Sunday, January 20, 2008
update on the creeping crud
I know I haven't blogged in a while, but it is all due to how I've been feeling. I think I'm feeling a little better. at least I'm not as tired as I was a couple of days ago. I'm going to church services this morning and see how it goes. Maybe more later.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
doctor report
Mom had her monthly appointment to see her doctor yesterday and, like the good son I try to be, I chauffeured her to the doctor's office. However, before we left, I called the doctor's receptionist and arranged to be seen while we were there.
As I suspected, this is a viral based disease, probably a variant of the rinovirus family, (you know, the virus family that causes the common cold) and other than treating the symptoms to increase my comfort, nothing else can be done. However the doctor did give me a prescription for a broad spectrum antibiotic to use in case I come down with a respiratory bacterial infection superimposed on top of the viral infection.
Now, the bad news. Mom is showing symptoms of coming down with this same crud. I hope it treats her more gently than it has me. Before we back to her house, we went to the store and bought a whole slew of OTC cough and cold treatments for each of us, and filled all of our prescriptions that were running low. The good news is, Mom is probably tougher than I am, so she may not bothered by this stuff as bad as I am.
Now for some good news. I lost 4 pounds, and my blood pressure was down to normal range (117/77)!
Also, it looks like we have a little weather coming in this afternoon. Not a big storm, just a little winter mix starting about noon and then as it get colder, turning to snow. They are only forecasting about 1 inch of snow, but if the roads are wet when it gets colder, we will have a layer of ice under it.
As I suspected, this is a viral based disease, probably a variant of the rinovirus family, (you know, the virus family that causes the common cold) and other than treating the symptoms to increase my comfort, nothing else can be done. However the doctor did give me a prescription for a broad spectrum antibiotic to use in case I come down with a respiratory bacterial infection superimposed on top of the viral infection.
Now, the bad news. Mom is showing symptoms of coming down with this same crud. I hope it treats her more gently than it has me. Before we back to her house, we went to the store and bought a whole slew of OTC cough and cold treatments for each of us, and filled all of our prescriptions that were running low. The good news is, Mom is probably tougher than I am, so she may not bothered by this stuff as bad as I am.
Now for some good news. I lost 4 pounds, and my blood pressure was down to normal range (117/77)!
Also, it looks like we have a little weather coming in this afternoon. Not a big storm, just a little winter mix starting about noon and then as it get colder, turning to snow. They are only forecasting about 1 inch of snow, but if the roads are wet when it gets colder, we will have a layer of ice under it.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Creeping Crud
This crud is insidious. It is shape shifting. Yesterday I was feeling a little better, but tired quickly. Last night after I went to bed I started hurting, as in sore muscles. Back to my old sleep pattern, waking every little bit. This morning back comes the cough, the lethargy, and still the muscular pain. I thought I was getting better but now I'm not sure.
I'll tell you how bad it is. Coffee doesn't even taste good, and I love coffee. Now ain't that some crap?
I'll tell you how bad it is. Coffee doesn't even taste good, and I love coffee. Now ain't that some crap?
Saturday, January 12, 2008
I might live
I think I might be feeling better. Yesterday,I did some laundry, made supper and then just crashed. It wore me out! I have very little energy but today I did start cleaning out the back bedroom/office/computer room/storage room/junk room and found something interesting. I found the world famous missing dentures. How they ended up out there mystifies me. However, I will not look a found set of dentures in the mou..... well, you know what I mean. Off to the dental lab for adjustments next week.
Back to the creeping crud I've been suffering through. This is the third time I've had this stuff in the past 5 months. I have a doctor's appointment in about ten or eleven days, and you can bet he is going to hear all of the symptoms and try to help me get it out of my system.
My butt is dragging after just a little time in the back room. Thank God I had a friend come over to help. If she hadn't, very little would have gotten done. I'm going to bed. Type to you later.
Back to the creeping crud I've been suffering through. This is the third time I've had this stuff in the past 5 months. I have a doctor's appointment in about ten or eleven days, and you can bet he is going to hear all of the symptoms and try to help me get it out of my system.
