I shouldn’t be writing right now.  I threw out my back while getting ready for work this morning, and decided to stay home for a few hours to see if the messiness back there can work itself out.  I’m in bed right now and should be flat on my back, rather than propped up on a stack of pillows with a computer on my raised knees.

But y’know, other than the considerable pain I’m in, it’s quite nice to be here this morning.  It’s not a terrible day for me to miss work, Imogen is at daycare, the house is quiet, and Carrie is being really sweet and helpful to me.

Laying in bed, I flipped through a book of “Peanuts” cartoons, looking for an image of Snoopy to put on a T-shirt for Imogen’s birthday.  Then I closed my eyes for a while and listened to Smashing Pumpkins on my mp3 player, and after that, I started reading “Fear and Trembling.”  (I finished “Moby Dick” last night.  I’ll save my reflections on that for another post, if I can find the words.)

After I’m done with this post, I’m going to put “Smiles of a Summer Night” in my DVD player and get my Bergman on.

That’s it.  Tweet tweet.  Health to me, and to all of you.

UPDATE:  The back pain has lasted until evening, but I’m in good spirits.  Imogen and I cuddled (she in her pink princess dress) in our big club chair and watched the entirety of “Dumbo” on YouTube.  She laughed uproariously at the clown firefighters.

Then Carrie came home with a bunch of new dress shirts for me — jealous, fellows?  Later, so that I wouldn’t have to cook dinner, she went out and got burgers, fries and a chocolate malted from Big Tom’s, our local drive-through.  Now, Imogen is asleep and I’m listening to something I love: the unending ring and whistle of a freight train as it rolls slowly through downtown Olympia.

Basically, this day – back pain = best day in recent memory.