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I must be getting old or at least my body wants my mind to make me think so. In my mind I am still 30 years old. I guess it’s my Peter Pan mindset that I have had since that age. But as the years progress my body has slowly been eroding that concept. No matter how much I don’t want to grow up I can’t fight the aging process.
I wish I could say that I was invincible as I thought I was in my youth, But alas, those days have long gone, at least as far as my body’s concerned. My mind still thinks that I can burn the candle at both ends but once I’ve gotten to the middle my body reminds me that I have just gotten burned. The years of neglect and abuse to my “temple” have not made this transition easier. But if you play, eventually you’ve got to pay. Even though there may be a price the journey was definitely worth taking. So the best I can do is make the best use of the herbal and medical technology available.
This is not to say that I am sick or dying by any means, quite the contrary. All things considered, I am as healthy as can be expected for an overweight man who is nearing, well lets not put a number to it. It’s just that I find little aches and pains keep popping up every now and then where there were none before.
I guess most guys my age would call them an old “football” injury although most of them, just like me, never played football. If you have to give it a name it would really be “age” but any name will do regardless of its origin. Glory days in our memories will always be glorious no matter what you were doing at the time.
So as time marches on, and the ravages to my vessel continue, a different set of priorities come to the forefront. You try walking a little more than driving, you actually think about the “E” word (exercise), think about eating healthier foods, and taking vitamins on a regular basis. Whether or not we act on any of those or not is subject to each individual, but at least we are thinking about them.
But even if you are doing all of those things those little aches and sudden pains will still sneak up on you. They are like a little surprise party that you don’t want. I don’t know about you but I look at whatever part of me is being attacked like “Where the hell did that come from?” In my youth, when I experienced pains like that, I knew why. OK I banged my knee into the door, that’s why my knee hurts. But when I am sitting watching TV and out of the blue I get a sharp pain in my knee that comes and goes I sit there bewildered. It’s like a little group of terrorists inside of your body that decides to attack a region then retreat. What is even weirder is when it doesn’t happen again for months, years, or sometimes never again.
One of the preventative measures that I, along with millions of Americans would do every year, was get a flu shot prior to the flu season. Well, as we all know unless you are at death’s door or considered “high risk” that avenue of protection has been closed. This is one of the most mind boggling faux pauxs I have ever seen. Had we not been hit here in California by a freak storm it would still be the top story on the news.
So how does something like this happen? It’s not like the powers that be didn’t know the flu season was coming. It comes every year at the same time. But somebody in our pathetic health care community was asleep at the wheel, which made what should have been a simple task into a nightmare of national proportions. So far we have seen people standing in line for hours waiting to get a shot, people passing out while in line, and in one instance a woman who passed out, hit her head, and died from her injuries. While that last instance is very sad, due to this gross miscalculation, I have a sickening feeling that before this flu season is over it won’t be the last. In fact I’m sure that this year we will easily surpass last year’s fatalities due to the flu.
The blame and excuses for this national panic have been bandied about here and there. One is that a factory in England that supplies us went belly up. Another is that our major stockpiles were tainted, blah, blah, blah. I don’t really care what excuse all the spin doctors for the current administration want to give, the fact of the matter is that someone screwed the pooch and now our most vulnerable citizens, the elderly and the young, are being punished for it. As if the elderly don’t have enough problems with rising health care costs.
On the bright side, now our senior citizens have another reason to visit that vacation wonderland to the north, Canada. The growing numbers of our senior citizens making the trip across the border to buy more reasonably priced medications can add the bonus of being able to get a flu shot to their list. You see not only does Canada have prescription medications that they can afford, they also have plenty of flu vaccines, which by the way they supply to all of their citizens at no charge. I think we need to use their supplier next year or find out their secret for protecting their supply from contamination.
Personally, I think Canada is missing the boat as far as tourist dollars go. I jokingly referred to them as a vacation wonderland but there may actually be something to that. They should put together tour packages for senior citizens so they can go on vacation and pick up prescriptions at the same time. They could build giant Pharmaceutical Resorts that not only have restaurants and spas but an assortment of pharmacies. With the money the Americans would be saving on their drugs it would probably pay for their vacation.
Hopefully in a couple of decades from now, when my aches and pains have reached the point where they require medication, our country will finally have a health plan that covers all citizens like Canada does. While Canada is a beautiful place I really don’t want to spend my vacation at a Pharmaceutical Resort.
The Shrub Speaks: And a political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as your Commander-in-Chief. Lititz, Pennsylvania and Vienna, Ohio, October 27, 2004.
B.D.’s Response: Oh you mean, kind of like invading Iraq before the UN weapon inspectors had finished their job?
DON’T FORGET TO VOTE ON NOVEMBER 2nd!!!!!!!
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