Change your underwear everyday

It's a typical Sunday, the day of rest; you know, when I do laundry, cleaning, litter boxes, bird cages, and other assorted activities that I don't get to do during the week. It's also the day I make Finnish Pancakes for Ralph and me. This is our traditional Sunday breakfast. When we have company and I make it for the company, it's always a big sensation. Sometimes I make it when I'm on vacation and staying at Lester and Ani's house. It's a hit with the adults, but not so much with the kids. One would think that kids would love anything with fruit and whipped cream on the top, but that is not the case.

After about two years of making it, I had the recipe perfected. Then I don't know what happened. We had a few weeks when it was just mediocre. Once again it's a triumph!

Finnish Pancake: add honey, sliced peaches, whipped cream, & it's ready to serve & eat!

Took another 20.3 mile bike ride yesterday. What glorious fun! Ran out of water at about 10 miles, but I managed to complete the ride without daydreaming about drinking water from people's hoses or knocking on the doors of strangers begging for water. There's a little bar at Longwood Run Athletic Club that advertises $1.00 beer, but I never have any money with me. Not sure I really want to drink beer then continue my journey home. On another note, I didn't run into any seniors decked out in their cranky pants walking their dogs telling me to go ride in the street. I did, however, experience the weavers and creepers in the one area where I do ride in the bicycle lane. I hate when I'm invisible!

 

                     Serenity in The Meadows              Narrow bridge that's fun to ride over

It's fun riding 20 miles, and I suspect at some point, barring time constraints, I'll ride 25 miles. I experience a host of things on a 20 mile ride. Midway through the ride, my thighs start to ache, but that only lasts for about a mile or two. At around 10-16 miles, if I run out of water and it's very hot, I start to feel delirious and on the verge of heat/sun stroke. That doesn't happen often because lately I have been going out in the latter part of the afternoon. At about 18 miles, my butt starts to feel really bony. This is weird, because I don't have a bony butt. Then, I start to feel the elastic of my underwear digging into my cheeks leaving what I am sure will be a permanent imprint. Doesn't matter which underwear I have on, either. Actually, I found  about 15 pairs of another style of underwear. I'll try a pair of those on my next ride, which I hope occurs later today.

                    Looks like a very comfy seat, and it is, but only until about 18 miles.

And speaking of underwear, when you were a little kid, did your mother tell you to be sure to change your underwear everyday in case you had to go to the hospital? What the heck was that all about? If anything, that made me not to want to change them, then I could say, "I didn't change my underwear, so I'm not going to the hospital today." I feared doctors and hated hospitals. The thought of having to get undressed in front of strangers in the doctor's office or hospital haunted my youth. 

Don't worry, I didn't need that threat, but it did make me ponder why the nurses and doctors would be checking out my underwear and why they would even need to see them. I was painfully shy as a child, so that statement was especially traumatic for me. I'm not sure I understand why my mother wanted to scare me like that. She did the laundry. She had to know I was changing them everyday. She also had to know when they got holes in them and I needed new ones. I didn't have money and I didn't go shopping by myself. She was in charge of that. Yes, I wore holey underwear much longer than was necessary. That must be why I now have about 50 pairs of underwear. 

I see lots of underwear in the cath lab. Patients are not supposed to come to the cath lab in their underwear. Somehow, though, many patients fall through the cracks and arrive in their underwear and sometimes even in their shorts, pants, shirts, bras, and whatnot. Once, a patient came through the ER to the cath lab during winter in his coat. Really? It would seem pretty basic that someone somewhere would remove the coat in the transfer from the ER to the cath Lab. 

It's not that the nurses and doctors want to look at your underwear or you in your underwear, but in certain areas of the hospital, if they are on, we have to take them off. For what it's worth, lots of people missed the threat from their mothers about the underwear. So, this is your mother speaking to you now, "Change your underwear everyday in case you have to go to the hospital." I hope this doesn't traumatize you, but someone had to say it. You know who you are. And if you're coming to the cath lab, take them off, then I'll never know if they were changed or not!