A Walking Stick
A recent rainstorm coupled with drought hardened ground, and neglect in keeping rain gutters clean, combined to fill my basement with water. A few hours of after-midnight cleanup and 18 trips carrying a Shop-Vac up steps to empty was all that was necessary to create a returning patient for my chiropractor.
I have an old yoga book that I’ve glanced at a few times over the last 25 years when the idea I should care for my body takes hold. There’s a line etched in my memory — “You’re as young as your spine is flexible.”
I’m not too young.
A week of incapacity and riding-free life has passed. Mornings of struggle to get out of bed and strategies to get dog food bowls to the floor have passed. New ways to tie shoes were developed and standing up straight is a reason to celebrate. I’ve been walking slowly through the garden to help limber the lower back and hips while hoping the dogs don’t run into me as I play the fragile aging man. And from this place of woe an old friend emerged — my faithful walking stick.
I’ve had this walking stick since the early 1980s. It’s a long staff reaching almost to my shoulder and has travelled along on many hikes and backpacking trips. It’s tapped along the Maine coast and the Appalachian Trail. Now it provides welcome support to an otherwise shaky existence.
The back is much improved but I’ve come to appreciate the form and function of a walking stick. I’ve often wondered why people use a cane when a walking stick is far superior. You can lean on it, pull yourself up, and keep an angry dog at bay with it. It is a damn function bit of technology.
The Complete Walker
My love of walking sticks grew out of books by Colin Fletcher, especially The Complete Walker. This book fueled a love of walking and hiking and is full of stories and reflections of a life on foot. Between the lines of much of what I write is the influence of Fletcher.
The morning may bring enough back recovery to consider riding to work. If I do, the walking stick will have to stay at home with the dogs…
Hi Steve,
I’m 72 passed, still working away gently on farm, had a stick since I was a boy, never go out without it and dogs. It’s a third leg for crossing burns, ditch and over dykes, fences and gates that don’t open. Never go in a cattle field especially if they have calves without a strong stick.
Still use scooter for shopping or any excuse for a run almost every day. My old man used to say, better to ware away than rust away. Keep moving, it’s the secret of life.
I’m with you Bill — a stick is a fine tool for walking and living.
Thanks for the comments. I’ll try and make sure I wear away rather than rust away…
Good morning Steve.
After I had a partial left knee replacement I invested in a companion which is the HURRY CANE. Saw it advertised on TV. It is so versatile and not that expensive. It helped a lot and I recommend it to everyone that I think could benefit from it. See below and good luck with your recovery. I have always had some difficulty on occasion with my lower back.
https://www.hurrycane.com/Order?gclid=CNqPrru9zc4CFQEmhgod5Z8A8A&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
I can’t believe it has come to the point where I’m writing about sticks, canes and my lower back. What happened Karl??
The Hurry Cane looks pretty neat but I’ll stick with mine made from a maple sapling…
I feel for you Steve.
My knees are telling me to change my ways. So are Susan and Lauren.
I have had bouts of back pain. It is almost completely debilitating. It tests your ingenuity for things like putting on underwear.
Thankfully it sounds like a full recovery is in sight.
You know where I’m coming from. Feels awful when at its peak.
Feeling a lot better. Hoping my back says, “go for a ride” in the morning.
“The Complete Walker” a book I gave my late father (died in 1982) as he enjoyed walking, especially golf courses (while theo thers used carts, and often with me when younger over the many trails on the Niagara Escarptment. We both were early members of The Bruce Trail Association (sadly no longer due changes in our own lives).
I should have known at some point down the line I too would be slowed down by the infirmities of age. Add in Lupus (which flairs too frequently) cancer, Celulitus (this was the worst and has really slowed me down) followed by a recent diagnosis of spinal stenosis. I as a very tall (6’8″)person felt conspiuous carrying a long cane however have found it very useful for allow me to remain vertical when the desire ofthe body is to be horizontal or at least in a less painful position. I also employ a foldable four wheel walker, made to my size by a late departed friend who could work magic wth metal.
I also like you, have a wonderful chiropractor who makes sure when I visit him I have not done something else, stupid. On goes the Tens unit for about twenty minutes and then gentle prodding movements, and then am told to wait a minimum of 48 hours to ensure all of the various compnents of the body have settled before returning.
As to your flooded basement, maybe time to ensure the eavestroughs are clear and also that all of the weeping tile around the house is clear, and maybe too your sump pump is
working. I just replaced my sump pump this year just in case, after some 25 years…
would rather be safe than sorry.
