Although we officially celebrate his birthday with a day off on Monday, my dad would have been 96 years old today. Oh, and Martin Luther King Jr would have been 87. While my dad died too young at 74 (hard to believe it’s been close to 22 years already), I find it truly astonishing that King was only 39 years old when he was assassinated. At this stage in my life, 39 seems like a kid. I would definitely like to be 39 again (though if I could choose an age, I think I’d go with 34 – things were still pretty good back then).
In an effort to stave off my own death, I finally went to see a doctor yesterday. First time (other than the occasional trip to the Urgent Care) in more years than I can recall. I couldn’t get an appointment until the afternoon, so I had to sit around all day thinking about it (though I did get a few things accomplished in a losing effort to keep my mind off it).
I really hate the thought of getting caught up in the medical/industrial complex, but I’m a bit past what folk medicine can do for me at this point. In fact, my BP was so high, they immediately have me a pill and wouldn’t let me leave until it came down (they had me lie down for a while, even).
Yesterday was fairly painless (nobody tried to stick anything into any of my orifices or anything like that), but I now how all this works, and now I’ll be thrust into the world of tests and appointments, and a lot of people trying to stick things up my ass.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
But you can only walk around feeling like your head’s gonna explode for so long (before it actually does).
It doesn’t help knowing that if my dad had stayed the hell away from doctors, he might still be alive today. OK, well, probably not. But he’d certainly have lived longer (and better) had he avoided the urologist that set the wheels in motion to cure his prostate cancer, since it was the cure that killed him in the end (hey, at least he died cancer-free).
Oh well, time to hurry up and get this week over with already. Enjoy your 3-day weekend, if you’ve got one.
Ah, PJ. I know how you feel. Doctors, when they are not terrifying, are always disquieting. They love tests and medications. It’s the medications that get me, as I have experienced some of their side effects. It usually starts off with scary MD telling me that such and such may happen and if it does scary MD can help. But, that is never the case and then I become the problem patieint who won’t take her meds. Apparently high cholesterol is more important than extremely acid stomach which no amount of Nexium or baking soda can quell.
In the city, avoiding doctors was easy. They were too overwhelmed with other patients to care. But, out here, where they actually know your name and connect it to your face, they follow up. They do it out of concern but they can’t get over the idea that what worked for the other guy is not working for me.
Lola and the cats feel the same way about the vet.
I wonder if the reason I dream of blowing up and killing people in my local super-market is because every time I go grocery shopping I get insulted and harassed.
Fuck you Kroger.
I hate Safeway, too. Fuckers.
If people keep following me around holding their noses, I’m gonna smash the shit out of them.
You know what else I hate? The fuckers that hacked my computer, and use streaks and flashes to give me signals. It’s bad enogh I have to deal with assholes holding their noses at me. Now, I have to deal with some type of quadrant system of upper and lower, left and right bullshit. Go ahead and call me crazy. Fuck you, assholes.
To your pops, pj:
I recently read this funny about doctors: “Name another profession where you spend your entire career attempting to prevent an inevitability.”
It’s a little bizarre to see Bill Moyers in black paint with an afro wig. Skip to 40:15 to see it.
Fuck you, Chuck Todd. Don’t let the Hawaiian ripetide sink you on vacation, douchebag.
I imagine Tim Russert beating the shit out of Chuck Todd with a bag of potatoes if he was still alive today.
That fucker needs to get sacked hard.
What the fuck is a ripetide? Totally meant riptide, by the way.
It snowed last night and left a couple of inches on the ground. Lots more this weekend. But, Syracuse, according to the weather channel, is in the midst of one of those lake effect snowstorms.
The weather channel said 0% chance of snow today, but it just started to snow again.
Yep, it’s all a matter of which way the wind blows. Where we’re at could get 3 inches or 2 feet. Plus it’s cold, unfortunately. So, we didn’t have a white Christmas, but (ironically) we’re having a white MLK Day.
And thank you MLK for dreaming of equality as a reality and showing us there is another way to affect change other than violence. We could use a little MLK magic about now is this ole world.
we certainly could.
I may have been there. I think they did a few.
That was at the old stadium before they built Mt. Davis. I was going to post something earlier related to that. I watched a show this weekend about Bay Area dominance in the NFL for decades. Funny thing about this MS blog is that it has rtaised my antennae to things Sautercuse. I was not aware that Al Davis went to S-cuse. A few days earlier MSNBC has a weather report about lake effect snow driving nearby S-cuse.
Clearly, I haven’t been doing my job.
Maybe S-cuse can be the new temp home for the Raidahs.
I don’t know. They’re lucky to get 35,000 to an SU football game these days. I don’t know if the Raiders woudl have much luck. Are they in Oakland again? I can’t keep track.
Seems like if the Rams are going back to LA then the Cardinals ought to go back to St. Louis.
My favorite tune for skiing down some steep slopes. Spent a really fine Day on the Green watching these guys.
RIP Glenn Frey
I don’t want to hear it…
If you missed it, Glenn was in a ‘mini-series’ of Wise Guy about the rekkid bidness. The label was Dead Dog Records. I recommend it.
Long form…
Eagles Live @ the BBC by mach814