As It Stands

Typing while standing feels weird, I'm not gonna lie. But having legs of unequal length does too, and I think that should be given priority.

Wait, that's a terrible start - let me respool a bit.

I had back issues through a big chunk of December. Sciatica, a pulled muscle, I don't know. It started after a bad night's sleep following the dog clambering into bed with Adurey and I in the dead of night. The pre-sleep cuddles with her are great, but unconsciously adapting to her presences while trying to sleep has a really deleterious impact on our sleep quality. And to be clear, this is not her laying against someone's legs, but wedging herself in between us somewhere north of our glutes!

Anyhow, I ended up at the chiropractor twice, because those adjustments have seemed to help in the past, and because there was something I wanted to follow up from a visit earlier in the year.

"Do you remember," I inquired at my appointment, "making an observation of my legs being different lengths, and both of us expressing surprise at not having noticed before?"

"I do!" he said, checking his notes. There was about a quarter-inch difference."

"I'll tell you why I ask," I said. " We went to a performance of Handel's Messiah in December, and everyone famously stands for the Hallelujah chorus. Normally, I stand at kind of a parade rest stance, with my feet a little wider than shoulder width, but seating at the Winspear doesn't really permit that."

"With my feet close together," I continued, "and with my back still hurting, I became keenly aware of my body geometry, especially the fact that while I was standing 'straight', one knee was locked, but my other leg was bent."

My chiropractor furrowed his brows and shifted his own weight from one foot to the other and then nodded. "Yeah, that would be a little offputting for certain. Hop up on the table face down and let's take a look."

A moment later he had visually confirmed that one leg was now almost half an inch longer than the other. Following some shaking, cracking and various vigorous adjustments (and Sean is a fit guy but come on, I am like twice his size so it is kind of a workout for both of us), he got the difference down  to within an eighth of an inch. 

He gave me some heel inserts for my shoes to help level things out in the interim, but I will probably need to look at some proper orthotics as well. 

We also discussed the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle, and I committed to getting a sit/stand workstation that he gladly work me a letter for.

It turns out my workplace doesn't even require a doctor's note once you complete an ergonomic assessment with the nice people in Facilities. They ordered the desk for me and it arrived last Tuesday. 

Today was my first opportunity to assemble it, which first meant unloading my old desk and doing a lot of cleaning, since it hasn't moved since we moved in nearly two decades ago. 

WIth both my work and personal computers on there, it also meant wading into a tangled knot of cables reminiscent of the Well of Souls from Raiders. The collection of material exhumed from the desk was Spielbergian as well, hearkening back to the shark autopsy in Jaws - three headsets, four different USB cables, two Starcraft strategy guides, a Thrustmaster joystick and nearly full spindle of CDs.

Thankfully the clear instructions and lack of mirror-imaged components meant that constructing the sit/stand desk was pretty straightforward, but my apprehension meant it still took me a couple of hours to get the frame constructed, build the three-part desktop and affix one to the other.

Resetting all the cabling (two computers with webcams, two external hard drives, speakers and a router) was a bit tedious, but everything fits and no ill effects raising the desk from the sitting position of 73 cm to standing at 94. Standing while typing is still very new and a little awkward, but I am certainly looking forward to having a bit of variety in my posture during the day.

(Objects may be more cluttery IRL)