The "next" 10 health tips

Remember when Mom was always saying "wash your hands," especially just before dinner?   We don't seem to hear that as much these days.   Yet, we know full well that to avoid getting sick, we need to do two very important things:  Wash our hands and keep our hands out of our mouth.  

I'm pretty sure most of us don't wash our hands enough.  In health care, we do it all the time, to the point that most of us have chronic skin problems because of it.   I clean my hands every time when I walk in to see a patient and I clean them again as I walk out.

But most of the time, I don't do the same outside the clinic.   It just isn't convenient to wash my hands after every encounter.   It isn't convenient on the football field.  It isn't convenient after I have shaken hands with someone in the grocery store.

And I would bet that most people don't really think about the impact of putting their hand to their mouth.   You should.  We do it all the time.

As I write this, I find myself coming down with a cold.   I obviously haven't taken my own advice.  That old "do as I say" thing that doesn't work in parenting either.    Lesson learned.   I will do better.

What else?  I usually preach about the big three:  Exercise daily, eat a balanced diet, and don't smoke.  So, what else we can do to stay healthy?   I've formulated my next ten list of what all of us can do.

Be a friend.  I've often said to have a friend, be a friend.  Connecting with other people helps us to manage our own stress and be generally happier, healthier people. 

Wear shower shoes in a public shower.  Oh yeah.  I got Athlete's Foot as an 11 year old at Camp Buck Toms and it took me years to get over it.  

Laugh more.  I get busted on this one regularly.   I admit that I'm way too serious most of the time.   It's my job to take your health seriously but I really shouldn't let that carry over into the rest of my life. 

Wear your seatbelt.  Yes, I know it's the law but too many people still don't do it.  In the event of an accident, it is your best bet for staying safe.

Use sunscreen.  Ask any dermatologist.   You never want to get a sunburn.  Never.

Read labels.  Know what is in your food.  You will be surprised.   You don't know what an ingredient is?  And you would really consider eating it?

Brush and floss.  It's not just important from your dentist's viewpoint but it helps to keep you healthier.   Our mouth can harbor all kinds of germs. 

Establish a Relationship with a Primary Care Physician.  And then get an annual checkup.  Oh, and do what they tell you to.  

Hydrate.  Especially this time of year.  And especially in winter.  By golly drink lots of water year round.   You may not realize it but it really helps your skin and digestive system be healthier.  

Moderation in everything.   Even the good stuff but especially the bad stuff.   

Assault on Bikers

In the past few months, there have been a rash of collisions between a bicycle and a motorized vehicle.  At the late great Jim Dykes behest, I've curbed my discussion on biking and bikes.  But there seems to be an assault on bikes in this area that cannot go unspoken.  

A still uncaught driver ran a biker into a roadside rock near Townsend not too long ago.  Weeks of hospitalization and medical care followed a bike/car collision near Walland.

A fellow who moved to Maryville just last March was turning into his subdivision recently when a driver attempted to pass him on a double yellow line.  And then, most egregiously, a driver so violently objected to a rider in Knoxville touching his car that he turned around and ran down the biker and then got out of his vehicle and beat the biker into surgery.

It's gone from animosity to downright hatred!

I've heard it all.  "Get off the road!"  In Townsend, it's "ride on the sidewalk!"  Sorry folks, but bicycles are vehicles that by state law have a right to be on the roads.

When I've addressed this topic in this column, among the many thanks that I get, somebody will say that we (bikers) still don't belong on the road.   That unless we pay taxes on our vehicles, that we don't have a right to ride roads.

That the roads are made for motorized vehicles and not for bikes.

I'm betting bikers pay plenty of taxes.  We all own motorized vehicles.  My buddy Rat's bike costs more than most cars on the streets (well, more than mine, anyway) and I know for sure that he paid taxes on it.

