[AT] Now - old bodies

[Indiana Robinson]

Paul Waugh wrote:
> Count me in. It took 3 hours to take a wheel off the 420.  I had 2 good days 
> in a row, low humidity, now today is high and I am at a stop .. I hate 
> it,but learning to accept.  Poor legs and hips, yuck!!
> 
> Paul in IN
> 

==============================================


	Hey Paul, maybe we should have some list bumper stickers printed up 
for us older guys like one I saw... "Golden years my ass!!!"   ;-)

To take a fair look from the other side I have pasted a copy of a recent 
column I wrote below:

Sunday, July 20, 2008

What is right with your life?

I have been struggling with a back problem for a couple of weeks. You 
know the kind; hurts all the time then occasionally feels like someone 
just pushed a red-hot poker completely through your right kidney...

Yeah, like that.

Saturday night I was whining about it to an old classmate in the grocery 
store. It was Dee Bonner, you know, that Dee Bonner dot com guy. The guy 
that draws those cartoons that keep me laughing and those guys that like 
to think they matter (but don't) groaning about them.

I was explaining to him about how I had triggered the back problem while 
baling hay. Dee kind of brought me back to reality by mentioning that I 
was fairly lucky to be able to bale hay. He was quite right. As I look 
through my old Shelbyville IN 1960 high school yearbook (the Squib) it 
troubles me to see so many classmate pictures where I have written in a 
"D" next to a name to help keep track of those who are no longer with 
us. Even then I'm sure I'm not up to date on who is gone. Others are 
still among us but have been less fortunate than others and I and are 
unable to get about well or do heavy work. Thankfully we do still have 
them with us.

I have been particularly fortunate in most health matters. I do have a 
blockage problem but that is just my stomach blocking the view of my 
feet. When my back is behaving I, at 66 can still stack 50-pound bales 
of hay 4 high on a hay wagon while standing on the ground. My big 
problem is that baling hay requires looking back a lot and I don't do 
looking back very well. My body still twists around fairly well but it 
makes a lot of funny noises when I do and then eventually this back 
thing kicks up.

I have been lucky in many other ways too. My wife and I celebrated our 
45th anniversary this year and we have 4 grown children, a dozen grand 
children and 6 great grandchildren.

We operated stores for about 25 years, on a couple of occasions two at 
once. We were in various locations in Shelbyville over the years and 
also had a location in Hope IN at one time and in Connersville IN on 
another. We retired from that about 1996 and I retired from grain 
farming a few years ago. I was sort of born farming. I still grow and 
sell some hay but that will stop after this year. It just takes too much 
time away from other things I want to do. I have been fortunate there as 
well. I have a very good farm shop where I can do fairly complex metal 
work and mechanical work of all kind. Well, OK, it would be if I would 
get it cleaned up and organized again. I have a collection of antique 
tractors that I putter with. I have a large complete woodworking shop 
where I intend to spend a good bit of time this winter too. I am 
currently working on several horse stalls and I plan to spend a lot more 
time with horses over the coming years. I am also planning to replace my 
old motorcycle this summer with one more suitable for longer road trips 
carrying two people. I spend a lot of time doing genealogy research and 
playing with computers. We have enough income to live on without having 
to work... Yeah life is pretty good when I start looking.

Sometimes you just need to stop and look at the things that are right 
with life... The news guys will do enough whining about what is wrong for 
all of us.

What is "right" with your life?

====================================================

	I hope this all comes through OK. My email program (Thunderbird) said 
something about odd characters. I don't see any so it must have meant 
me... It was written with MS Word.



-- 


"farmer"


I wouldn't mind being absent minded so bad if forgetfulness
could just be a little more selective. Just last week I
was saying so to "whats-her-name..."



Hay & Straw Exchange (Buy it, sell it and trade it.)
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/HayandStrawExchange


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana, USA
robinson at svs.net