Hobbits are Tolkien minorities

Here, in one flash ad campaign, is the reason we never have to worry about Europe posing any threat to anyone.
Happy Holidays from Rail Europe

It's totally counter-intuitive, and besides that it makes no sense. But it works.
After lunch I watched more of the swimming video that goes with the book, "Total Immersion." I watched drills that go beyond the reading I've done just to see what's ahead and how I'm going to go from floating on my back to swimming smoothly and efficiently. How bad am I in the water? I found myself feeling tense just watching those drills.
Later I went to the pool. I'm committed to following the directions to the letter, which means starting each pool session with the first drill no matter how well I was doing it last time. Today I did that drill more efficiently and effectively than I have to date. The second drill, which was giving me trouble last time, went so well I couldn't help but smile as I did my laps. Then I tried the third drill for the first time. Piece of cake!
I find myself looking forward to my pool sessions, a big change from just a month ago. I'm not even swimming yet, but the most elementary drills give me a sense of what fun it must be to swim effortlessly and efficiently. I am determined to get there!
Why all of this? You don't stop learning new things because you get old, you get old because you stop learning new things. Swimming, a foreign language, how to knit or do paper mache, play guitar...you don't have to get good at it, or even decent. Learn something new in 2009, no matter how old you are. It will keep/make you young.

Alas, I won't be able to go to the pool tomorrow.
I report to the hospital at 9:30 for an injection of something that falls within the nuclear medicine department. It has to circulate in my body for a few hours because it helps the surgeon see what he needs to see using instruments with mysterious powers available only to the initiated.
Shortly before 1:30 they'll wheel me into the operating room where Dr. Cooper will spend the next 45 -90 minutes taking out one or more parathyroid glands. They should release me to go home around 5:00, give or take.
Literally within hours my calcium levels should return to normal from their current significantly elevated levels. I'm told I might have some trouble swallowing for a couple of days, and my neck will probably be sore. But the incision is small, typically under 2", so it's considered minimally invasive surgery.
Some of the symptoms of my condition will disappear almost immediately. I'm looking forward to sleeping through the night and dumping the acid reflux. Other symptoms, like the lack of energy and frequent sadness will take one to two months to improve, and the osteoporosis can take more than a year to reverse. The endocrinologist will probably put me on calcium supplements and maybe some Vitamin D to speed the healing process along.
I'm not the least bit anxious about this. Right now the only thing that concerns me is how I'm going to get from midnight - my last opportunity for any food or liquid of any kind - to 1:30 tomorrow afternoon. I'm sure my pulse will jump a little as I get closer to the gurney but that happens every two or three years when I go to the dentist. It's the natural result of being in a new and strange environment where you'll be going through something out of the norm (or Una Jean).
I am thankful for medicine's advances and for a doctor who spotted something many would have missed and who then pursued it until a diagnosis was made. The benefits of this procedure far outweigh any temporary inconvenience.
But if you don't see a blog post tomorrow night you'll know why. I'm either still spaced out from the anesthesia or puking my guts out from an adverse affect to it. This will be my first experience with general anesthesia so we'll just have to wait and see how I respond.
'til then...g'night!