The effects of Hurricane Ike were felt as far north as Cincinnati, OH.  Unfortunately, I was driving on Interstate 74 towards Indianapolis when wind gusts reportedly up to 74 mph lifted my car and the car beside me and shifted us a couple feet.  Almost simultaneously we hit the breaks as if we thought we could stop it.  I was driving home from my best friends surprise wedding when the wind started picking up.  I was thinking I hope she got some good wedding gifts.  Maybe some picture frames, a capresso coffee maker, cuisinart waffle iron, and perhaps a good photo album.  I’m just glad that she got married to a great guy and that I survived what was left of Ike.        

I hear many of my retired patients say they don’t know how got anything done when they were working 40 hours a week.  Many say their schedule is so full of activities with grand-kids to helping out with their church.  When I work a 40 hour week I often think I don’t have any time to get anything done. I feel overwhelmed.  I feel like it’s impossible to cook every week night or try out any new recipes.  Or I’ll skip a workout to go grocery shopping and pay the bills.  Having fun also takes a backseat or I feel too tired to be happy about a weekend away.  Despite the difficulties of working I am thankful that I have a great career with a good income. 

Finally, I think I’ve solved my cat Cosmo’s vomiting problems.  At first it was hairballs, then it was unchewed partially digested Purina One cat food.  For the hairballs he gets Laxa Stat lubricant for hair ball elimination and prevention which I have to force him to eat by wiping the stuff on the outside of his mouth.  The outside of the bottle says, “Great Taste,” but obviously my cat doesn’t think so.  He sees me pull that green tube out of cabinet and runs for cover.  It takes me nearly 15 minutes to get him out from under our bed.  When he started vomiting his food I couldn’t figure out why it came up unchewed?  I watched him eat and discovered that Cosmo scarfs his food down without chewing it so fast that 5 minutes later he was barfing it all back up on the living room carpet.  So, instead of getting 1/2 cup twice a day he gets 1/4 cup 4 times a day.  To my delight for nearly 2 weeks we’ve had no cat vomit!  Problem solved…for now. 

One of the greatest and things about my job is working with the elderly.  They have many stories to tell from how great their new walk in tub is to what life was like back when they were a kid.  My favorite discussion was with a 65 year old woman about “going commando.” 

One of my pool patients was bringing a friend already on our exercise maintenence program.  This friend began to tell me how she had forgotten to pack her panties for when she got out of the pool.  My patients friend asked me, “what you do young people call it….going commando?”  “Yes, going commando.”  I said.  “I had to go commando to lunch on Monday because I forgot my underpants.”  I wanted to die laughing.  I think its great when anyone over the age of 65 can use the term “going commando” in a sentence correctly.   

Lately I’ve had such little inspiration to blog.  Perhaps I have bloggers block?  Usually I have so much on my mind that blogging about anything and everything just to get it off my chest is a welcome relief.  My mind races about a million miles an hour and it seems like I’m constantly thinking about something even if its a relatively stupid thing.  Sometimes I wonder if I’m the only person in the world who thinks of silly random things out of the blue like laptop memory, bicycle tires, re-usable grocery bags, and what in the hell is causing my cat to vomit so frequently?   

1.  World peace.

2.  $1.00 per gallon gas 

3.  A luxury vacation once per month

4.  quick weight loss

5.  Sleeping in until 10 am everyday. 

6.  A 20 hour work week with 40 hour pay.

7.  How about just winning the lottery then not working at all?

8.  We stopped global warming.

9.  A president that actually stood for what Americans truly believe in.

10.  No child would ever be abused or go hungry again.

Sometimes you just have to laugh at the little things that can go wrong throughout the day.  So far this week I’ve had several and didn’t realize how many until I started to ponder it just now.  So far this week my mishaps include:

1.  Got burned in the tanning bed after only 8 minutes.

2.  Scrapped the skin off my heel on the step in the pool.

3.  Got a flat tire while riding my bicycle.

4.  Got back spasms from a combination of too much weight training and cardio in one day.

5.  Dropped a few diet pills in the toilet the other morning.

6.  Spilled coffee on my khaki pants three times this morning on the drive to work.

7.  Left hair color on too long and dyed my hair jet black. 

And to think its only Wednesday?

At lunch the other day I was browsing through a furniture catalog when a co-worker of mine told me about a nice park just down the street from where we work.  Since the weather is getting a lot nicer this will be a wonderful escape for me during my lunch hour.  The truth is, I don’t particularly care for the town I work in.  The town is dying.  It was once a booming manufacturing community with well paying blue collar jobs.  All of these factories are now gone and the skeletons of the once thriving manufacturing plants still stand as a reminder to all that has been lost.  The small city park I plan to visit this summer on many a lunch hour will help keep me sane.  I hope.       

If you ever looked for a job you almost always see listed under job skills:  “detail-oriented person.”  This has always freaked me out just a little because I am seriously N.I.D., not into details.  Afraid that a company would pass me by I always lie and say that I am a detail-oriented person. 

But honestly you won’t find a decorating theme for every room in my house.  You’ll never catch me buying personalized baby clothes.  My husband and I had no bridesmaids or groomsman at our wedding.  I don’t have 100 different pairs of shoes to match every outfit in my closet.  Anyways, nothing against those that do I just don’t focus my efforts on details.  I guess it’s whatever makes you happy everyday.  I feel like I worry less when I don’t have details clouding my mind.  I’m always looking for ways to make life more simple.  Maybe one day I’ll get there.   

Last week I treated a wonderful elderly woman with relatively advanced Alzheimer’s Disease.  Instead of driving the U.S. Interstates in a class A motorhome like everyone else her age she is stuck in a haze of confusion known as Alzheimer’s.  When I called her name in the waiting room she gave me a puzzled look and asked me why she was here.  Luckily she lives with her daughter who came along with her and helped me with her physical rehab.  After every exercise I instructed her to do she asked, “Why do I need to do this?”  She must have asked me this question 15 to 20 times in the course of 30 minutes.  

“Your legs are weak and we’re helping them get stronger,”  I said. 

“Oh, shit on it,”  she said.  She asked me the same question again, “Why am I doing this?” 

I decided to think of a different answer, “Something to do I guess.” 

“Oh shit on it,”  she exclaimed again.  Everything was “oh shit on it.” 

She walked into the clinic with a nice blue rolling walker with a seat and brakes.  When I had her doing exercises in the parallel bars I asked her how she was doing with her walker.  “What walker?”  she said.  When I pointed to the blue walker she walked in with she said she had never seen it before and didn’t know what I was talking about.  Later as we ambulated with the same blue walker she tried to run away from me and said that she walked more than me throughout any given day and didn’t need to walk anymore.  I smiled and gently agreed with her.  To get her to walk 2 more laps around the track at the end of our treatment I asked where she grew up.  She then began to tell me she grew up on a farm with her parents and two brothers.  Amazingly, as she talked about her young life on the farm the confusion was suddenly gone.

Next time I see her we’ll talk about the farm again.  Maybe she won’t run away from me.