Category Archives: Health

Toilets

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Sometimes, when the weather’s nice, I kinda wish we still had out houses instead of indoor toilets. Toilets are complex and require special tools and parts to get them installed and maintain them. You need screws, screw drivers, hammers, nails, wood, a water source, wax rings, and either connection to a septic system or to a city sewer system.

Out Houses? All you need is some old lumber, like a barn that fell down, a saw, nails and a shovel. Dig a suitable sized hole, build a small room (one or two holer) to fit over it, add an old Sears catalog and you’ve got a totally functional facility. What’s even better is that once the hole you dug fills to a certain level (a couple of feet below ground level, say), all you need to do is pick the house up, move it out of the way, and dig a hole close to the last one and simply fill the old hole with the contents of the new one. When done, set the house on the new hole.

Funny story. When I was very young this is what we had. My much older brothers are much more knowledgeable about the use of out houses. One of those brothers was known for his ability to jump over the old hole after the house was moved and the other brother was known for his ability to only jump half way across the hole. In his new white boots. It is my understanding that Mom told Dad that if the half-way jumper sank to just leave him there. Lucky for him he only sank to his armpits. I think he lost the boots, too, but I’m not sure.

So, I leave you with that image in your head – a small child up to his armpits in effluvia from the bowels and bladders of many, many people, littered with all manner of saturated cleansing media, and maybe a bee’s nest or two.

Sleep on that.

Mary, Hood to Coast Relay, & Spaghetti

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Before getting to the cheerful stuff, I’m compelled to report that we’ve lost another friend. Mary Newell-Dickinson depart this mortal domain on August 20th. She was only 68, and passed peacefully in her sleep. Her departure was a total surprise to everyone, especially her husband, Ross. It’s a tragedy, but we rest comfortably in the knowledge that she’s just gone ahead to help us find our way when it’s our time. So, whether or not you knew Mary, please remember her and send healing prayers to Ross.

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Incidentally, Mary was a member of the OMTAAMB (One More Time Around Again Marching Band). Maybe you’ve heard of them.

Our friends Jeannie, and Susan are also in the band. I’ll talk about them on another day.

Yesterday Diane and I chipped in to help daughter Jennifer prepare food for the Hood to Coast walkers and runners. For those of you who are not familiar with the Hood to Coast, it’s a relay race from Mt. Hood to Seaside. It’s about a 200 mile trek for the runners. Walkers also relay but start from Portland. The object of this event is to make it to Seaside before all those who went before you drink all the beer.

Team members take turns and each member normally runs or walks three 5 KM segments. The runners/walkers start in the morning and continue throughout the night with the last participants arriving in Seaside Saturday morning. It’s one of the largest relay races in the world, and they always come through St. Helens. One of the main stops for food is the Columbia County Fair Grounds which just happens to be located on the outskirts of St. Helens. One of the traditions for providing food is for the St. Helens High School parents and Seniors to sponsor the main food service for the Senior’s Safe & Sober program. They make lots of money doing this, but they provide some pretty good food in return. High Carb stuff to keep participants moving.

Diane and my contribution was to make spaghetti for 200. We’ve never done that before so it was an exciting challenge. During our effort we made 8 gallons of sauce and boiled up 10 double packages of spaghetti noodles. The spaghetti noodles were cooked to perfection. I know that’s true because we know who Al Dente is. He lives just down the street.

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Now, here’s where I must share what learned during this evolution … when stirring either sauce, or noodles, it’s beneficial to have tools with handles that are longer than the water or sauce is deep. Not observing this rule results in repeated, painful burns to fingers when attempting to get stuff from the bottom of the pan. I only burned myself twice before opting for a long-handled spoon to finish the job. In all we had two very large pots of sauce, and I cooked the noodles 3 packages at a time in the same pots after moving the sauce to holding tanks with heaters. The hardest part about doing the noodles was waiting for the water to boil. For some reason it took an incredibly long time. Once it got going, however, it worked just fine so I just kept using it over and over, adding water sparingly to keep from cooling it down too much.

