On a bit of a trip.

Apologies for lack of posts. I am in Bangkok, Thailand. 

Years ago my friend and mentor, John Gardner taught me a fine lesson. Well, except for the fact that I have to learn it over and over. Why? I ask myself is it so very hard to change my ways?

At the time of the lesson, I drove to see him in an extremely funky old fourth hand car. The tires were bald that you could see the fabric on all four. When I awoke with a flat tire, John kindly asked me  to explain my theory about the tire. I said that I had hoped they would be fine as I didn't want to spend the money replacing them. (I probably didn't have the money.) I implied that maybe they would get better. John sat me down and told me that he was going to buy me new tires but that he wanted me to understand that "Tires don't get better."

Somehow this was a life lesson. Teeth that hurt didn't get better. If my evil dentist in Oregon told me they were fine and they still hurt, then I needed a new dentist, not the hope that the pain was an illusion.

Now, the reason this has come up on my first day in Bangkok is that I got this huge blister on my heel walking Bella to school (running actually) last week in a pair of boots that I wore without socks because I was in a hurry. The blister killed, but I didn't really look at it because I decided to wear flip flops and it would air out. Air out it did and also got infected. So I have arrived in Thailand with an infection on my foot that I could have avoided if I had taken ten minutes to wash it and put antibiotic cream on it. Foot infection in a tropical country is such a no-no I can't even let myself contemplate it.

Sometimes I am the dumbest person I know. Susan Dodge reminded me of this when I got sick last year with parasites. So, Susan, I will go to a doctor before I need an amputation. And John, I am trying to learn your lesson of taking care of things before they are terminal, things that can't take care of themselves by magic.