It ain't the Age, It's the Mileage!!!!

Last night was the first time I have ever had trouble sleeping. My legs were giving me fits, my knees and ankles (which are about shot at this stage of the game) were aching unmercilessly. I tossed and turned, throwing blankets and sheets willy, nilly, I even ran the dog out of bed and out to the couch. When first light came creeping in I tried to get up and realized my knees and ankles and big toes were extremely stiff, swollen and painful. More so than I have ever experienced, so much I panicked and slowly made my way to the living room. I felt so strange I immediately wanted to go to the emergency room. Now let me tell you, I am no hypochondriac and I hardly ever get sick, but when my physical body starts to give up the ghost, I freak! I know I am only 50 years old but the mileage on these old bones is horrendous. When I was young I was a tomboy. My 1st mother died when I was 8 and Dad proceeded to teach me all about baseball. I was the best baseball player in the neighborhood, and at school I was the first person picked (by the boys!!!) to be on a team. I suffered sprains, broken noses, skint knees, and I ate dust many times sliding, thus began the downfall of my skeletal support system. I rode my bicycle everywhere, remember, this was the 60's, you never stayed indoors, unless it was a torrential downpour, for any reason. I know this strained my knees even while boosting my cardio and muscle systems. In High School I was a swimmer, Volleyball player, the goalie on my Field hockey team and gym was my favorite subject after English. ( okay, so I'm a little strange ) and I even ran track, I was never as good at any of these sports as I was at Baseball, but I still gave everything I had. My knees and ankles were paying the price.Then when I first started college in Florida, one of my friends took me to a strip joint and dared me to dance. I was hooked, do something you love and have money thrown at you was my kind of thing, I quit school and became an exotic dancer. Now in the 70's and early 80's platform shoes of ungodly heights were the standard issue for us dancers. The more you could bend and turn in them the more money you made. I did this for 7 or 8 years and my knees were deteriorating without much fanfare. Oh yeah, I forgot about the stint in boot camp, in 1977, on crutches when I hyperextended my knee , more fodder for the fire! Then I was a cop and attended Police Academy, back to physical training and marching, wonderful therapy for knees already starting to creak when asending staircases. In the 80's it was Disco, in the 90's it was bowling and that's when I started to have to wear an assortment of ace bandage supports and learned to love the fragrance of Icy Hot!!! It was mid 90's the first time my knee "went out" on me. I was walking across the bowling alley floor and the next thing I knew I had a close up of the neon cosmic bowling carpet. No pain, No warning and no way to stand up. I was on a cane for weeks. Of course I didn't go to a Doctor, I had no insurance and I am tough. What the Hell, there wasn't any blood or guts involved so I knew I'd live! This continues to this day, sneaking up on me when I least expect it, sometimes I go 6 or 7 months without a twinge then I walk down the stairs wrong and I am in excruciating pain for weeks, and on a cane. Well, the moral of this story is......... you can take life easy and go out with your body still intact and beautiful, or you can take life by the horns and hang on with all your heart for the craziest ride of your life, you'll definitly be worse for the wear, everything falling apart or down, and you may not stick around as long, but By God, you will have lived everyday as your last and have some killer memories, and that's what my life is all about!!!!

It's Been A really Long Day!!!

Man, am I glad today is winding down! First, it took all the willpower in my little pinky (since that's the only place I have any left) to make myself go to the shop today. Picked up my good friend Cindy and her sidekick Dallas, ( a chihuahua with the demeanor of Yoda, no jest!!) and we opened the shop, watering all the herb plants for sale and my "Bag Lady Garden". Now for those of you who have no idea of what that may be, let me enlighten you. I was watching the Today show (which I do most every day) and the ONE day I paid attention, there was a garden spot that mentioned for people who were late starting gardens or those with limited room, ( or just lazy people like me!!!), you could buy a 40 pound bag of potting soil, cut an X on one side and plant your starter plants, one per bag, and voila! instant garden, just add water and sunlight! Well as with everything in my life, I have to go overboard, and since I spend a lot of time in town at the shop I decided to do this in town along the chain-link fence across the front of my rock yard. I managed to plant 2 bags with cucumbers, 2 bags with mint, and 20, yes 20 bags of tomatoes!!! Now they are just coming on, no ripe ones yet but I believe that pretty darn soon I will have tomatoes coming out my ears and other various orifices, We'll see........ I'll post a photo after they start to ripen.....

Her Response

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you Mom's response, A raised eyebrow.............so we will see!

The Start of Something Big!!

Welcome to my world, be prepared to scratch your head in wonderment as my writing probably rambles as bad as my thoughts, usually 200 mph and hard to collaborate into anything intelligent. The reason for my jumping into this "blogging thing", and the birth of "The Common Sense Tour" was my trip this past Father's Day Weekend to Florida at my mother's request. She was having health problems related to the drug Fossamax, and as I am studying for a degree in Naturopathy (Another of those lifetimes)I was concerned and was telling my mom to get off that stuff! Well, she believed me, for a change (more about that later) and flew me to Florida so I could accompany her to her Dr.s appointment and be her backbone as she told him what she was going to do. Now while I was on this little escapade, many things were going through my head, (remember the 200 mph?) I had a spirited conversation with her physician that resulted in mutual respect for each other, and one of the Wonderful sayings out of my mouth kinda wrapped back around and rapped me on the head like hey you, listen to what you are saying!!! it actually makes lots of sense. What I said was, in response to her Dr's comment that the drug companies wouldn't risk all these lawsuits on new drugs, that's why the drugs are well tested; and to that I said" The drug companies push new untried drugs through to the public, make billions those first 3-4 years then when the drugs start screwing people up, (since the public is the actual lab rat) they set "millions" aside for lawsuit settlements, and that still constitutes a profit on the side of the big drug companies. Well Duh!! It smacks of common sense that we should not allow this. I jokenly told my mom that she just gave me the inspiration for a new soapbox and that as I now possess the common sense my mother so often chided me about, I believe people can be shown the way to live from their experiences, paid in common sense, if they will only change the way they perceive their worlds. And.. I'm willing and hoping to do this in person, giving talks to anyone who will have me as a speaker.