The Cardboard Man

First, I haven't been posting here in a long time. I have not been feeling well for a lot longer. Recently a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia was confirmed by two Doctors and now I have the reason I've been so fatigued and in pain. I will tell you more about that later. First a funny story...........


The Cardboard Man

I had an appointment to see a specialist in our capitol city. Bear had to work and I told him it was no problem and I could go alone. After all, he gave me a Garmin Nuvi GPS system for my birthday just so we could find these addresses. (I also have an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Headache Center for pain control later on.) I happened to mention to a friend, Sherrin, in an e-mail the night before the appointment that I was going alone, and she called me early the next morning to ride along. We don't live in the same town, but we met, and she went with me.

I came out of the Dr.s office feeling 'high' because now I knew for sure what was wrong and I had a prescription to make me better. (It didn't hit me till later that I have a life long, uncurable, mostly uncontrollable pain and fatigue illness to deal with on top of the headaches I've suffered all my life. YUK.) So that day Sherrin and I decided to find a restaurant before we headed back to her car and our homes. We had a wonderful lunch and talked, and talked, as only old friends can do. (Sherrin and I graduated together) When we walked out of the restaurant we realized we were on a busy four lane downtown highway at rush hour and we had to cross lanes to go the other way. Sherrin suggested that we try driving around back and see if we could find access to a side street.

That's when it got interesting. When I reached the side street, there was a pile of clothes and other objects laying in my lane. I was going to have to pull over where I would be in the way of anyone trying to pull in. Some choice, run over these personal items of which I couldn't even be sure what was there, or hope no one tried to pull in off the street. I pulled over to miss the pile. And I looked left for traffic so I could pull out. I heard Sherrin make a startled noise and I looked right. OK, now I understand the pile of clothes. About 15-20 feet (sorta, I'm terrible at judging distance) stood a naked man with a cardboard sign held right where it should be covering what we didn't want to see. And Sherrin, who can exaggerate a hillbilly twang like no one else I know when she wants to, said to me, "Ya spose he's wearing anything 'cept that cardboard?" (She breaks me up!!) I said something about not wanting to know and I intended to watch traffic for a break to get out of town. No luck, too much traffic. Then I heard Sherrin gasp again. I had to look. He was coming closer and watching Sherrin eye to eye. I asked Sherrin if her door was locked. Sherrin said, "Nope." I hit the master button on the drivers door and all four locks made a loud THUNK. I caught a little break in traffic and I merged with squealing tires. Once I was in traffic and moving away, I asked Sherrin, "Did he hear the door locks?" Sherrin just said, "YUP". Then I wondered and asked, "What did he do?" Sherrin demonstrated by throwing her arms out and rolled them in the upturned way and said "He threw his arms out like, 'what did I do'".........and the cardboard dropped! We both started laughing. I said something about remembering our trip because of the old man and Sherrin told me he wasn't that old. I said something about not looking at his face to judge age and two old ladies burst out laughing again. Sherrin did say he had on shorts. I didn't ask what kind.

So forever now, my memory of going to the city to learn I have Fibromyalgia, is going to be overshadowed by the cardboard man. By the way neither one of us knows what was written on that cardboard sign. Don't ask us what we were looking at, but I bet she remembers it longer than I do!!