Is It Hip . . . To Get a New Hip?

Mental Health MON::Special TUE Edition

Reasons to Rejoice *

* Or at least to feel good

I'm still basking in the glow of our grandson Calvin's baptism in Eagan, MN, SAT 3/5. * What a joy to see this child become a part of the Kingdom of God! [Some day I hope I have the chance to explain to my grandson why I find it a amusing that the son of Lutheran parents, baptized in a Lutheran church, grandson of Lutherans on both sides of the family, is named Calvin.]
* Or it could be a lingering after-effect of whatever they injected into me prior to my chemical stress test about a month ago, which enabled them to "take pictures" of my heart, using some type of high-tech scanner.

Today I'm having my left hip replaced. I'm looking forward to it, although I am a little anxious about . . . well you'll have to check below.

fitbit ramgage! Here are my totals for the last few days. I think you should be impressed.

• SAT 3/12:  18,196 [a new personal best]
• SUN 3/13:  13,314
• MON 3/14:  10,729

Yesterday I cleared out pretty much a whole winter's worth of paper products & carting them to a recycling drop site. You should have seen my car! Did I do it to save Mother Earth? Uh, no. Mother Earth does not need our saving. The only thing that needs saving is . . . ourselves . . . and we have a Savior who has a solution for that. I'm just sayin'. *
* I do it because we've been charged, as God's people, with being good stewards of the earth's resources. SEE the first 3 chapters of Genesis.

Reasons to be Depressed?!

Reading that "He-Who-Might-Not-Be-As-Smark-As-I-Thought" has endorsed "He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named" . . . So disheartening at the very least . . . Maybe qualifies as depressing . . . Too early to tell. I recommend you check out this column by my favorite pundit, Jonah Goldberg. Yes, he is partisan. Yes, it reveals my hopelessly partisan nature. Please, give him a try. Even if you suffer from a more progressively partisan nature, at the very least I think you'll find him amusing. 

Reasons to be Anxious?!

OK, I'll admit it . . . One thing has me a little stressed about my hip replacement surgery. I think I'll be able to handle the pain, based on my experience w/previous surgeries & attacks. I'm a little stressed about . . . caffeine withdrawal. It's happened to me before. I've been cutting back on my coffee until this week I finally made it to one cup per day . . . until yesterday. I had one cup of fou-fou coffee * first thing in the morning & another around 3:00 p.m., as I was driving back from an appointment in Dakota Dunes, SD (near Sioux City). My check-in time is 7:00 a.m., so my surgery, theoretically, is around 9:00 a.m. I haven't had any caffeine since that last cup of coffee. I should be able to get coffee again by tonight . . . Keeping my fingers crossed . . . 

* You'll have to ask Lois and/or any of her sisters.

Taglines from the Drudge Report (3/13)

• "TSA Breakdown:  The long, long lines of summer . . . [Long lines are a small price to pay, as long as the TSA does its job. Anxiety factor:  6 on a scale of 1-10.]
• "Mosquitoes' rapid spread poses threat beyond Zika . . . [It seems like we're always moving from one potentially, horribly, catastrophic, doomsday mega-plague to the next. Anxiety factor:  7.]
• "Spring breakers cause chaos on South Beach as series of brawls erupts . . ."  [I hope my nieces--my university-attending nieces--read about this from far, far away. Anxiety factor:  4. {I think they have pretty level heads on their shoulders.}

Taglines from the Drudge Report (3/14)

• "N. Korea leader says nuclear warhead re-entry test a success . . .  [N. Kore leader is, how shall we say, a certifiable mental case . . . At least he's been known to stretch the truth in the past. Anxiety factor:  5.]
• "L.A. County Coroner Quits As Bodies Pile Up . . . [Words you probably never want to see in the same tagline . . . "Coroner" . . . "Bodies Pile Up." And "There is no place like California." Anxiety factor:  2.]
• "Facebook turning into massive digital graveyard . . . " [Don't say that you weren't warned. Anxiety factory:  1.]