This was developed as an age test by an R&D department at Harvard
University. Take your time and see if you can read each line aloud
without a mistake. The average person over 40 years of age can't do it!

1. This is this cat
2. This is is cat
3. This is how cat
4. This is to cat
5. This is keep cat
6. This is an cat
7. This is old cat
8. This is fart cat
9. This is busy cat
10. This is for cat
11. This is forty cat
12. This is seconds cat

Now go back and read aloud the third word in each line from the top down

Yep, thats what I like to call it, that wonderful life saving procedure they officially call a Colonoscopy (you know, the one Katie Couric did live on T.V). And yes, as a colon cancer survivor, I'm scheduled for my umpteenth one this Thursday. I'd been thinking about pulling up the ole blog and sharing all my crazy thoughts and colorful descriptions with the world just to get a laugh, but decided I didn't want to discourage anyone from getting this procedure if they need it. Do I dread it? Yes, but not the actual procedure. It's the getting ready for the procedure that I dread. Mainly because I like to eat and I have to do without food the entire day before, drink loads of water and then that bottle of what I lovingly refer to as "liquid plumber". Yeah, I could go on and on and have a good time with it, but I have to do my civic duty and, as I said, not discourage anyone from having this procedure.

So, I will exercise proper restraint and not crack all the jokes I have built up in my head through the last 10 years and simply say this...

Colon cancer is one cancer that no one ever has to die from. It is completely preventable because colon cancer starts in polyps that form in your colon. These polyps, if left alone can turn into cancer. And polyps can be removed during a colonoscopy. So if you are over fifty, or even earlier if you have a family history like me, please take the plunge (no pun intended) and get this done.

Now, I will end this blog before I cave in to tempation and say something I shouldn't. I'll save my humor for some other subject.

Hubby and I were travelling to my Dad's house today and we were talking about what "they" say the sleepiest time of day is, which is 3:00 p.m. which explains why I'm fighting sleep every day at the office about that time. I mentioned that Americans are some of the few people that don't take naps in the afternoon, such as the siestas in Mexico. Wouldn't that be great? Fat chance for this country, tho.

Maybe it's because I'm getting older, but doggone it, I'm tired!! Then I contemplate all the changes this country has been thru since I became an adult and it makes sense that I'm tired. Women't lib is another subject that I don't care to go into detail about, but I'll just say that I agreed that women should be paid better if they chose to work. However....the movement took hold and the economy slowly adjusted so that it now takes two incomes to maintain a household. One to actually support the family and the other to pay the taxes, which last I heard totalled up to 41% for local, state, and federal taxes. That, folks adds up to close to half the income, sooooo....I figure my husband is supporting this house and I'm paying the taxes. Kinda takes the fun out of it. Not to mention the fact that women STILL get paid less than men. So, in my opinion, womens lib only served to DEMAND that women work. Society expects it nowadays. It's like being a housewife is something to be ashamed of. But guess what???? We're still doing the housework and cooking too. And we have the audacity to feel guilty when we can't be SUPERWOMAN.

Then there is technology. I have a love/hate relationship with my computer. It allows me to do just what I'm doing and it's something I enjoy. But...computers have made tasks easier to do and not so time consuming. This is great right? I think of all the things I do at my job and realize that it would have taken five people to do the same amount of work 30 years ago. That's great too, right? WRONG!!! I now have SO many more tasks to do, which means more deadlines, etc., that I can no longer take more than a day or two off, lest I miss a deadline or something. Sorry, that just doesn't add up to enough time to truly rest from my job. And guss what? I'm usually bringing work home just to make up for that time off, so why take it in the first place?

Not long ago, I happened to catch an Opra show that featured women from all over the world and one woman that really made me stop and think was a woman from Kuwait. She told about their way of life and the fact that they didn't have to work, but could if they wanted to. Yeah, I know. They're all filthy rich from oil money, so that kind of explained that. But she said she went to college in the U.S. and couldn't believe how hard we work, And do you know what she said that really struck me? She said that while she was here in the U.S., the only thing she found that American women DON'T feel guilty about is working their butts off.

I know this sounds like a "poor little women" speech, but that's only because I AM a woman and I know how I feel about where this country is headed if we can't all learn to slow down a little. And that includes men too! We are so focused on work and achievement that I feel we have worked ourselves into a corner. Now we GOTTA do it to keep up with our own social and economic demands.

I realize I may step on some toes here, and that is not my intent. It's just the way I see things. Am I off base? Does anybody else feel like we're spinning our wheels and ruining our health from too much stress and not enough R&R? Yeah, I'll keep up the grind just like everyone else because there really isn't any alternative. And I'll do my best to grin and bear it for as long as I have to. I just had to get it off my chest so I can get up in the morning and head back into the grind for another week. Thanks for listening.

Winning caption submitted by Icemelts.

Look big guy - "either you get off this path, or I'm going to have to move you off".