backache (and the solution)

I've suffered an almost paralyzing backache since installing myself in this apartment. It has nothing to do with the apartment itself, and everything to do with how I've chosen to set up my laptop. Because I've attached a CAT-5 Ethernet cord directly to the router in the master bedroom, and have a "down" transformer sitting nearby to feed my laptop its power (the transformer, you'll recall, has a US-style socket on its front), I'm somewhat limited as to where I can sit and type. As a result, I've set up camp right on the bed of the master bedroom. This isn't a bad arrangement, but sitting cross-legged for hours, with the laptop flat on the bed in front of me, is murder on my lumbar vertebrae. I sometimes change posture and lie on my side in the "recumbent Buddha" position, but this merely shifts the ache to other parts of my body, like my neck, which is now forced to keep my large, hydrocephalic skull upright.

It was only just now that I arrived at a solution: first, prop pillows under my ass to relieve pressure on my lower back. Next, bring in something, like a box, to raise the laptop and allow me to type as if I were sitting at a kitchen table. Luckily, the apartment's regular tenant has a styrofoam box and an extra styrofoam rectangle (packing material for some strange device... a Slaver disintegrator, perhaps?). Once I stacked these on top of each other and topped everything off with my large, flat portfolio (in which reside my various personal documents—diplomas, FBI background check, official transcripts, etc.), I had the perfect little laptop table. Right now, as I type this, I am blissfully pain-free.

It's all about the problem-solving here at the Hairy Chasms.


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