Odd Ways to Injure Myself, Part II

June 16, 2008

A couple years ago I figured that one of these days I'd hurt my shoulder or back by trying to open the trunk of my car. Well, I was able to trade it in before doing myself any damage, which meant I had to find another way to hurt myself. It took me a while, but it's every bit as stupid.

As I've said, I have a dog now. And, being a puppy, the dog likes to play. So most nights I'll plop myself down on the floor and play tug-of-war, or play fetch, or wrestle with her. She's actually more partial to the wrestling, which just goes to show that a 35-pound dog ain't the brightest critter in the world.

Since I'm the larger animal by a factor of 5 or 6, I need to make sure I don't hurt the dog. I'm a wuss about stuff like that; I'd feel bad for days if I did. So I try to "steer" the dog away from obstacles like furniture, walls and so on, because she'll happily bonk her head against anything solid and unmovable, to the point that I sometimes wonder if she's given her self a concussion.

Anyway, we were wrestling Saturday morning, and as she tried to squirm away I noticed her head aiming itself straight for the corner of the wall. So I twisted a little bit and managed to keep her from hurting herself (and the wall).

And by "a little" I mean "a little too much". I don't know what I did, but my whole upper back was sore for the rest of the day and it hurt to sneeze. My back is still a little stiff as I write this Sunday morning but a night's rest seems to have helped.

So yeah, I hurt myself playing with a dog 1/6 my weight. Which goes to show that 185-pound humans ain't the smartest critters in the world either.

June 13, 2008June 17, 2008