Looking Left

I have neck/spine/back issues.   This is well known.   Some things I know about while others I notice or discover over time.   We break down and wear out as we get older.   There are things we can fix with surgery or help with medication but the slow deterioration of our bodies marches on with time.

I remember when I was in junior high school swinging in the hammock in the back yard.   I would look left a lot because the road was there and I was looking for friends to ride by on their bikes or arriving home in the cars of their parents.    I think that’s my first memory of being left preferential in a direction to look or rotate my neck.  

Likely whatever injury had happened to my neck was years before this time from gymnastics or several other incidents my parents and I identified as we reviewed my childhood.   Later the damage would cause me to have two spinal fusions and I live with pain in varying degrees most of the time.

I’ve noticed that looking at my phone I hold it with my left (dominant) hand but I also look down and to the left because it’s more comfortable.   Fine, that might just be a hand or side of the body thing, but then I noticed when I write these blog posts that I put the window on the left side of the screen.  

There is no reason I need to do this.   I could easily put the window right in the middle of the screen, but I rarely do.   I don’t know why looking left is more comfortable, but it’s rooted in decades of body deterioration and damage.   At least it’s comfortable—I won’t argue with that.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son didn’t want to go to bed tonight because his aunt, uncle and cousins came to town this afternoon.   He complained bitterly when I told him he had to go to bed, “but I want to party!”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has a head cold.  She’s the only one in the family with is (so far) but it’s wrecking havoc on her nose, especially as she wipes her nose continually on whatever shirtsleeves is handy.   She’s gone to sleep early two nights in a row.   I think this is mostly due to the Benadryl I’ve been giving her, but she’s been tired as well.