My Emancipation Day

During the Middle Ages, if a serf could escape his lord’s fiefdom, make his way to the Big City [by our reckoning, any fair-sized town] and remain there undetected by his lord for a-year-and-a-day his lord could not force him to return to his enforced subsistence living on the estate. I guess whatever monarch created that law recognized that people who could meet that standard were of more use to the nation’s economy where they were rather than toiling for a local lord. After all, peasants in the towns were beholden to the king and paid taxes. Medieval kings were lots of things—but most of them weren’t fools.

Today marks that date, for me. I have officially escaped the northlands of Missouri and lo, and behold, I’ve found an amazing sea-change occurring!

1] I was the hermit’s hermit in Kansas City. I ran a private practice which did not require that I go to a central office more than once every few months.
So, after completing my training [several years after leaving school] I had little contact with colleagues. I met with clients on a weekly basis about 3 days per week either in their homes or at mine—bought groceries on the 3rd day—went home and pulled the moat in after me and that was IT for the week. I spent the rest of my time writing notes for work, doing my billings and blogging and playing on the computer.
Very rarely, maybe once every four to six months, I visited friends—at their suggestion.

Today, I have a fair-sized community outside my door and spend several days a week visiting friends, going out to eat regularly and even to a movie about once weekly [senior discounts help greatly, here.]
I NEVER used to attend movies—I waited for someone to post the best-known ones on the internet and downloaded them or bought the DVD. Most movies I never even heard of—so did neither. And, I ate at fast food places during the work week but rarely did so on weekends. I could count on one hand the number of times yearly that I went to nicer restaurants— usually carrying a book along.

2] I’m fairly certain that I’m finally getting over a chronic infection I’ve been battling since 1999. The one the docs told me didn’t exist—though I knew SOMETHING was wrong—and which was finally diagnosed by a clerk in a health food store, fergoshsakes! I’d made headway with it before but always slipped back. Somehow, now [maybe due to the increase in exercise or a change in diet or whatever], I sense real progress, happening here.

Also, the chronic back pain which I had resigned myself to and was battling with pain killers [though I feared for my liver] is subsiding. A combination of inversion therapy and increased exercise is almost certainly the reason for the change.

3] I have 2 pictures posted over my computer. One is the aftermath of an ice storm in Salina, KS that actually made the front page of the St. Petersburg Times. The other is a downloaded pic of a parka-ed, hooded figure crossing a parking lot full of cars each with about 6 inches of snow on its roof and windshield.
I find myself eyeing those photos more and more skeptically. Snow actually exists? Assuming that IS true and it’s not just some propaganda put out by DC for its own nefarious purposes, why in the world would anyone actually LIVE where such nastiness occurs? Sure, Florida has hurricanes on occasion—but we can’t be assured we’ll get several EVERY SINGLE YEAR, fergoshsakes! If that happened, I’m certain there’d be a mass exodus to places more suitable for human habitation.

So, I can come out in the open now and declare: I’M FREE FROM THE SERF-LORDS OF THE NORTH! Maybe I’ll change my name again. How does Two Crows Freedwomyn grab you? :)