Guest Book

I hope that you have enjoyed your visit to my blog. If so, please feel free to sign my guest book, which is all the way at the bottom of the 1st page on my blog. I hopre that you will stop by again in the future. Thank you. Rick

The New Normal

The New Normal??????.....I can hear it now....what is this crazy white man going to jabber about this time. Before dismissing me with a wave of your hand, please hear me out. I remember when I was younger and everything in my younger body was working as intended, I would judge what was going on health wise based on how I felt....based on what was "normal" for me at that time. During those younger years, if nothing was hurting me beyond a sore muscle here and there, then that would be "my normal". As you get older and things happen to your health, I have found that your "normal" is constantly changing and you get a "new normal" to base your health on. The older you get, the more "new normals" you get. A couple of years back I learned that I had something called Mast Cell disease. I have mentioned this fact in earlier blog postings. After learning what this disease was all about and how it affected my body, I had a "new normal". Knowing how I felt health wise with this "new normal", I would know when something different was going on with my health....something out of line from what I had got used to...my "new normal". About 2 1/2 months ago I found something on the right side of my tongue. After going to the doctor and getting a biopsy done, I was told that I had some pre-cancerous stuff growing on the right side of my tongue. This was also notated in several of my earlier blog entries. After muddling through the initial shock, after being told this from my doctor, the first order of business was to get whatever is growing in there out as soon as possible. You know that this isn't supposed to be in your body and your main concern is to remove it before it turns to something far worse. Get the alien being out of there....too many sci-fi flicks...lol. Well, here we are approximately 2 1/2 months later and I have learned that I now have a "new normal". I now live with this paranoia that something is going on with my tongue. Any time I feel that anything is different with my tongue or throat, whether it be from looking at it or feeling something out of line, I always get Veronica to grab a flashlight and have a once over look at my tongue and throat. I even did this a couple of times while we were in Canada on vacation. I remember when we were up at the lodge and we were uploading photos so that I could get them on my blog, I went and got a flashlight so that Veronica could check my tongue and mouth because something did not feel exactly right. I am sure that there are some of you out there right now, that have had or currently have something going on with your health and you too are living your life with this type of paranoia. I hate living my life like this...always on the edge, wondering whether something else is going on with my health. I guess it is better than the alternative though. So the bottom line of this story is.....like it or not, this has become my "new normal".

Back to the Daily Grind

I apologize for not keeping up on my blog lately. After coming back from vacation, I have been busy getting back into the routine of "real life". You know....the stuff that is mundane, sometimes aggravating and generally stuff that we have to do, despite our total dislike for it. Washing clothes, doing yard work and assorted chores in and around the house and paying bills, just for starters. I wish we could all flip flop our daily lives and make our vacation times our "real life" and make our "real life" our "vacation life". Wouldn't that be something...can you imagine this ever happening...you only have go to work, clean house, do yard work or whatever you have to do, during what would usually be your 1 week or 2 weeks of vacation time. Can you imagine being at work during your one week of vacation time and the boss comes up to you and tells you that you have 2 more weeks of vacation time that you must take before the end of the year and if you don't take it, you will lose it. Let's see a raise of hands here on this question....how many of you would tell the boss that you would much rather lose that time than take it. I see an awful lot of hands up on this one. To be on a continual vacation would be amazing. Unfortunately there would be some serious problems with this pipe dream....mainly money. Unless you are independently wealthy, you would need a non stop infusion of money in order to truly enjoy your "vacation life". Depending on the type of "vacation life" you want to live, it might not be a ton of money but money none the less. I am not sure whose bright idea it was for the almighty dollar to become something that the world revolves around. If I ever had the opportunity to locate and talk to this/these person or people, I sure would have quite a bit to say to them. One thing that I would ask for sure...why in the world did you decide to make money the thing that would dictate the quality of our lives as far as materialistic items, where we can go and what we can do. Why not something that I seem to have a lot of on a daily and weekly basis....grass clippings. Yes you heard me correctly folks....grass clippings....now that would be the ticket for my fantastic high quality "vacation life"....I would be on top of the world. I can hear them saying it now...grass clippings makes the world go around or "don't hide your grass clippings in your mattress, keep them in a safe place like the bank. I can tell you folks this...in Ricks' world, "vacation life" would be a lot easier and much more enjoyable. But unfortunately we have to deal with "real life" and speaking of the "real life", I have to go out now and caulk the cracks in the driveway....bummer. Damn I wish I was back in my "vacation life". Only 352 days to go until I am there again!!!!!