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Friday, January 2, 2009

Udder Nonsense and Morphine









Every time I go to the grocery store I note an increase in prices. I thought this would abate as the gas prices were going down. That was the excuse we all heard for the reason grocery prices had escalated; it cost more in fuel to deliver the product. Not so apparently. I watch gas prices falling and groceries continuing to rise. Then they said it would take a while for the grocery prices to reflect the fall in cost of delivery.
Milk is 4.25 a gallon here.
Along with a multitude of or other things I don't know, I didn't know about the powdered milk supply maintained by our government.
And in the news another bailout in the future?

I don't live in the rust belt. If it could be called a belt here, I'm thinking it would be closer to a greasy belt? a slick belt? and a sweet belt? (sugar and oil).
I watch the news and articles like the ones featured in these links. I talk with the population here. I guess I do a survey. I'm amazed at the attitude regarding the economy. Only the people who lost a bundle in their retirement on Wall Street seem aware of how bad it is in the economy. The younger worker is oblivious. I ask that same worker if he is worried about his job. He answers "no, they are not going to stop drilling!" I then ask "do you know how much a barrel of oil is trading now?" They are clueless. They don't know nor do they know how this affects their jobs. I just nod and smile. They will learn. Maybe this is what inspires one to pay attention to something other then "me".
6 more days till I see the ortho surgeon. I'm nervous about this meeting; will he operate or tell me again to wait awhile? Either way, I'm not going to be a happy person. This surgeon is a man of few words. The last time I saw him was in 2001. He took an x-ray, told me "it's bone against bone" which I knew already. He said "take ibuprofen, go home and wait. I paid him $260.00 for 20 minutes of his time. Sweet!
If this time he says "it's time", I'll have it done and try to not think about the procedure. I know he will have to explain it; something I could do without hearing. Sawing the leg apart above and below the knee to put in a knee replacement harkens up visuals I would rather not entertain. I know already. Do we have to discuss it! Bring on the Morphine!
I did a rotation in surgery; I witnessed the ortho surgeons in action. It was not a pretty sight nor were the sounds from that suite anything but gruesome. The sound of the saws grinding bone, hammers chunking against bone and the odors from these procedures are well remembered. Too well.

I'll do as I've always done after two knee reconstructions. Through the pain post op and during recuperation, I tell myself "in a year, this will be but a memory". It's sorta like telling my daughter "it's an adventure" when we both know all hell is breaking loose.
For some reason this seems to help; looking forward and knowing it will be a totally different scene months from now. I think this is a survival tool I've used all my life. "It WILL get better".
Good times; bad times. They will always be there. The trick is to get the good times to outweigh the bad. A barometer. Nothing stays good forever and nothing stays bad forever. At least in my life that seems to have been the pattern of things.
How boring would it be if times were always good?

1 comment:

  1. Milk is $3.25 per gallon for skim.
    Meat prices are outrageous. Gas is 77.9 per litre. Gas prices have fallen, food prices not at all. I would be surprised if they did.

    Thinking about surgeries - almost best to have them come as a surprise.

    ReplyDelete

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