Ponderings with a sore back

Somehow I managed to put out my back yesterday while putting together furniture at work. Yes, faculty get to do that. I could have got the Big State U physical plant people to put the stuff together, but they would charge me more than the furniture itself cost, would take six months and would get it wrong. Anyway, here I am at home today resting my sore back. This all leads to the following ponderings:

My wife and children, while laughing heartily at my predicament, told me I'm walking around like an old man (a result of my sore back). So now I know what it's like to walk around like an old man. You look down a lot. I guess that means you have a much higher chance of finding money or other small valuable items dropped by others. Not that it does you any good. Apparently old men can't bend down to pick that stuff up. Interestingly going up stairs is easier than going down. I would have thought it would be the other way around. So old men dislike stairs not because they can't climb them, but more because they're afraid they'll get upstairs and not be able to come down. It would be rather embarrassing to have to call the fire department to rescue an old man stuck on the second floor. And old men can't sit for too long for fear their backs will lock up. They also can't stand for too long because it hurts. No wonder so many of the poor buggers are grumpy.

On a completely unrelated note... I read in the newspaper yesterday that President Bush's approval rating is at it's lowest point ever - 34%. Which leads me to ask, what are those 34% thinking?

I fear I have sat too long. I'd better go stand and ponder how I'm going to pick up that quarter I spotted last night on the floor in our bedroom upstairs. And then I'll devote my efforts to figuring out how to get back down stairs again.