Share Your World 28th November

I’m not sure why we make the holiday season into such an insane rush. It’s Halloween but before we’ve eaten the candy we are in a mad hysteria about Thanksgiving. Then, before we’ve finished eating the last of the leftovers our email and regular mail is in a wild frenzy that CHRISTMAS IS ALMOST HERE!

I don’t really mind the holiday but the crazy rushing around, the sense that the holidays are a raceway and we are hitting those curves at 200 miles per hour does make me crazy.

We have traditions, but they have changed and I’m sure will continue to change. The family no longer lives in the same house. My granddaughter is not demanding a tree — big or little. I do give some gifts, but I don’t bother to wrap them and put them under our very realistically fake tree. I just give them out because not only do I not feel inclined to do all the wrapping, but I don’t feel like spending the money on wrapping and tissue paper, tape, bows, sticky things on which to write name of the gift giver and the gift recipient. It used to be you could buy a cheap collection of wrapping paper (and sometimes, the whole collection) for short money at the drug or grocery and it would add up to 10, maybe 15 dollars. Now, it’s three times the price without any improvement in quality.

And I don’t feel well. I’ve been sick on and off since last summer. The antibiotics I took a month ago knocked it down but unfortunately, not out. I’m not sure what’s wrong with me. Garry suggested it might have something to do with the birds, especially doves (aka pigeons) who, along with domestic chickens, are known as disease spreaders.

I can’t pin down what it is — or isn’t — but what I do know is that whatever I’ve got isn’t contagious. I’ve been doing the majority of the cooking in this house and nobody else is sick.

I have also stopped taking ALL my blood pressure medicines. Before everyone jumps on me, no one actually knows if I need all those medicines because, post-heart surgery, they put me right back on the same medications I was taking before surgery. No one gave me even a single day to see what I might actually need — if anything. My gut has been more and more dysfunctional ever since. I figured a day or two off my meds was not going to kill me. I would take my blood pressure daily to make sure it wasn’t going through the roof.

The first day — day before yesterday — it dropped to 121/67 and yesterday it fell to 100/50. Hmm. This might mean something. With all of these “experts” supposedly monitoring my heart since the surgery — now 9 years ago — the only one who has been slowly taking me off medications has been my “regular” family doctor. No one else seems to have considered the possibility that I have been hugely and possibly dangerously over-medicated.

The answer is always the same: no matter who you’ve got for “specialists” in your life and no matter how good their reputations may be? Watch them. Monitor them. Make sure that what they are doing makes sense because common sense is surprisingly UNcommon.

Back to the holidays!

Do you have any family traditions?

We used to. Now, mostly we get together, eat a good meal, give each other small gifts or gifts which are things we need. Boots and coats are typical. Garry loves skin care products. Owen always wants tools. I mostly want someone else to do the cooking and cleaning!

With December on its way, have you ever been Carol singing?

Not only have I been singing, I used to be the accompanist back when my hands would still do it. Now, I can’t. But I enjoyed it when I could.

Do you decorate your home for the Christmas holidays?

We put up a string of lights in the window and we cover the old tractor with lights, but that’s all we’ve ever done. With the current price of electricity, doing anything more is overboard for us.

Do you enjoy the Christmas rush for preparations and shopping?

No. It’s the rushing around I DON’T like. Maybe it’s the whole “getting old” thing, but I think I’ve always hated being rushed.

GRATITUDE

We just had a run of the most amazing meals. Between the roast lamb and the roast fresh turkey, the food has been fantastic and inexpensive. It has been a serious foodie experience. To Owen’s boss and his lovely wife who prepared that amazing lamb, THANK YOU! To Stop & Shop who sold us a $24 fresh turkey for $4.50, wow! And we still have leftovers and tonight? Matzoh ball (kneidles) in the broth made from the turkey carcass which we will eat tonight. I definitely needed chicken soup (okay turkey broth) tonight. Antibiotics didn’t fix me, but maybe soup will do the job.

Happy holidays to all who are celebrating something this month and just have a very happy first month of winter even if you aren’t celebrating anything.

Categories: #Photography, #SYW, Anecdote, Christmas, Christmas cactus, Holidays, Share My World

Tags: #Christmas, #Flowers, #Photography, Christmas cactus, Holidays, humor, Marilyn Armstrong