March 22 -- Good luck, Bad Luck, No luck?
6I REFUSE to believe I have all bad luck. In fact, I would say I generally have good luck but tend to have crazy things happen to me. 
Remember my rant about snow and how much I strongly dislike everything about it? Well, a week later, I have finally succumbed to the pain and seen my doctor about the injury I sustained in walking to my parents. Apparently, I cracked my ass! Oh wait…no, that crack has been there all along… 
Really, I dislocated my joint/bone/something or other relating to my tailbone, pelvic bone and sacrum. Holy Mother of God, did I swear up a storm (in my mind) in the doctor’s office when he decided to jab that joint/bone/whatever! Still waiting the results of the x-rays, but jeepers, you would think torture was his specialty! (I truly respect my doctor, he is just a skinny little know-it-all!)
Anyways, back on topic, who the heck has the “luck” of having such an interesting injury? Is there a dark cloud following me? Nahh, I just figure I have to take the bad with the good and keep moving forward.
Do you think people make their own luck? Do you think good things happen to good people, bad things to bad people? Is your luck good/bad/none at all? Is there no such thing as luck and it all comes down to the choices people make?
Today would have been my Grandmother’s 96th birthday - I miss her. So, in honor of Gram’s birthday, have yourself a beautiful day and lots of luck!
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Really sad about your injury. I logically know that life is affected by the choices made. I used to believe in Karma, but that theory is not really working out for me. Life is clearly not fair.
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Snow isn’t all bad.
Happy birthday, Gram!
@KDemo I believe regardless of the choices I make in life, I somehow end up where I need to be at the right time. I may make a choice that sends me down the arduous road or the smooth sailing road (totally mixed up that metaphor!)
Whichever road I travel, I end up at the next intersection ready for the next route. I may even have gone in circles to get there!
As for Karma, I must have been one hell of an evil person in my former life
@KDemo
@mikibell
Yes. Happy Birthday to Gram!
Here is a picture of Gram from 1969, helping fill food baskets/Christmas bags for her service club at work. (Far right)
You literally busted your ass! Hope you have a quick heal with little pain.
My claim to fame in my family was I was such a big baby at delivery I broke my mother’s coccyx. Guess it never properly healed because she had surgery to have the floating bit removed when I was a teen.
Not sure I believe in luck so much as I believe we are drawn to people & places for a reason, whether it is to learn a lesson for ourselves, or to help others do the same.
I do believe all actions have consequences, and these consequences ripple across time. I suppose you could call that luck? Or karma?
There are a lot of nerve endings in that silly vestigial bit of bone you busted, and it hurts a bunch to have someone jab a needle into it. You have my permission to punch Mr Doctor in his solar plexus, just the once, to make a point…or you can just tell him that he hurt you, and was very cruel to do so. Have a little hankie to dab your eyes with when you do this; it’s more effective. I could loan you one; I collect them, and have one and a half zillion.
Do I believe in luck? Well, if we can call it chance, sure. I have math skills, and know the odds of events occurring or not, and other interesting items. Here’s the thing, though. It’s just as easy to be nice, and kind to those around you, as to be mean and rude, and you sleep better at the end of the day. After we pass 25 years or so, who we are starts to show on our face, and this is indeed karma, of a sort.
If I honestly believed in Karma, then why isn’t the orange creature exploding from within? Okay, okay, I hate politics, and I’ll move on.
Malcolm Gladwell wrote about this, tangentially, in his book Outliers (https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316017922/), which discusses (among other things) the success of certain people, and how luck appeared to influence their success.
From the description: “His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.”
Enough. It’s an interesting topic, though, and I’ll be back with more.
@Shrdlu
Outliers rocks. ; )
@Shrdlu I should have puked on him like I felt I should yesterday… Evil little gnome that he is… (I don’t really think he is a gnome!)
I would agree that where you come from has a lot to do with your “luck”. I was amazed when I read an article about the entitlement white people have for just being white. Add in caring parents and the benefit of a great education, and a lot of my luck really isn’t luck. However, compare my success to that of my brother who grew up with the same benefits, the theory goes awry.
I think a person makes their own luck by the choices s/he makes and the people they surround themselves with.
@mikibell On the one hand I emphathize with your most painful injury, on the other hand I would have loved to have seen the slapstick fall it took to get it.
@cranky1950 if only it had been amusing… I was wearing duck boots, hit a patch of ice…fell straight down…no flailing, no cartwheeling etc…while holding a shovel over my shoulder.
@mikibell Damn
@cranky1950 it was quite elegant… I am good at falling. I am such a clutz…
@mikibell Au contraire in my 60s with CMT you are but a rank amateur clutz
@cranky1950 hehehehe so I have been tripping over dust with the best of you for decades?
I am very sorry about the CMT…
While most of my physically conditions are hereditary, my clutziness I truly believe stems from bad eyesight and lack of attention…
@mikibell
I am sorry, and I bet it hurt more than you wanted to admit. And I fear the pain and discomfort will remind you that you fell for a while.
So it’s all your fault, Goat, but still I feel bad about it for your sake.
BTW if you are having a run of Bad Luck, blame yourself for it.
@mikibell Lack of attention will get you every time. In my case the CMT is not bad more an annoyance than anything else. Still I’ve never met a sidewalk crack or rug fold that I could walk over.
@cranky1950 my mom said carpet lint was my downfall – I think she meant the pun too
That coming from a woman who was separated from her child because said child was covered head to toe in bruises. By today’s standards, my mom would be in jail!!!