The final vote of confidence for all that work was received from the runners who complimented Jennifer and Lydia on the great spaghetti. And, they sold every bit of it. We did good.

After turning over our spaghetti efforts to Daniel & Jeran, Diane and I made ourselves presentable so we could join some of our Winnebago friends, Cliff, Susie, Carolann, & Terry at the St. Helens Elks Lodge for dinner. These folks park at the Elks a couple of times a year which gives us more opportunities to visit with them. We treasure our time with these folks.

That’s Susie, Diane, Carolann, Terry, Me, and Cliff after the end of a pretty terrific meal served by one of the happiest waitresses I believe I’ve ever seen. As Terry said, “she should smile more.” She couldn’t do that, of course, because there wasn’t a moment when she wasn’t smiling.

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The St. Helens Elks Lodge #1999 sits on a hill with a terrific view of the Columbia River. I don’t have a photo to prove it, but that’s OK. I’m sure everyone believes me. Right?

While Diane and I were playing with spaghetti, Jewel went to the Portland International Airport to meet her daughter, Jessica, and family when they arrived from Perth, Australia. That, my friends, is a very long trip.

Now it’s Saturday, 1530 hours in the afternoon. This morning I mowed the entire yard, as well as one of our neighbor’s yards, edged stuff, and hauled a trailer load of debris to the burn pile. I could do that because it was only in the 80’s. I’m allowed outside when it’s under 90. I don’t know why it matter becasue I sweat just as much either way. But, rules are rules, ya know?

That’s it for now. I have some ball games to watch.

Guess Who Got Specs !

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… and, she got a T-shirt to match. How cool is that?

Baylee has joined the majority portion of the world who wears glasses and she couldn’t be happier. Turns how she’s been having difficulty for a little while at school but it wasn’t noticeable to the teacher until she saw Baylee trying to hold her eyes open so she could see better. The teacher initially thought she was trying to stay awake. Far from it.

Now she sees perfectly, just like the rest of us.

Doctor Visits, Golf, Gmail & Outlook, RV Dumping

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Last Monday I had a doctor’s appointment but gave it up so Diane could go in my place. Since I don’t go to the doc very often I was pretty sure they wouldn’t notice that Diane wasn’t me. But, they fooled me, and knew it was Diane right away. I think it’s because her hair is longer than mine. Even though they knew it wasn’t me they chose to see Diane anyway because, well, she needed to be seen. My appointment was just for a 2-month followup. Nothing’s happened in the last two months, however, so I was OK not seeing the doc. But, as luck would have it, they had an opening with my doctor right after my original appointment, so all that subtrafuge, though fun, was a total waste of time.

Diane had to see the doc because she developed a mysterious rash on her neck that was driving her nutsoid. She said it didn’t hurt, it just itched. We were concerned that it might be a new episode of shingles, and the doctor was wondering that herself. Diane now has some cream to help with the itch and it appears to be working.

Me? I’m fine. My BP was 117/68 (or something like that), HR 72, and weight 197. The weight, of course, is incorrect. It always is at the doc’s office. I wonder why that is. In addition to  asking all the normal questions about any changes I may have noticed, doc checked my ear to see how the Mohs surgery went. The ear is still a bit tender, but it healed so nicely that you can barely see that anything was done. My surgeon did a fabulous job. I also had photos taken of my retinas to see how my diabetes is going. I got the good news today that it’s all normal.

Yesterday I was forced to go golfing with Junior and Doug and I had one of my better rounds (52). Not bad for a 37 handicap. Yes, that’s how bad I really am. The reason is because I’m no too concerned with trees and just pretend they aren’t there if they happen to be between me and where I want to go. Most of the time it doesn’t work, but the times it does is lots of fun.

After golf I paid a visit to Eva, one of my high school class mates, who was having trouble with adding a Gmail account to her Outlook application. I couldn’t figure it out, but had a great visit. After returning home I went to work on the internet in an attempt to figure out how to fix it. It was a waste of time because I was really wanting to be outside working but Diane wouldn’t let me because it was so hot. Running 90+ I think and I’m forbidden to be outside when it’s that hot. I don’t mind, but hot days are the ones I’d rather be inside anyway so I don’t whine about it. Well, I don’t whine about it every time. Just once in a while, to keep in practice.

