I wish I had good news and bad news, but the good news seems to be either sparse or nonexistent. I just got back from my doctor. For the bast few mouths, my Lap-Band has been defilled to empty. I have gained over 30 pounds because of lack of band restriction, lack of will-power and because my right knee has stopped me from exercising or even walking more than a few minutes. My right knee has been scoped thrice and my left knee twice.

I had an MRI last week and went to see my doctor about the results today. I need a new knee. I was hoping to go back to work and had a job offer that would have allowed me to put at least $25,000 in the bank between now and my 62nd birthday, when the 6 month contract would have been completed and I would have stopped working and applied for Social Security.

“Forget that” said the doctor. Too much damage to the knee. One missing cartilage, one cartilage torn, a lot of arthritis and a Baker's cyst. I started on “chicken beak” injections today. Actually they are called Hyalgan injections and they are made from the combs of roosters. The series of 5 weekly Hyalgan injections are supposed to fill in the gaps between the bones in the knee joint so that there will be some relief.

Hopefully, I can start exercising, get a fill, lose some weight and be in better shape to accept an artificial knee in a year or so. I now have to figure a way to make some money without doing manual labor or constant walking. How would I look as a 61 year old Dominoes pizza Delivery Boy?

My husband suffers from the same "abuse"! One day his poor ears may fall off.

I try really hard not to be misunderstood. That's one reason I use so many words. Another is that when someone relates a personal story, I want them to know that I understand what they've said, and so that they believe me, I tell them of a similar experience that I've had. I think it is probably very off-putting for some people because they think I'm trying to turn their story into something that is about ME. But I don't know how to participate in a two-way discussion any other way.

And I haven't been able to overcome my years of working for attorneys, who as we all know, use 30 words when 2 will do.

In my case, it was not attorneys, but working in the aviation industry which helped to shape my Quest for verbal perfection. It was definitely a family trait, perfectionism as much as talking, but being afraid to bring down a plane full of people was a contributing factor.

I became extremely good at my job and other mechanics would compete against me, in a situation similar to the old West's top gunslinger syndrome. If any mechanic could show me up, he would become "Top-Gun" because, most people knew that TOM was “Top-Gun” at fixing planes.

For about 5 years, I did not work on planes, but instead worked on the simulators that the pilots practiced on. One day, as my fellow technician Keith was leaving for the day as his shift was ending and mine beginning, we exchanged information on two problems. I knew how to fix what had been troubling him and he knew the procedure for something that had confounded me.

The next day, we crossed paths again and both of us said that we were unable to solve our problems by applying each other's advice. We then each demonstrated on the the simulators in question what we had explained the previous day.

Keith blamed me for not explaining properly the instructions I gave him which stopped him from being able to fix his problem.

Then, Keith blamed me for not understanding properly the instructions he gave to me which stopped me from being able to fix my problem.

So I asked, “if we were playing 'catch' and I threw you the ball and you didn't catch it, is my fault for throwing the ball wrong?”

“Correct.”

“And if you threw you the ball back to me and I didn't catch it, is my fault for trying to catch the ball wrong?”

“Right.”

“Why is it always my fault?”

“Because you are smarter than me.”

Being good is a heavy burden, but once you lift it, you can never put it down and in fact it will just get heavier and heavier, unless you want to just throw it all away.

TOM: That was great!! I hope you won't mind me sharing it with my DH because he will appreciate it totally.

For some reason I am finding myself wishing I knew you were at American Airlines taking care of the planes I fly on!

We've discussed many times that we fear that the up and coming work force just doesn't have the commitment or training or even smarts that our generation did. Who knows, maybe our parents thought the same thing about us. But I honestly don't think that was the case. My Dad preached loyalty to your employer ad naseum. I still feel that if you work for someone, you give them everything you've got and are loyal in every situation. The times that I've voiced that to some of the younger generation however, they all ask why they should be loyal to a corporation that isn't loyal to its' workers. Hmmm. They do make a point.