756 Craft Fair; Back Hurting

I went to the craft fair at the fairgrounds. This is the second one this year. I go even if I don't intend to buy anything because everything is so beautiful. It most certainly isn't junk. It's like a big collection of boutiques. There are usually more than 300 vendors, and one building is all almost all foods, with samples offered (including tastes from many local wineries).

There used to be one fair per year in Rhinebeck, and one in New Paltz, Memorial Day and Labor Day. Now there are several during the year, and I don't understand why, because you overhear the vendors telling each other they haven't sold much of anything, and complaining about all the lookers and no buyers. I hear it a dozen times every visit.

Partly it's because things are so ridiculously expensive. There was a woman who had short jackets made of the same iridescent Thai silk I've been buying (direct from Thailand) for $7 or less a 45"-wide yard. The jackets use no more than a yard and a half each (including the lining in a lighter silk), and are a simple design. Once you got going, and cut the patterns en masse, you could make them at the rate of one an hour. She wanted $275. Are you kidding me? Everything was like that. There's a jeweler who wraps stone in gold wire, and I look at his stuff every visit. The "Australian opal in matrix" pendants that I salivate over every visit have gone from $135 to $760. Sorry. There are things you want and things you need. $760 is way past want and the pendant is nowhere near need.

I didn't buy anything - not even food - this time. I took a bottle of water with me ($.88 at the deli Vs. $2.00 at the fair) and an egg salad sandwich.

I seem to be having trouble with my back. I had pain on the top back of my left hip when I got to the fairgrounds, and within the first hour of walking around, it had moved to a belt of crampy pain around my waist. To lighten my purse (for carrying the water) I had removed the cosmetic bag, which happened to also contain my aspirin, so I had nothing for the pain.

After almost three hours of looking at stuff, my right leg was dragging, and if I wasn't careful, I kept staggering to the left. The right leg wasn't lifting from the hip, and the left knee felt weak. At least twice when I staggered too far left I almost fell. I looked drunk. I couldn't seem to walk straight.

I keep saying I'm healthy. I have no conditions that require monitoring, treatment, or medication. My blood pressure is good, cholesterol total was a bit high, but the ratio of HLD to LLD was also extremely high, which is good (and I suspect that since I've improved my diet and lost weight the total is now lower), and so on.

But I have pain. A lot. Always. Everywhere. It's my spine. Old injuries. And a mild fibromyalgia (I have almost all the pressure points). Sometimes my legs don't work so well. I can walk and walk for miles and miles, even when they're acting badly. It's just that sometimes I fall down or to the side, because the knee or thigh muscles just quit suddenly, or I have difficulty standing up after sitting for a while. It's like sometimes my legs just aren't listening! They don't pay attention.

I know that I have to sit and stand straight, keep my weight well balanced. If I slump, it causes problems in my spine. Shifts the weight badly (my bust is heavy, I guess). I'm probably having more difficulty now than I've had in a while because I've been feeling pretty sad and miserable lately, and I've been slumping. At home I've been frumping around all folded up, shoulders rolled forward, spine curved forward, like I have a bellyache, or like I'm expecting a beating. I don't do it in public. In public I'm straight.

Maybe I should spend more time in public.

Piper knows how I've been feeling. He left on a ten-day vacation today with his lady Di, but he called while I was out to see how I was, and he left his cell number "in case I need him". ( His thinly-disguised excuse for the call was to verify that I had received the check I needed to pay the estimated taxes. The tax payment was due on the 15th. He knows durn well that if I hadn't received the check before then, I'd have been pounding on his door! ) It was very thoughtful of him. I appreciate his concern.