No, regarding Gmail and Outlook … I figured it out this afternoon and it’s kind of interesting. I’d explain it to you but I don’t want to. If you’re really interested, let me know and I’ll tell you.

Before doing the Gmail research, I hooked up the travel trailer in preparation for a run to the dump station next to Burgerville. Regarding that … I don’t believe any of the rumors going around about Burgerville using water from the dump station to wash their pans. I think it goes directly into the city sewer system. Honest. The trailer had to be dumped because when we left Big Eddy on July 24th their dump station was no available. So, we just went on home thinking we would do it when we got to St. Helens. But, we didn’t. Instead, we just went home to visit with Jewel and the dogs. Once the trailer was parked, there seemed to be too many other things going on that made hooking up the trailer difficult. Today, however, we decided that it had to be done since we will need to have all tanks empty for our trip to Beverly Beach next week. The dump went well, in case you’re wondering. Didn’t spill a drop. I was a bit concerned that the black tank may have solidified after sitting for a month, and that I may have to get a bunch of Fleet enemas to get things going, but it wasn’t necessary. It was a complete, uneventful evacuation of all tanks. Made me proud.

Upon returning home I put on my outdoor work clothes because I wanted to flatten a portion of the front yard that’s been a lump for years. Despite warnings about temps too high for me to be working outside (98) I went anyway and accomplished the task. then I took a shower so Diane would let me sit in the living room this evening.

For those of you keeping track of Jewel, I must admit that Diane and I are having difficulty helping her gain weight. She only weighs like 12 pounds and nothing seems to stick to her. Actually, she weighs more than that but it’s a secret. She did make a comment the other day that I thought was quite funny. She said she’s just a stick figure with wrinkles. But, she’s healthy and appears to be happy, so we should probably just quit making her eat ice cream all the time and leave her alone.

Hope all of you are happy and well.

My Ear, and DISH Satellite

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Here it is August 4th already, and the days are noticeably shorter and the nights longer. Longer nights haven’t yet confused the Little Black Dog (Ozzie) because he still  wakes me up promptly at 0500. He either has a terrific internal clock, or he can read Diane’s alarm clock.

Yesterday I spent a few hours with my dermatologist who concisely excised a 10x15mm piece of skin from the top of my right ear that was home for a herd of basal cell carcinoma things. It was done using Mhos Surgery. I believe I mentioned a couple of days ago that this was going to happen. I was prepared to spend the day because the process involves taking small bits of flesh, biopsying it, then taking more, if necessary. The biopsy part takes about an hour so requiring multiple scoops, as Diane calls them, could take a while. I was lucky as my doc got it all with one scoop and we were hope by 1030, not quite three hours from the 0745 check-in time. Now I an adorned with an impressive mass of what was called a “pressure” bandage but is, in fact, not putting much pressure on the wound. Diane had to augment the nurses efforts with the large piece of tape because it was almost flapping in the wind. This is the way I went to coffee this morning with my friends Larry and Larry.

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After coffee I went to ACE for some things Diane put on a list for me then came home and fiddled with the DISH receiver in our trailer. Diane, Jennifer, Lydia, and Jewel shopping in Portland, leaving me unsupervised but with stern instructions that I was not allowed to do “anything” in the way of labor that involved exertion of any kind, doctors orders. Apparently there’s a mild possibility that one or more of the 12 stitches might give way allowing my ear to spurt blood all over the place. I don’t think that’s something the dogs would clean up for me and it would certainly create a bad situation for me once Diane got home. So, I remained in my Coffee Clothes, boots and all, and mosied back and forth to the trailer getting our DISH receiver set up as a DVR. All I had to do was add a hard drive to it and have the service activated. I called the first time and thought I’d made myself clear, but the service wasn’t activated. So, I used their handy CHAT feature and accomplished the task.