My butt is dragging after just a little time in the back room. Thank God I had a friend come over to help. If she hadn't, very little would have gotten done. I'm going to bed. Type to you later.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Life Improvement
Some time back, two or three years ago, I copy and pasted an essay from the web. I don't remember whom I copied it from, but if it was you, let me know and I will give credit where credit is due. This essay is about becoming a shooter. However, if you don't shoot, use the same thoughts for golfing, fishing, sewing or cooking 'shine.
my Grand Unified Theory of Shooting Competency and General Crankiness
Most of us are not shooters.
Most of us are not really shooters or gun men. We are collectors, traders, estheticians, and gun lovers. But….we are not shooters.
This is OK. Yes we are busy making a living etc. etc. Look at the world you have created around yourself. It reflects your true self. If you don’t like some aspect of it change it. If not, embrace it. But stop with the whining. There is never enough time in the day or money in the wallet for everything we want to do. If you really want to master that big bore revolver something else will have to be let go of. That is OK too. Nothing is permanent. SIU (suck it up) and move on. There will be pain. So what?
If you want to be a shooter you will have to stop collecting, or trading, or masturbating to gun mags filled with black clad Ninjas. You may have to stop eating out so much. You will have to train as an athlete does, with focus and determination.
If this isn’t you that is OK. Find out and BE who you are. Be happy with it. Excel at it. Then give what you are back to the folks and world around you.
Buckets of Bullets
Surplus is your friend. You want to be a shooter? You must shoot a lot. Thousands and thousands of rounds per year. Aimed rounds, not just hosing. You aren’t independently wealthy, have a wife who will wear rags, or you don’t work for Uncle? That is OK. Buy a gun in a caliber you can buy surplus ammo for. That gun and ammo will out shoot almost all of us. Snap in and hold hard. If you shoot it enough to get better than the gun and ammo combo. Then handload the special rounds you need for the hunt or match.
Let’s look at the numbers…. I will use .223 for this thought experiment. (Yes shooters can indulge in gedanken experimenten, not just Einstein.) Let’s say you are a typical middle aged, middle class gun nut. You buy say 3-4 revolvers or rifles you just can’t live without per year. Let’s say you drop a couple of grand on them, by hook or by crook and got by your wife with it. So you got these lust objects sitting all pretty in their boxes and maybe 20 rounds for each. You get on the net at night and extol their virtues to all and sundry and bitch about not being able to shoot as well as you’d like. SIU. Like I said, let’s look at the numbers….
Year one. Put the money in the bank or sell the lust objects and take your lumps (guns are commodities these days guys) and get your cash in hand. Go buy a good AR-15. An A2 or if your eyes are going a flat top. Why this rifle? You can get one for a grand. The barrel will last longer than most you have the patience to shoot it. They are more accurate than you can believe. The sights are good. Most importantly… They shoot good, accurate surplus ammo. OK, you got the rifle. Put a real shooting sling on it. Don’t buy all the tactical crap. How much money do you have left? $900 say? Good .223 ball runs $150 a thousand or so. That is 4,000 rounds guys. Go find your local 100 yd range. Even the big cities usually have one reasonably near by. SIU. Shoot that 4,000 rounds a year with focus and in position (don’t shoot from the bench) and you will be shooting under 2 inches at 100 yds from the prone, if not the sitting.
Year two. You got two grand again. Buy your wife a nice dinner, some pretty baubles, and another 4,000 rounds. You still got a grand in your pocket. Keep going to the range. Spend that other grand on a good shooting school. Keep going to the range.
You are now a shooter. Keep it up. If you don’t have a couple of grand a year for this, buy a mauser for $160. Ammo is under $100 per thousand. Hold hard. Remember what the Boers did to the Brits with these guns. Head shots any one? You are now a shooter.
When there is a will there is a way. Shoot if you want to be a shooter. Collect if you want to be a collector. Remember, buckets of bullets.
Dillons, not guns.
