Sometimes there are things you just can't escape

This morning's news announced that on this day in 1969, the amazing event known as "Woodstock" began.

I'd just returned from several years in Haight Ashbury, and living at Lou Gottlieb's Morningstar Ranch, via the '68 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

I'm a 'folkie' from childhood (a few decades ago), so it's been many years since I was baptised in the faith of this music.

My children's father was a folkie I met in college. We shared this interest and for a few years he managed the Main Point. From my folk ties, volunteer work and activism in the Haight I came to know many of the Woodstock performers. Others I met as an adolescent, during my coffee house days, including one of my favorites, (before Hugh became) Wavy Gravy.

For those of us from my era can remember, this was an amazing event. It also reminds me of friends that were in the same place at the same time that I would come to meet.

There was that one crazy friend who wanted to be a pop star, was a year behind me in college studying nursing, who later became a doctor, Oh, Kim, where art thou?

Then there is another friend who stood up to Disney when they bought Discover magazine, and lost his position as Executive Editor. I typed his senior paper when he was at a Main Line Philadelphia college. Now he write biographies. He loves the Woodstock area to this day.

Some of those friends and acquaintances live in the Woodstock area still. One special friend, no longer there in body, remains in spirit - John Herald.

Another shares the kindred spirit of herbs.

It is always nice to think about friends along the way, just as Rosalie Sorrels sings.

I've lived in Idaho. In ways it led me to meeting wonderful new friends, yet it taught me that there are places in this country much like the third world. It is the existence there of pervasive and extreme closed-mindedness and the very limited ability to use abstract thinking. Politically speaking, it's a closed shop!

But you do have to admit Idaho has some great and beautiful scenery.

Yes, nostalgia has benefits; for the most part.

Sometimes maybe not.

One of those 'nots' is the fact that I am the daughter of a proctologist. I have a website where more than 50 percent of the visitors on any given day are looking up information about psyllium, constipation, itchy butt and colon cancer.

It seems funny and to me I guess it is because these are the things I grew up around and it was common dinner table conversation.

My fathers would bring home tissue that was bound for the lab and show me what cancer and what was not. This part of his brainwashing master plan for my career as the next surgeon in the family. Something that did not exactly come to fruition, to my delight...

I do however ponder why it is that so many people, from many different places around the world, keep looking up these words.

Since I'm in the process of rebuilding my original website, I am going to make sure that all of these pages are transformed into one focus area, just to make it easier for people to locate.

And in the interim, I'm going to drink my 64 ounces of water my proctologist father told me was necessary for my health. It just might help those seekers of wisdom ending at on my URL.

I'll also continue to meet friends along the way, and remember them all much more fondly than the work of proctology.

And here are some Water Facts for your enlightenment -

#1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated, and may apply to half the world population.

#2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is mistaken for hunger.

#3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as 3%.

#4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of Washington study.

#5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

#6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.

#7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.

#8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

Are you drinking the amount of water you should drink every day?

Check to see if your tongue feels rough or like sandpaper, has a furry or thick coating, or your mouth feels like cotton. In any of these situations, you'll best be served by taking a water break.