Deluge Thoughts & Holiday Cheer

 

Almost 3 1/2" of rain dropped by serious thunderstorms all day yesterday as a cold front stalled out overhead. Despite 12 hours of tornado watches, we were spared. Good thing, as getting to the house for shelter involved wading ankle deep in puddles. Iggy was closer to a drowned rat than a Schipperke after a foray to the backyard at midday to relieve a nearly bursting bladder.

One of the downsides of that much rain was the unexpected overflowing of the black tank this AM from the rainwater that went down the vent. It was enough that things rather reek in here at the moment. Unpleasant but the odor will be gone in a few days of drying out. Just wasn’t expecting the need for that much Febreeze deodorant over the holidays with everything closed.

Still, it could be a whole lot worse. I feel badly for the folks NE of here that were hit by tornados. A hard thing at this time of year. Makes it hard for those who had very little to have to start over again with nothing. A donation to the Red Cross would be appropriate if you can spare the funds, a donation of blood if your precious bodily fluid is acceptable is the gift of life, y’know.

Nothing big planned for the holidays here. SWMBO is trying to come off Cymbalta without benefit of a titrating dosage and is a cross between an angry dragon and an old sow bear getting ready for hibernation. She can’t help it. Doesn’t make it fun to live with, though. Am firmly of the mind that Doctors who prescribe a medication should know what the issues with discontinuance might be – except this time it was Eli Lilly & Company that allegedly lied to the FDA, the medical community and the patients about the side effects of withdrawal.

It’s odd, the falsehoods our brains seize upon and hold onto like a guard dog with a burglar. A certain party, unnamed to protect the guilty, told us we must not use the blue and white snowflake lights we bought last Friday because “only Jews display blue lights at Christmastime.” “Gee,” say I, “there sure must be a lot of Jews in the USA, because from 38,000 feet flying across the country in a jet, I have noted that blue lights are the most likely Christmas lights to be visible at that elevation (red has a much shorter wavelength than blue). Anyway, despite evidence presented to the contrary, I don’t think they were convinced.

So, that’s the snooze fit to spill. We’re doing well, everything considered. Hoping to hit the road to warmer climes before too long. I hope you all have safe, happy holidays. Sleep tight, don’t let the Krampus bite, and make sure your fruitcake has been soaked in 101 proof bourbon for at least a year before sampling it.

Well, yesterday was a success for me. I hope it was for you, too. An afternoon visit to the Cardiologist revealed the startling news that I managed to lower my Triclycerides by over 900 points! I'm back near-normal. So, one hurdle crossed off - I'm free to resume our traveling plans, if the primary care doctor agrees. That appointment is shortly after the New Year. Got to hustle to be ready for wheels up - hard to do during the holidays.

Finished Christmas shopping last night, now to wrap and label. Me wrapping presents is like the Marx brothers - except I'm all alone with tape stuck here, and there and . No photos, please. 

Nice to have good news to relay, for a change.

Interim Report: Baton Rouge, LA

We survived Thanksgiving, had a wonderful Ham dinner and all the trimmings with one of SWMBO's daughters, including way more dessert than I should have, but hey, it's T-Day, after all. Hid out through the Black Friday - Cyber Monday madness. Been fighting some stomach bugs off and on since that manifest in odd moments for no apparent provocation. A visit to the Lab next week for bloods should offer up a numerical value or two on the state of my recovery or decline. We'll be meeting with the doctor on the 19th. It is hoped he will give me the OK to resume my wanderings as we were hoping to winter near Port Aransas, Texas. Keeping fingers and toes crossed.

In the meantime, preparations are underway for the coming holidays. Urgency to start and complete repairs is notched a little higher. Never a dull moment when you're a procrastinator, is there?

Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all!

Traditionally at this time of year one gives thanks for the good things that have happened and will hopefully happen in future. We gloss over the bad stuff and cast a rosy countenance upon ourselves. I'm thankful, too, but there are no rose-coloured glasses astride my nose. No Siree!

Then we stuff ourselves silly on roast turkey with all the trimmings, beaucoup pies and sweets, topped off with Bordeaux and Bourbon, until replete, whence  we waddle off to the nearest easy chair to sleep off our excesses as we "watch" football.

