14 Wonderful Years

That’s right!  14 wonderful years with the love of my life.  September 7th was our anniversary and we decided to celebrate the event with our puppy dog, Tigger, in Gatlinburg, TN.  It was my first time there and it was a lot of fun.  Of course having Tigger with us was a bit limiting as to which shops we could visit or what restaurants we could eat at. But we did have luck in find restaurants we could sit on the patio along with Tigger.  As for shops, we did actually find several shops that allowed to bring Tigger inside.  One them was a high end furniture store—an Amish store.  Incredible craftsmanship on super nice products and they didn’t hesitate to invite us in.

So the first day we were up there we decided to go hiking (waddling for me) and it was fun.  We drove into the North Carolina side of the Smoky Foothills.  We hiked 3.3 miles along a creek in complete shade into the town of Cherokee.  Once there we found ourselves a Dairy Queen with a patio and sat outside in the incredibly pleasant weather and had lunch.  As a bonus, we had lunchtime entertainment.  Two members of the Cherokee Nation were there performing native dances while of them played on the drum.  Of course they didn’t do any sacred dances out of respect for their ancestors.  However, they have many dances that were intended to be performed in front of other tribes.  It was a lot of fun.  After lunch we walked the 3.3 miles back to the homestead and the trail head.  Here is a picture of the placeThere’s just something about the homestead that piqued my interest.  I can see myself living on a homestead like this during that time period.   It was incredible to see!  I don’t know when it was built, but it was sometime ago.  It was actually a challenge to get this shot with no people or automobiles visible in it.  The entire homestead is fenced off, has 5 outbuildings, and a fenced off garden within the fence that outlined the property.  Just seeing this was worth our trip into North Carolina.

Our 2nd day there, as I mentioned earlier, was spent entirely in Gatlinburg walking up and down the strip.  We walked about 4 miles total that day and a good share of it was in the direct sunshine.  When we got back to the hotel, .8 miles from the strip, we stopped on the grass out in back of the hotel to let Tigger do his thing.  Of course he took one look at that creek, walked out into the water and promptly laid himself down in the water.  The water was deep enough that it was flowing up and over his rump.  He’s never done that before and we’ve had him since he was 10 weeks old.  This little 4.4 mile walk through Gatlinburg took us the better part of 5 hours.  Tigger was so good during the trip among all the people.  It was shocking how much attention he attracted from people of all ages.  There were 3 little kids, a boy and 2 girls, and they sat down on the ground to play with Tigger.  Tigger loved it.  They also had some brilliant suggestions on how to take care of Tigger.  lol.  They were so cute and so very sincere. 

Well the trip was a blast.  Gatlinburg is only 5 1/2 hours away from our current home so it wasn’t a miserable drive.  Oh yeah, you should have seen the crowds in Pigeon Forge.  It was horribly crowded.  We only had to traverse about 3 miles of the city, but it took us nearly 20 minutes to do it.  Though I hate, hate, hate crowds, this didn’t bother me.  Our whole reason for going on this trip was to go hiking and be out and away from all the people.  On the trail we hiked we only passed about 15 people total.  That’s my idea of a vacation.  I hope everyone could have such a relaxing vacation as what we had.

Included here is a picture of our little hairy son.  He is 10 yrs 8 months old.  Like i said earlier, we’ve had him since he was 10 weeks old.  Of course you can really see his age when you look at his muzzle.  He’s gone from a mostly pure black muzzle to a muzzle that is almost completely white.  It is saddening to actually see his age and know that he is not a little puppy anymore.  Here is a picture of my little boy at the trail head before our hike.

That’s about it for this post.  I know I’ve promised this in the past, but I will try to post more often.  This would be a great place to continue my journal which I used to be really good at keeping current.  Well, we’ll see how it works out.

Bye for now.

LG Ally

As a getting out of the hospital gift to ourselves, girl and I got new cell phones.  I really didn’t need one as I loved my old cell phone.  It was a Palm Centro, a smart  phone.  It did everything I thought I needed in a phone.  But when we were at the Verizon store they told me that I was eligible for an upgrade and that they had a buy one get on free special going on.  So to humor the salesman I checked out his little phone he was offering.  It was an LG Ally and boy was it was sharp.  I fell in love.  Before I knew it, we were both walking out of the phone with a new LG phone.

So far we have had it for just over 2 weeks and I love it.  If you’re a fan of Star Trek you’ll appreciate this analogy: For all intents and purposes, it’s a tricorder.  While I’m sure there’s some things it can’t do, I’ve yet to find them.  I have spent 3 hours going through the free apps and I still haven’t found the end of the list.  Of course a lot of them I’ll never even consider downloading, but I have found about a dozen that now take up space on my phone.  And with 32 gb of SD card to fill up, I have plenty of room to do anything I want.  My only complaint is that with all the apps that this thing can run in the background, the battery doesn’t last nearly as long as it did in my Palm.  On the Palm I had about 8 days of standby, 5 days if I talked on the phone for about 20 minutes a day.  With the LG the battery lasts about 2.5 days.  Of course there are things I can do/set to make the battery last longer, and I use them, but that limits some of the functions of the phone. 

Long story short, if you’re looking for a new phone, check out the LG Ally.  It really is a nice phone.  And the slide out keyboard is a perfect companion to the large touch screen.  I do have one thing I would change—I would make it, if possible, set so the ringer on the calendar events would sound until some sort of input was entered by the person to shut them off.  As it is the ringer sounds once and then leaves a notification on the screen.  Minor, I know, but annoying.  However, with that in mind, I still love the phone. 

