I am busy reinventing myself. There are things that have to get done. I have to raise my finances phoenix-like from the abyss I found myself in three years ago after five hospital trips in five years devastated my bank accounts and credit rating at the same time I was forced to retire from my teaching career by health problems. I went through a debt-reduction program with the advice of a law firm in California that has helped me reconcile 35,000 dollars worth of credit card debt. I am nearing the end of that painful belt-tightening process, which can be likened to putting a pumpkin in a vice and cranking the handle tighter than you ever believed was possible, and I did not pop the pumpkin.
Health matters are better too. I am farther away from doom’s ultimate doorway than I was when I retired. No longer teaching has kept me from getting the four cases of the flu yearly that I had become accustomed to when I was in the germ-filled giant Petri dish commonly known as a public school classroom. Lovely Aetna health insurance people decided they would no longer pay for my maintenance medications for diabetes, depression, blood pressure, and cholesterol, so I was forced to cut down and cut out medications. Ironically, the less I take the meds, the better I feel. Maybe… just maybe… I am not going to drop dead tomorrow.
I am stuck indoors quite a lot, because COPD and not using an inhaler and sensitivity to every allergen in Texas makes for a less than wonderful outdoor experience. So I have taken to reorganizing my library and various vast collections of junk. I am rereading old and beloved books. I am playing with my toys more than ever. I am winning computer baseball games. I just pitched another perfect game.
I have been painting the house too, when the weather allows, making the outside of things look a little better too. The football Cardinals have been winning. And the Iowa Hawkeyes were perfect up until the narrow loss to Michigan State. 12-1 is still the best they have ever done.
I have recently been able to shave and look a little less Santa-like, though psoriasis is trying to peel my lower face away again, so I will probably be growing my author’s beard and Gandalf hair back again. And I have completed collections and written up a storm. My work is not yet complete on this Earth, and there needs to be a new Mickey in town to clean up this cowboy-infested heck-hole where I live my life.
I know this has been a rather goopy-goose of a post, but I am feeling good for a change, and it is hard to do humor about everything going too well.
Catch a Falling Star 