There is something slightly obnoxious about promoting one’s own lifestyle. Especially at the expense of others. And Dispatches From Off The Grid (DOG?) is guilty of that in spades. Apologies. Honest.

It is not, of course, the intention of this journal to be offensive (I can achieve that in any number of other social interactions without breaking a sweat) but such a result is inevitable it seems when discussing life, lifestyle, people and other personal matters – especially the interesting ones.

Say something nice about something as benign as living differently and the implication is that the other, more normal and ordinary life sucks. It is a relative/comparitive thing and it can sound faintly like a competition or something. Or, rather, it might sound that way.

Keeping up with the Jones’s can morph into keeping up with the Hatfields and the McCoys and dissing the Jones’s in the process.

So, let me apologize again and now for past and future references to a lifestyle I like better than the one I came from. I do not think that ordinary life sucks (which is not quite true – I kinda think that it does but I am trying not to say so too often). I am just saying that it really sucks for me and that, for me and Sally, this lifestyle currently feels much better.

Disclaimer: the above does not preclude future rants against the MAN, the system, the cul-de-sac, the rat-race, the madding crowd, politicians, authorities, institutions and/or similar elements of society, conformity, control and political correctness just to name a few. It just means that I apologize in advance.

That point of view might be a hard sell at this very moment, however. I can barely stand up and my back is excrutiatingly painful. Backpain happens for me now and again with an annoying frequency. The Alternative Lifestyle is limited by mobility and finances and, this time it is mobility (mind you, it is hard to spend if you can’t move!).

A physically healthy lifestyle is physically more taxing and sometimes we break. Well, I do. Sal is an Amazon-of-steel! I hate it when backpain happens. It always feels as if I won’t ever heal.

But I do.

Then I hurt myself again a month or so later.

Thank God there is an answer: Kim. Kim is my neighbour’s daughter and, when she comes up to visit, she brings her massage stuff and somehow, magically, consistently, blessedly, she heals me. She is literally the angel of pain relief. And, thankfully, she is here this weekend. I am glad. I have a schedule this summer and I have plans to hurt myself again soon.

But just to put a ‘spin’ on this blog: it is amazing how frequently an answer or solution presents itself just when you need it most. I hurt my back a few days ago twisting and lifting at an odd angle and have been whining and complaining ever since. Voila! Kim comes for an unscheduled surprise visit. Like an angel.

Honest – so often have we been confronted with an insurmountable obstacle just to discover the solution in the form of a surprise visitor or a talented neighbour that I confess we are now almost expecting miracles. That they come whenever I need them does not disuade me in the least in having this weird kind of faith.

In fact, I may chastise Kim for taking so long!