HOSPITAL

OK, here’s the deal.  I had been feeling pretty crummy for the last couple of weeks.  I was getting more and more nauseous for seemingly no good reason.  I didn’t understand what was going on.  But everything came to head last Tuesday (10 days ago) when I started puking my guts up.  It was not cool.  After about an hour or two of that I decided it was time to go the ER.  By then it was 12:30 a.m. Wednesday morning.  So we packed our bags because I knew they were going to keep me.  I was right.  First thing they wanted to do (because of my history) was do a CT scan with contrast.  So they loaded me up onto the machine and did a pre-scan and then the fun began.  With the pre-scan complete they turned to do the actual exam.  The CT machine injects a contrast dye into the IV with a lot of pressure.  It turns out that it was too much pressure.  The injector blew my vein.  So they tried to start a new IV.  No luck.  In fact, 3 needles were bent just trying to pierce my skin to start the IV.  They were amazed.  It gave a whole new meaning to ‘man of steel”. 

Well  eventually, 7 sticks later, they were able to get an IV started and it seemed good until they injected the contrast when it blew.  They got permission to do the test without contrast and everything went well after that.  It was still another 6 hours before they put me in my room—my home for the next 7 days.

Now IV trouble didn’t stop just because I was given a room.  During my stay in the hospital no IV lasted more than 22 hours and no IV was started on the first try.  Finally after 3 days of poking and prodding they decided to put in a picc line.  It was smooth sailing from that point on.  They could administer drugs and draw blood without having to poke m any more.  But that only happened after I had been stuck 25 times.  Bummer.

Even with all this to consider, my hospital stay was very helpful.  The hospital staff, especially the nurses, were phenomenal in the care and consideration they provided.  They actually gave the genuine impression that they were concerned with my comfort and well being.  I could not have asked for a better staff to care for me.  Actually, some of them almost seemed disappointed that I had done some tasks without their assistance.  They wanted to be there for me. 

But all good things come to an end…as well as bad things.  Once they were able to administer drugs without worrying about blowing my veins, things went much better and I improved quickly.  And though they were sad to see me go, I was thrilled that I was able to eat solid food and was on my way out the door.  I want to do something, anything, even it’s just writing a letter of praise to their supervisor, to show my appreciation for how easy they made this hospital stay. 

So that’s what I’ve been up to lately.  I hope all of you got your August off to a better start than me. 

99.9% Complete

Yippee!  Our house is complete minus some minor straightening up of the kitchen.  That’s a tough one.  We have stuff on the counters that doesn’t have a home and the real estate agent says it’s best to have the bare minimum exposed to sight.  So with very little work left we’ll have the kitchen completed and I can call the agent and tell her we’re ready.  We worked on the outside today and it was disappointing to say the least.  The pressure washing of the vinyl went great, but cleaning the bottom of the house where mud has splattered onto the outer walls was where the results were less than stellar.  It’s like the mud dyed the walls a funky shade of reddish-brown.  But they are as clean as they’re going to be so we’re just going to have to suck it up and drive on (to put it in Army terms). 

This is it.  This is our house that is for sale.  Yes, we’re on a bit of a hill, but it’s not bad.  I enjoy it.  See the brownish stain on the bottom of the wall underneath the stairs/front porch?  That’s the part that didn’t come off.  It’s a good house.  If it were possible to take this house with us out west, I would.  Almost the entire bottom floor is garage and work space.  On a plus note, anyone who buys this house is going to have lots of wild blackberries.  They are super yummy!  So if you don’t want to purchase this property for the house, do it for the blackberries. Buy it, buy it, buy it, buy it………  Listen to that little voice in your head. 

Unbelievable

Peggy West, an elected official in Milwaukee county, Wisconsin said in an interview earlier this week about the Arizona law SB1070 that if we were talking about Texas and they had passed an immigration law similar to Arizona’s law, that she would have to look twice at it because Texas shares a border with Mexico.  But Arizona, she states, is a state a ways removed from the Mexico border.  I’m not making this up.  Thankfully a fellow councilmember who obviously paid attention in geography in school informed her that Arizona does in deed share a border with Mexico.  Even Jon Kyl of Arizona got wind of this and sent her a letter and a map to prove to her she was oh so wrong.  So in West’s own words, I guess she needs to think twice about this law in Arizona—SB1070. 

That’s a huge part of the problem with all the dems supporting boycotts of Arizona.  Most of them don’t have a damn clue what they are talking about.  Most of them haven’t read the bill for themselves.  I have read it and I can tell you that the Arizona law is more restrictive on law enforcement officials than the federal law on the same issue.  Not only that, but 35 years ago, the Supreme Court decided that it is within states rights to impose their own laws regarding immigration so long as the state law does not try to remove power for the federal law.  And in this case it doesn’t.  In fact, this law strengthens the federal law.  Why are we so afraid to enforce our own laws regarding immigration?  You keep hearing that our immigration system is broken.  How so?  The only thing that is broken is that we don’t do anything to enforce the laws once we find illegal immigrants on our soil.  I have a dozen friends or more from Mexico and Spain that are here legally which proves that our immigration system works.  Open your eyes people!  I’m not saying we shouldn’t let immigrants in.  We need them in our country.  That’s what makes our country great.  But it needs to be done in accordance with the laws that are already on the books. 

If you have a beef with Arizona’s law SB1070, please take the time to sit down and read it.  I promise you’ll be surprised that all this commotion was raised by such a mundane law.  It takes about 10-20 minutes to read, depending on how fast you read.  19 pages on most websites.  You can do and should do it if you are going to speak out against it. 

And what’s with Obama planning on suing the state?  What a fool.  It’s not the place of the federal government to tell states what laws they can or can’t pass.  Not only that, but once again the president finds himself at odds with the American people since all polls show that a whopping 70% of the people in this country approve of this new law in Arizona. 

No Love Lost

Everyone who knows anything about me knows that I have no love for Obama.  However I feel the need to stick up for him a little bit concerning this current oil spill in the gulf.  The same way Bush was not responsible for the hurricane that slammed New Orleans, Obama had nothing to do with this oil spill.  It is BP’s fault and BP’s fault along.  What do you expect?  Do you think Obama is supposed to don a scuba tank and go down and plug the hole himself?   That’s a little absurd.  Don’t get me wrong, though.  He is responsible for not pressing BP to get their butt in gear and use every resource available to them to clean up the oil before it reached the shore.  But that’s it.

