Good News

Today it rained all day--literally.  It was a very good day to hole up and do some cooking, work on a project, or relax with a book or tv.  We jumped into the truck and drove 1 1/2 hrs to Shreveport, LA to run errands!  First we found a new bulb for my sewing machine.  Now I can see what I'm sewing.  Yay!  Next was lunch.  McDonalds is offering a BOGO on Quarter Pounders with Cheese if you answer a simple survey.  Our lunch cost less than $7.  On to see our financial guy.  We are in very good shape (for the shape we're in) and things are improving. We hurried to the urologist for Duane's annual cancer screening.  His kidneys are in such good shape that he doesn't have another screening for 2 years. A big YAY!  Still scurrying through the rain we shopped at Academy and came out with new court shoes for Duane and a new pair of walking shoes--both on sale.  Shopping continued at Harbor Freight for a new tool box to replace the plastic bins which aren't working out for Duane (see Saturday's blog).  We made one last stop for dinner at Cracker Barrel and used the rest of the money on our Christmas gift card.  When we were within a few miles of the house, we ran out of the rain and into a fine drizzle that continued on into the night.

Here are some things you probably didn't know about your back.

Not everyone has the standard 33 vertebrae.  The number actually varies between 32 and 35.

Bad backs, and remedies for them, have been recorded in the earliest medical documents.  An ancient Egyptian scroll explains how to diagnose a "pulled vertebra. By 2700 B.C. the Chinese were practicing intentional spinal manipulation.  Back-cracking was widespread throughout the ancient world.

The modern practice of chiropractic began when Daniel David Palmer, a self-styled "magnetic healer", claimed to have restored the hearing of a deaf man by popping one of his vertebra back into place in 1895.

The saying "watch your back" may have been derived from military tactics, but the Oxford English Dictionary says the term first appeared in the 1949 Western novel Milk River Range by Lee Floren.  The term "get off my back" has roots in the 17th century.

Hope you had a good day too!

Louise and Duane.