I used to be a Medic and Firefighter-- in short I was an adrenaline junkie. And now I’m old and retired. And my body is bent and currently a bit broken. I seek to learn how to be dull.
Despite the enjoyment of watching the hummingbirds at my feeders and the light gardening I do. I still think I could become even more satisfied with my dullness.
Guide me to complete dullness!
The lake I live on, and the surrounding lakes are too big and rough for paddle boards. And at my age, my balance is what it once was either. I do have a boat, but I haven’t put the lift or boat in the lake this year. I’m waiting on knee surgery and walking is somewhat painful right now.
More reason to work on your balance. You can buy (or better–build) rocker and wobble boards with varying levels of instability (stay safe!) to make washing the dishes more interesting.
I have been giving some thought to balance exercises. But I got to get my one knee fixed first since I tore a meniscus shoveling snow this spring. On the upside, I now have a matched pair of knees-- balanced in all things, as it should be. The indications of joint deterioration in the knee are very concerning to me. I maybe need to start searching ebay or marketplace for a low mileage artificial knee replacement.
It’s been putting a real crimp in my walking the old logging roads and spring foraging in the forest.
If you can find someone to install a knee you get yourself, you can try liberating some from the underground. Titanium lasts forever, seems perverse to bury people with perfectly usable joints.
I’ve never asked why they do that. As a retired medic, there must be a medical reason. But, at least in the rural areas I worked, many dead people simply never get to the hospital. As a medic, I’ve called my share of dead people. When that happened, I would call dispatch and tell them there would be no transport to the hospital. And then law enforcement and the local funeral home would be dispatched to the scene. The cops had paperwork to do for county records and the funeral home would transport the dead. So unless the cops thought there was something that needed to be investigated, there would not be any autopsies done. The death certificate was done by the dead persons doctor as reviewed from medical records. Even I could give a good cause of death. In a small community, where you work on family and friends, I probably had already scraped you up a couple of times and was familiar with your illness.
And if a hospital sell them more than once, think of the pure profit!
Remember how mad the music industry got when CDs came out, because a CD could change hands several times with no degradation, unlike with LPs and tape cassettes that got worse with every play? And now software is a license; even if you have all the install files, you might not be able to get verified by a server to install it.
Just saying, our late-stage capitalist system is moving away from ownership, and part of that is taking away the right to transfer ownership.
For medical stuff, it’s already a closed market. You can’t sell anything medical without violaiting a federal law and the marketplace administrators banning your account (I tried unloading some pet medications on a freecycle group once)…
I’d also say that people might be squamish to remove Aunt Gladys’ hip; though maybe if funeral homes want to make more money, they can lobby for their right to strip us down for parts.
You sound pretty well positioned to find yourself a used knee, though, I bet you already know where you can find one if you think about it.