Sorry about not posting last weekend but, as I have said in the past, my wife and I are retired and we do what retired people are supposed to do. We have as much fun as our feeble bodies allow and then try to push a little more. We went to the jazz concert in Hampton, Va. at the convention center. Four days of having fun and listening to jazz. Who could ask for more except for more jazz.

I can’t recall all the artists off the top of my head because there was over a dozen, maybe more. However I took over a hundred pictures (good close ups with my zoom lens) and bought some nice cd’s to boot. We’re already thinking about next year because Stanley Clark and War a couple of the performers. Walter Beasley, Phil Perry, Sheila E and more headed up this year’s lineup. This was not at the Hampton Coliseum but the Hampton Convention Center. There are two jazz programs. One in the spring and one in the fall. Let me move on…

Old Man Winter is finally here and now we can go through it and hope of a warm spring. However, this time of year bring all sorts of colds and flues but I rarely get any of what is going around. As I thought about it and researched it, one thing stuck out. My immune system is still strong as ever and, contrary to popular belief, I know why. At the slightest hint something is about to happen, everyone take this or that and begin trying to get rid of whatever. I don’t, even during those rare cases when I do get something or get ready to get something.

I quit taking the flu shot in nineteen eighty six and can recall having the flu three of four times since then. Before that I had it every year and I truly believe it was because I took the flu shot. The common cold is another rare thing. I may get one a year, sometimes every other year, and it will last only four to five days at the most I haven’t had a sore throat in many, many years (I was a radio DJ and that was not a good thing to have). And now I will tell you why, knowing most will say they disagree.

I let my body fight the ailment and build up a tolerance to it and anything similar to it. Shortly before retiring from the military, it became mandatory to take the flu shot with the assurance you will not get the flu. I got it at least once, sometimes twice, a year anyway. I took the shot for two years after retirement. I got the flu. I missed a year and did not get the flu. The second year I asked myself why take it if I was going to get the flu. I didn’t take the shot and didn’t get the flu. I still don’t take the shot and, like I said, it has come upon me three or four times. I don’t take cold medication and rarely get a cold. If I do, I let my body fight through the ailment and I just suffer through it. It is only about four days and I will be fine until next year. My wife will be all over me and I still don’t get her cold.

I am not telling you how to medicate your body. I am not a doctor. I am talking about me. This is the cold and flu season and there will be a lot of people walking around giving it to others. What I am saying is that your body can fight almost anything if it is given a chance. Then you couple that with being able to, every now and then, suffer through the ailment for a short time. Each time you suffer through it will become shorter and shorter.

Here is another short burp…How many saw me in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on November eleven? An article was about me and two other veterans on page one and continued on page six (with pictures). I was at the jazz concert when the paper was printed but I saved the paper and others saved it for me also. Oh, well…at least it wasn’t a mug shot but it came close. Take care, stay warm and be careful in your travels.