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No longer on the river and, again, an empty nester. Back to living on Fleming Island and making some more friends!

Sunday, July 13, 2008

That was such a stupid thing to ask!!!!

"How much more can I take?" How stupid! Never mind, I take it back. That is the worst question to ever ask, whether it's rhetorical or not. The question should be instead, "How many more times will God watch over His people?", with the answer already known---until He takes us home to Himself in heaven! And then the answer is "eternity!". Justin's narrowly avoiding disaster yesterday is merely a reminder of how quickly our lives can change, whether good or bad, often outside our control.
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The Saturday a couple weeks ago when Justin and I spent the day shopping, we drove down Blanding, bumper to bumper, of course, in the blazing heat. We saw a man walking along the side of the road, with his shirt wrapped around his neck, mopping his face periodically with the sleeve. Justin made the comment he often wished he had bottles of water in the car with him when seeing folks stranded on the side of the road, to offer while they wait for help, particularly if they have kids with them. Oh, my heart! I don't believe he was simply saying that because it would warm my heart, it was pretty spontaneous. Oh, I remember now: we saw someone's car window open and the passenger handed a cup with a straw to the man. That's what started the conversation, the witness of a moment!
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Friday morning I experienced my first facial treatment and I loved it!
Sharon asked me a few questions before we began, things about skin care, allergies, and such problem areas as chin whiskers and stray eyebrows. Oh yes, it's an age thing, nothing to be ashamed about. As I got into my terry cloth beach cover thing, Sharon told me that some people like to lie quietly during the procedure/treatment while some like to chat, it was up to me. I said I was a talker and she said she figured that about me.......
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Since I'd never had one before, I expected that I'd sit with my face in the basin with steam saturating my face, but not so! Sharon has a steam thing that stood alongside the table as a wand, making the air moist around my face. She used scrubs, masks, lotions, massaged my neck and shoulders---ah! She also removed my stray hairs by the roots, which I survived nicely. We came up with a possible cause of the "pimples" on my forehead and along my hair line, something which I hadn't considered being the problem---it's possible my hair gel stuff is causing the skin reaction. My astringent, used by teens for acne, is not the right thing for this reaction, as it has alcohol in it, causing the skin to dry and prompting the glands to send some oil to the rescue.......etc. Oops, who knew??? This is what we pay the big money for---wisdom!
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And I thought, when this problem first began, it came from sleeping in Dusty's bed last April when I stayed with my sister in Holmen. Thought I picked up some adolescent malady through his pillow, when it was my own goop causing it. Probably going into the pool and getting my hair wet and then having the wetness run over my face from my head down.....of course, just our guess, but a reasonable one, I must say. Sharon says, though, this is not acne, they are not zits and didn't need to be treated as such. That's good, I suppose.
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On my way over to the salon I was telling Justin I hoped Sharon had the "Hickey Off Pimple Pads with Plastic Filler" I'd heard so much about on the old Cheech and Chung Big Bambu album. On someone else that may have been wasted but Justin's heard us talk about this before. It's funny how many references from that album are still used in conversation today, like the current "Seinfeld" catch-phrases. My sister, Lori, is still "Ella" every now and again because of the Sister Mary Elle Phant routine. Not that Lori's an elephant, but she is a sister....it goes, believe me, it goes. We'd seldom sign paperwork or documents for our business without thinking or actually saying, "Sign zee papers, old man (lady), sign zee papers!" Even my neighbor, Billy, said that to his wife one night at a condo meeting! How we laughed, having that memory, from about 1972, in common. Ellen had to sit between us to break it up!!!!!
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Sharon had no Hickey Off pimple pads but some funky mud mask and cool patch things to put on my eyes to reduce morning puffiness. Excuse me, but I didn't even know I had puffy eyes in the morning........