So you are not a rifle shooter. You want to be a handgun shooter. Don’t buy that next handgun. Buy a Dillon and some dies. The rest of the numbers work out the same. You graduated from grade school didn’t you? Do your own math. Go shoot a lot. Buckets of bullets.
Will
Shooters have to have will. When there is will there is a way. SIU. We are weak compared to our grandfathers. But… we don’t need to be. If you have the strength and will to stay married to your wife you have the strength and will to do anything you want in life. SIU and focus on what you really want. You can be a shooter if you have the will.
Fitness
You want to chase elephants across the savanna, climb high mountains or just be ornery at a professional level? Get fit. Just walking 30 minutes a day is more than most of us ever do and you will be amazed.
Tools not guns
We all have too many guns. Buy the tools you need to support your guns. That means proper cleaning gear, reloading tools, good screwdrivers, the right holster for your pistol. Skip a gun and buy tools. You will be happy.
Be a better shot, not a better gun buyer.
We all agonize over the next gun we want to buy. We read all the sales pitches in the gun mags. Yes sales pitches. That is all the articles are. Do we want the extra extra extra short magnum or the ultra ultra ultra magnum? After all no elk will fall to any of those old cartridges…. But why is it that the guys I know who *regularly* shoot an elk just happen to be good shooters who can place their bullet? Guys who seem quite content with their measly .270s or .308s or 7 mm Mausers? Fit guys who go to where the elk are…
Scopes
You don’t need a glass on every rifle, but if you need a glass get a really good one and move it from gun to gun. Pay for the good mounts. You will be better off with an Aimpoint than a 20 something x unless you really DO shoot at a thousand yards.
Scopes do not belong on hand guns (to quote some one dear to me…)
Synopsis of our story is, whatever you want to do in life, do it. Do whatever it takes, but do it. Suck it up and do it!
my Grand Unified Theory of Shooting Competency and General Crankiness
Most of us are not shooters.
Most of us are not really shooters or gun men. We are collectors, traders, estheticians, and gun lovers. But….we are not shooters.
This is OK. Yes we are busy making a living etc. etc. Look at the world you have created around yourself. It reflects your true self. If you don’t like some aspect of it change it. If not, embrace it. But stop with the whining. There is never enough time in the day or money in the wallet for everything we want to do. If you really want to master that big bore revolver something else will have to be let go of. That is OK too. Nothing is permanent. SIU (suck it up) and move on. There will be pain. So what?
If you want to be a shooter you will have to stop collecting, or trading, or masturbating to gun mags filled with black clad Ninjas. You may have to stop eating out so much. You will have to train as an athlete does, with focus and determination.
If this isn’t you that is OK. Find out and BE who you are. Be happy with it. Excel at it. Then give what you are back to the folks and world around you.
Buckets of Bullets
Surplus is your friend. You want to be a shooter? You must shoot a lot. Thousands and thousands of rounds per year. Aimed rounds, not just hosing. You aren’t independently wealthy, have a wife who will wear rags, or you don’t work for Uncle? That is OK. Buy a gun in a caliber you can buy surplus ammo for. That gun and ammo will out shoot almost all of us. Snap in and hold hard. If you shoot it enough to get better than the gun and ammo combo. Then handload the special rounds you need for the hunt or match.
Let’s look at the numbers…. I will use .223 for this thought experiment. (Yes shooters can indulge in gedanken experimenten, not just Einstein.) Let’s say you are a typical middle aged, middle class gun nut. You buy say 3-4 revolvers or rifles you just can’t live without per year. Let’s say you drop a couple of grand on them, by hook or by crook and got by your wife with it. So you got these lust objects sitting all pretty in their boxes and maybe 20 rounds for each. You get on the net at night and extol their virtues to all and sundry and bitch about not being able to shoot as well as you’d like. SIU. Like I said, let’s look at the numbers….