It turned out that my feet were too small for my height, they have since become proportionally close to right. I also have terrible vision, but they didn’t find that until much later … when my 5th grade teacher told my mother I could not read. Oh, that is another good story!
@f00l honestly, the injury did not hurt when it happened… I kinda just got up and went back to walking and shoveling. It was the following two days in the office chair that did me in… and then it was the weekend, and I took it easy. Then another day in the torture chair, and I called the dr. Now, I just feel like a baby!
@mikibell You’re going to have to get one of those little tire tubes to sit on.
Also, Happy Birthday, Gram!
@Shrdlu thank you…she was a love…she would not have understood being part of this type of community, but she certainly loved our community.
I just realized, my mom lives about as close to her childhood home as I live to mine…so gram’s house is only about 3 miles away…smh
Luck is a metaphor we use to explain our lives to ourselves sometimes. I use this metaphor, of course. I think this metaphor exists in all cultures.
“Luck” is a mental and cultural shorthand for what is personally meaningful and impactful, and short-term incalculable.
I have luck, both good and bad. I am content with this, except the balance is off. I need to adjust the balance between"good" and “bad” of course. And the gradations of the judgements could use some tweaking.
I like “good luck” better - it is my fav between the two.
: )
I could also use some Wisdom. Such Bad Luck that I don’t have more. Your fault,@mikibell.
Today I have allergies and I slightly messed up my wrist again, so I have “bad luck”. I thoroughly believe in “bad luck” during each sneeze.
And of course I blame you, @mikibell.
@f00l try sneezing with a broken ass…not all it is cracked up to be!
@mikibell
Yeah I bet that hurts!
I hope that, once you are all healed, you can tease everyone by alluding to “your broken ass”.
@f00l we are already teasing… our house, you are required to ask the person if they are ok. If the answer is yes, then commence teasing. If the answer is no, teasing starts a while later.
@mikibell
Excellent rule - possibly still an excellent rule after people start using the rule itself as a form of tease.
LIKE this rule.
PS
"My damned Ass is Broke!"
Like the sound of that.
@f00l no sense busting my ass… I already did it?
My husband has been making up good one liners…but they are eluding me right now…
As the song goes @Mikibell - if wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all.
I did fall one time off of a skateboard maybe 6-12 inches to the ground, and I hit that bone- it sucked a lot.
For good luck, you have all of us here!
@dashcloud hahaha I did something similar about 10 years ago, with a skateboard from full standing height, on a hardwood floor! I bounced at that age, not so much at this age. Truly annoys me too, I was able to shovel two driveways and take a long walk that day, a week later one stair up/down is agony!
@cranky1950 thanks…thanks alot for that earworm!
@mikibell changing your name to crankybell?
@cranky1950 I have often been called cranky… since bell is my acquired last name, that is a new one!! I still talk to myself using my maiden name… More because I think of my husband by our last name, so it would get confusing in my mind if I didn’t differentiate who I was having these solo conversations about…
@mikibell At least its a happy ear worm
I’m sorry you fell and broke your ass. Really. You do tell a good story, though. Human anatomy is not well designed. Did your doctor give you some topical painkilling patches? I am a fervent believer in Flector, which I’ve used after back surgery, knee surgery, and the discovery that my wrists aren’t right. An alternative is Voltaren gel. I don’t like to take oral painkillers.
@OldCatLady not one painkiller did he prescribe…probably because he knows I am a lightweight and I hate taking them… I will admit I could use something about now. I am supposed to apply ice/heat, but I keep forgetting.
@OldCatLady Totally agree on Voltaren gel! I discovered that the warning sheet is total bull as it really hasn’t been studied at all and is OTC thru most of Europe.
@mikibell Call the office and TELL them to call in a script for either of the things I mentioned. If your drugstore delivers, take them up on that. It will not get better for several weeks, and pain will wear you out in a hurry. If you call the doctor’s answering service now and leave a message that you want him to call it in, you could have something tomorrow. Either option is good, and neither one requires you to sit still. I’m pretty sure you don’t have a housekeeper to take over your duties while you heal.
@mikibell
Agree w @OldCatLady here. If the pain were something you could easily distract yourself from, be tough if you feel like it. But … if you are hurting and find it hard to ignore and it hurts to climb stairs and other stuff, and when you try to relax, you can’t because of pain, why put yourself through all this? We’re not in 1660. Please take advantage of medical technology and stuff and don’t hurt all the time.
@OldCatLady I disagree… the human anatomy is amazingly designed!! Just think of the complexity it contains in one unit. I am glad I wasn’t on that project!!!
We are also pushing the boundaries of useful life on these parts. If they were mechanical, they would be fully depreciated in about 40-50 years. We have already started re-manufacturing parts/pieces because of wear and tear.
I have to call him today and let him know how I am feeling, and check out the results of the xray. I think he is going to extend my stay at home if I broke something. I will inquire about the patches. Thank you for the info…
As for housekeeper, no way… I would have to clean before I could let a housekeeper in!!!
@f00l ehhh, as long as I stay in a comfortable position, I am good. I am limited the times up and down stairs though. If I lead with the right foot, I am good with stairs. Trial and error… but I took yesterday off and read a book and slept and just was… it was nice.
@mikibell
Reading and sleeping and relaxing on the counch and being waited on are Dr @f00l’s orders.