While cruising the strange and unusual online, I came across this video of a 70’s rock band. Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show brings you rock n’ roll yodel. Don’t ya wanna learn how to dance like that skinny dude in the purple?

Kids, say no to drugs, or you could end up like this.

In Memory of those who lost their lives on 9/11. You are not forgotten. God bless their familes as well as all of those who are serving our country.

None of the above apply to me. Oh sure, once in a great while I’ll spout off an ounce of wisdom, but that hardly offsets the metric ton of stupid I’ve pulled off in a lifetime.

One of the biggest dunce acts is not taking care of my health. I tend to push myself. I’ve always worked high-stress jobs, and more often than not, handled long commutes. Meanwhile, I fed myself caffine, sugar, and junk food. I learned how to live on adreneline very early in my life, when short sleep and cheap food was the norm. My health habits are awful. Exercise consisted of running amok.

So, after a youth spent in the wrong crowds, and then an adult life spent quickly in a desperate effort to make up for past mistakes, I ended up with a stuck accelerator. A collection of nagging, but seemingly unconnected health complaints, escalated for awhile until exhaustion and physical problems couldn’t be ignored. After many panels of blood work and medical tests, I’ve received a diagnosis that’s a big kick in the butt.

I had to make a treatment decision in a relatively short amount of time. The condition doesn’t have a cure, per se, though the symptoms and the related problems can be treated and managed. What it means, though, is for the rest of my life, I have a health “issue” that will require ongoing monitoring, and some degree of medication. I’m fortunate that this wasn’t an OMG diagnosis. The disease isn’t a death sentence; it’s more like being handed down 30 years of hard labor.

It’s been a sobering experience. Quality of life, something I took for granted a few short years ago, is now a day-by-day experience. Man, I’m glad I traveled as much as I did, in the past, and went to as many shindigs and goings-on as I could afford. Because life can change in a freaking eyeblink. Again, I’m glad the changes I face are not more serious. It’s enough, though, to make me do some heavy thinking.

I need to leave the corporate rat race. Stress played a role in where I’ve ended up physically, and my current gig is a pressure cooker. I need out, but in this economy there’s few places to go…and nowhere, it seems, that pays what I make now.

Now that I’ve had a wake up call ( like a gong falling down a brick staircase at 3 a.m.) I know that I need to make some Seriously Big Changes in my career. I’m talking an 180-degree turn. The big question is, do I have the raw guts it’s gonna take to leave a decent paycheck? The next big question, is…do I have a bloody choice? I don’t think my health is going to get better, staying where I work now. I know it’s not. In fact, it seems the height of stupidity to take time off for medical reasons, do a fairly edgy treatment, and then go right back into the same pressure cooker that helped flatten me to begin with. Smart, huh.

I share all this personal crap on my blog, because somewhere out there, one of y’all is going through the same kinda thing, or may face it in the future.

And for myself, this medical road is just beginning. I may not have it much easier as I go down this road. I could be fine…or I could have quality of life issues that affect me significantly. As of this writing, there is literally no telling. It’ll take weeks, maybe months, before the progress of the treatment I’ve selected will show.

With this being Unknown right now, it’s antagonizing to guess what my limits might be down the road. Frankly the biggest limit I have right now, is my temper, as thinking of that commute and that job makes me want to throw a chair through a window. Ooopsy, there’s that stress again…deep breath….

My short term plan is to go tearing down the road in the Impala and get a speeding ticket. How the rest goes, I’ll letcha know.