Saturday, July 21, 2012

Day 16-Ice Cream Man!

I am convinced that life acts in funny, odd ways.  When we were younger, the ice cream man filled our youth with happiness and excitement.  The adrenaline rush was our ultimate high...chasing the circus music as it blared throughout the neighborhood, scrounging around for spare change under the couch cushions, and running like hell, as fast as you can just for that strawberry eclair or the red, white, and blue rocket popsicle. 


And now, sitting in a nursing rehab facility, helping dad get comfy, trying to relieve his pain, it has all come down realizing that the older we get, the ice cream man no longer has the same magical effect as it did in our youth. 

Sadly, the excitement is spent waiting and counting the hours on a daily basis until the medicine push cart comes around. It's just a small cart on wheels filled with oxycontin and other pain relieving drugs.  You don't have to chase this cart, and medicare pays for the goodies inside.  There are no stickers or decals on it, no scary man with a scraggly beard pushing it, no music blaring throughout the halls of the nursing unit, nothing...just a plain, small, cart.


So I say, let's bring cheer to the nursing home! Put a stereo system on it, make drug time a happy time, don't take away our youth! Oh, and let's hook up a cooler filled with ice cream too.

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