I got up at 2:30 am this morning. I am just now experiencing typical old-people pain: osteoarthritis in my knees and, I suspect, my left hip. Those commercials that tell arthritis sufferers to “keep moving” are absolutely true…sort of. If I get moving in the morning, the pain of the night fades away and I feel great. But, if I am on my feet too much or for too long, it backfires on me and the pain in the night is worse. I can take pain medication but I have a fear of taking the stuff too often. I just have to get used to this…like all those other old people have done. Or maybe one never gets used to it. I don’t know.
I am trying to figure out what I am supposed to be learning in this. Yesterday a friend of mine, who has lost his ability to swallow and has to use a feeding tube to keep himself alive, was telling me and a few others about the mishaps of the night. He was awakened several times because his feeding tube kept buzzing and waking him in the night until he finally got up and fixed it. Then, about 4 am, someone pounded on his door and said that he had better go out in the snowy blowy subzero morning and move his car or it would be towed so the snow plow could do its thing. When he got to the car he found the battery was dead. He had the group of people around him in stitches as he related his sad sack story. I think we were laughing because it seemed so bizarre that he had so many mishaps in a row…and because he was laughing as he told the story. He finished with what he thought to be the message for him in all his saga: “It is what it is because it ain’t what it ain’t.”
I guess that’s it.