The external hard drive I used the one sitting behind my computer that used to be my back up drive. It was originally installed in an Apple Time Machine that had an electronical problem that occurred well after the warranty period. So, I ripped it apart and installed the hard drive in a case that I purchased somewhere and continued using it at my Time Machine drive. Worked great until I got a Western Digital 4TB MyCloud device. Then it just sat there. Ignored. Until today.

After getting the DVR service activated I plugged the drive into my 211z DISH receiver and it went to work formatting the drive for me. I’ll be curious to see how well it works. Seems to have adapted to its new job OK so far.

You needed to know all that.

Now I must stop and watch Olympic Soccer.

If I get in trouble, for any reason, once Diane returns, I’ll be back to share it with you all.

Later …

Diane and Jewel returned home safely with a really good sandwich for me from the Virgina Cafe. I’m afraid I gobbled. The I talked Diane into removing all that padding from my ear which I was quickly beginning to dislike immensely. It still hurts, but now I can get ice closer to the offending area. Relief is in sight. If necessary, I know where the rum is.

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Golfing, and other Stuff

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It was a good day on the golf course. None of us died. I beat the Peal brothers handily which reaffirms my previous statements about golfing more makes you better. This just happened to be my day. Doug came in with a cold and then we have Junior who has two fake knees and a bad back that requires a couple of back braces to make playing tolerable. We had a good time.

Getting to the golf course, however, was a bit dicey because the brakes on my old truck decided it was time to retire. Thankfully, there was no one at the intersection of Barr Ave and Sykes Road when I made this discovery or there would have been a wreck. But, I made it to the course on time by driving very carefully the rest of the way. I can stop it if the truck is rolling slowly. Made it home OK, too. Since it has a load of dirt in the back, I need to find some brake fluid so I won’t run through the lower fence in the back yard when I go there.

… pause …

Couldn’t find any brake fluid in the garage, but I have lots of power steering fluid so used some of that. Seems to work just fine. Does anyone know if that’s a bad idea?

Only a day left before I go under the knife for Mohs surgery on Wednesday morning. Dr. Alan is going to peel all the skin off my right ear, remove all the basal cell carcinoma things then put it all back together. I told the young lady who called for the pre-op stuff that I was OK with and Ear-ectomy if necessary but she said that wouldn’t be necessary and that when Dr. Alan is done it will still look like an ear. She didn’t say what kind of ear, and I didn’t ask, so I planning to be surprised when it’s all done. I’ll take a picture to share.

Right now I’m going to just rest a bit and wait for Diane to feed me.

Ciao.

Physical Therapy, Boot Camp, and Long Trips

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I graduated from Physical Therapy today. My therapist, Brett, said I passed. Now all I have to do is keep doing the exercises he prescribed for me that most folks on physical therapy don’t do.

The first thing I did during my session was spend 8 minutes on a bike. Today Brett dropped me to 5 minutes. Sitting adjacent to me was Kay, who I didn’t know until I asked her what a nice girl like her was doing in a place like this. From that I not only learned her name, but also that she had her knee replaced a few years ago and comes back to the facility to keep it limber to ensure she continues to have no problems with the knee. I wish Diane could have talked with her. She’s leary of knee surgery, even though she would benefit immensely from having it done. Now I’ll share that by sharing that I’ll be in trouble for about a week. What’s new there?

Diane, my Social Secretary/Travel Agent/Best Cook Ever/Friend, spent most of the morning talking with a couple of airlines to see if she could redesign how we used some airplane tickets we already have in order to allow us to visit Cedric after he graduates from boot camp in September.

The current reservation has us leaving Portland on September 20th on Alaska Airlines to Chicago where we switch to American Airlines for the trip to Bradley Field in Connecticut. Since Cedric graduates from Boot Camp on September 16th, Diane is trying to back up our first leg of the trip on Alaska to leave on the 15th, then pick up the original American Airlines flight on the 20th. I don’t know where it stands, right now, so can’t provide results at this time.

News at eleven.

I must add, considering that I’m sharing the news that we will be away from home for an extended time, until October 16th or so, that the home will still be occupied by Jewel who has easy access to a bazooka, 3 shotguns, a couple of 9 mils, various yard tools, and a flame thrower. Plus the dogs, of course. They will be here, too.

