[cowgirljenn]

I'm a worrier, but for some reason I don't worry about the things we're exposed to. Probably part of that is being married to a toxicologist - he studies this stuff and he's not wrapping me in bubble wrap.

I do have a card in my wallet that lists all the bad diseases I might be exposed to when we're out helping seize animals. Got it when I went through neglect/abuse investigator training. Their thought was that if any of us ever got sick with something mysterious, we could give the doctor a list of our occupational hazards. (I just think it amusing as I doubt I'll be really exposed to all or any of it... )

[goneriding24]

You forgot to add that the world is coming to an end dec 12 2012...

Not to be nit-picky (wait, isn't a nit a bug of some sort?), but isn't it the 22nd or 23rd?? Gives you a few extra days to obsess over being obsessed about being obliterated??

[SwampYankee]

Add toxoplasmosis to the "list" -- it makes rodents lose their fear of cats and affects human brains, too -
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1104102125.htm

My cats would LOVE to take over my brain--I'm sure they're plotting it as we speak. Toxoplasmosis aside . . .

[SwampYankee]

I've gotten to the part where I've stopped worrying and learned to love the bomb that could be the end of the world. LOL

I'm currently absolutely obsessed with one horse's arthritis, which is leading me to obsess about all happenings at my barn, because OMG WHAT ELSE AM I MISSING?

Remember back when we were 7 or 8, and the worst fate to befall us was to have to ride that ugly pony who wouldn't trot without being a jerk in our up-down lessons? That was nice. I could handle that again.

THIS! I have this perfectionist complex that tells me if I'm doing my job right, no horse should ever go lame, have an abcess, get rain-rot, or fall down & croak because they're 35 years old! If they do, I'VE MISSED SOMETHING . . .

Yet more threats--once I a week I visit NY, which I think of as "Mayor Bloomberg's Gotham Theme Park." Which is a lot of fun, but the person on the subway next to me may have just landed from Calcutta or the Congo and be packing TB, Hep C, polio, chlamyida, or Ebola. Doesn't exactly make you want to touch the furnishings . . . I practice standing up without holding on, much as our horses have to on trailers!

And that's before we get to "security theater" . . .

[Kinsella]

You forgot to add that the world is coming to an end dec 12 2012...

Since I'll be on a trans-pacific flight that day, does that mean I'll not have anywhere to land? Should I add that to my worry list???



Seriously though, I see no point in worrying - take the precautions you can and don't forget to live life to the fullest. At least that way you'll die not regretting or having missed out on anything.

[saultgirl]

Lol, ignorance truly is bliss, isn't it!

[erniewalker]

Since I'll be on a trans-pacific flight that day, does that mean I'll not have anywhere to land? Should I add that to my worry list?

Wasn't there a Stephen King book about that?

[ambar]

Nope, can't say as I worry about any of that. Not to panic/stress point anyway. I vaccinate my animals, keep the bug & disease breeding substances under control (standing water, weeds, fecal matter) and I wash my hands.

I'm 50, in good health, and I have a roof over my head, food on the table, extra cash in the bank, and no one is shooting at me. I have NOTHING to complain of.

What you said (okay, I'm in my 40s). My mantra is, "That's what we have immune systems for."

[katyb]

I am a worrier. I drove everyone crazy on our last camping trip - but, seriously, you just can't put fresh food by ground meat. That's nasty.

I don't think my worrying is unwarranted - my husband had cancer at 38 with very little chance of survival (six years out, doing well), and my younger son has a broken neck right now (bicycle, not horse, related). Still, worrying doesn't stop that kind of stuff from happening....but my worrying/research helped my husband to survive, and my insistence on a helmet for even the 1/4 mile bike ride on a private, flat, paved road certainly improved the kid's outcome. I wish I could let the pointless kind of worrying go, but I haven't figured that out yet.

[5]

And if THAT ain't enough to keep you wall-eyed and wide awake in the dark, it's Think Pink Month, Ladies!

In San Diego a goat was taken for a pink pedicure to hammer that one through.

You forgot to mention 2012, chemtrails, shadow people, the illuminati, space aliens, and the flying spagetti monster worshiping pastafarians.

[GingerJumper]

I have clinical anxiety and cannot take medication for it, so I've learned to cope. Do something a little mind numbing when your mind starts racing, like playing a video game or reading a really dull book. Thinking about all the potential risks in life doesn't help anything. Be happy.

[SwampYankee]

I have thought for some time that we are being very carefully conditioned by Madison Avenue (MadMen Alert!) to look at life as a conglomeration of "risk factors." Most of which conflict. This keeps us nice and busy obsessing about the virtues of kiwi-fruit smoothies vs. coffee enemas vs. PSA tests and full-body MRI scans. Kaching, kaching, with nearly nobody thinking about what really happens to our money.

Like most people, I used to worship science as the Arbiter of Reality, the Last Word. Until I read enough to learn how truly incomplete, poorly designed, spun, fraudulent or just plain crappy a lot of it is.

As the Grateful Dead sang, "It's all too clear we're on our own!"

[pony grandma]

H E double L I think we're all mutants anyway. Man 100 yrs ago couldn't walk across the street and breathe the bus fumes we do.

I agree, playing in the dirt and a good case of childhood impetigo will cure you.

I also only use water on my face. maybe some soap on my hands.

[goneriding24]

I have thought for some time that we are being very carefully conditioned by Madison Avenue (MadMen Alert!) to look at life as a conglomeration of "risk factors." Most of which conflict. This keeps us nice and busy obsessing about the virtues of kiwi-fruit smoothies vs. coffee enemas vs. PSA tests and full-body MRI scans. Kaching, kaching, with nearly nobody thinking about what really happens to our money.

Actually, for me, it was after I was in my bad auto wreck when I thought I was going to die that I 'learned' to let it all go. I don't give a good g*dd*mn any more. When you think you are dying and looking at the sky seeing a walkway to heaven, to the sun, thinking you can get up and walk through the windshield, the stuff on this planet ain't that big in the great scheme of things. Then, dealing with all the doctors afterward, after hospital, some days I went to three doctors, can't remember how many during the weeks. I wasn't getting better or healing. 'Our' attorneys were pushing this and that and the insurance company wanted this or that. One day I woke up and said the h*ll with it and doing it my way. I started healing from that moment on. I could feel it in my body, too.

So, yeah, I have awareness overload in that it's not that big a deal, relax and pop a Corona/Pepsi. Your time comes when it comes.

[skyy]

I'm a big believer in the "a little dirt is good for you" plan. My sister has raised her kids to believe that dirt is evil and is constantly wiping their hands with sanitizer and hand wipes (it's a little weird because they are 10 and 12 but that's another story). They were never allowed to get dirty and they are constantly sick. My daughter's been playing in barn dirt since she was 18 months old (now 14) and I can count on 1 hand the number of days she's missed school (for non horse related reasons )

[SwampYankee]

NOT playing in barn dirt is not an option here. On a good day the mud's only up to my ankles!