A Sense of Pride

In the past few weeks, several very special emails from dear friends have landed in my yahoo inbox, requesting that I vote to help save America's Playing fields. Each of the emails had a link that led to the Kelloggs Frosted Flakes site. I finally took the time to download the link and within minutes was seeped in a rash of nostalgia. Pictures of my old life...my young life.

According to the site, Kelloggs Frosted Flakes is footing the bill to help rebuild the playing fields across America. There will be 30 lucky winners! All we have to do is VOTE. The most important one to me is Rock Field in my little home town of Childress, TX. RockField is in the semifinals with May 31, 2009 being the deadline for voting. You may vote once a day. Here is the link for anyone who is interested in helping:http://www.frostedflakes.com/?gclid=CM6DibzznZoCFR7yDAoduiHN-g&gclid=CM6DibzznZoCFR7yDAoduiHN-g#/plant-a-seed/ .
As I sit here looking at the pictures of my youth, so many memories come to mind. My very first experience with Rock Field other than knowing that it was in the big park where my uncles played baseball, was when I was in the 2nd grade. My closest and most trustworthy friend, Raenell, and I had decided to run away to Hollywood. I am still not sure why Hollywood, except that Otto Preminger was looking for new, fresh talent for his new film, Joan of Arc. We just knew we were the ones he wanted, so we planned for weeks to make our escape to our new life. We were going to stay with Lana Turner because she was the only one who would answer our fan mail letters. Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon never responded but they were on our list of people to meet once we got there.
We snuck out of the school house @ lunch time and walked to the WagonWheel where my mother worked as a waitress. The cafe was very busy so no one noticed when we stole my mother's car. She always left the keys in the car so I knew it would be easy to "take" the car. Stealing was not part of my vocabulary, so that never entered my mind. I was just tall enough to reach the pedal to start the car and drive it down the alley before it stalled and I wasn't able to get it started again. Thank god!
Raenell and I got out of the car and walked to the nearest safe spot where we planned to hide until dark, then we were going to continue on our trip. The closest safe place was Rock Field. We saw the dugout and ran like crazy to get there before we were spotted.

I can remember the feeling of awe that totally consumed me when I stepped down into the dugout. This was the place where the big guys stayed during the baseball games! We were on Holy Ground. It was also just a pretty cool place to play and have a picnic. That was when I pulled out the food I had brought along for the trip. For weeks, Ihad been saving part of my dinner and stashing it in a handkerchief , then carefully putting it into a special box especially for the Hollywood trip! needless to say, the food was molded. I didn't know that food molded! Now THAT was an experience. Raenell convinced me that it probably was no longer good to eat.
Not long after that, we were discovered by Tuffy Maddox, the Chief of Police. We were toast! Busted! Raenell and I were not allowed to even speak to each other for years.

As I look at the pictures of the baseball diamond, I can see our boys playing that wonderful All American Game, Baseball. We grew up with some of the best athletes and some of the cutest boys God ever put on the face of this Good Earth. Charlie Mashburn, "Chicken" Mitchell, Jim Wilcoxson, "Moose" Meek, Tommy Fleming, Hugh Gayle Frith, Wayne Havens, Doug Greer, Barry Wakefield,Harold Simmons, Mike Spradley, Eddie Huddleston, Joe Don Hopkins, Don Morgan, just to name a very few. I can hear the cheers when one of them hit a homerun. I can smell the fresh earth as they ran around the bases, and can still feel the pride of the community as we shared our lives.

There was a time when you could leave your front door unlocked without the fear of some unwanted intruder entering. You could leave your keys in your car and not fear that it would be stolen. Afterall, that only happened in the big city, not is Childress! And there was a time when Children were safe and two little second grade girls could walk safely on a major hiway so they could steal a car just to run away to Hollywood, then end up safely hidden in the baseball park! There was a time when Baseball was THE Game. There was a time of camraderie in a community. Maybe that is what Kelloggs is trying to give back to America by replacing the playing fields. At any rate, I thank them.

Evidently I am having problems distinguishing between my blog, ASWEAGE-2008 and ASWEAGE-2008 thewineguy. I just posted on the Wine Guy.
Tomorrow is a new day!

Mermaid?

I think I am turning into a Mermaid! The only time I feel wonderful is when I am in the water. What a life! It must be the water therapy.