As for BP being criminally liable, I don’t think so.  This is hurting them immensely and they are losing untold millions of dollars.  Boycotting BP isn’t going to help the situation at all.  The individual citizens that own BP franchises are the only ones that will be hurt by a boycott and that’s not fair to them.  BP is going to pay dearly for this oil spill and we should just leave it at that.  The more fines and financial losses they experience, the less money they’ll have to clean up the mess in the gulf.  What we should do, is find a way to communicate to BP and the president how important it is to use every technique available to clean up the oil.  There are hundreds of great ideas out there that they can be taking advantage of but for whatever reason have chosen to ignore.

So let’s be a little slower to judge when it comes to the oil spill.  I know a lot of you aren’t going to agree with me and that’s ok.  We are allowed to have differing opinions.  That’s what makes friendships unique and worthwhile.  I do welcome and encourage your thoughts. 

To the Dentist

Today I went to the dentist after a full night of horrid nightmares concerning them.  It was a rough night.  The visit went pretty well.  The doc prescribed a mild sedative to calm my nerves and the fillings went pretty well.  Unfortunately he found 2 teeth that need root canals.  I go to an endodontist (I’ve never been to one of those) next week for both root canals.  They don’t offer valium there, but they do use nitrous oxide.  I’m very pleased about that.  I’ve only ever had one root canal in my life and it was a rough experience. 

Now you may be wondering why my teeth are so bad.  It’s not from lack of brushing.  In fact, every time I go for a cleaning the hygienist comments on how clean and white my are.  However, I take pain killers on a regular basis so any minor tooth problem is completely masked.  I don’t feel the pain so I don’t know to go to the dentist to get things fixed until the problem is major.  So I have 2 root canals and 5 crowns scheduled.  Thank God for good dental insurance. 

Another note—I have been told by 3 dentists now that I brush my teeth too much.  I’m sort of OCD when it comes to a clean mouth.  Brushing so frequently has weakened my enamel allowing for easier formation of cavities.  So between the pain meds and the excessive brushing, all the problems are my own fault. 

A Day in the Life…

Well I went to the dentist as promised.  It was not as good a visit as I had been hoping for.  It turns out that I broke my tooth down below the gum line and it was not savable.   So with just a local, the dentist grabbed my tooth with a pair of pliers and yanked it out.  It took a full 20 seconds from start to finish.  It took longer to give me all the shots to numb the thing up than it did to pull it out.  Now I have a gaping hole in the very back of my mouth.  Tomorrow I get to go back to the dentist to have the 1st of 4 legs of oral repair done. 

The worst part of the whole visit was the anxiety.  I am terrified about the dentist and by the time he was done I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.  Thankfully they noticed my intense anxiety and offered to give me a mild sedative for future visits.  I find out tomorrow if it works.  The only downside to taking this sedative is that I cannot drive myself to the appointment.  That means that Melinda has to take the time off to drive me there and back.  Bummer. 

However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing tomorrow.  She got a little jealous of all the attention I was getting and decided to go ahead and break one of her teeth.  I’m not kidding!  It was the night before last and she bit down into a meatball and there was something hard in it, possibly a bone fragment or a tough piece of gristle, and her took just snapped.  It broke the entire side of her tooth off.  So she is not going to just have to sit there, she' gets to be a patient there as well. 

So much excitement, so much drama, so much fun.  But that’s a day in the life of Jasen and Melinda. 

Let here be Food

So yesterday the doc said I could be on solid food as tolerated.  Not too bad.  It took awhile but I finally got up the nerve to eat something this morning.  The breakfast of champions—egg and cheese English muffin.  On one of the last bites of the muffin, I broke a tooth.  Go figure.  I go nearly a month without being able to eat and the first time I do, I hurt myself.  I go to the dentist tomorrow to have things repaired.

On a happier note, food seems to be going good with me right now.  I can’t complain yet and with any luck, won’t be able to complain at all.  So to all of you who sent their prayers and happy thoughts, I say thank you.  You are the best.  God bless all of you.

10 Days and Counting

Today marks the 10th day that I’ve been on a soft/bland food diet.  This in response to my little bout with a partial intestinal blockage a few weeks back.  But after 10 days things are still not 100%.  I have had a few problems of feeling excessively bloated after meals and it unfortunately lasts for several hours.  But on a positive note, the signs of the blockage have disappeared.  So tomorrow the doc is supposed to call with instructions on what to do next.  Along with the soft/bland flood diet, I have been on a high dose of steroids.  Steroids, for those who don’t know, are the bane to my existence.  It’s because of the steroids, prednisone to be exact, that I have osteoporosis and have broken 18 bones in the last 6 years.  So it’s imperative that I get off this stuff as soon as possible.  A special thanks to my doctor for keeping me out of surgery. 

Good News, Bad News

Wow!  I got some not so nice news from my doc.  But first a little background info…

On the 3rd of May I was still feeling pretty bad in the gut.  So I finally folded and went to the ER.  There they did an CT scan and gave me some meds via IV.  After a couple hours they came in and gave me the news.  It was great news.  There was no complete obstruction of the small intestine.  However, there was lots of distention throughout the entire length of the intestine.  So they gave me some more meds and told me to follow-up with my doc the next day.

At my doc appointment, he gave me the bad news.  There is definitely a partial obstruction in the works.  It is being caused by one of two things—either a nasty flare of my crohn’s disease, or adhesions.  For those who don’t know, adhesions are places where the small intestine are stuck to the abdominal wall, other portions of the small intestine, or other organs.  That is bad because in order to do its job, it must be able to move freely within the abdominal cavity. 

So the doc put me on a high dose of prednisone, my arch enemy, and told me to remain on a liquid diet until further notice.  And prednisone is my arch enemy because it is what caused my osteoporosis which has led to 18 broken bones over the last 6 years. 

