As we turn our faces toward the New Year, 2019 has left a lot behind us. It’s time to reflect on all that we are leaving behind and what we are going to head toward for 2020.
The year had me settling back into the car business. It suddenly became easy again. Maybe even easier than back in the day when I was at dealers. Mostly because I work in a shop with a conscience. It’s not that hard to be fair, and still prosper. I look forward to every day. I can’t help myself. I like it. I like that some of the customers that call in that “really need to talk to” Owner Guy, have told him they need to talk to me. I also have learned how easy if is to call and let someone know the cost of an engine replacement. “Are you sitting down? Do you need Nitro or anything for your heart?” Of course, that kind of approach needs an idea of knowing how to build and recognize rapport. But when I call with estimates, I feel like I live in the land where everybody says yes. Maybe not 100%, but armed with the belief I’m selling a fairly priced and necessary repair, it does come close.
There’s always something better about your health. Mine is. I went from dying if I didn’t get a transplant, to correctly adjusted medication. Surgery corrected my need for quarterly invasive procedures. Yeah, although it wasn’t severe surgery, like a big incision and monkeying around with organs, it was seven little incisions that monkeyed around with organs and was an absolute of a bitch of a recovery for three weeks. The worst thing was having a catheter. Holy cats, was that miserable. But I guess if all the other post surgical stuff wasn’t going on making me feel awful, it would have been nice for going to a really long movie, going to go see Der Ring Des Nibelungen at Northrop when the whole place had only two stalls in the ladies room, or take a 5 hour jaunt in a small plane. Being beyond all that hospital fuss makes me feel very special now.
I will continue with acupuncture, however. What can I say? It’s magic. No more Gabapentin, no more Oxycocone. I also got a pass to ditch Tylenol for Ibuprofen. More effective than any pain killer I’ve ever taken so I can remediate the lingering pain from the old, corrected stuff. I guess it was bad enough it will hurt for a long time.
I did learn the shingles will hurt me forever, with the nerve damage in my neck, shoulder and arm. Without acupuncture, I don’t know what I would do.
Please, if you qualify, get the vaccine. Shingles is a cross between the feeling of a scorpion bite that keeps on going and what I imagine being struck with a glob of molten lava would feel like. Pay out of pocket if you have to. Trust me on this. And if you get a weird burning feeling on your skin, don’t trust your experience that it’s hives. It may not be hives, and the antivirals they give you won’t work if you take them too late. I waited too long, hence the lasting nerve damage.
May you find at least one precious nugget of good about your health in 2019.
Cherish the friends you made, even the remote connections that don’t seem that big now. Who knows what they will become in the futures.
I know there’s more to ruminate on, but my brain is starting to feel small. Maybe more later.
Deep Thoughts (or Not) 