The Emerald Rose

       Officially 66 years old, (still don’t feel a day over 35 mentally!), but have reached the magic number referred to in the old US of A as the “Full Retirement Age”, meaning that I can now earn as much as I want to LEGALLY, and not have to pay MY Social Security payments back to the government on a $1 dollar for every $2 I earn over the “Social Security Cap of $13,000 per year. Now it’s all mine even if I make a million dollars a day. (Damn right and it should be, I worked my ass off for 52 years paying into the fund. The bad news is that our esteemed Federal Government has been grossly mismanaged the  “Social Security Trust Fund” for going on the entire 52 years I’ve been giving them my money to put “in trust”  so I can get it back as I age out of the workforce.

       Guess what? It don;t work that way anymore. For those of you in your 30’s and 40’s I am truly sorry you are going to have to “bite the bullet” on this Social Security stuff. I will predict “YOUR ” full retirement age will most likely keep being raised until it hits 75 in about twenty years. (Sort of remind you of the horse with the carrot dangling just out of reach ahead of it, so the horse would keep on keepin’ on?)

        Well enough political rhetoric for one day, but on the health side I had my (almost) 2 year Nuclear stress test of my heart last week with the new Cardiologist here at Sacred Heart Hospital, followed up with a heart catheterization this week to run the old dye and cameras into the heart and arteries  and yes all the bypasses are clear and working, no need to change or add new medications, etc. and MOST DEFINATELY no need to play  “slice ‘n dice” with my bod again. YEA!!!!!

         Now on to the next war,…..proper utilization and common sense in part time jobs. I have been working for a “Super Home Improvement Store” for several months and they are killing me. Not so much physically but mentally. I have not had two weeks of working the same schedule, variances like ten hours one week, 34 the next then 6 then 32. This is damn near the equivalent of “waterboarding” with your mind and body, and I am about to either re-focus their methods or tell them to place my next weeks schedule where the sun don’t shine 🙂

          If I can not get a regular schedule so I can manage the rest of my life, then it just ain;t worth it, regardless of $. I have my own small business I am running, trying to keep my self healthy and relatively “in shape” , and still enjoy “my retirement” to my favorite Pub for a pint or two a day with friends. I am convinced that routine is the secret to a longer life. Make sure your body knows what to expect, and when to expect it, then stay with the program.

        I don;t know who said it but humans are creatures of habit. Disrupt the habits and the schedule and BANG, stress, crisis, and worst of all “on the go” changes, like MacDonalds for five meals a week, no working out regularly, no regular sleep patterns, etc. etc., etc.

        Try it yourself and you will find that not only is a regular pattern to your daily life and schedule physically calming, but mentally calming as well. See I have Psoriasis which is the loudest ugliest alarm clock for stress you ever met. It doesn’t happen instantly, but all of a sudden you begin to notice it’s ugly patches of red and dry skin, you notice the itchiness, and as I used to, you chalk it all up to “dry weather”, forgetting to use a skin cream regularly, etc. everything but the truth,….your body is beginning to revolt and push panic buttons. It’s screaming, albeit slowly and quietly, HELP,….I NEED HELP,….SOMETHING IS WRONG.

         I’ve had this thing since the 1960’s and it’s chronic, it’s incurable, and if this were the year 26 AD I would have been deemed a “Leper”, and had to run around yelling “Unclean, Unclean!” (Thank God we have at least moved forward a bit from then, after all what Pub would even let me in for a beer if I was shouting “Unclean, Unclean” as I came in the door. Bad for business you know?

        I have personally sent several dermatologists on world cruises, ordering their next Rolls Royce Phantom, but guess what? They ain’t got a clue anymore than I do as to it’s cure or obliteration. IF you can kill the stress, both mentally and physically, guess what? It resolves itself,….until the next time. The latest and greatest “cure” being heralded is what is called “T-cell blockers”. Four or five shots a year and presto it disappears. The wonders of modern medicine,……BUT wait a minute what is a T-cell, and what happens if you “block” it?

         From a layman here it is in a nutshell. T-cells are the little critters that run around in your body fighting off plague, colds, hay fever, and virtually anything else running around in your body trying to hurt you or make you sick. Now common sense makes me beg the question,….”Why the hell would I want to block those little guys? Seems to me they are the guys in there keeping me healthy!” You get a cut, T-cells are “flooding the zone” to kill any bad bacteria and germs and stuff,…..sorry Doc, not T-cell blockers for me today. Names like “Embrel” and other hot latin trigger words the pharmaceutical companies come up with, but a rose by any other name is still a rose.

       Well got some errands to do, then lunch, a protein shake and off to the gym for a four or five mile walk while I read more of my Tom Clancy novel. (Found out I skipped one called “Debt of Honor” so that’s what I’m reading, and you know what? Clancy figured out what happened to the economy and the stock market today and for the past two years back in 1992 when he wrote it!!! Deja vous or what?

        Sort of makes a truism about the old adage , “If you can dream it,…it can be.”

-30-

“An error is the more dangerous in proportion top the degree of truth which it contains.”

                                                                 –   Henri Frederic Amiel , philosopher

HAPPY B-Day sims. We both live to fight another day.