So that’s it.  I am sort of in limbo.  Until the partial obstruction clears or becomes a complete obstruction, we can’t really move forward.  So if I’m a little late with my updates here, I hope you’ll forgive me.  Until next time…

Still No Good

Things are still not going swimmingly with the guts.  I finally broke down and made an appointment with my gut doc.  I go see him in 5 days.  These promise to be the longest 5 days in my life.  My guts, while they improved slightly with the prednisone, have gone back to their old ways.  My gut is distended and tender and I’m borderline miserable.  Everything sure points to a partial blockage of the small intestine, which is not a good thing at all.  As long as this problem has been going on, even if it is only a slight blockage, surgery is going to be the only answer.  Jeez, that would be a crummy way to spend 3-4 hours.  And then all that recovery time.  I’d rather avoid the whole thing.  Of course if it came down to a choice of staying like this or going through the weeks of recovery, I’ll choose the recovery.  Prayers are very welcome and even requested.  In fact I’m starting to get a little nauseous at the moment and that really is a very bad sign.  I gotta go!

Slacker

Wow!  I have been slacking big time. It’s been almost a full month since I posted anything here.  But hey, I do have an excuse.  You’ll have to decide if it’s a good excuse or not.

About 2 weeks ago things starting going all wrong with my guts.  As you know, I was in the hospital 7 months ago with a twisted/obstructed/perforated small intestine.  It was quite a painful experience.  Only a week after being released, I was back in the hospital for extreme malnutrition.  Well it all started again.

My guts got very painful and the belly very distended and things just weren’t working the way they are supposed to.  I stopped eating for 4 days due to the severe discomfort (and the fact that I felt like I was going to pop).  When I talked to my doc, his first though was of another bowel obstruction.  That was a little bit of a comfort since it was what I was thinking, too.  But rather than do anything rash like send me to the ER and slice me open like a holiday turkey, he decided to try me on a course of steroids.  Steroids, for those who don’t know, are the arch nemesis of Crohn’s disease.  Thankfully it cleared things up in just a matter of days.  So it turns out that there is not a full blockage, though there is question as to whether or not there is a partial blockage or at least one in the making.  Fortunately they don’t typically do surgery for partial blockages—they just hope for them to resolve themselves.  I have to monitor things closely for the next few weeks to make sure that nothing gets worse.  

So thank you all for those who prayed for a speedy, non-surgical resolution to this problem.  I know the prayers work.  I am walking, talking, living, breathing proof of that.  I am indebted to each and every one of you.

Just a note:  Steroids are a problem for me.  I have taken so many for so long that I have severe osteoporosis which has led to 18 broken bones in just 6 short years.  So I can’t stay on them for extended periods of time.  Not to mention the fact that my body becomes dependent on them very quickly and it makes it extremely difficult for me to stop them when the time comes.  So while they work great for short periods of time when things go haywire, I can’t do this too often or risk the chance of hurting myself worse.  Drugs suck. 

Success thanks to a New Happy Place

Well I went to see my doc yesterday after a full 2 weeks of monitoring my blood pressure (bp).  It was high in the beginning of the two weeks, but when I measured the bp the 2nd week, I noticed that the numbers, while still high, were only borderline high and even then on high half of the time I took them.  Well my do was really pleased.  He let me out of there (his office) with no new drugs and no increase of drugs.  Needless to say, I’m a happy camper.

Special thanks goes to Tiffany Foster for helping me fine tune my happy thought that I focus on for 3-5 minutes before every bp check.  It really has made a difference.  My doc noticed that my pressures were better during the 2nd week and that’s about the time I talked to Tiffany and modified my happy place.  So a very big THANX to Tiffany for your help.  You’re the best!

I had another little health scare the night before the doc appointment that I choose not to go into details here about, but lets just say it was frightening.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, I guess) it had cleared itself up by the time the doc was able to see me just 15 short hours later.  I’ve no more problems with it yet.  P.S.  Here is a picture of my lovely wife.  She has lost nearly 70 lbs in a one year time and wanted to show off her new figure.  Doesn’t she look great?  She is doing weight watchers and it really has worked miracles for her.  She is now smaller than when we got married and she has plans and desires to lose another 30 lbs.  She has the discipline to pull something like this off.  If you have any questions regarding weight watchers, you can message me here through the comments section and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.  If Melinda can do this, anyone can do it.  She has had a weight problem all her life and this is the first program she has tried that actually did what it promised.  The proof is in the pudding. 

Going to my Happy Place

My doc gave me some pointers to practice before attempting to take my blood pressure.  1st he suggested that I try to take it at the same 2 times every day.  2nd he suggested that for several minutes before taking the pressure that I take a moment to go to my happy place.  Close my eyes and imagine something that makes me happy.  So I do.  I close my eyes and picture myself driving through the open desert in the Jeep with the top down and doors off and some cool nighttime music playing on the radio.  What is nighttime music?  Well it’s music that just sounds better when listened to at night—especially in the desert with the top down on the Jeep.  So how does it work?  Unfortunately it doesn’t work.  Every single blood pressure measurement has been high for the last week.  I guess that just means that my pressure is high and needs further adjustment.  My doc threatened me with a third medication if the pressures didn’t come down.  Oh well, what’s another pill among 1,800 per month?

A Closer Look

Upon closer examination I have found that exactly half of my blood pressure measurements show that my pressure is still high.  Not as high as it was before the ER visit, but still high.  So I’m fully expecting to be told to double up on my new meds that I was given last week.  It seems to be doing a find job for the most part, it just needs a little fine tuning.  In all my measurements the pressure has never been above 150/100 and the pulse has never risen above 88.  So there’s been a lot of improvement.  No complaints from me.  The pill I have to double up on is tiny so it’s not going to be an issue.  I’d rather double up on a tiny little pill than have my heart burst…or some other equally gruesome event that I dare not dwell on.  :)

Yipee!

