September chitchat

[agate]

Happy Labor Day to all!

Get well wishes to everyone here who is suffering--from dental woes or other miseries. Virginia, I hope you're avoiding more falls.

The grandson will start first grade on Tuesday. I believe he's pretty much learned to swim this summer.

I was wondering about other people's families. My own family just assumed that of course you would learn to swim, and the sooner the better. We weren't athletes and didn't do team sports at all but swimming was considered essential. Apparently there are families where learning to swim just isn't that important. How about you? Did you learn to swim at an early age? Did the rest of the family swim?

That's what we did in the summer--we went swimming. With visiting relatives or friends, we all went swimming. It was a way to cool off on a hot day. We could finish off with a picnic. We swam in local lakes and rivers, never pools. Back then many people avoided pools because of the polio risk but I think we just didn't like them because they were boring and crowded.

[jingle]

(I received this in an email and thought it was so funny)
I hate when someone asks if I did something exciting over the weekend like I'm race car driving. I'm old. I went to Walmart, did my laundry, ate too much food and took two naps.

[agate]

If that Walmart trip was on the same day as the laundry, I think you deserve congratulations for doing quite a lot. Just doing laundry can be tiring, even if it's only one small load.

[Prot]

I'm OK putting it in the machine to wash, but struggle to get it on the airer to dry. So my daughter or a granddaughter does that for me.

[Virginia]

Pretty good example of my weekends, other than I don't get to Walmart. Walking is too hard. Thanks for the levity Jingle.

I never learned to swim. All 3 of my brothers were swimmers, but I have always been afraid of the water. I went to the YWCA to learn. I hit my head on the bottom and I wouldn't go back. After I married my husband tried to teach me. He would just hold his hand under me and not help me. I did the rest. Still, when he moved his hand away I would stop swimming. He always told me I could swim, but I was never convinced.

People who knew me used to tease me about something that happened. Everyone knew I was afraid of water and yet when I had to do paperwork and everything to join my husband in Europe I requested to go by ship and not fly. I love boats and I am not afraid of them. As long as there is something sturdy underneath me I do not panic. Even canoeing is alright. I kyaked one time and did not like it because I was down in the water.

Funny when I was on board the ship going to Europe there was a young lady with two little children. She had never been out of the state of Texas until that trip. She was scared and I had noticed she was standing very close to me when they had a drill telling us where to go and how we would be put on lifeboats in case of fire. She was crying and said she had two children, how could she take them both. I was 25 years old, but figured the odds of anything happening were slim. I told her I would take the older of the two. I kept telling her not to worry that I would not forget. I never told her I couldn't swim. I continued to try to help her on that trip when she would have a panic attack.

Agate, isn't it exciting to have William going to school for the first time - that is really big boy school. I bet he thinks he is all grown up now. They are so cute at that age.

[jingle]

When my older sister, my younger sister and I were just little girls Dad decided it was time for us to learn to swim. He put three inflated inner tubes with us in the back of his pick-up and drove us across the fields to the river. We eagerly jumped out of the truck while he threw the tubes into the water. He sat down, lit a cigarette and told us the tubes were getting away and we had to go get them. We tiny girls jumped into the flowing river and "dog paddled" after those tubes. Each of us got one, turned it around and paddled it back to Dad. We knew how to swim!

[agate]

jingle, sounds as if you didn't need to be taught to swim at all. You just naturally knew how.

But, Virginia, if I'd hit my head while not knowing how to swim, that would have terrified me, I did hit my head while swimming once but I already knew how to swim and was fairly sure I'd float back up to the top again, which I did. I was about 11 and had done a dive but must have gone the wrong way because I hit my head against a rock pier that the diving board was attached to. It was very scary even though I knew how to swim.

Amazing that you can tolerate boats and even canoes. I haven't felt most boats as very sturdy underfoot. They usually wobble around. I've never been in a canoe but would probably have been afraid to get in one. They so often seem to tip over If a person can swim that shouldn't be much of a worry, right? But somehow I just never liked the idea of being in such a tipsy thing.

That was really kind of you to tell the woman you'd look after her children. I didn't realize they did drills about lifeboats on those voyages but of course they would, just as they do on planes about fastening seat belts and how the oxygen mask will drop down. It sounds scary if you think about it at all.

Yes, William's entry into first grade is truly the end of an era and the start of a new one. There was an open house where he got to see the classroom, and the teacher is someone he already knows as she lives in the neighborhood. That sounds ever so much nicer than the usual big-city school.

[Virginia]

Well, we had our afternoon storm and I just read that we got 2 to 5 inches of rain with it. There is a warning out for flooding in some areas that have creeks, or lakes. I didn't think we got much rain. It came down hard, but I didn't think it lasted long at all. The warning did not include where my brothers live.

