h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Or she was between flare-ups. My sister has fibromyalgia. Some days she can do things, others not. I sometimes get mid-week calls to play piano at the church on a Sunday. Chronic conditions, particularly autoimmune disorders, vary a lot from person to person.

I walk around with a cane I paid two dollars for - sometimes my back goes out in mid-stride and I'm wobbly. A woman at the church laughed at me and said I 'got around pretty well' for somebody using a cane. I explained.

I saw her at church last week - she's taken to using a cane because her back condition worsened. 'I decided on your solution,' she said.

I keep a cane in my car just in case I need it. It may come in handy if I need to fend off a turkey.

Hopefully I can put off the need for a cane some more years. (should be possible, at 47). I remember using the old ones from my grandmother to play hockey with my brothers. (not competitively)

I was at uni (undergrad) and managed to twist my knee. Rehab was suggested, also a cane. Bought one cheap in a local shop downtown (benefit of urban campus, which most Americans don't have). Did my exercises, got better.

A few weeks later my grandparents arrived in town to visit. My grandfather was having trouble getting around because my grandmother, in her zeal to keep him from looking 'countrified', had forbidden him to bring his homemade walking stick. And he had BIG problems with his knees.

(In revenge, he put his twist of Red Ox chewing tobacco in her purse. They hand-searched carry-on luggage at that time and she was not pleased when the young person found that next to her more ladylike tin of snuff.)

Mom called me at uni and I came out with my cane. Granddaddy thought it was very fine and we were both pleased - he with the gift and me with the opportunity to do something for him.

One of the nicest feelings is that you were able to make someone happy with something simple and fairly easy. My church is encouraging parishioners to buy cookies so they can be donated to the local V.A. hospital*. Every Saturday I do my laundry at the laundromat, which is next to the Dollar Tree. I buy cookies there while my laundry is being washed, put the cookies in the car, and they're available the next day wen I go to church.

*The V.A. hospital has a budget for coffee, but not for anything to eat

It's a shame the V.A. hospital wouldn't have enough budget for cookies. But it's good that this works out - nothing wrong with the stuff at the Dollar Tree or Dollar General.