So, for any of you Facebook cruisers who have a notion to visit our home thinking it’s vacant, keep that in mind.

We also have video surveillance installed.

And a ex-feral cat.

 

My Feet, Diabetes Type II, and The VA

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Good news! My feet are in great shape. I know that’s true because a Podiatrist told me so today. He works at the VA and I was sent to see him because I have Type II Diabetes, something relatively new for me, and my primary care doc wanted to ensure my feet were in good working order. You know, not all cracked and bleeding. Sure, she could have looked at them herself, but apparently she’s been trained mainly on things to do with ones innards, not outtards. So, off to the podiatrist.

It was a long wait. Something over two months. Perhaps you know that the VA is offering alternate care for folks who can’t be seen within 30 days. Well, it’s not what it’s cracked up to be. I was called by the folks who offer the alternative care when they were made aware of the long delay, but the trouble is, that was about 1.5 months into my wait. Since the original appointment was just around the corner I told them to forget it. I wasn’t in all that big of a hurry anyway. There’s a perfectly good pair of wire cutters that I use for toe nails and, apparently, according to my Podiatrist, I’m doing OK with them. So, I shall continue.

I had a toenail job at a salon once that Diane had arranged for me, and that was interesting. That was many years ago and I haven’t felt the need to return. The lady who did my toes kind of concerned me when she got into some really heavy breathing toward the end of my treatment. I’m sure she was very into feet. That’s OK, but it was a little disconcerting. Perhaps I’ll give it another try soon, I’m sure, since I have this affliction and it’s way easier for someone else to deal with my feet than me. They seem to be getting farther and farther away.

I have neuropathy, too. In my left foot. It’s not bad. Yet. My Podiatrist told me, and Diane, who was in the room with me, that he has patients who suffer from the burning pain of neuropathy all the time. What I have is actually nothing compared to that. Just a little numbness in spots. The main spot is in the ball of my foot and has caused me concern for years because it feels exactly like my sock is wadded up right in that area. I’ve learned, over time, that no amount of pulling on my sock will fix it. My heart hurts for those who suffer from such advanced versions of neuropathy. It’s pretty brutal. So, Jerrie’s going to take good care of his feet.

I’m one of the lucky ones, so far. I just take pills and make sure I don’t pig out on food that has a lot of Carbs in it. Seems to be working just fine.

I’ve sat here way too long past my bedtime so have to quit before Diane gets cranky with me.

Later

Uncluttering the Garage & Basement

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Diane and Jewel abandoned me today with strict instructions that I stay away from power equipment. So, I cleaned the garage, organizing “things” into piles for throw away, give away, and donate, as I have done many times in the past. This process involves lots of trips up and down the basement stairs in order to take tools down there from the garage, and bring something back up for one of the piles. I made a very concerted effort to not go either direction without carrying something with me. Once, or twice, I kind of lost track, I admit, and just carried the same item up and down the stairs until I figured out where it went. It usually doesn’t take me that long, but I’m tired today after all that weed whacking yesterday.

Once I was done with the garage I went to work on my computer collection with the intention of removing them to the garage to stage them for my next trip to the city dump. They have a section where electronic equipment of all sorts are welcome at no charge. My first trip up was for a 19″ CRT monitor that hasn’t been used in about 16 years and has been collecting dust all that time. I actually have two of them but one belongs to an old Compaq system I bought from Radio Shack (a long time ago) when Windows 98 was the newest operating system on the block. Shortly before moving beyond Win98 I set that computer to OOTB condition. That means out of the box. So, it’s like a brand new Windows 98 computer with nothing on it. How cool is that? It isn’t very useful, but it’s still cool and will stand proud next to my 128 system.