Now, I'll tell ya'll another story about me and water that was not funny to me. I went with a friend one Sunday afternoon to a river in our area. I had been with him in his speed boat before and a canoe. We got back to where he had parked the truck he used to haul the boat. He got out and said he was going to back the truck down to the pier where I was. He very pointedly and firmly told me to stay in the boat which was tied to the pier. This was Memorial Day 1993 or 94 and it was hot. I waited just a few minutes and decided I would step up on the pier. I stood up and all of a sudden I fell to my left and into the river. A man was standing on the pier, he reached down and told me to take his hand, then he told me where I should put my foot on the structure holding up the pier. I did what he told me and he pulled me out. I was diagnosed with MS in two months or less. My left side is my weaker side, and it was hot.

When the man I was with came back and saw me drenching wet, he was upset with me for getting out of the boat. The man who pulled me out and had seen how it happened was concerned and wanted to know if I had a stroke. I was embarrassed. I had just started going to a gym because I had noticed I was weak. I had my first session with a personal trainer that afternoon. She pushed me like a drill sergeant and I couldn't do what she wanted. As soon as I found out I had MS I cancelled my gym membership.

Jingle, you were quite a brave little girl, or either your sisters were telling you, you could do it.

One time I thought I wanted to be an airline stewardess. Back then when they told me I would have to learn to swim, I decided I didn't want to be one.

[jingle]

It's a lovely day today- not so hot. We could certainly use some rain, but there is none forecast for several days. I should be working to get some more stuff unpacked or, at least, a place to store junk. But here I sit. I'm not at all good at unpacking but I'm a champion at sitting.

[Virginia]

I have also become very good at sitting and putting things off. I used to want to get everything done and finished. Now, not so much. The weather is cooler here also, but around me it looks quite wet - my deck and yard. My IPhone showed I did get more than 2 inches of rain.

[agate]

Yes, putting things off is such a great idea. "Tomorrow is another day" was a saying my daughter latched onto at about age 3 or 4. She liked to go around saying it. I've been remembering it often in recent years.

That's quite a story about you and the boat, Virginia. It's so unsettling to discover you can no longer do something you expect to be able to do. Happens a lot with MS, it seems.

[jingle]

Good morning. It's cool here - just 54*. I've been whining and complaining about the heat. It won't be long before I'll be doing that about the chill. Today I have my annual appointment with a cardiologist at 11:30. I hope all of you are comfortable and having a good day.

[agate]

Good luck with the cardiologist, jingle!

I seem to complain about the weather a lot too, especially when it involves power outages. Those are just no fun at all.

[jingle]

Whew -- what a day!! The trip to the cardiologist was as I expected - fast and easy.
BUT late last week I was working in the garage, carrying loads into the apartment. Without knowing it I hit that thing I wear around my neck ... a medical alert to call for help. Because I didn't answer their call - it was in the house, I was in the garage, they called the ambulance system in my town and called my sister to tell her the ambulance was on its way. Oh, I was embarrassed when the ambulance arrived.
TODAY I did it again!! I didn't know it but I called an ambulance. They were so very nice. They said they were so glad to be sent to someone who didn't need them than to not be sent to someone who did. I removed that necklace to finish that day of work. When I came back in, I put it back on.

[Virginia]

Jingle and Agate, our weather has been cooler yesterday and today, but as Agate said I will soon be complaining that it is cold.

Jingle, I have done that with my medical alert too. They are so nice when they come. There have been 3 times when I did need help. I was glad I had mine during those times. One time I forgot they had my brother's phone number and as they were putting me in the ambulance I looked up and there they were. I had pneumonia and fell. I have through the years set my house alarm off also. One time I was bringing groceries in and all of a sudden a policeman was standing at my front door. Like you I was very embarrassed.

A garage sounds so wonderful. If I had one I wouldn't complain as much about the weather.

Agate, there was an article in MedPage Today that I was going to try and post to you. I deleted it by mistake. It was about since Optum is now part of United Health they are buying up Primary Care practices and other doctors as I understand it. They now have 1 out of 10 doctors. The article said the doctors become leveraged to them. They go in making a lot of promises and then (I guess) the doctors get in so deep they don't know how to get out. The Doctors sometime put things on a person's chart, or inflate things, to make a person look sicker and Medicare has to pay.

One doctor who started a private practice with some other doctors said they always made a good living and treated their patients the way they should be treated and never "screwed" (his word) the patient. They got involved with Optum/United Health and the practice has gone down so much that many of the doctors quit, including him.

I am finding this interesting, and it goes along with what I have been hearing. So, if you have an interest and get MedPage Today you can look for it.

Everyone sleep well.

[jingle]

Tim --- Prot, how are you? Is your mouth healing and you're feeling well? Are you eating? Eating is SO important. Yesterday I had a routine annual appointment with a cardiologist and learned I'd lost 10 lbs. I think that's because this move has been so difficult for me. Which is funny for me -- it takes a lot to keep me from eating.