Hey, it’s been over a week and I haven’t had any near catastrophes to report.  My blood pressure is down and holding in the normal range.  I only experience a couple of hours of high blood pressure a day and it goes back down by itself…sort of.  Of course I’m taking 2 different blood pressure meds, but that’s the way it has to be.  Even my pulse has been in the normal range and that hasn’t been the case for years.  It’s kind of nice not feeling like my heart is about to beat its way out of my chest any second. 

I go back to my doc in about a week to see how things are going.  I’ll have to tell him that my pressure is still up for a couple of hours a day, but I don’t suspect that that will be a problem.  I also go to see my pain doc.  He’ll probably be interested in my bp and pulse.  They did a EKG about a month ago and found that my heart is at rest for too long between beats.  Apparently it’s not at a scary point yet, but it’s something that they’re keeping a close eye on.  I can’t remember exactly what it’s called or what the values are supposed to be, but mine was on the edge.  Maybe some of you medical-types out there could enlighten me. 

So that’s about it.  Keep an eye here for updates on anything exciting.  I’ll try to keep this as accurate as possible.  And thank, thank you, thank you for the positive thoughts and unending prayers for my  health and well being.  You’re great!

Up, up and away!

So many of you have heard about my recent blood pressure (bp) events.  It started last weekend when I was getting a splitting headache for no apparent reason.  Girl suggested that I check my blood pressure.  Nothing else was checking out, so I checked it and it was pretty high…even for me.  Over the next several days it just kept getting worse.  Finally on Saturday I checked it again and wham—it was at 184/110—heart attack territory.  And that was at rest.  Oh yeah, the pulse was 132 beats per minute (bpm).  So we went to the ER.  They were less than impressed with my pressure and gave me a small dose of a really strong bp reducing drug.  They also wrote me a script and told me to follow up with my regular doc.  So I did.

My regular doc didn’t like the pills that the ER recommended so he put me on something else that works on bp from a different angle.  I’ll start taking it tomorrow.  I also told him of a little black out episode I had last week and asked if it was connected.  The doc said that it absolutely could be related.  You see, I walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth around 0100 hours and the next thing I know it’s 0430 and I’m laying flat on my back on the tile floor.  The doc’s first idea was some sort of seizure.  Not a good idea, though it’s no worse than his second idea—arrhythmia caused by the fast heart rate.  He took lots of blood and did and EKG to see if he can find a connection between the two.  I find out in two weeks at my follow up appointment what the news is. 

So if you could all pray for me and my little overworked heart, I would greatly appreciate it.  Thanks in advance.

Pictures of Space Shuttle Endeavor

As promised, here are the pictures I took of the shuttle.  It launched at 0414 hours on 08FEB2010.  What a cool experience.  There are only 3 shuttle launches left to buy tickets for.  The 4th one sold out by 0930 eastern time this morning.  Enjoy. Self explanatory Jumbotron1 jumbotron2 Our location 1st view7 miles away Colliding with cloudsA little further breaking through Dang wires More clouds Mostly obscured No more clouds 200 miles away!

Wow!

All I can say is Wow!  The launch went off exactly as scheduled this morning.  When those solid rocket boosters ignited, it lit up the entire sky in the most brilliant orange.  Then when it cleared the trees you could see that the plume of flames from the engines was at least 3 times longer than the shuttle itself—over 300 feet!  It took awhile for the sound to reach us as we were over 7 miles away at the visitor center, but when it did, it was incredible!  You could feel the sound in your chest as the shuttle roared into space.  As it traveled toward space, there was a shuttle astronaut on stage narrating everything that was going on.  We watched as long as possible.  In fact, when the shuttle reached 200+ miles down range, it was still the brightest light in the night sky.  Shortly after reaching 200+ miles away, the shuttle disappeared and we had to watch the rest on the jumbotron.  What an experience!

As you may or may not know, this was the 5th to last launch of the space shuttle.  It was the 2nd to last for the Space Shuttle Endeavor and the last night launch of the shuttle program.  Even though we had the displeasure of a scrubbed launch attempt the night before and we had to fight crowds and cold for at least 6 hours both launch attempts, we had an incredible time.  So incredible, in fact, that we are going to try to get tickets for the causeway for the next launch, and we’re going to keep trying each subsequent launch until we land those tickets.  The difference between the causeway tickets and the visitor center tickets, beside the fact that the causeway is a full mile closer, is that at the causeway you can actually see the shuttle as it sits on the pad.  Where we were we had to wait for the shuttle to clear the trees before we could see it.  I will remember this forever.  It was surreal. 

Watch here over the next couple of days for me to post pictures from the launch.  I don’t know how well any off them turned out, but I will post something.

Launch Scrubbed

After showing up for the launch at around 10:30 p.m. and sitting in the cold until 9 minutes before the schedule launch time, they scrubbed the launch due to cloud cover.  They had actually stopped the countdown at 20 minutes in hopes that the weather would clear.  But they had only a small window for the launch and when it became clear that the clouds weren’t going away, they scrubbed it. 

So now we have to do all of everything all over again.  We have to show up for the launch around 10:00 p.m. for a launch attempt at 4:14 a.m.  The experience, even though the shuttle is still on the ground, was still a lot of fun.  The crowds were horrendous, though pleasant.  Everybody was in a great mood even when the announcement came down that we wouldn’t be witnessing a launch at that time. 

So off we go again.  It’s time to leave for the next attempt.  I hope and pray that the thing works out tonight.

It took this long?! Really?

It appears that the Obama administration is finally seeing the NY terror trials for what they are—a complete and total disaster.  Eric Holder seems to have made the decision by himself.  Yeah, right!  Like that would ever happen.  It only took 4 months or so for the Obama group to finally hear the American people, and the New Yorkers that would be directly affected, and are now scouting new locations for the terror trials.  I swear, I may have no experience running something as big as the country, the most powerful country on the planet, but even I realized immediately that trying the 9/11 masterminds in a civil court on American soil was a huge mistake.  What an amateur move that was! 

