Slice of My Life

Next week brings the first mass distribution of the eagerly awaited H1N1 swine flu vaccine. There will be people lining up at clinics, hospitals, and local CVS pharmacies to get the shot or nasal spray that is supposed to protect against this latest, sometimes deadly, variation of the age-old pig flu. Not sure I’m going to be one of them.

First, this story is not about me. I am a happily married man who has tried to develop healthy ways of dealing with the problems that crop up in any marriage. We have our moments, but after ten years, we’ve learned enough about each other to play to strengths, respect boundaries and avoid pushing the wrong buttons. Usually anyway. Saving a marriage is just not a task we’ve had to face. Knock wood.

School starts this week. My stepdaughter is off to her first day as a highschool sophmore, and my three year old has his ‘meet the teacher’ day at his new preschool later this week. It’s been an interesting Summer. Junior is growing up and has turned into a fearless little daredevil when it comes to jumping in swimming pools, trying to boogie board on the beach with his cousins, or leaping from precarious heights never doubting my ability to catch him.

I’m into week 5 of my “get out of the gym and enjoy the great outdoors” body weight workout program. For those catching up, several weeks ago I decided that I was bored with my gym rat routine and decided to try a new approach to keeping in shape. No more fancy machines, no more racks of dumbbells, and no more treadmills or stationary bikes.

RIP to two of my generation’s most popular celebrities. And could they have been any more different? Vacation time is fast approaching. And I’m going to try and stay out of the gym.

I don’t drink much in the way of sodas except for the occasional Diet Coke. But I do like Diet Snapple Tea. And I usually have a pitcher of Crystal Lite in the fridge. I probably suck down 8-12 glasses of some kind of powdered or bottled tea concoction during the course of a day. Especially in the Summer.

I have a friend. This friend’s father died of a heart attack several years ago. His mother died of cancer last year. Both at a fairly young age. That has to be rough and I can’t say for certain how I would deal with it, but I know how my friend has been dealing with it. He has decided that his time on this earth is short and that if that cold he had last week doesn’t turn into swine flu, it’s bound to lead to pneumonia. And that nagging pain in his shoulder, that might be a tumor. I told him he just needs to change his golf swing, but he’s insistent that there’s something going on. And that that something may be terminal.