Sadly, that hasn't been my modus operandi for many years. This year will be no different. Not sure what I am serving for dinner, but it won't be turkey, goose, duck or any other roast fowl. Roast veggies are a possibility if I can get my wife to drive me to Wally World in the AM, else it will be the luck of the pantry. Beans, more than likely. Rice. The staples of most of the non-Western world. Off to a daughter's for dessert in the evening, mostly for the company as this diet doesn't permit such luxuries as cheesecake or blueberry pie. Lunch for yours truly will be a revisit with the Hot and Sour Squid Soup I made for my supper today (SWMBO claims I'm part Squid...) while the Mrs. will probably opt for a PB&J if I get some bread in the morning. Steel cut oats laced with stewed raisins & a scrambled egg was my fast breaker. 

Such is the life of the cardiac challenged. Hope yours is a tastier repast. Nevertheless, beans and rice beats the alternative I stared down in the ER just 2 1/2 weeks ago. Wasn't quite ready for the Reaper and his scythe just yet.

And So It Goes. Have a happy holiday and drive safely ... the life you save might be mine.

Convalescent Ennui

It's been a quiet week devoted to recuperating from recent traumatic health events. A major mood setback occurred on Wednesday with the arrival of the hospital bill for nearly 60 grand, and that doesn't include doctors and surgeons, nor ambulance ride to the ER. All in, I suspect close to 80 grand before we are through. Seeing as how I have never earned that much money in my life in a year's time, I suspect a working familiarity with the bankruptcy system isn't far away in my future, if you know what I mean. I don't suspect I'll ever get it fully paid off before I die. Pisser.

Bone-headed move be me: I went to renew my drivers license the other day. The drive to the DMV is a far trip. SWMBO told me the night before to bring my birth certificate. Yours truly failed to do that. You can guess the rest. Got to the DMV on Thursday afternoon and the clerk informed me I HAD to have my birth certificate. I've had a DL for almost 50 years. Not once did I have to provide a birth certificate. This is utter bullshit. Bad enough the governor caved to the RFID chip in the license, now the pharking gestapo expect us to have "ze papers upon our person" at all times!?! Heil Hitler! The better half was some old PO'd at me. She still is and offers no sign of an inclination to desist, either.

Hope y'all stay warm and dry as much as possible this weekend and in the week ahead. Be thankful next week for what all you have, material and immaterial. The Pettybees will figure out a way to take it from you before long.

And So It Goes...

I’m Still Here, Sort of…

 

Yep, still amongst the living. I was discharged from the hospital last Friday night, too late to obtain the multiple prescriptions written by my cardiologists and hospitalist. But, that didn’t keep me from toodling around the local Wal-Mart on a scooter buying groceries while waiting for the one emergency prescription I could get filled.

Home again, finally, to a very excited Schipperke. Poor Iggy had to sleep outside with the other dogs, eating Old Roy Chinese dog kibble (Wally World brand) and generally feeling abandoned all week. So you imagine how happy he was to see his sleeping partner (me), his personal gourmet food provider and personal walker (also me), return to end his travails in the wilds of the backyard. Aside from a bad case of the itchies from the Chink Food, he appeared none the worse for wear.

The weekend was slow, but apparently I didn’t take it easy enough. A hematoma the size of a large grape arose on Sunday night and much spousal consternation ensued. Attempts at reaching the appropriate parties were fruitless until a PA at the hospital said I should go by the office the following day. That is about all that PA did, as I got chewed out by office staff the next day for showing up unannounced. An EKG, and a sonogram of the heart and I was told there was no damage, just a blood-filled vein with a bubble of blood. Take it easy, sir, and you’ll do fine…

So I did as told until last night, when I wrestled with a stuck kitchen drawer and the drawer won. Now I’m sore and we don’t know if the stent was disturbed or just a pulled chest muscle. We’ll see the Cardiologist on Monday afternoon as scheduled and find out then if there’s a problem.

Until then, we are trying to stay warm and dry in the coldest autumn we and Baton Rouge have ever experienced. Compared to the rest of the country, there isn’t much to complain about. Twenty-seven degrees and 3 1/2 inches of rain on Sunday to look forward to, I guess. Propane here is high, because of tailgating the LSU games, of all the ridiculous excuses for screwing the consumer.

