Is That a Rhetorical Question?

Tomorrow I have a doctor’s appointment for my semi-annual check-up.  It never fails; when he walks into the room, he always says, “How are you?” Is this just a bit of civility on his part, or does he really want me to tell him how I am? I never know what to say, so I say, “I’m fine. How are you?”

Does he want to hear  the normal stuff that happens when our bodies age? We have painful knees, hips, and our hair is thinning. Does he want to know that our blood pressure is up (or down) and our weight fluctuates, but never changes enough to be happy if it goes down or worried if it goes up. Does he care to hear that we have cavities that need to be filled? Does he want to hear that we have the blues or if we are happy as larks? Does he care that we can have diarrhea one day and constipation the next? Does he want to hear that we don’t take our medication as regularly as we should because we just can’t remember to take it? Does he want to hear about our age spots and dry skin? And what about the dizziness that sometimes hits when you are in public and causes you to stagger or walk a bit off kilter,to say nothing of the acute embarrassment which accompanies the bit of a stagger?

I don’t know what the hell he means when he says, “How are you?”  so unless I have extreme pain or an open, bloody wound, I will just continue to say, “Fine, thank you. How are you?”

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A few days ago we received a letter from the IRS agreeing that we do not owe the thousands of dollars  they said we did. Thank heavens! I have only one thing to say to the person or computer who decided that it was necessary to bring me to the brink of a stroke. I would like to say (or sing), “Neh, neh, neh, neh, neh!” You can add you own favorite little melody to the nehs.