Pain

It has been my plan to offer encouraging news about my knee and the physical therapy but I am still short and still in pain. The fact is that I am in so much pain that all I want to do is hide my head in the sand. I question the physical therapy's effectiveness but I also question my enthusiam to make it work.

Quite honestly, I feel trapped. My plan has always been to live to be 100, but I can't imagine living another 35 years with this kind of pain nagging at my soul. I feel like my body is at war with itself. My heart wants to run and play, but my body says NO! Surely this will pass.

The Physical Therapy has begun

As per doctor's orders, I have started spending an hour twice a week in the pool and hot tub with a physical therapist. Cute young thing, almost 20, telling ME what to do! She is very patient and sympathetic about the pain so I try to not take advantage of her gentle nature.
I am told that all of the exercises are for lengthing the muscles in my back and legs. In my mind, I visualize lengthening my leg muscles and back muscles and becoming 2 inches taller. After all, I am almost 2 inches shorter now than I was when I graduated from HS. Standing up straight also seems to make me taller, but it hurts to do that. However, I think the therapist thinks that lengthening my leg muscles with take some of the stress off of the joint, wherein lies the pain.

After getting into the pool, my exercises consist of walking forward across the pool 3 times, walking backward across the pool 3 time, then walking sideways 3 times. That is easy enough. Next I hold onto the side rail of the pool and do various types of squats, holding them for 20 seconds each. I think I do 10 each of those.

After that, comes the hard part...getting my wet body out of the pool. My legs have become used to the weightlessness of my body in the water, then slowly but surely they have to take on all of that weight again. My legs are weak for lack of exercise, even though I walk a lot, I do not WALK seriously because me knees have been hurting so much.

The last part of the therapy consists of getting into the hot tub, putting floating devices under by head so I don't go to sleep and drown. The therapist at this time proceeds to take control of my body, stretching the muscles along my spine by messaging as she helps me stretch. Then while I am so relaxed, she works on my hip joints with her thumbs, trying to release some of the tenseness.
That only takes about 20 minutes. Then I am done and headed for shower.

My insurance pays 90% for physical therapy. The therapist charges $120 per hour. Guess that is only half what the doctor charges. It is all good, though. Afterwards I feel great because I am doing something good for myself.

The knee again

The knee, darn thing. Can't live without them for sure and they can certainly make life miserable if they are not working properly.
Finally, after a month of waiting. Starting with making the decision to go to the doctor, finding a doctor, finding the Radiology Lab, taking the time to drive all the way into West Austin to have the XRay, then the MRI, then waiting for a doctor from the Orthopedic Clinic to call me...a whole month! I am thankful that I wasn't bleeding to death! Living in Lakeway has it's drawbacks.

Yesterday morning I was in so much pain from my knee and from sciatica that holding back the tears was a real challenge. Shortly after I crawled into the orthopedic doctor's office he gave me a cortizone shot in the knee. I swear my whole body responded to the cortizone. The sciatica evaporated within hours, my knee stopped grinding when I walk up the hill to my car, I am not sleepy all the time from dealing with the pain. I feel like I did 10 years ago! It is an amazing and wonderful feeling!

I am told by the Ortho Doc that the cortizone shot should last about a year, maybe a little longer. He said he would give me the cortizone until it no longer worked, then he would talk to me about Rooster Comb injections. This is also known as hyaluronic acid, needed for many things in the body, but in this instant, it is used as a lubricant for the knee. There is research to be read on this by Googling Rooster Comb. It is believed at this time that hyaluronic acid, whether produced synthetically, or taken from the real live rooster comb can put off knee replacements for up to 8 years. Another modern medical miracle.

For my therapy, the doctor didn't tell mechange my diet not did he till me to lose weight,practice yoga or meditate. He sent me to the swimming pool. He told me that I needed to release the weight of the muscles on my bones so I could strengthen my leg muscles. How easy is that? Something I can do and will love doing. Whew! Of course, yoga is still on the "to do" list

little break.

Hey guys, thanks for hanging in and checking out the blog. I have been pretty absorbed with some "aging studies" which I am planning on posting in a few days. Pretty interesting stuff! I just need to put it all in proper order so it will make some sense.

YEA!! Monday is a holiday! Presidents' Day.

Yeah, Brad Pitts' picture must go. Only one of us can stay. I never realized how much we look alike! lol..2 eyes, a nose, lips...amazing!

Enjoy your Valentine. Be thankful for the love in your life.