Pluggers by Rick McKee for April 20, 2022

back when I had a severe ankle sprain in November (must’ve tripped over something in the grocery store parking lot or had a misstep there), it was difficult to walk and sleep even with pain-relieving Ibuprofen

So starts the organ recital.

Pain here and now will help me weather hell in the after-life.

After a certain point in life talking about our aches, pains, and body functions is about all their is to talk about.

At Plugger age various aches and pain can be attributed to, sat down too long, slept on it wrong, sneezed too hard. Yep, that about covers it!

Don’t share your aches and pains because then you will have to hear an earful on how much worse they are.

Male Pluggers talk the same way about little blue pills.

We all “Feel” for ya ;-)

I tell people about my new electrical project. That’s my current event.

Unfortunately, it isn’t just what older people talk about, it’s what is on during every commercial break and what pops up erratically on the computer screen — pills for anxiety reduction, sleep assistance, chronic aches and pains, mysterious acronym conditions, and ‘organ’ disfunction — and we wonder why there is a drug problem?

Having ruptured several discs in the low back, I perfectly understand. That happened in 91 so it doesn’t give me too much trouble now. Some days though….

And so the one-upmanship of aches/medications conversations begins.

Roosters have prostates?

Water pills?

Unless you suffer the identical condition, you are really just “talking past” each other. Sort of like describing your dreams. Even the most empathetic find it hard to relate.

I had to Google “lumbago.”

I once overhead a guy at a table of ‘Seniors’ say " Let me tell you about my sleeping."

Had lunch today with a group of retired co-workers. Talked, ate, and talked some more. Decided it was time to leave and we all got up with various grunts, groans, and wheezes and one loud knee pop! I said, “Guys, remember about 30 years ago we’d get up from the lunch table to head back to work, WITHOUT all these sound effects”? Even the server blew a snot bubble from her guffaw. True story!

I told my younger self I would not become one of those folks who talks about his ailments… (sigh)