Test

This is going to be stream of consciousness writing. I’m only going to come up for air when the 1000 word goal is reached; there will be no discipline re: subject, IOW I’ll write on anything that comes to mind as I go along. Go.

It is now 5:18 and I’ll time the entry to see how long it takes to key 1000 words. The whole thing about this style of entry is to let the mind wander and put down the random thoughts as they occur. I played golf this morning and will do it again tomorrow morning after the RC meeting. My game is improving and one of these days I’m going to break 90 regularly. My drive is pretty much under control; the thing I have to keep in mind is to slowly take the club back, the second is to keep my eye on the spot on the ball where I want to hit it. It’s not an odd thing at all but the same thing is true for pool. When I get careless and don’t focus on the very spot on the ball where I want to hit it, in either sport, the results leave s.t. to be desired. In golf and in pool, a slow backswing and keeping one’s eye on the ball are two important factors. Of course there are other things that are equally important but only come to mind when one is not minding them. It would seem that these two are the most frequently violated of the admonitions.

On the third hole, I invited this young fellow to play along with me, his name is Joey. We had a good time of it; he didn’t mind playing several balls on some holes because we were both practicing. Then on the second last he offered that his stepfather threw him out of the house and his natural mother backed up the stepfather. This happened some time ago and he tries not to think about it but he obviously does since he told me about it. It seems that his 15th birthday came and went without wishes from his mother and this really bothered him, even if he said it didn’t. It is so easy to see when someone is hurting because they will tell you about it, especially if you are not one close to the situation. I feel sorry for the kid; wish I could wave some magic wand and have his pain go away but I can’t.

Mom is moaning and groaning all the time. She must be in pretty bad pain, at least suffering a lot of discomfort. She asked me yesterday how much all of this was costing her and was incredulous when I told her nothing out of pocket except for the day off Carola and I have arranged to take. She is very advanced in age and doesn’t need a lot of medical care. The cost to Medicare, borne by the citizens of this country, has not been over the top. In the time she has been here, which is now more than 7 years, she has used emergency services a couple of times, first care services some, and hospital only once that I can recall plus the time she spent there when we moved her out here from the Atria. So, she hasn’t been a burden on the system; oh yes, she has regular eye checkups and they are paid by Medicare. Overall it is my opinion that Medicare is a good thing. It is abused, that’s for sure, but it’s been there for mom when she needed it. I think it will be here for us as well.

The government is now trying to contain the cost of medical services and it is an almost impossible job. Camus wrote a book about a doctor who went to a small town and it wasn’t long before almost everyone in the town was reliant on him for all sorts of ailments; he was treating them and they were responding with more ailments. In fact he was playing to their need for attention, their need for sympathy, their need for love. Before he came to the place there was no doctor and he had to establish his practice. It is a fictional story but at the same time it is close to the truth. Everybody has something wrong with them if you give them a chance to think about it for a while. As for me, I am a contrarian in this regard and push through the ailments with the philosophy that my body will heal itself. There have, of course, been times when some extra help was needed and antibiotics were prescribed. There have been others when my back went out and Carol Ward put it back together for me—twice and Kelly Brown fixed my shoulder. Those occurrences were several years ago and because I do my chiropractic stretches every day and keep my heart, legs, arms, and torso strong, I have not required medical services of any kind. I do have the occasional bout of bronchitis that requires more than the hot lemon tea but that’s about it. I have learned to recognize the symptoms and get to the 1st Care Ctr right away. It is exertion that makes the difference for me. As long as I am exerting myself with physical activity and work, I seem to be fine.

Just last week I put in a drain from the downspout to the bottom of the slope; a job that took about 1 ½ hours. It was, for me, a strenuous effort. My heart was pounding, my arms were aching, my legs were tired. I shoveled, hoed, raked, and moved dirt, rocks, and sod until I finished the job. All the while I resisted the thought of not completing it once I’d started. This temptation to take a break and come back later often creeps into my thinking but I learned a long time ago to resist it and mush on.

End: 5:43 (that’s 25 minutes doing what usually takes me 45 when I think about it while writing.)