I AM NOT A LIZARD!

Today I picked up two refills from the pharmacy over at Chinese Hospital (東華醫院藥房 'tung waa yi yuen yeuk fong') after which I purchased some ciggies (五葉神香煙) and had lunch.
I noticed, while removing the densely folded fine print multi-page warning glued to container tops, that the yellow warning flaps attached to the labels of both said substantially the same thing: "do not get pregnant while taking this" and "don't take this while pregnant".

"DON'T BE PREGGERS!"

Ladies, there is no fear of that. Set your mind at ease on that score. I'm too old, masculine, and quite unattached. Pregnacy is in several ways so far the very least of my worries. Three of the four other medications, refilled last month, advise me that they may cause dizziness, and at least one of them tells me that if I'm nursing I must talk to my doctor or pharmacist. Which, if it happens, I certainly will.

Recently I realized that I must be in much better condition than I have been for a long time. Raynaud's phenomenon is no longer a thing. In the past if it got any colder than fifty seven degrees Fahrenheit my fingers would turn greyish-white, then dark blue. A circulatory issue.
It has, several times these past few weeks, been significantly colder than that. This evening the temperature went down to forty nine degrees. Not a peep out of my fingers. They were fine. I haven't worn gloves even once this year. Which means that I am no longer reptilian.

The creature in the illustration below is a huggable warm-blooded mammal.

Credit goes to my regular care physician at Chinese Hospital, the staff there, my primary cardiologist, and the cardiologist who did the angioplasty on the leg recently. All of them except the last mentioned are Cantonese Americans, the angioplasterer is Vietnamese American. Only one of them has lectured me severly about smoking.

The ladies in the pharmacy used to holler at me that smoking was dangerous and I should quit, but they've given up on that. Very likely their hearts weren't into it, because over ninety percent of the gentlemen they see there are crusty old farts who reek of tobacco, and very many of us keep coming back. Women, not so much.


A well-filled group three will last about fifty minutes. I had barely emptied the ashes when the book-seller arrived. As we passed the karaoke bar I could tell that there were too many 鬼佬 (non-Chinese) there. After we had been at the burger place the karaoke joint was even more crowded, packed, and exceedingly loud.

So we headed directly elsewhere. 嗰度都有太多鬼佬！But no karaoke machine, so more tolerable. There are only so many times one can hear 'Hotel California' or 'Country Roads' before one says enough, no more, my foot is down.


The wise do not drink on New Year's Eve.
Which is tomorrow.



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