The monitor mentioned previously weighs about 185 lbs and proved difficult to handle. But I managed to get it clutched tightly to my chest with the glass side toward me so if I fell, and it broke, nothing else in the house would be damaged. I would absorb explosion and all the resultant glass fragments. Once in hand, I took my first step and tripped over an old brief case that I used way back in 1965. Yes, it’s been sitting around all that time waiting for this moment. I caught it with my left foot which caused me to fall to my left against a pile of laptops I got from somewhere that were stacked on top of the Panasonic radio/record/tape console that we purchased in 1968 while on Okinawa. It saved me from falling all the way to the floor, and from dropping that extra heavy monitor. My left wrist was slightly damaged in the process, but nothing broke. It was an odd event because just as I started to tip to my left time kind of stopped and gave me a moment to consider all the possibilities associated with this event. Like, “man, if I break something Diane will never forgive me because she wanted to take me the next time I went”, and “if my wrist breaks I’ll still be able to drive to the ER”, and “crap, this is really going to hurt.” But, I maintained my balance, regained a vertical position and got the monitor upstairs to the truck for delivery.

Now, a few hours later, my wrist has a bump at the point of impact and is extremely sore when touched. But I can type just fine so doubt if it’s anything to worry about. So, I won’t. As soon as Diane got home, and we had unloaded her truck from the Costco trip, I told her about my near fatal injury so if it manifests into anything of concern, it’s her fault.

The ringing in my ears has escalated to the point that indicates it’s time for me to go squeegee the sweat off my tired old body and begin preparations for getting prone for the night. It’s only 5:30 pm, but I’ve discovered that it’s never too early to begin getting ready for bed.

Aunti Jo is 95, My Friends Larry & Larry, Hillary, and Weed Whacker Back

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I went to coffee today, in the old truck, and had a nice visit with my friend Larry and my other friend Larry. I arrived early and was delighted to find Jack, my brother Jack’s brother-in-law. He was sitting with Jerry H. who wanted to know what Jewel and her husband did with the 1957 Corvette they used to have. I knew the answer but gave him Jewel’s phone number instead so he could ask her. Just so you know, she traded it in on a VW bug. I think.

I, Larry, and Larry solved many of the world’s problems between sips of coffee from cups that never ran dry. One of the big topics was Hillary and how she got away with lying to Congress and making supremely bad decisions as USSOS (United States Secretary of State). Our friend, James, said,

“While the FBI had found that Mrs. Clinton and her aides had been “extremely careless” in their handling of classified material, there was no clear evidence that anyone intentionally mishandled information, obstructed justice or appeared to be disloyal to the U.S. in the process.”

Makes me wonder how many people are in prison for doing exactly the same thing. The difference, of course, is those in prison are not privileged members of our society and don’t have the means to fight for their own cause.

The unwillingness of the FBI Director, James Comey, and our esteemed Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, to follow through with some sort of punishment for Hillary’s actions is proof that our laws are enforced using double standards that favor certain people.

Enough. Sorry.

Jewel has been very busy weed whacking and raking the remains off all the berms around the house. Today after my physical therapy session I joined the effort by doing some weed whacking of my own. I did so much weed whacking, for so long, that I literally burned up my plug-in whacker and thereby causing an end to my efforts for the day. I know it was burned up because it was smoking. It’s probably still under warranty but I have no idea where the receipt is. Thankfully we have one of the WORX 56V units that provides enough power to weed whack for more than enough time to cause damage.

As a result of our efforts, both Jewel and I have Weed Whacker Back, a terrible affliction that only certain kinds of wine and cheese can resolve. Since I don’t drink wine, I’m stuck with just cheese so my WWB won’t fade nearly as fast as Jewel’s.

While working on our WWBs Diane was busy doing laundry and cleaning the entire house with her trusty Shark Vacuum Cleaner so she wound up with a severe case of HC&LB (House Cleaning & Laundry Back). Still, she whipped up a tasty meal of left over chicken and beans, and added mashed potatoes, salad, and cream corn. It was pretty awesome. I also got a piece of Aunt Jo’s birthday cake that was served at the party honoring her 95th year on earth. Pretty amazing and she’s still going strong.

Now I must make my way to the living room where the TV is on and see if I can convince the owner of the remote to switch to something besides HGTV for a little while.

Cheers.