One problem is the estimated $200,000,000 for the trial in a civilian setting.  Why not try them in a military court, or tribunal, like you do all foreign combatants and save that money?  You see, if you use the military to do the trial, you don’t have the huge overhead cost.  Military personnel are already on the payroll.  You don’t have extra expense.  And try them in Gitmo.  It’s already set up for this.  Since when is it OK to take into account the opinions of our enemy when it comes to keeping this country safe?  Who gives a frak if they are offended that Gitmo is still open and used?  I don’t.

One thing to realize is that our constitution does not apply to everyone on the planet.  Our founding fathers intended for our constitutional rights to be applicable to U.S. citizens only.  That’s the only way the document makes any sense.  You don’t believe me?  Then you haven’t read it.  Bringing those foreign combatants to our soil and giving them our U.S. rights is insane.  It makes no sense whatsoever.  As for declaration of war—they did declare war on us.  They have, and do, attack our military.  They are foreign combatants.  Why can’t Obama see this?  Oh yeah, amateurism.  There has never been a greener amateur in the White House.  He has no clue what he’s doing and this is but one single example of that fact.  Let’s all vow to make him a one term president.  The office of the President of the United States is no place for on the job training.  And it’s no place for a socialist.  But that’s a discussion for another blog.

That’s my opinion and I welcome yours. 

Thank You, everyone

I want to thank each and every one of you for your prayers, best wishes, and support for the past 5 months…5 months exactly.  You see, I got hyper sick awhile back and exactly 5 months ago I ended up in the ER and required emergency surgery to fix an obstructed bowel, perforated bowel, and one giant adhesion over the entire length of the bowel.  Melinda sent out text message updates to everyone and you all started praying or doing the things you do when you want someone to get better, and well, I did.  As of today I have reached my target weight of 121 lbs, up from 78 lbs on that crummy day back in September.  So thank you.  Thank you to each of you who prayed or wished me well.  It worked. 

The trick now is for me to get this runaway freight train to stop.  I have been gaining weight like crazy for several weeks now and now that I’m at my target weight, I need it to stop.  So if you all don’t mind one more quick prayer, I sure could use whatever help the good Lord can provide to help me keep my weight stable.  I am OK up to 130 lbs, but anything beyond that and I start having trouble breathing on account of my crooked spine.  You see, the crooked spine causes me to hunch over and that takes up space that my lungs require to expand.  But take heart—if by chance I do get a little over weight, I have a surefire way to lose weight.  Stop eating.  Since my appetite is synthetic, meaning that I use a drug to stimulate it, I can just stop the drug and get rid of the appetite.  It’s great for losing weight.  I can lose over a pound a day if I go that route. 

So, again, thank you.  I couldn’t have done it without your support.  I have the greatest family and friends. 

State of the Union Address

Yup, just another campaign speech.  Does Obama know how to do anything different?  It’s been over a year since he took office and he’s still in campaign mode, still blaming Bush for all his problems, and still as naive as the day he placed his hand on the Bible and got sworn in as our president.  Not only that, but he’s petty, thin skinned.  He takes everything too personally and has absolutely no class.  To dress down the supreme court like he did in front of the entire nation, nay, the world, shows a total lack of class.  There they sat with no way to respond to his vicious attack on them.

He is one year in and still can explain no concrete plans on how he plans to implement his highfalutin ideas for our country.  Of course all his plans require billions, with a B, of dollars to implement.  This at a time when we are trillions, with a T, in debt.  Does he not see this?  If any other person in the U.S. decided to keep spending once they ran out of money, they’d be in jail.  But not our government (Democrats and Republicans).  They just print more money and spend it.  Or they deficit spend.  Lucky, lucky us.  The CBO recently calculated that thanks to our national debt, every man, woman, and child owes $40,000. 

For once I’d like to see a State of the Union Address where the president gets up and admits that his/her plan is not working.  We did sort of get a little taste of that when he talked about healthcare reform.  Thanks to Scott Brown we no longer have the imminent risk of having a socialist healthcare bill rammed down our throat—a bill that 63% of the Americans didn’t want.  They were all ready to ditch one failing government entitlement program for another bigger, more expensive government entitlement program.  We were unbelievably close to basically scrapping the best medical care system on the planet.  What person in their right mind would want to do that?  On top of that, Obama likes to state that he knows nobody who likes, truly likes their medical insurance.  Well here I am Mr. President.  I love my health insurance and wouldn't trade it for anything.  My insurance rocks!

There were a couple of other parts of the speech that bothered me, but I won’t go into them here.  They are touchy subjects in the best of times.  They are things that should be left alone.  But again, naiveté won out and the Obama goes and starts mucking with things he knows nothing about.  It’s easy to fundamentally change things when you know you won’t be affected by the change you’re forcing on others.  Think about it.

Finally Healed

4 Months, 3 weeks, and 3 days after my surgery, I am finally healed.  The final scab on my surgical incision finally fell off today and revealed perfectly healed skin underneath.  Who in the world thought it would take so long to close up completely?  Of course the problem was that there was some muscle stitches left in place that were supposed to dissolve on their own…in fat tissue…which I don’t have…so they couldn’t dissolve and they kept me from healing.  Anyways, what a mess!  But hey, I’m finally healed and I’m thrilled.

As for weight gain, I have officially gained 40 pounds since my stay in the hospital for malnutrition.  My low was 78 pounds.  If you do the math you’ll see I’m now at 118.  My target weight for those who aren’t keeping up with FB is 120-125.  Anything much above 125 and I start to get to real uncomfortable.  You know, trouble breathing, clothes don’t fit, all that stuff. 

So thank you to everyone who prayed for me during this latest health scare.  I believe in the power of prayer and know you helped immensely.  For those who didn’t pray and instead sent their best wishes—well, I thank you too.  Thank you all for caring and God bless each and every one of you.  I have the greatest friends and family a person could ever ask for. 

