How is that for an answer?

I very comfortably fell asleep with my book on my chest and my glasses on, and woke up in the same position a few hours later because my shoulders hurt. I don't normally fall asleep while lying on my back. On sore knees, I stumbled out of bed to go take the anti-inflammatory pill and a paracetamol and I am now waiting for them to start working, which they should any minute now. At least I now know which of my aches and pains to blame on what rheumatic condition. I think I have become an expert on my own body's failings and know them better than anybody else. That does give me a feeling of comfort and I don't feel that I have to have a medical stamp of approval to own them. They just are and I will take care of them in the best possible way.

 

The good thing about reading a book before I fall asleep, is that I don't fret about anything those first 20 minutes or so until I do. Reading, in this instance, about scientific discoveries, does not give me the opportunity to ruminate about the day I had and the days to come, which is a great relief because I can do that more sensibly during the day. Of course, yesterday there was the news about Alice Munro getting the Nobel Prize for Literature, and I realized that I have none of her books on my bookcase, a condition which I will have to rectify as soon as I can. I know I have read her stories in a distant past, but I can't remember anything about them having read so much literature in my lifetime. If I ever have the money, I will go to the second hand bookstore and try to find some of her collections of stories.

 

I have started drinking concentrated fruit juice with sparkling water on ice and a pleasure it is too. The fruit juice has no sugar or anything artificial added and is just plain good for me and has natural vitamins in it. It is also very thirst quenching because of the bubbles, and that is something I very much need, of course. It is a little like drinking a cold soft drink, but better. The sparkling water comes from the Belgian town of Spa, which is not too far away from here, so I don't have to worry too much about the costs of transportation. The plastic bottles it comes in get recycled. This is one indulgence I am allowing myself and it is one of the highlights of my day. The other one is cooking myself a good dinner.

 

I started taking glucosamine tablets again yesterday because of the osteoarthritis. I had already gotten two bottles of it earlier and they were waiting in the kitchen cabinet for me to start using them. I will take any supplement that is supposed to help me, but I do draw the line at anything too outlandish. If there is too much of a controversy about the benefits of their use, I will not spend my money on getting them. I don't have enough of it to spare. That does remind me that I have to order another bottle of probiotics. Tyke does very well on them. He gets one capsule wrapped in a slice of lunchmeat every morning and has been very healthy ever since. This is the dog who will eat things off the street, so his intestinal system takes a beating, but he is always alright.