Wish my father and I walked and hiked together. As close as we ever came to that kind of thing was hunting. I went out in the woods with him from age 13 until 17. Then off to school and then married a vegetarian. Hunting was abandoned…
The decline of the body is a challenging road. Each of us has our own path to navigate.
No sump pump. Just a shop vac…
Hi, Steve,
Your story of back pain reminded me of my recent tale of carrying two fifty pound bags of quick setting cement from my car to the back yard, where it was being used to set a 4X4 post for a weather vane and a hummingbird feeder.
Whereas ten years ago I would have thought nothing of carrying the bags by hand ( one at a time ) , this time I used a two-wheeled dolly…by gosh, what a difference! I have not had any bad back pains ever, and really do not want to ever.
The moral of this little episode is “use a tool that makes the job (and back) easier”!
Hope your back is settled by now and you’re back on the scooter.
Karl U
Karl, I can relate to your story. When my back feels ok I can start carrying heavy stuff which always leads to problems.
There is nothing worse than back problems. I’ve been lucky with that but I know people rendered virtually immobile because of it. Go easy on yourself Steve. Too many Bikes have been sold because a back can’t take it anymore.
I’m going slow. Time will tell when it makes sense to ride or rest.
Sorry for your back pains and hope you heal soon. The best product I’ve found for keeping leaves out of gutters is that black, porous, triangular, foam-like product sold in many home centers (used to be only available in the Costco or Sam’s Club around here). Unlike the various perforated plastic and metal grids, water actually goes through the material during heavy rains while keeping all debris out of the system. Install it once and done.
I’m on the mend David. I’ll have to look into the foam. The fine needles from huge spruce trees just clogs everything up. Nothing like leaves.
Foam not much good in the sub tropics and tropics; blocks up and overflows. A coarse plastic mesh then becomes more appropriate.
By the way I had a bit of a perhaps inappropriate laugh from all you old crocks.
I no longer feel alone.
Looks like you’re keeping that walking stick dusted off. I feel your pain…..both as a chiropractor who gets to hear the stories daily, as well as someone who manages to mess up himself. I did manage to de-quack a flowerbed this spring, but took nearly a month to get over the stiffness. Yes, I did see a chiropractor myself. ;o)
Ah, Colin Fletcher. Read several of his books in my early college days which made me yearn to get a pack and go, which I managed to do, but never matched his adventures.
Next post I want to hear more about your scooter and less about that stick!!
Hah — more scooter, less stick. I’ll try, I’ll try. I have the itch to ride.
Fletcher was a great influence for me. Almost as great as Edward Abbey. Words are fading fast now as I try to write this comment. Time to sleep…
I think you need to install a carrier on the Vespa for your walking stick. After all, you carried Christmas trees…
No problem carrying that stick on the Vespa!
Bummer about the basement and back injury Steve….glad you’re recovering.
As to RichardM’s suggestion, you could get a rifle scabbard for the vespa, you know, for the walking stick.
Wow…another book I need to get. (Known of it for ages, just never got around to acquiring.)
My first experience needing a cane, walker and wheelchair came a hell of a lot earlier than expected: at the tender age of sixteen, after my one awful car accident. One seriously ruined summer (which I’ve already described here), and weeks of rehab, from wheelchair to walker to crutches to cane – I described the experience to a friend as “a glimpse at being a very wrecked 85-year-old”, but at least progressing in reverse order. I also said that I’d never take the act of walking without pain for granted, ever again. And, I haven’t.
Many, many years of cycling have helped keep me relatively limber. Since exiting the big city for the ‘burbs, I’m cycling somewhat less, but making up for it with twice-weekly sessions at the local gym with a terrific instructor (Navy vet, currently a cop in Jersey City) whom I refer to as a jovial drill sergeant. He’s just a few years younger than me (I’m 60).
And…I want a good walking stick! One of the few things I miss about living in New York City is that it’s truly a walking city. An old conceit is that you rarely saw seriously overweight folks in Gotham; the proliferation of fast-food chains has been said to have altered that notion somewhat, but whenever I’m in town (mostly on business, a few days a week), I’m seriously working the footwear – now, I even have my smartphone confirming this, sort of a pumped-up pedometer. I actually saw a very elegant folding walking stick, with a handle, and, topping it off, literally, was a mount for turning it into an ersatz monopod. Don’t think it was terribly cheap, but this thread has lit a fire to find it, and squirrel away my nickels for one. One day I might really need it, but for now it would be simply a pleasure to use.
Oh, about that basement: when we got our house a little under two years ago (a mile from the Jersey Shore…far enough away to have dodged Sandy, but you can’t be complacent), we had the basement fortified, sump pumps, French drain, and new walls. Absolutely worth it.