Massachusetts

Thank you, thank you, thank you to the voters of Massachusetts.  You won!  Not Scott Brown, but the people of Massachusetts won.  They won for the whole country.  Mark Brown is the 41st vote against the socialist healthcare program that the dems are trying to shove down our throats.  This health care bill that they are trying to impose on us is unwanted by 65% of the electorate.  Why the dems insist on pushing forward is a real head scratcher.  They are governing themselves into oblivion.  If they push this through as written, they will not survive another election.  And mid term elections are only 10 short months away.

But with Scott Brown winning the senatorial race in Massachusetts yesterday, we have a real chance of stopping this bill or at least getting a bill that the Americans will appreciate.  And now the dems have lost their filibuster-proof majority, or supermajority.  I believe, like many pundits do, that this is setting the stage for the 2010 elections.  This is a message from the electorate of what is to come if our elected officials do not get their act together and start listening to the will of the people.  We are not here for the pleasure of the elected officials—for them to rule over.  They are here to serve us, to carry out our will.  We hire them.  We pay them a salary, though it is way too much and the retirement way too cushy, we put them in office, and it is us who are to be served by them. 

As for this being a message to Obama—absolutely.  It is a message to him that we do not want the change he is pushing.  His idea of change, a change to socialism, is exactly what our forefathers fought the British to free us from.  The people are starting to recognize this.  Albeit 14 months too late.  I wish I could say I didn’t see this coming.  But I did.  I told every one I knew who would listen that Obama was not the person who needed to be in charge of our country, the greatest country on Earth and the greatest force for good will on this planet.  Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing and it is painfully obvious by his policies.  For the first time during this administration I am truly hopeful that this could be a one term president.  There is nothing about him I will miss. 

Obama’s latest rationale behind why Coakly (-sp?) lost is that the electorate is angry at the Bush administration.  Yeah, this is leftover anger and it is Bush’s fault.  What?!?  And then to make comments about Scott Brown driving a pick-up truck as if it is some sort of dis, what was that about?  So the man drives a pick-up.  So it has over 200,000 miles on it.  So he is not an elitist.  Good on him.  But really, when are things no longer going to be Bush’s fault?  Today was Obama’s 366th day in office.  He wanted this job and the problems are now his.  Bush cannot be blamed forever.  Or can he?  Watch Obama and find out. 

So Massachusetts has likely saved us from a major step toward socialism.  They deserve a lot of credit.  What is more is that 35% of the registered dems voted for Brown!  Independents voted for Brown.  It’s not just a republican victory.  The GOP could not have done it without their help.  So to all the elected dems up for election this year, if you like your job, you need to take a step back and re-examine your position on the issues.  You have now seen that the American people are awake to your back room, shady deals and we don’t like it.  This is not “change we can believe in.”  This is nothing short of sleazy Chicago politics, unbecoming of a U.S. president.  Even one as thin skinned as Obama.

Tampa Aquarium

This little critter is called a sea dragon.  We found him at the Tampa Aquarium on our recent trip to Florida.  We had a good time there.  It really does look like a piece of floating seaweed. 

Believe it or not, this is a fish.  It’s called a bat fish.  Don’t know much about them, other than the fact that are truly unique in appearance.

This little critter is a rescue animal.  Someone had kept her as a pet where she ran into a ceiling fan and got brain damage. 

The aquarium was a lot of fun.  We took lots of other pics but few turned out.  We’re still learning how to get the most out of the new camera.  We did finally get our zoom lens which we’ll be very grateful for in the coming weeks when we go see the shuttle launch.  Though we’re going to be 7 miles away from the launch this time, we’re hoping for causeway tickets next time.  Either way it should be a blast…literally. 

My heart goes out to the people of Haiti.  They were sure devastated by this quake.  It makes me appreciate California building codes because I’ve lived through several earthquakes that were as big or bigger than the Haiti quake and nothing serious happened.  The most damage I’ve ever seen to my property is a few things being knocked off the shelves.  My prayers go to the rescuers who have all those lives in their hands as they continue to try to dig people out from the rubble and attempt to hand out food and water and provide shelter.  Hopefully when they begin to rebuild the savaged country, they enforce some sort of building codes so that they won’t have to worry about this sort of tragedy again. 

Along the Haiti lines, I really believe that Pat Robertson’s comments about Haiti were completely bizarre and way out of line.  How does he know what the Haitian people did or said 200 years ago.  As one reverend put it, instead of seeing God behind the destruction in Haiti, he chooses to see God in the thousands of relief workers that have put their life on hold and risk injury or illness to bring hope to the devastated areas.  Pat Robertson needs to understand that there is a time and place for that type of bogus story and this is not it.  Unfortunately it’s not the first controversial thing I’ve heard come from that man.  Sure, he’s entitled to his opinions, but come on, show some class. 

OK, enough of all that.  If and when I get a good pic of my electric catfish, I’ll be sure to post here first thing.  You guys will love her.  Her name is Sparkplug.  It will give me good practice with the camera. 

One Year Down

Yippee!  Only 3 more years to go, and a week or so, until we get the most sophomoric president out of office.  He is in so far over his head that’s it’s damaging our country.  If he wanted to be a socialist, there are plenty of failing countries around this little globe of ours that he could’ve found a country to accept him.  Instead he wants to turn the greatest capitalist society in the history of the planet in a socialist one.  And that’s despite all the warnings from the countless millions of people who have given verbal warnings to the American people about how bad it is to be a socialist country.  Why won’t the man listen?  I’ll tell you why.  He’s an amateur.  He’s in so far over his head that he’s floundering.  He has no clue what he’s doing and he needs to go.  With proper prayer and true grassroots organization among the masses, we can get rid of Reid and Pelosi in the mid-term elections and then get rid of Obama at the end of his turn.   But stuff like this has to be passed around.  We need to show the people of our society that we mean business.  God willing, Obama will only have 3 more years left.  George H W Bush made a campaign promise one time—NO NEW TAXES!  He broke that promise.  Obama promised 8 times that his healthcare negotiations would take place on c-span.  He promised it 8 freakin’ times!!!  And he broke that promise and his staff just laughed about it.  Bush’s taxes amounted to pennies on the dollar.  Obama’s lie about c-span amounts to 1/6-1/12 of the US economy. 

