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.