The Medicines I Live For

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The bone density test I went to the VA Hospital in Fayetteville for went without a hitch. I left a couple of hours early with the idea of going to this cafe I've eaten at sporadically over the years to have breakfast. It's changed owners and the omelette I ordered was okay, but it didn't have that special something that kept me coming back for more.

After I finished breakfast I still had a little time before my appointment at the hospital, so I took a new road from the restaurant to see if it would be shorter that the way I'd been going. I was really surprised at how much shorter and how much simpler the new route was.

I stopped at one of the large grocery stores over there because they usually carry the brand of burgundy I use. I was able to get a new can of the Folger's Black Silk coffee I like. I like dark roasted coffee. Folger's produces another dark roast coffee that I like just as well, but when I win the lottery, Folger's has seen the last of me.

There's nothing wrong with Folger's. I found out after the big hurricane that the coffee we get at the SuperCenter here is fairly fresh, because the plant that roasts, grinds, and packs it is near New Orleans, and they were shut down for a while. The grocery store here ran out of Folger's in two days. That means the coffee arrives here about a week after it's processed down there. That' as fast as the gourmet coffee-makers recommend.

The documentation I got with the Omega juicer I bought states that the juicer will grind coffee beans real fine. I haven't tried it yet, but if it comes out anywhere near the consistency of carrot pulp it oughta do really well. That means I might find some whole bean coffee that tastes mo' bettah than the Folger's for a reasonable price.

THAT WHICH YOU SAW

Our country is sick with an evil disease,
and all are uneasy just to do as they please,
but all that is easy is against the law,
and the which you see will be that which you saw.

To run from suppression is a natural act,
and to seek for sweet pleasure is a natural fact,
but to do so in public is a primitive sin,
but the dog comes a'scratching when the dog it wants in.

Now, there's one thing you gotta understand, my man,
that, there ain't nobody who can help things but you,
and all of yo' worries, and all of yo' woes
won't take care of themselves with no blues,
Lord, no one but you.

The question I ask in this riddle I play,
in the way that I ask it, in the way that I say,
"Do you think that it's bad to enjoy yo'self?",
if you do, pray to Jesus, because he's the only thing left.

So strip off your clothes and wear sackcloth and ash.
Weep loud with yo' mourning when you give in to the lash.
For it's perfectly clear that you hate your own birth,
and you pay for the pied piper for what he is worth.

fmp
August 31, 1971

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