Am I old or what?

Ok, yes I am 40 and 1 week old. Yes I have been on short term disability twice in the last 2 1/2 years for my decrepit L5S1 disc and SI joint. Does that mean that a little exertion (i.e. pushing/pulling carts of merchandise from warehouse to salesfloor for two straight days to set an ad) should throw me all back out of whack? Apparently so, because I am in pain. No painkillers in this house either--I used the last of the generic Lortabs about 6 months ago, and I refuse to ask my doc to refill, because I hate the things. They make me loopy(ier) and so sleepy I can't remember my name. I can't function when I take them. So I subsist on extra strength tylenol and advil. Neither of which does the trick.
Neither does the body pillow my family got me as part of my birthday gift, thinking it would help ease my back to curl around it. Nope. Now picture me, Ron and big-ass body pillow sharing a queen size bed when I am queen size all by myself. Yeah, he's probably right--he probably gets about 6 inches of space on which to sleep. But don't tell him I said he's right.

Now on to my bitch of the day. If you are supposedly a teacher, shouldn't you be able to read? We are doing a teacher appreciation thing next Saturday where the teachers get 10% (big whoop) off their total purchase. So as I am coming back in from helping a guy load a recliner into his truck, the CSS stops me and says "do teachers get 10 % off today" I told her no that is Saturday, not today, and the lady looks like she wants to argue with me about it. So I pull open the ad paper and show the CSS where it says very plainly it is Saturday August 4th. Doh!!!!

Ok I have another bitch. I went to my cousin's funeral today. 48, heart attack. From the funeral home in the west end to the graveyard in the east end, traveling on 2 lane city streets, only about half of the oncoming traffic pulled over and stopped for our procession. Do they not teach this in driver's ed anymore? Do parents not teach their kids that not only is it the law, but a sign of respect for the deceased? Jimbo was not a big name mover and shaker in the community, but he did deserve the respect of those around him. All we ask is that for 30 seconds, think aobut someone other than yourselves and ask yourself, wouldn't you want others to do the same for you?

I have to give thanks to the guy on Madison Ave by the DMV who stopped working in his yard and waited patiently until we had passed by before he began work again.

Ronnie just asked me what's going on with me. I've been in kind of a funk today. I guess part of it is just being exhausted---haven't had a day off since Monday, and probably won't get another one till I start vacation Saturday. Then Jimbo dying, and suddenly I feel guilty for not being as close to that side of the family as I am to Mom's, and not really knowing him so well. So I go to the viewing last night and the funeral today, and I think maybe a part of me is thinking too hard about it. But then I think, my God he was only 48. I'm 40. My brother said the same thing hit him--he'll be 35 this fall. Now I'm starting to think we need to get all our papers in order---DNR's, living wills, etc. And I need to call the guy to get our grave markers in place and get them out of my car.

And I need to organize our financial papers/bills, etc. I've got the file cabinet, hanging file folders and manila folders--I just need the time, and now that I have been so motivated to do it, I have had to work and be doing other stuff. I haven;t even touched my sewing machine in a week.

Although I did finally heat-set the iron on's on the kids' shirts from VBS a couple of summers ago. The ones where I had to heat set their footprints on them to keep them from washing out, and I never got them done---now they are finally done. Ben and Chris can still wear theirs--Shellie might get this fall's worth of wear out of hers, but if we keep it nice, I can make her a pillow or make it a part of an eventual tshirt quilt for her. The shirts say "walk humbly with your God." The bible school theme that year was big on doing the walk: like the Steven Curtis Chapman song "you can run with the big dogs, you can fly like the eagles.......but it all comes down to the walk."

And I don;t do all that well with mine. I have to set the goal and keep to it of getting these kids back to church. Chris decided about 3 months ago that he wanted to become a preacher, in the tradition of our Pastor Larry. So I guess we really need to get back to it. He also wants to be baptized again. He was baptized as a toddler in the Presbyterian church we attended at the time, but he now wants to do it because he now knows what it means and what it stands for. I think my altogether indifferent view of infant baptism has changed radically in the last couple of years
because it really is a choice you have to make with the facts in hand, and no infant or really young child has the capability of understanding it. So I am all for Chris being baptized again---this time in the dunking tank, not just with a few drops of water on his head.

Anyway, if I am to get up and get going in the morning, again, on what was supposed to be my day off, I need to get a shower and get to bed.

Countdown 6 days to getting my boys back!!!