I came home today, right after work (for a change), with the best of intentions. I was going to conquer the clutter and mess by which my apartment is currently under siege. If anyone were to judge by my desk at work, they would think me a neat freak--I always make sure everything is put away each day and than only papers being used at the moment are on top. But at home, well, I'm pretty much a hoarder, and it's a small apartment with lots of books--more than in my library at work--and I've never been particularly neat. The one complaint my parents ever had about me was that I was reluctant to clean my room. And when you live alone, it's easy to come home and just plop stuff down on the couch or dining room table. But it's reached a point where I need to purge the messiness, as I do on occasion. So that was my goal today--to at least get part of the stuff in some semblance of order and get rid of what wasn't important.
But like many middle-aged people (I never thought I'd describe myself that way, but it is true), I have some back problems. I did a lot of bending, lifting, twisting, etc., this weekend. I guess I overdid it. One of the problems with having a truly sit-down job is that I don't walk enough (I average about 5,000 steps or just over a day, rather than the 10,000 you're supposed to walk), and my core and back are weak as a result. Then you add a generally sedentary lifestyle and bursts of activity on the weekends, and it's not pleasant. I came in today, took some Tylenol Arthritis medicine, slathered the Kroger equivalent to Ben Gay (which is very strong) on my back, and stretched out for a half-hour to see if I could get some of the tension out, doing various stretches I'd learned in physical therapy. That seemed to help, but as soon as I got up and gravity hit, it hurt again. Even sitting hurts at the moment. So I went back to the bedroom, slept for a little while, and got up just now to take my evening meds and prepare for actual bedtime. I hate to do it, but I think I'm going to have to take a mild muscle relaxant my doctor prescribed for flare-ups. I've never missed work due to my back or neck, but I do occasionally have these periods of pain.
My plan is to get up VERY early--4:30 or 5 am, do some walking, if I can tolerate it (to help strengthen the back), do some of the stuff I planned to do tonight, and then go into work early, as I have an appointment later in the day. I'm going to try to get up and walk about some more at work; I'm at my highest weight ever and that scares me a bit. I'm going to try to satisfy my sweet tooth with yoghurt or fruit for awhile, which usually works, as I've been eating too many sweets (I was about to say I'd done well today, but then I remembered a small serving of ice cream I had this afternoon).
Oh, well, here's to doing better tomorrow. At least we did play the game (and I think we all enjoyed it) yesterday, and we're back in the swing of things. I did stay late last night trying to update my desktop (which is at YKWIA's, on loan) to the Anniversary Update of Windows 10, but it got almost to the end, and then reversed the installation back to the previous version. I'm not sure why--I'll have to do a little research. But it was a bit annoying; the laptop took a long time, but it did fine. Oh, well. Hope you have a good night.
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