STREPSILS AND ADVIL
Damnit I’m sick. I hate it!
“Take two aspirin and come see me in a week!” Yea riiiiight.
I haven’t bin sick in years; I even missed a couple of days at the golf course, the first instance of missing a bit of time in seven years! I ache in places I didn’t even know I had. My eyes are streaming so much it’s hard to read. The local drugstore recently put up my picture on their notice board as being one of their major supporters. My throat is so sore I can hardly speak……much to the wife’s delight. Even the bloody dog is staying away…..some canine sixth sense that I might have something catching…..Distemper or Heartworm perhaps.
Catching my arse!! It’s a bloody cold! Millions spent on the development of Viagra and Cialis……if you have an erection that lasts more than four hours see your doctor…………….doctor? I’d be calling the Guinness Book of Records! We can fly to the moon, put a little machine on Mars, shove a camera either down my throat or up my arse to find out what is going on but they can’t fix a “cold.”
Massive “charity” drives to raise funds for the scary ailments with executives making a fortune on the side. Have you ever seen or heard of a charity drive to support developments for erectile dysfunction? I think not…….or the “cold” for that matter…..I think not. Too tough to market……not enough sex…..lousy optics.
“Take a couple of Advil and stay home for a couple of days.”
I wonder how many work days are lost to the “common cold.” Maybe that’s the problem….it’s too “common.”
The wife came back from Costco yesterday. We now have more Strepsils and Advil than a family could consume in a lifetime. We have Kleenex sufficient to go round the world twice…….I think they must have been having a skid sale. Now I know why she took the pickup and not the car.
Guess what? I’m feeling better…..just a little. The keyboard is still a little blurred and my coffee still tastes like something that came out of the wrong end of a horse but the sun is shining and the Clematis is in full flower. Nothing better than a good “rant.”
Maybe a little walk this morning; not sure if the dog will come though. She’s still keeping her distance.
Week #3674. Curiosity and the washing machine.
Week 3674 of my life just slipped by to slide into the archives. Was it memorable? Nope…..just another week but that’s not really true is it? Each and every week is unique and can never be repeated. Good or bad, regrettable or otherwise there is no going back! It’s a done deal……chill…..move on. In retrospect they’re all memorable even the regrettable ones. The really regrettable ones are like a blemish on a good piece of wood. You can’t necessarily see it at first glance but if you scratch away at the varnish…..there it is…..just waiting to be revealed, waiting to be considered and reconsidered. Give it another coat of varnish…..it’ll be as good as new! Only you know it’s there, only you know what lies beneath the shiny surface. Hmmm…..got you thinking a bit?
My wife and I used to own an old farmhouse in Southern Ontario built around 1885. It was originally a frame building but was faced with red brick somewhere around the turn of the century. This is old here in Canada but then the country is very young, all shiny like a new penny although the penny is going to be phased out…..sign of the times. My brother lived in a cottage built in 1585……..now that is old but that, of course, is in England……………not the England I knew almost fifty years ago although the cottage is still there.
We filled the house with antiques…..at least antique by Canadian standards. Some of it was weird, some less so but many items were conversation pieces. One of these items was an old washing machine! It was wooden, rather like a barrel with the top chopped off. It had a wooden lid and by turning this huge handle on the side you activated paddles on the inside which agitated the water. Principles are just the same today but this required muscle power not simply plugging in to a wall outlet. It had an old fashioned mangle on top for wringing out the clothes located in such a manner that the water would run back into the body of the thing. It was in great condition! It was one of the few items that we retained when we downsized. Now it sits in our kitchen……still a conversation piece!
Our grandson is three going on four going on twenty seven! He’s probably only about three feet tall, maybe a little more. He’s a little man who started to learn golf last year when he was still three. That, in itself, was a conversation piece. People would stop to watch him on the driving range; all dressed up like Poulter…..a little man.
I’ve always been a proponent, indeed a champion, of being curious, of being inquisitive. Ask questions….find out…..do your due diligence…..come to your own conclusions. Don’t take it as a given just because someone said it was so. Jackson, our grandson, is like that, a remarkable and enviable trait in a three going on four year old.
In week 3674 of my life he stood in the kitchen gazing at this old machine, head cocked to one side.
“Grandma….what’s that?” He said pointing to the old machine.
“It’s a very, very old washing machine,” said Hilary fondly, “really old we’ve had it for years your Granddad and I.” He stood there looking a little perplexed.
“Grandma……..why don’t you buy a new one?”
Week #3668 in my life.
All weeks are simply colors on our palate of life, it just seems that the colors get brighter as we get older……does to me anyway. This week was “just another week”……is there such a thing? Surely each one is unique, cannot be modified or deleted. The only thing we can do is change the lens in our glasses and post a slightly different view of it on our memory’s hard drive. Each and every week is memorable and this last one was no different.
It was Easter weekend which came early this year. A time for a family get together although we’re fortunate enough to do this every week but this time there’s lamb on the table……a sit down dinner. Three generations! After over 3000 weeks now I sit at the head of the table, the Patriarch and carve the meat…..pretty scary really……not the meat carving bit but the Patriarch bit….the “age” bit. Now I get my son and son in law to carry chairs up and down stairs…..I just can’t do it any more.
Bubba Watson won the Masters this weekend. The most incredible second shot of the second playoff hole you’ll ever see. We even had it on over dinner which normally is a total nono in our house.
I bought another Single Malt this week at my monthly Scotch Tasting Dinner…….getting older does have certain advantages. A Hazelburn, Sauternes Wood!! Only eight years old which makes it the youngest in my collection but oh boy!! Try it if you come to the house.
My daughter and grand daughter…..who has reached the ripe old age of five……got into a discussion the other day concerning chickens and roosters, cocks and hens. I think it came from a children’s book called “Cock a Doodle Doo” or something like that. Daughter had to explain that there were boys and girls in the chicken world and left it at that……she’s only five still.
On Saturday a friend of my daughter’s was visiting the house, when asked what she was reading and learning my grand daughter said in all seriousness:
“My mummy likes cock!”
We’ll leave it at that.
