"The Road Through Life is Long and Rocky..."

I'm wrapping up a trip to Sacramento, CA with Mrs. FA and Offspring 1.4.   The M.I.N.D. Institute is home to a wonderful collection of researchers and clinicians who've help us tremendously over the past eight years.  For supper last night, we headed down to Old Sacramento and dined at Joe's Crab Shack, right on the river.

A feast of shrimp, potatoes, and corn.  Non-Yankees know this as
"Low Country Boil".  Oops, it's missing sausage...

Lucky for me, it was Twosday Night: 2 lbs. of steamed shrimp for a reasonable price.  These are the peel-n-eat variety, requiring a significant amount of manual labor to peel before you can get to the "eat" part.

Parkinson's Disease has left me just enough manual dexterity in the fingers of my right hand to do this.  But let's just say it's not a rapid process.  It's requires surprisingly intense concentration and eventually causes lots of muscle tension.  Then a wee bit of cramping in other muscle groups.  This delicious meal eventually becomes a literal pain-in-the-neck.

The photo above was taken during a break about halfway through the bucket.  More beer was required.  Once Half-Time was over, I dug in again.  I love good shrimp, and this was definitely good stuff.  Unfortunately, I was slowing down the rest of the family.  Time expired before I could declare total victory.  Mrs. FA and Offspring 1.4 had consumed their main course, and the Mrs. was halfway through a big slice of Key Lime Pie.  I wanted some of that.

Peeling shrimp is worth the effort.  Occasionally during the meal, I would start to feel anxious about the future time when it might not be possible to do that on my own.  Age and arthritis will make this difficult for just about anyone who loves shrimp and lives long enough.  So I focus on this instead: eat the shrimp and enjoy it while you can.  Wade those trout streams, tie the fly on, and make awkward casts while you can.  None of us are guaranteed another 20 years of shrimp, fly angling, or time with family & friends.  But don't waste your energy on those things that aren't important to you. I like Alaskan crab legs, but not so much that the effort required to extract the meat from its protective shell is worth the neck cramps.

Figure out what's important.  Peel it.  Eat it.  Tie it.  Fly it.  Walk it.  Savor it while you can.  Even if it hurts a little, sometimes.

You probably know this song.  Take another listen anyway...

I like Joe's philosophy
(Replace "beer" with your own "Take Plenty" thing.)