Memory: Too Much Sugar Makes A Young Man Sick! I worked during every vacation at Dad’s dime store. It was not Dad’s, but he was the VP & General Manager, and his boss, Ralph, and he were inseparable. The stores were Ralph’s 5, 10, & 25 Cent Stores.
Easter was no exception. My job on Easter was to make up Easter baskets, and I worked alone in the store’s basement on Pico Blvd in Los Angeles. It was spooky to be there alone, but I did it anyway.
I loved making the baskets, filling them with green excelsior, and arranging small toys and lots of chocolate bunnies, peeps, and jelly beans. Sometimes I would hide candy in the paper we used to raise the level in the basket!
One slight problem: I had a sweet tooth and ate a load of candy one day. By lunchtime, I was on a sugar high. Dad and Ralph came to get me and went to lunch; things seemed to settle down. I did look a little red, black, yellow, purple, orange, tan, and everything in between. Back to work, a jelly bean for someone and a jelly bean for me. I did that all afternoon.
By 5:00 pm, quitting time, my ten-year-old tummy was a tad out of sorts. I was so sick that night that my parents thought the doctors should be called. Then I told them what I had done. No doctor, just a night of being sicker than a dog.
The next day, I returned to my job, but no sugar entered my body for weeks after that!
I woke up with great fear as my BP was 116/70, which is back to “my normal”; what if I have to give up wine? OMG, what will I do? I guess I will do what I do every New Year’s Eve. Have the barkeep mix me a diet coke with 7-Up and let it sit for a few minutes while the bubbles dissipate; a mock bourbon and seven! I love to watch people get tipsy and can act the same but stay stober. I go to the new cardiologist on Friday and have pages of BP readings on an Excel spreadsheet!
My doctor just prescribed me another blood pressure medication. It was a tough pill to swallow.
The melodic voice of my angel pierced the room, or was it an announcement from Alexa to the entire house?; “Scout needs to go potty.” I jumped up, tore off the covers, covered up my babydoll jammies (I didn’t want to frighten Scout or Mary), lept over a tall building, and ran faster than a speed locomotive to lead Scout to the great green potty.
To my surprise, he went through the door, looked back at me, and barked, “Fooled ya!” He laid down on his outside bed and did not tinkle! I was still trying to catch my breath!
I reminded him that I do not get mad; I get even!
Today is planned to be slow. We called PT and told them the doctor was sick. Can I write an excuse? Dear PT Guru, Mary can’t come out and play today because she has a tummy ache in her head! That should do it, and I will write it with crayolas, so they know it is me!
The doorbell rang, and I got our latest delivery from Amazon; I think I overachieved!
Mary will be munching on those for a long time!
Mary was down and out all day, so I used the time to work in the office, clean up some websites, and attempt to fix the watering system in the garden. I went to Home Depot to get some parts, but they did not have what I needed, so Amazon, here I come.
I fixed another gourmet meal of Chicken Soup with noodles and fresh sliced mushrooms; thank you to Lipton. I went to the market earlier and got her extra pulp orange juice and a package of rookies that one has to bake. Feed a cold, starve a fever!
While I was cooking, it came to me… A poem about my cooking! I almost sound like Shakespeare!
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon’s blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
We watched TV until 11:00 pm, and I crashed; Mary was still enthralled in a movie. Tomorrow is another day!
