freedom 55

In 3 days it will be my 55th birthday. That's a big one as 5 years ago I set a goal to keep walking without a scooter at least this long. I can safely say that I will make it. Walking is getting a bit more difficult for sure. I have more occasional aches and pains, such as a small pull I have today in a tendon that joins my left thigh to my pelvis. My left ankle is definitely weaker too, and it is easy to strain it when climbing up steep ramps, etc.

Some strength could get return. On Thursday my sister Linda gave me a treatment to counter my allergic reaction to a typhoid vaccine that has been in my body since I was very young. She tells me that vaccinations can lead to lupus, fiber myalgia or arthritis later in life, and perhaps even to something like my muscular dystrophy. Western medicine turns a blind eye to any evidence of this as it offends their deeply-held belief that these vaccinations are essential.

My brother Rob has also sent me a box of supplement packages that are supposed to increase energy and maximize muscle repair and potentially cause muscle growth. One box costs $130 and lasts for 2 weeks. The fine powder is unpleasant tasting and does not dissolve in water. I have to fill a glass half-full and mush it with my fingers for five minutes to prevent it from turning into cement. Then I need to clean the glass with a steel wool scrub pad, and then my fingers and nails, or it will harden on terribly. I do this twice a day.

I have been looking forward to this, my pre-birthday weekend. For more than 50 days in the past two months I have had visitors staying with me, two at a time for most of the 50 days. The weather has not let me down either. It is spotlessly sunny, warm and graced with light breezes. Except for some clouds this evening and overnight, the forecast is the same for all this week.

I was also looking forward to seeing Doozer this weekend. I consider Doozer a dear friend, but I am beginning to doubt the feeling is mutual. He has been up here on Galiano Is for two months but has made no effort to contact me since he arrived. This is his last weekend here this year before he returns to work for the summer in Aspen CO. His birthday was last week and I bought a book for him that I got on special order. His husband Flash didn't want to take it when I met him last weekend. He said they would both definitely be in town this weekend and I could give it to Doozer myself, but if they are here, they are not answering their phone or trying to contact me.

I rather expected this. I was more bother than I was worth when I went on vacation with them to Tennessee 13 months ago and our friendship has suffered because of it. Doozer visited me the week after we got back, mostly because he wanted to see Michal who was visiting from Kelowna, but he has not visited me since. Flash wrote to me last winter and has met me twice for breakfast since he returned to Galiano in January. He comes over at least twice a month during softball season as he plays on the West End team, but he no longer stays with me when he is in town as he used to.

I am being quite zen about it though. I see the waning of close friendships as a sign that I need to return to my writing. Like Scarlett O'Hara, my "Tara" is my unfinished novel.


PHOTO: a "Doozer" from the TV series "Fraggle Rock"