That we don't pay the $3.50 per year for a Tennessee Drivers License or the 35 bucks or so for a license plate is irrelevant.   And yes, I'm aware that a lot of what we pay for gas goes to maintain roads but does that mean that the guy driving the monster pick-up has more right to the roads than the electric/hybrid car?

So why do people hate those on bicycles?   I wish I knew because maybe then I could fix it.

But when you take your car or truck and purposely try and hit a biker, well that is just plain assault.  Assault with the intent to kill or maim.   When you try and hit me, your motorized vehicle becomes a deadly weapon.  

Do you not realize that we are human beings just like you?   That we have jobs and families and people depending on us?  Can you not understand even for a moment that bikers are riding for their own health and enjoyment and not to inconvenience you?  

And if all you meant to do by driving too close to us is to scare us, well what if you kill us instead?   Would you come to our funeral?                                                                                                                                             

POSTSCRIPT:  My wife said she had the answer to my question.  She said that people hate those on bikes because we slow them down and no one wants to be slowed down.   I said, OK, let's solve that by putting everyone on bicycles.   That slows everyone down.   That probably isn't a practical solution. 

Old Joe/Young Joe Interview

You see interviews in magazines a lot these days.  I love those things.  So I decided to conduct my own interview.  Only this one is between me and my younger self. 

Young Joe:   So, what have you learned in 59 years?

Old Joe:  Are you kidding me?  Do you really think I want to share all that with you?   It would only get you in trouble.

Young Joe:  But what about women?  I really can't quite figure them out.  The ones that I like, don't really like me and the ones that I don't really like that much, they seem like they are all in love with me.

Old Joe:  Men of my generation are always saying "if I only knew then what I know now," but I'm not so sure about that.  As you and I both know, I really struggled with all things female but I think you're supposed to.  It's how you learn.   What I do know now is that you've got to respect them, treat them right, and make them laugh, and then they'll all fall in love with you.   Or I think they would.

Young Joe:  Yeah, but through all that didn't you end up with the "right" one?  I mean, haven't you guys been married like forever?

Old Joe:  Yes I did and yes we have .  I guess it just goes to show you that even a blind hog finds an acorn every once in a while.

Young Joe:  What the heck does that mean?

Old Joe:  I guess you'll just have to figure that one out on your own.

Young Joe:   OK, can we move on to the other most important thing in life?  I play football and I really want to get good.  Any tips?

Old Joe:  Oh yeah.  Hard work.  Run.  Lift weights.  Eat right.  Do what your coaches tell you to do.  The same formula that has always worked.

Young Joe:  But I work hard.   I bag groceries at the White Store and haul hay just about every day in the summer and we just got that new Universal Gym at school and I get on it every once in a while.  And boy if Coach Ratledge says jump, I say how high on the way up.

Old Joe:  You have no idea.  It's about being dedicated to getting stronger and bigger. You've got to hit the weight room all year round.   Like momma always tells you, eat your vegetables.   Fried frog legs that you and Arthur Bright just caught won't do you much good.  And stay away from the bench press.  It seems like all you do.  It won't really help you much.

Young Joe:  Anything else?  I really want to be a football star.

Old Joe:   Quit worrying about being a star.   Just be the best you can be (later, that will be a slogan for the U.S. Army but right now, you don't really want to know about the Army what with Vietnam and all) and believe in yourself.   Oh, and play everything.   With you, it was all football,  football, football.  Your tennis helps but you should have played basketball and stayed out for the track team.  You need to be more well rounded as an athlete.

Young Joe:  But there aren't many opportunities.  You know that there's not a public tennis court in town. No Little League, only Pinky Russell throwing curve balls at my head down at the ballpark.  No basketball for kids.  There's not even a swimming pool.

Old Joe:  Can't help you much there, bud.  Find a hoop.  Swim in the river.  And quit being afraid  of getting outside your comfort zone.

Young Joe:  Any regrets about your football days?