Year one. Put the money in the bank or sell the lust objects and take your lumps (guns are commodities these days guys) and get your cash in hand. Go buy a good AR-15. An A2 or if your eyes are going a flat top. Why this rifle? You can get one for a grand. The barrel will last longer than most you have the patience to shoot it. They are more accurate than you can believe. The sights are good. Most importantly… They shoot good, accurate surplus ammo. OK, you got the rifle. Put a real shooting sling on it. Don’t buy all the tactical crap. How much money do you have left? $900 say? Good .223 ball runs $150 a thousand or so. That is 4,000 rounds guys. Go find your local 100 yd range. Even the big cities usually have one reasonably near by. SIU. Shoot that 4,000 rounds a year with focus and in position (don’t shoot from the bench) and you will be shooting under 2 inches at 100 yds from the prone, if not the sitting.
Year two. You got two grand again. Buy your wife a nice dinner, some pretty baubles, and another 4,000 rounds. You still got a grand in your pocket. Keep going to the range. Spend that other grand on a good shooting school. Keep going to the range.
You are now a shooter. Keep it up. If you don’t have a couple of grand a year for this, buy a mauser for $160. Ammo is under $100 per thousand. Hold hard. Remember what the Boers did to the Brits with these guns. Head shots any one? You are now a shooter.
When there is a will there is a way. Shoot if you want to be a shooter. Collect if you want to be a collector. Remember, buckets of bullets.
Dillons, not guns.
So you are not a rifle shooter. You want to be a handgun shooter. Don’t buy that next handgun. Buy a Dillon and some dies. The rest of the numbers work out the same. You graduated from grade school didn’t you? Do your own math. Go shoot a lot. Buckets of bullets.
Will
Shooters have to have will. When there is will there is a way. SIU. We are weak compared to our grandfathers. But… we don’t need to be. If you have the strength and will to stay married to your wife you have the strength and will to do anything you want in life. SIU and focus on what you really want. You can be a shooter if you have the will.
Fitness
You want to chase elephants across the savanna, climb high mountains or just be ornery at a professional level? Get fit. Just walking 30 minutes a day is more than most of us ever do and you will be amazed.
Tools not guns
We all have too many guns. Buy the tools you need to support your guns. That means proper cleaning gear, reloading tools, good screwdrivers, the right holster for your pistol. Skip a gun and buy tools. You will be happy.
Be a better shot, not a better gun buyer.
We all agonize over the next gun we want to buy. We read all the sales pitches in the gun mags. Yes sales pitches. That is all the articles are. Do we want the extra extra extra short magnum or the ultra ultra ultra magnum? After all no elk will fall to any of those old cartridges…. But why is it that the guys I know who *regularly* shoot an elk just happen to be good shooters who can place their bullet? Guys who seem quite content with their measly .270s or .308s or 7 mm Mausers? Fit guys who go to where the elk are…
Scopes
You don’t need a glass on every rifle, but if you need a glass get a really good one and move it from gun to gun. Pay for the good mounts. You will be better off with an Aimpoint than a 20 something x unless you really DO shoot at a thousand yards.
Scopes do not belong on hand guns (to quote some one dear to me…)
Synopsis of our story is, whatever you want to do in life, do it. Do whatever it takes, but do it. Suck it up and do it!
update
Yep, it's almost certainly a cold. Using Alka Seltzer cold med and Robitussin I can function but I feel like crap. Yesterday I did nothing but lay around, surf the web, read, listen to tv and doze. I didn't even go to church. I didn't want to share my diseases.
Checked more on the Asus EEEpc. I believe I'll hold off on them until a 2nd gen version comes out. It seems to have a few problems I would like to see corrected before I buy one. However, if someone out there in the real world would like to just give me one, I would be willing to force myself to use it and attempt to correct the problems myself;).
Well I need to run to the grocery store before the meds start wearing off.
Checked more on the Asus EEEpc. I believe I'll hold off on them until a 2nd gen version comes out. It seems to have a few problems I would like to see corrected before I buy one. However, if someone out there in the real world would like to just give me one, I would be willing to force myself to use it and attempt to correct the problems myself;).
Well I need to run to the grocery store before the meds start wearing off.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
slow
Not much happening today. I feel a cold coming on. I'm starting to feel like crap. I tried working on the kitchen, got some of it done. I'm going to bed.
