Is This You?: Always willing to test the water

Are you, like me, in awe of someone who can tout and expand on the special effects of a list as long as your arm of vitamins and minerals and supplements? Fish oil, glucosamine, magnesium, vitamin XYZ. The only one I know about is Vitamin C and that’s just because it’s listed in big letters on my orange juice bottle. Ah, if there was just one, one I could go to easily that would fix just about anything. One I would be convinced would do wonderful things for me. One I could have on hand anytime. One to go to when I felt a bit out of kilter. Oh and for myself, one that wouldn’t put my already bloated budget down the drain.

Let me see what I can find in my bag of tricks. Rattle, bang, screech, gooey slide. Ah! Here it is — water! Yes water. I’m a water drinker. I like water. I like the taste of it. I like the coolness of it. The colder the better. Cool, clear, water-water-water. Can’t ya just hear that song? Water is good for your insides and your outsides. It doesn’t need cream or sugar. It doesn’t need special handling or storage. It’s water. It’s readily available, unless you’re crossing the Sahara desert, on foot, chasing outlaws and your horse ran off… Oh no, no that was a Hopalong Cassidy movie I saw some time ago. Back to the oasis.

In our house there are two sides of a glass of water. I say drink water when you feel, uh, let’s call it uncomfortable. Water will, I promise, flush ya out. I say drink more water when your skin feels all dry and itchy. Water will plump ya up. I say drink water when your fingernails are dry and splitting, your eyes are drier than normal, you feel hot, your hair feels kinda crunchy or your mouth is dry. Water is my first line of defense in all things that tilts you off of plumb.

Then there’s the non-waterer who lives here. He doesn’t like water. He says look at what water does to steel pipes! He says water will rust your innards! He says soda is better. His argument is soda is made of water that has been filtered and re-filtered until it is as pure as it can get. I would say the driven snow, but there is that acid rain/snow out there. But when something gets to bothering him enough and I say for the umpteenth time, “Drink water!” He will down a glass or two for a few days and voila things, uh move along or whatever is wrong gets a bit better.

There are truly two distinctive people in this water divide. You can really see it at a restaurant. When restaurants quit bringing a glass of water to you when you first sat down and you had to ask for it? That’s when the line was drawn between water drinkers and non-water drinkers. I ask for a glass of water when we go out. If my other half also gets water it would sit there until it evaporates. He pushes it away like it’s a dragon about to spew fire — so me, never letting water go to waste, I drink it. At a table of four there will probably be at least one who wouldn’t drink water unless they were spewing dust — then they would probably want a packet of some type of flavor to mix in it to boot!

Now I’m not talking about water instead of a doctor if there’s something really bad going on in your body. I know a hospital administrator who would call me to task if I did! But water is such an easy fix to try for lots of day to day things that come out of living a busy, zoo filled life. It’s refreshing and you can add water to your water by adding ice. Oh there’s another discussion for another time. What makes ice better? Square or round? Round with a hole in the middle or not? Little cubes or big? If you buy a bag of ice, which store in your area has the best ice?

Oh and let us not forget the dentists! Can we or should we chew ice? How about this one — does eating ice make you thirstier? Maybe that is why a bartender puts a full glass of ice in your drink along with offering you those free salt laden peanuts! Hum, never thought about that one did you?

All in all I think we have all learned the water discussion will continue to flow. I know I will be standing on the edge of that crystal clear lake of water telling all those who pass to drink to your heart’s content. Hey, couldn’t hurt!

Trina Machacek lives in Eureka. Share with her at itybytrina@yahoo.com Really!