Obama, January 2008, “Well under my system of a cap and trade program, electricity prices will necessarily skyrocket.  Add a $.56 cent tax on all gasoline, 20-something% for electricity, and one other travesty that I can’t think of off the top of my head.  What a hateful, sophomoric man Obama is.  He needs to get out off and needs to do it at the end of his third year.  The man sucks!!

Oh guess what!  Your taxes are about to go up due to the fact that the Bush tax cuts are set to expire.  And if you’re reading this, you got money back due to these tax cuts.  But Obama has no intention of continuing them, believing it was only for the top 10% wage earners,   If that’s the case, I must be in the top 10% of wage earners in this country because I got tax rebate from the Bush Tax Cuts.

Obama can just go away…and I really don’t give a crap how or why he does it.  The man is inherently evil and what’s to “fundamentally change the United States of America.”  --his words, not mine.

Pray, pray, pray that this man and his evil big gov’t cohorts disappear off the face of the earth this Noverber and at the end of the term for Obama.

Trip to Florida 2010 v1.0

We took a wonderful trip to Florida.  We spent 8 days gone from my gorgeous little puppy dog.  Thankfully we had a sitter to watch him and the house.  In fact, we never leave home without that.

The trip was great!  We spent the first 4 nights at the Disney Resort in Vero Beach…which actually turned out to be the town of Orchid.  Once we left there (after securing the shuttle tickets I already blogged about) we headed to Valrico, which is just outside of Tampa.  There we stayed with my dad and his lovely family.  It was a cool trip.  We spent the day at the Tampa aquarium and again had a great time.  The best part of the 2nd part of the trip was just spending time with my dad.  It means a lot to me to be able to do that.  On top of that, I met my grandmother for the very first time.  Sweet lady.  Don’t know if she’s interested in adding another grandchild to her list of grandchildren, but I think the meeting went well

The drive home was decent.  It took 13 hours, which with the 1 hour time difference added up to only 12 hours.  And that included stopping to get the oil changed and stopping at the local grocery store just 10 minutes from the house.

While in Valrico, Kathy, my dad’s wife made some awesome spaghetti.  I actually got to eat on twice thanx to lots of leftovers.  They are really gracious people to open their home to us and allow us to upset their normal routine.  Family is great. 

On our 13 hour drive home, things were a bit uneventful.  It wasn’t until Atlanta until we got ice on the roads.  It was icy on the side of the roads all the way from Atlanta to 30 miles north of Birmingham.  The driveway was a little  icy coming up to the garage but we made it.  Tigger has settled in nicely to having mom and dad home.

We only have about 3 weeks before we go do this all over again.  As mentioned in an earlier blog, we got shuttle tickets for the 5th to the last launch.  It’s a night launch and we’ll be down there for 4 days just to make sure we give them time to delay the launch a couple of times.  We didn’t get the causeway tickets that we really wanted, but we got visitor center tickets and it should be every bit as impressive as I have dreamed it to be. 

If anyone reading this is interested in watching a shuttle launch (not on TV), you have to sign up for the launch updates on the Kennedy Space Center website at http://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/?ic_campID=4&ic_pkw=GH_STS130_Jan09 and click on the link for receiving launch event update emails.  They will notify you 24 hours before the tickets go on sale.  You will need multiple computers to give you the best chance of getting tickets.  The causeway tickets which are closest to the launch site, sell out in about 6 minutes.  You cannot use extra tabs on your browser to get multiple entries.  That will only delay your entry into the ticket booth.  What you need is friends, lots and lots of friends with computers to also try to snag you tickets.  I had 5 computers working for me and only got into the causeway ticket booth once.  There was only 1 ticket left and since I needed 2, it kicked me out.  The next viewing site sold out in 30 minutes.  That’s where my tickets are for.  We’re going to try again at the next launch, and the next, and the next until we get causeway tickets.  If you are serious about getting tickets, I might be willing to use my computer and time to help you snag tickets.  Just let me know.

Oh, once I get pics of the animals from the Tampa Aquarium downloaded to the computer, I’ll post them here.   We got a couple of really impressive shots.  So please check back often. 

Thanks for your time tonight.

STS-130 Space Shuttle Endeavor

Thanks to my good friend Ed, I have shuttle launch tickets for the next shuttle launch.  It’s at 4-something in the morning so it will be considered a night launch.  Woo hoo!  It was amazing.  With Ed’s help we had 5 computers trying to get in to the virtual ticket booth to get tickets.  The tickets for the causeway sold out in a blistering 6 minutes!  The Visitor Center tickets sold out less than 30 minutes later.  I am looking forward to seeing one of the final 5 launches of the space shuttle.  If this goes well, we’re going to try again at the next launch for causeway tickets with Ed and Deanne.  That would be too cool to see 2 of the final 5 launches, one being from the causeway.  Next time we try we’ll have 6 computers trying.  If any pictures turn out from this night launch, I’ll be sure to post them here.

Disney Resort in Vero Beach, Florida

Woo hoo!  We’re at the Disney Resort in Vero Beach for the week.  It has been a little cold but that’s fine by me since a wound on my belly makes it impossible for me to enjoy water activities.  We walked for 3 miles on the beach today and had a great time.  The temperature was about 45 degrees.  Just a bit nippy!  Tomorrow is a day for me to just kick back and relax and that’s fine by me.  I’m going to stay as warm as possible.  I hope all are enjoying a happy new year.