The Doc has put the kybosh on any travels in the next year so am (literally) stuck here until Spring when I must renegotiate with said doctor about closing out my affairs in Maine. Maybe next year we’ll get to see the desert in Spring bloom. So much for the Gulf Coast of Texas, the Rio Grand Valley, Quartzite and beyond.

That’s my world today. Closing in around me, but it STILL beats the alternative,  ;)

And So It Goes…

Master of horror Stephen King talks baseball, his latest book ‘Revival’ and how he’s not done yet

I thought you might be interested in this article from the BDN:

=" http://bangordailynews.com/slideshow/master-of-horror-stephen-king-talks-baseball-his-latest-book-revival-and-how-hes-not-done-yet/ "

Still Amongst The Living

This'll be a quickie. Still in hospital in Louisiana. The cardiac docs did a cardiac catheterization on Wednesday afternoon. The bad news, all 3 grafts from the CABG 11 years ago were either partially or fully blocked. The good news is they reopened the blocked artery with the high-tech equivalent of a hand drill and opened and stented one of the original blocked veins. Two out of three isn't too bad in this situation. The post-operative time in the ICU was eventful as I tried to bleed out through my IV tubing.

The plan has me being discharged today to my RV for further recovery. As it will be a while before I can drive, travel planned for this year is on hold, dammit.

More news as it becomes available. And So It Goes...

New Home Away From Home

I have moved up in the world to the 7th floor of the "Tower That Cardiology Built":

Disgusted

Cardiacs Be Us

Had an episode of angina after eating a late supper last night. Not an unusual occurrjence, but this time I couldn't quash it, despite injestion of a couple of nitro tablets melting under the tongue. So after dithering a bit on the subject the folks at EMS were summoned, and a third nitro-stat consumed. In a few minutes, the men and women of the local house of fire and agony arrived and my nice, sedate life was turned into a race. A race to run a strip, a race to load up, a race to the thruway, and a race off the bus into an ER (A&E for Aussie and British acquaintances). Much poking, prodding, and inquiries as to "where does it hurt?" and "on a scale of one to ten, ten being the worst pain you've ever felt, how much does that elephant sitting on you weigh?" Things like that there...all at a rate unbelievable in good folk in Louisiana. They can make a dissertation about breakfast last until dinner!

Multiple blood draws later, the general consensus is I had a heart attack, but only a little one. Probably my glucose levels are the proximate cause. In any event, their current plan involves stabilizing the glucose readings and doing a angioscopic catheterization tomorrow or Thursday and see what's what. That's the plan, Stan. More as I am able.

We Shall Never Forget

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. 
I have absolutely no rights to the composite nor the individual images. See wikipedia.org. 

There will be much written and spoken this 13th year after the ignominious attacks by terrorists upon the USA. They were not the first, nor will the be the last. Unlike those that came before, we watched the September 11, 2001 attacks live, in high resolution color, in every way and from any direction possible. In horror.

My wife woke me shortly after the first airliner struck the World Trade Center. We watched with the rest of the nation as the second plane struck the other tower. We watched in inevitable horror, shock and resignation as the terrorists piloted a third jet into the Pentagon. The crash and disintegration of the fourth passenger plane in a field in Pennsylvania was a bitter aftermath to the horror of the morning and early afternoon's carnage.

While I have aged along with everyone else since then, the nightmare images persist in memory. Their immediacy, the feeling of helplessness to affect the outcome of the events of the day rage in my chest today as they did then, replacing the calm strength and vitality that once were my stock-in-trade response to tragedy and chaos as a firefighter and medic.


I shall not forget unto my dying day. Will you?

Foolish Penguin...

Too hot to work, so just napping. Got to hit the road, real soon now.

Echoing Sentiment Heard On Letterman ...

Labour Day, 2014

Dear Mrs. Clinton,

It is given that you will run for President of the United States again in 2015. Like Adlai Stevenson (RIP), you won't win, for all the wrong reasons. You do yourself a grave disservice, assuring defeat, by being out and about, punditing your way through TV interviews ostensibly about your new book. Cut it out. We all know you are angling to be nominated. Give it a rest. You will be nominated.