Old Joe:  Only one.   That I took the dive man (Troy Bowman) instead of the pitch man (Steve Mynatt) in the 1970 football game against Maryville.   Mynatt scored on the play and they beat us 28-35 then went on to win the state championship.   Stop Mynatt and we would have won State.

Young Joe:  Yeah but doesn't that mean that Bowman would have scored the winning touchdown?

Old Joe:  Shut up, kid.

Camp Blackberry.

At the end of this story, you're gonna think that my wife and I are completely nuts or that we're pretty good grandparents.

The 1st Annual Camp Blackberry started last Saturday and ends today.   The name is a combination of our family name and the fact that we grow blackberries.   I'm writing this mid-week to make the newspaper's deadline so maybe by the time this is printed I will have jumped off a bridge somewhere but right now, I'm OK.

The idea is not an original one--we first learned of Bob and Sue Ramger's week-long camp for their grandkids years ago and have simply waited for the first opportunity to do the same thing. Pam Jarvis helped us turn it up a notch or two.

We've spent the week doing fun, educational things like visit the zoo, swim, go fishing, swim, paint, swim, do the Jr. Ranger program at Cades Cove, swim,  and make lots of crafty things that my Martha Stewart-esque wife came up with.

There have been non-competitive competitions and story time and swimming...did I mention swimming?  It seems you can stick a kid in a pool and they will stay until they become prunes or suffer hypothermia, whichever comes first.

And despite pool-side potties, I'm pretty sure our pool would test quite positive for urine.

We went camping (which was only a semi-catastrophe-- the two youngest ones refused to sleep) and cooked breakfast the next morning over an open fire. 

We got one of those "pusher" bikes that don't have pedals or brakes but which teach a kid to truly ride a two-wheeled vehicle.  The week's objective included getting the training wheels off of at least one bicycle.

We've painted every day, partly because the arts are important to becoming well rounded and creative and, well, it is just plain fun especially when it doesn't matter what kind of mess you make.

We picked apples from our "orchard" and talked about Johnny Appleseed.   We talked about where food came from and what it means to be good stewards of the land and why farmers are so important.

Along the way, we hope that they learned new worlds, experienced new foods, and maybe stepped out of their comfort zones, although I'm pretty sure that the 2 year-old and the 3 year-old considered getting outside their comfort zone the mental equivalent of jumping off a cliff.

Four grandkids, the oldest of which turned 6 this week and the youngest only two.   24/7 for 8 days.  By the end of the first full day, I was questioning my sanity.  By the end of the third, I knew the answer.  It was maybe the hardest thing I've ever done and easily the most intense single week of my life.

Meals, diapers, conflicts, baths, snacks, excursions, sleeping, waking, clothes changes, clothes washing, dish washing, food prep, snack prep, messes cleaned, conflicts dealt with.  Up at 6, bed at 11 and ne'er a quiet moment between.  There's a reason that only the young should have children.

But already, at mid-week, I can feel the bonds growing.  I know them better now than ever in their lives.  I understand them better too.  Today, I'm celebrating the end but also looking forward to doing it again next year.

So what's that got to do with sports ?   It is highly likely that these kids will be athletes.   An active lifestyle is part of their genetic makeup and that usually leads to one or more sports. 

And they will arrive in the sports arena believing in themselves with the self-confidence to push their limits and knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that they will have family support in everything that they do.

POSTSCRIPT:   The 1st Annual Camp Blackberry officially ended about 6 PM yesterday when I played Taps on my bugle and we folded the camp banner.   But it really ended about 11 PM when the parents got home.  We had decided that they should wake up in their own home by their parents so we took them home and put them to bed in their own beds.

Let me say that it was everything that it should have been and probably nothing that you would have expected.   You would think that we would have been looking for fun times and entertainment.   Maybe that happened but I was too distracted by the moment to moment experience to notice.   What we got was something much more important.   We now understand our grandchildren much, much better.   Our love, already unconditional, became deeper and broader.  

If you're a FaceBook friend of mine, you can check out the photos for a glimpse of the week.