Nothing funny about feldspar

Part of the fallout of my back issue (arthritis in my sacroiliac joint and spine, with a “slightly” slipped disc — physical therapy resumes next week) is a weird numbness on left hip. Hip? Well, you know, outside left edge, about where I bend when I sit. Near the top of my leg, right where the elastic of my underwear ends up.

Which is a problem, because even though it’s numb, it’s not all numb. So when I’ve done too much (like walked around the grocery store), the wearing of elastic-banded panties becomes extremely uncomfortable.

I went to the local discount mega-store and saw they have long-line underpants, the kind your great-granny might wear if she were still wearing cotton-knit bloomers instead of nylon panties. These are great — no elastic except for the waistband. I checked the little size chart, figured what I should wear, and bought a pair. I got them home and put them on … Who are these made for?? I’m not underweight by any stretch of the imagination. ANY STRETCH of your imagination would not make me not overweight … and pulled the “waist” up to my chest.

Oh. My. God. The increased availability of “Plus size” clothing didn’t mean much to me. The better selection of wide-width shoes didn’t mean much to me. This… this… duffel of an undergarment has shown me more than almost anything that Americans are obese.

I’d better wash these in hot water and shrink them a bit. And I think I’ll skip having that brownie for dessert, if you don’t mind.

Ambivalent Images reminds us that locks are not a deterrent.

Laura wants to know who the Decider is in our house.

hah.

It’s Albite.

No! Seriously! Plagioclase and I are usually in tune, so there doesn’t ever seem that “a decision” must be made. Other times, one doesn’t just care as much as the other, so the carer’s wishes win out. However, there are a few times we’ve each felt stronglyish (we seldom feel *that* strongly about anything, except each other) about something, but in different directions, so we just get Albite to decide.

We each hold a (dog)cookie, and coax him, and whoever he goes to first, wins.

Australian researchers: “Hey, dude, male contraception is reversible! We looked at studies from the past 25 years and you know what? Those wigglers come back pretty easily!”

Big Pharma: “Huh? What?”

Men: “Who cares? Why should I take something if she is?”

Women: “Are you gonna believe a guy sayin’ he’s on the pill?”

Big Pharma: “What they said. Nobody’ll buy it, so we ain’t developing it.”

Bill has a long (not “Holbonically long” but long enough) post about modern-medicine-as-religion. He and I seem to feel much the same way about whether or not we’re overmedicateddoctored in this society.

I don’t know the answer to that. I mean, on the one hand, I say that I’m really going to think hard about taking “lifestyle” drugs, but now that my back pain is annoying the crap out of me, well, I’m reconsidering the whole “take this pill and it’ll stop you hurting” thing. I don’t want to hurt. But I’m only seeing the Dr. because I have insurance at the moment. Once it’s gone, I’ll stop buying the $7/scrip NSAID (because its “list price” is 88 bucks!) and go to mega doses of generic Aleve if I have too.

But that’s not what I wanted to talk about. He mentions in the section on asthma and allergies that

as a parent you’re shirking if you don’t take your kids outside now and then and force-feed them some dirt.

Now, twenty years ago, Plagioclase and I had a similar discussion, and we decided that someone Real Soon Now was going to twig to this phenomenon and start offering “safe-to-eat dirt, perfect for building up your child’s immune system.” They haven’t of course, and I’m surprised. I figured by now there’d be a pill of easily digestible bacteria, so said child wouldn’t have to actually go outside where they might get hurt.