, the oil
of eucalyptus trees on the wind.
A breeze changes shadows.
Sun’s shades of light and dark.
One white butterfly startles.

An orange truck on monster wheels
its grill a jailhouse door
side by side with a small brown truck
the size of Bishop’s moose.
Hazard lights blink white sparkle-glitter.

Both vehicles block the road. Halfway down
the long, winding road to town
no way to move, time at last
to dream and write,
more passenger than driver.

3/1/12 Not happy with YouTube’s (Google) new privacy policy. Hope to have this available through Viemo soon.

And here it is!

Past experience and research coerced me in the direction of a Honda. Probably a relatively recent Civic with moderate mileage. While a hybrid was appealing, the extra expense for minimal efficiency for our location in the mountains seemed foolish. I set out on the quest.

The ensuing events at Capitol Honda in San Jose led me down a different path. The result was the acquisition of a new Honda FIT for about the same amount I would have spent on a gently used Civic. This is the first all-new car I have ever purchased and so far I am not disappointed. The reviews are good and it seems to meet our need perfectly. I have already tried its cargo area. It is easy to get looms and spinning wheels in and out–and people too. We’ll see if it holds up over the long haul.