Friday, January 4, 2008
New laptop
I've been on the lookout for a small, inexpensive minimalist laptop for basically email, web surfing, office docs, mp3's, and maybe storing photos. I think I might have found it. It's called the Asus EEE pc. It's flash drive (no hdd), Linux OS (no windows, although you can install XP), and comes preloaded with a bunch of software, including everything I would need to accomplish the tasks I would want it for. It only comes with 2 - 8gb of flash storage (depending on the model), but it has a slot for SD cards and 3 USB ports so expanding storage shouldn't be a problem. An 8 gb SD card and my 20 gb external hdd should be more than enough.
Has anyone out there has experience with one of these? If so let me know what you thought of it.
Has anyone out there has experience with one of these? If so let me know what you thought of it.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Life is good
I've been in a bad mood lately. Well not so much a bad mood as just sort of down. I haven't been sleeping much, and when I do sleep I don't sleep well. I've been hurting. Not enough to be debilitating, but enough to slow me down quite a bit. Also, I've been spending most of my time cleaning out the house which is NOT my favorite thing to do. I mean look at it this way. I've spent years collecting this junk and hauled it all over the US. It must be good for something.
However, I got tired of being in a funk. I began to think of some of the good things.
I woke up this morning. It's not much but it beats the alternative.
I was able to get out of bed by myself. I know a number of people who can't do that.
I have a roof over my head, food for my belly, clothes for my body and my momma loves me.
My momma is still alive. She is 83 years of age, and still lives alone.
I have a few good friends, from ages 15 - 90. Not many, but more than I deserve.
My daughter and grand daughter call me regularly. My daughter thinks I'm intelligent (an out of touch jerk but intelligent) and my grand daughter laughs at me (she's 8 months old). I even get to see them 2 or 3 times a year.
The church I worship with haven't kicked me out yet.
My jeep hasn't broken down lately.
My dog hasn't run away in a while.
Life is pretty good. I still hurt, probably won't get much sleep tonight and still need to throw away a bunch of junk, but life is good.
However, I got tired of being in a funk. I began to think of some of the good things.
I woke up this morning. It's not much but it beats the alternative.
I was able to get out of bed by myself. I know a number of people who can't do that.
I have a roof over my head, food for my belly, clothes for my body and my momma loves me.
My momma is still alive. She is 83 years of age, and still lives alone.
I have a few good friends, from ages 15 - 90. Not many, but more than I deserve.
My daughter and grand daughter call me regularly. My daughter thinks I'm intelligent (an out of touch jerk but intelligent) and my grand daughter laughs at me (she's 8 months old). I even get to see them 2 or 3 times a year.
The church I worship with haven't kicked me out yet.
My jeep hasn't broken down lately.
My dog hasn't run away in a while.
Life is pretty good. I still hurt, probably won't get much sleep tonight and still need to throw away a bunch of junk, but life is good.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Today
Not much going on today, just going through more stuff. I paid my bills earlier, and need to go cook supper for Mom in just a few, so just a quick post.
Also, a rant. I lost a new set of dentures. They were uncomfortable to wear so I went back to my old ones until I could get the new ones adjusted. I was going to take them to the dental lab this morning to get them adjusted, and now I can't find them. "I think someone broke in and stole them." Now isn't that thought stupid. Why steal dentures and leave TV, stereo, computer, tools and only God knows what else that could be sold for a much higher price. It IS stupid, but it was the first thought in my mind.
Also, a rant. I lost a new set of dentures. They were uncomfortable to wear so I went back to my old ones until I could get the new ones adjusted. I was going to take them to the dental lab this morning to get them adjusted, and now I can't find them. "I think someone broke in and stole them." Now isn't that thought stupid. Why steal dentures and leave TV, stereo, computer, tools and only God knows what else that could be sold for a much higher price. It IS stupid, but it was the first thought in my mind.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
How many five year olds could you take in a fight?
They say I could take out 24. Not bad for an old crippled guy.
24
How did you do?
24
Go to Ultrasound technician school
How did you do?
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