No, this isn't about gettin' Grampa likkered up--or keeping him away from "the bottle". This post is about common sense things to help Grampa survive--lots of water, lotions, occasional Vaseline, milk and other healthy liquids.
Gramma Rosie is hacking up a lung, again! Her colds seem to come often. I'm afraid she hasn't met a germ she doesn't like or make a home for in her sinuses. Staying up late for DVD Britcom giggles and reading romances till the wee hours, run down her resistance and she's a sucker for anything that smells like a virus.
Once she gets sick, we try to keep her warm, get her to bed a little earlier and ply her with water, juice and lots of Esther C tablets. Once the horse has left the barn, however, it's tough to get it under control, especially when Gramma Rosie objects to all the exercise she's getting running down the hall all through the night!
Asking her where her water bottle is and measuring her liquid consumption leads to grief, no matter how kindly the inquiry.
Over the years I've tried to follow good health rules. My friend Film Director and Screen Writer Craig Clyde says colds are a matter of attitude--and not shaking hands and transmitting ugly germs up your nose. He hasn't had a cold for years and years!
Here's a note or two about "lubrications" that make sense when it comes to life and living.
WATER - The old rule of eight glasses a day is a good one. I try to keep a bottle or two in the fridge and I enjoy downing the clear cold liquid. The coldness of it appeals to me. I remember the old song that used to be in the LDS Hymn book (quoted with zest by the late LeGrand Richards, "Take away the coffee, take away the tea, Cold Water is the drink for me!"
In my Internet "research" I discovered that the singer Cher will only drink water out of glass bottles. I don't know why that is so, I know there is a movement afoot to ban plastic drinking bottles from landfills. I'm still looking into the potential problem with plastic molecules being transferred to the water. Anybody know anything about this. I'll keep looking.
LOTIONS - I usually buy the least expensive lotions I can at Walmart. In my current chubby personality I have been known to chaffe--and lotion works much better than baby powder. I tried powder and included some cornstarch one summer. All I succeeded in doing was covering everything in the bedroom with a fine white mist. Lotion doesn't do that.
VASELINE - Riggers on Ocean based platforms discovered Vaseline as a healing by product from the oil wells they were drilling. Mothers use it as a way to fight diaper rash. I bought a tube of it today, thinking it might last a little longer than the lotion I'd been using on my hands. (They were dry from the dust I'd kicked up bunging out a shed in the back yard) I was surprised at how long the vaseline stayed on my hands. I wanted my money's worth, so I kept rubbing it in. Finally it was absorbed and my hands are much better, thanks. Not quite so dry--Cornhusker's lotion will work well for that, too!
MILK - I'm not lactose intolerant, (there are pills for that). I get most of my calcium with cheese--how I love a good Bleu Cheese, Gorganzola (or, as Gramma Rosie holds her nose and calls it 'Stinky Feet Cheese'. ) Swiss is great. Provalone. I search out little bakeries that make sour dough bread in big round loaves and toast fresh slices to almost a brittleness before crunching into some good quality artisianal bread and fine cheese.
Did you know that beef provides an incomplete protein and it's a good idea to drink a little milk after a hamburger or a fine pot roast meal? I'd like to know more about this, but I think I heard correctly!
I eat my morning cereal with yogurt instead of milk. It makes for a thicker consistency. I also add a handful of raisins for a morning "gorp" that's quite satisfying. My good friend Peter Bennee makes a porridge with raisins, coarse ground wheat and oatmeal. I'll have to get the recipe and pass it along.
FINE WINE - Gramma Rosie has a number of cooking wines, even a six pack of Guinness Stout for the best gravies I've ever eaten. Rosie assures me that the alcohol cooks off, so we can keep our committment to avoid strong drink. I chuckle at our former neighbors. His family loves fine wine in cooking. Her family objects for a number of temperance reasons. The compromise they have worked out is that she will use it occasionally in her cooking and they will call it, "French Cooking Juice." Abstinence is on the palette of the beholder, I guess.
GENEROUS HOT WATER in the Shower - During the years I batched in Branson, Missouri, working for the Osmonds on stage--as Emcee and Santa, I learned the value of a bigger hot water tank and a generous flow to "wake me up" in the morning. I rented a little cottage from a good friend that had a very small hot water tank and a tiny little nozzle. On cold winter days I hurried in, lathered up, rinsed off and rushed back to bed under a goodly supply of blankets and quilts to dry off and warm up. You never miss a good thing, until you suddenly have no central heating and not much more than a drip or two of warm water for your shower!
I could go on about the value of soaking your feet before trimming your nails--or all the things I've learned as the laundry man at our house to save Gramma Rosie from climbing up and down stairs with her arthritis.
The best advice about lubricating Grampa is to avoid Partch-ed-ness both inside and out! JRH
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