Do Avatars Have Teeth?

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Since I've upgraded to snow leopard on my Mac I've been discovering all sorts of new features. One of them accidentally when I was cleaning some spilled sauce off my keyboard. I knew all sorts of letters I touched during the cleaning would pop up on the word processor page I had open, but when the agreement for iTunes showed up and asked to be resolved I realized that I hadn't opened itunes since I upgraded the Mac. I clicked on the "Agree" button without a clue what I was agreeing to nor do I give a shit. I paid their asking price. Whatta they want, blood?

While it's true that I do get some physical. cardio-vascular sort of exercise, I don't always exert myself to the extreme that i have to sit down and rest for a while. Instead, I go for a longish walk or crawl onto my Cardio-Glider and operate it until I work up a hardy breath and a sweaty glow on my skin. I spend a lot more time sitting on my ass writing and meditating.

It was difficult getting anywhere last night with my meditation practice. I was still exhausted from messing with that worn-out riding lawnmower of my brother's, even after I took a shower and then a nap to regain my senses. After I finished my nearly finished blog entry, which happened a couple of hours after I'd napped for an hour, I figured it was time to meditate, but there was no stray thoughts to conquer, and thus no reward of ecstasy for my non-victory.

My optical world is coming into play again. Tomorrow I have an appointment at the VA to find out more about whether they will perform the surgery on my cataracts or not. I've had several hints that I might not be qualified to receive that service, because I was only shot at, but not hit by one of our country's enemies, but the fact that they approved a civilian eye exam and fit me up for a new pair of glasses might be a good sign. The constant sight of the Vets who weren't so lucky makes me feel guilty about using the VA occasionally, but not when I'm in pain. Sometime I forget that I'm dealing with a huge bureaucracy, and everybody there goes along to get along. Why would they do anything that might threaten their sweet government check, where 90% of their job security amounts to just showing up for work on time. I didn't study statecraft for thirty years for nothing.

My doctor, who originated in Vietnam, is quite wonderful even if I can't understand her frequently. She likes me. She told me a story of trying to get her 95 year old grandfather to stop smoking as an example of the futility she knew she was facing to get me to stop. She did though. I stopped for her. Inquiring about her grandfather's health from time to time has reaped huge rewards as far as getting things done that depend on her having a positive attitude toward me. The problem we both have at times is that she's fairly new to the system and she don't always know what to do to get me the help she is authorized to do. She makes up for it when she finds out. I wish I was like that myself. It helps, however, when I noticed that she's remembered, and I say something relevant.

It's events and situations like that I don't think I'm losing my gift for remembering. True, some other situations do not evoke details of some sorts of events. Like the formulae for figuring the take-out on odd-angled pipe bends. I haven't worked as a pipefitter proper in nearly twenty years. There's not a chance in hell I'll ever work as an industrial pipefitter for the rest of my life, even if I live another thirty years and get to be a hundred years old. Why on Earth would I actively remember something like that? I can look it up, and all the years of experience will come flooding back. Who needs that?

This a big deal for me presently. I watched both my father and mother age and eventually get to the point where they couldn't remember my name or that I was their own child. They got to the point they didn't remember their own parents or their siblings. Much less their siblings children. I think there is a difference in my situation, but it doesn't make any difference if there isn't.

Much of what makes a difference (if such is so) doesn't have anything to do with me and my subjective decision-making faculties. It has to do with human inventions like aspirin and penicillin. More specifically, it has to do in my case with the drugs that have been prescribed to me for the rheumatoid arthritis I'm being treated for.

Sure, the drugs the rheumatologists are using have very powerful side-effects, but none of them can compete with what the disease was/is doing to my body. I couldn't be sitting here writing this blog entry without some sort of medical intervention, and while my sitting here writing this crap doesn't mean anything to anybody but me, my body seems grateful it doesn't have to put up with the pain.

I'm really glad I don't have to treat this arthritis and osteoporosis by myself. I think it may be impossible for me to monitor their effect on me. As it is I have to return to the hospital every three months for blood tests to find out if something unpredictable has happened. How much would I have to know to take myself in the right direction? I didn't have the objectivity or the know-how to prevent the arthritis from occurring.

I didn't have a clue that it was impossible for my body to get the calcium it needed from dairy products. I didn't know that dairy products other than calcium are actually harmful to the adult body. If there was one thing I could have done for my body that I didn't do or know to do, it would have been to take a calcium/vitamin D supplement early on in adulthood, from a non-dairy source like coral or oyster shells. That way, I might still have more teeth. You ever notice that there ain't no old vampires? They got no fangs. They haven't got many other of their teeth either, but it's practically impossible to gum some victims jugular open in order to drink their blood?
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