Hello, and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. Cold weather is starting to creep up on us, and it is time to prepare for what is coming down the pike. Most of the outside work is done…I washed down the outside of the house…did all of the windows inside and out…painted my door…sprayed home-guard all around the house for bugs..leaving only the final flower bed maintenance, but that needs to be done when it gets a lot colder. Inside, I just needed to fire up the propane fireplaces. The one downstairs started right up…but the one upstairs presented a special problem. I had turned off the gas upstairs, so I had to relight the pilot. This is not something you do with a single match…if you did, you would have singed fingers up to your knuckles. You have to push in the pilot light with one finger…actually, your thumb since it is very hard to push and keep in. While at the same hold a propane lighter against the pilot tube…which requires you to hold down a safety button with your thumb while using your trigger finger to release the propane. It took forever to get all of the air out of the line…all the while, my hands were cramping like crazy. I know some of you in the pack are saying…”Small hands! Small hands!” [Like someone we all know..LOL]. Just knock it off! If anything I have nice hands…actually, very soft hands…you know…like a football receiver. True! I don’t know how many times I tried to get that fireplace lit. Actually, it took me two days to finally get it lit and for it to stay on. Nothing like a nice warm fireplace on a cold winter night. After all of the cramps,
I thought about going back to the doctor to have him take another look at my “jar-thumb” thing, which was not helped by all of the pushing and shoving. But after my last conversation with him I decided this could wait. The last time I’d visited him was for my general physical, and after the brief exam, he said I was fairly normal for someone my age. I looked at him and asked, “ Exactly what do you mean normal? Will I live to…let’s say… 80?” He looked at me for a second with a thoughtful gaze and asked me, “Well, do you go out and party to all hours of the night?” “Nope….this party animal is in bed by 11pm.”
Then he asked me, “Ok…do you drink a lot of hard liquor, dine out a lot, and eat a lot of fast food?” “ I have a glass of wine with dinner, and I might have a fast food meal once a month.” Doc…”Ok…are you out in the sun a lot…you know, surfing…riding a motorbike… four-wheeling…or climbing mountains?” “Nope…don’t do any of those things, and I always wear a lot of sunscreen and stay in the shade.” The doctor puts his clipboard down and looks me straight in the eye and says, “If you don’t any of that stuff, then why the heck do want to live to be 80, then?” Ok..Ok…it did not go down “exactly” that way…but
I kind of feel that way when I try to explain my aches and pains to him and he kind of just brushes me off because I am old. [His words…not mine!]
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
“I am not getting older…I am just becoming a classic.” Dogpound Wisdom
LOOKS
After examining a woman who had been rushed to the emergency room, the doctor took the woman’s husband aside and said, “I don’t like the looks of your wife at all.” “Me neither, doc,” said the husband. “But she’s a great cook, and she’s really good with the kids.”
That is all I have for tonight. As always, be good, do good, play safe, and remember, getting older is better than the alternative. JR