So, give us all a break -- take your miscreant husband and go on vacation in the Bahamas for, oh, say, a year or so. We'll like you a whole lot more in your absence than we will with Clintons crunching underfoot every time we turn around.

Oh, and Rick Perry? If you are really serious about running, which I doubt, stay home and keep your mouth shut for the next year, too. Just saying...

Now I Know What I Would Look Like With A "Perm"!

CLOSE TO YOU

The Jim Hensen Company just put this up on YouTube in HD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re-6eOhrejE&sns=em

Why, Yes, I DO Hate the Catholic Church

Recent events have raised my internal red flags. In fact, my personal "Devil's Advocate" has been anxiously bouncing up and down, imitating a Sea Cucumber and just generally been a massive PITA ever since the appointment of an old-style Socialist to head the Vatican.

Now, I hate conspiracy theories. I become even frostier when it comes to those who promulgate this nonsense. So imagine my chagrin that it is my own slip showing in this debacle. What 'debacle' am I referring to, you ask? None other than the rapid escalation in unaccompanied children illegally crossing our borders from Central and South America.

This situation smacks very clearly of socialist engineering or brinksmanship. Latin American parents are not, nor ever have been, culturally biased towards sending their children to the North alone. From personal observation, these folks fiercely love and protect their offspring. It is not the cultural norm to abandon their children to an uncertain future in the US, with or without distant relatives to care for them. No. Despite how stagnant or depressed their local economy may be, sending their children off on an unaccompanied journey to cross the border with a guide (coyote) at an expense of $5000 to $7000 USD per child with no guarantee of success is not something most Latina mothers will do. Someone, someone highly trusted and considered beyond reproach has convinced these parents that it is safe to send their children. There is only one class of people with that kind of trust in Latin America. Parish priests. And this issue has only reached crisis proportions in the past two years. The two years since "Papa Francisco" ascended to the papacy (3/13/13). He is a Jesuit. His writings are clearly Socialist. Ipso facto. Roman Catholic priests are actively encouraging parents to send children to the States. No other answer fits.

No, I can not furnish proof. Even if I could, I wouldn't. At this point, all I have done is give voice to internal suspicions. Prove it and I become a target. While I only have a few years left, I really don't want to spend them looking over my shoulder. Because, I have witnessed the reach of the Gnomes of Rome and what lengths they can and will go to to protect the Mother Church. Squashing me would be all in a day's work.

Skillet-baked Cinnamon Roles

No oven, so baked in a covered cast iron skillet. Only one (the center) got too dark on one side. Used the standard cooking time but turned over halfway through baking. By the way, there were eight a short while ago, and it's just me and the pooch at home this afternoon.

And So It Goes...

It's taken seventeen years to reach this state ...

A redneck spring is in full progress here in Baton Rouge. There's a riot of colors as flowers and trees bloom. The Magnolias are magnificent... even scrawny little twig-like transplants in front of new stores have put out a dozen blooms. And the snakes and insects -- "Oh, My!" as George Takei is fond of saying.

Something new, yet very old, has been added to the mix. CICADAS. They're in full swing, their 17-years long life span is winding down. The full moon had them singing from the tree tops. Presently, they are trying to drone out the sound of the weekend gardeners, mowing, tilling, sawing and weed whacking peace and quiet into memories. They are close, but haven't succeeded, yet (the CICADAS, not the Weekend Warriors).

Here's a delightful, mesmerizing video on the life of CICADAS, directed and produced by Sam Orr with music soundtrack score by David Blaine. This is a Kickstart crowd-funded production. If you'd like to contribute go to kickstart.com to add your support for this worthy project.

http://vimeo.com/m/66688653

P.S. Does anybody have an idea on how to embed a Vimeo video from a Kindle HD into Blogger? That is the link above to a great video but darned if I could get it to embed. And So It Goes...

Birdies

Spring is in full swing in this small corner of Louisiana. Birds are flying through on their way North that haven't really been seen here all winter. But what I'm most recently proud of was identifying the "smooch ... Smooch" call of a Northern Mockingbird. We rarely see them in Maine and I don't consciously recall hearing one on the farm since moving there from Vermont in the mid 70's. All accomplished with "Merlin", my bird ID app on my iPhone from Cornell.

Happy Spring folks.
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