Spring Has Sprung!

It appears spring has sprung down here. Flower and weeds are starting to bloom and I hate to say it, but it looks like I’ll finally have to get all the leafs off the yard. We do have more bad weather coming in Thursday, so hopefully I can use that as an excuse not to start on the yard. In other words, why get it all up now when other stuff is going to come down on the yard in a day. I wish I could use that excuse all throughout spring, but it only works once or twice per year.

I was thinking the other day that I’ll have to get my camera out and start taking pictures again.

Hope everyone is well.

Health Care Open Thread

Not much to say today, but I’ve been thinking about comments on health care from the previous post. Of course I think everyone should have access to the best possible health care, but in this country they don’t. I would be interested in knowing what ya’ll think about the situation, the system here and any suggestions you might have for it.

Road Blocks

I had dropped off my stop-smoking prescription to the pharmacy and they had to order it. I said ok, so I went Friday morning to pick it up. When they started to ring it up they told me, “You know, your insurance won’t pay for this.” I told them no, but how much would it cost. For one month it’s $147.50. I told them to put it back up because I couldn’t afford it. It seems like that's one thing the insurance company would push for.

So I’m going to get this done one way or another. As I said earlier I’ve never tried the patches or gum so I’ll give that a shot. I’ll call my doctor on Monday and see what she says.

George appears to be getting better. His appetite has come back, so I’ll keep pushing these antibiotics down him until they’re done.

The saga of the broken glasses has finally come to an end. This morning I turned my head and they came flying off. I guess by reflex I caught them under my arm and that snapped the noise piece. It looks like a new pair will be coming soon. In the meantime I’ve got a very old pair of prescription sunglasses that should do the trick. Who knows, I might even look cool?

If you haven’t been over, FARfetched has his monthly podcast up. Go over and take a listen. You’ll learn about the trial and tribulations at FARmanor and you’ll hear a new band called Short Buss. Here’s the link: FARmanor Podcast

Added: I hardly ever wear this old pair of sunglasses, but one good thing I just discovered about them, is I can see better with them then set of glasses I just broke. What's odd about it is I got this set back in the later 80's. Yep they're almost 20 years old, but I do see better with them. I guess somethings it's good to hold onto.

George To The Vet

I’ve been up all night with George and just got back from the vet. George has been whining and crying since yesterday evening. All night I’ve tried to figure out what’s wrong with him, but everything I’ve tried just doesn’t work. So the vet did blood work and some different test. I had George out in the waiting room waiting for the results of his test and the vet calls me in. When he closes the door I start getting very worried. He has a printout of the test they ran with some marked in yellow magic marker. He goes through all of them with me and says there are two high ones. He said George’s attitude is good and otherwise he looks good. He had a high White Blood Count (WBC) and an elevated ALT. I had told him that I tried to give George a baby aspirin last night and he said that could have elevated the ALT. He said never try to give a dog aspirin. He said before there were better medicines that they had recommended aspirin, but now they don't.

So it’s down to George has something elevating his WBC and I’ve got to give him Amoxicillin twice a day. He also said George has some arthritis problems, but he wanted to get the infection down before he started him on anything for that. He told me to call him tomorrow and let him know how George is doing. So at the moment George is still whining and crying and I’ve gotten one pill down him and I’ll just have to wait and see what going on with him. I hope he and I can get a little rest today.

New Quit Date

I had smoked my last one last night and I was fine until I got to the doctor’s office. I had an appointment, but they sign me in as a walk in. So after waiting three hours I see the doctor. The non-smoking medicine is supposed to work on the nicotine receptors in the brain and you’re supposed to take it for a week prior to your stop date. The doctor and I went through all the contraindications and side effects and everything on the information. We find with the medicines I’m currently taking there should be no problem.

If this is supposed to work I have to start taking it today and taper down until Wednesday/Thursday next week. I was thinking last night after I posted the Quitting post maybe that I ought to have waited until I had found out about the medicine. However, the reason I’m taking the medicine is to lessen the first two weeks effects.

I could tell ya’ll that yes I’m still hadn’t had one since last night, but I hate lying and liars. I didn’t need an excuse, but I figured it didn’t make sense to me to stay cold turkey from last night and go through everything for a week that I originally went to the doctor and wanted to start the medicine for. Also it was an excuse to get a pack. So yes I went ahead and started back today, but I have a confirmed stop date for Thursday.

Thanks everyone for their encouragement from yesterday, but next Thursday for me is set in stone. So until then please forgive me if I’ve let you down in less than 24 hours, but next week is when I’ll start.

Cold Turkey With A Little Help

I shouldn’t do this, but I guess I’ll give it a shot. I’m a smoker, which some know and some don’t. I’ve quit a couple of times and always restarted. Since all of the new stuff has been around (gums, pills, patches, etc.) I have never tried any of them to stop. I was seeing my doctor the other day and along with her usual you should stop smoking lecture, she also told me about a new medicine out. Before I start the new medicine I’ll have to talk to her tomorrow about the medicines my Neurologist has me on. I keep wondering how this will interact with those medicines. Between the medicines he has me on and the new smoking one, I don’t know how all those interactions are going to be.

The other times I stopped I always went cold turkey, and I’m doing the same thing I always do when I go cold turkey. I’ll smoke the very last one tonight. Meaning the last in the house or that I have. I’ll wake up with no cigs around and then start working from there.

Since I’ve started this blog, I’ve gone cold turkey once. I didn’t get past 3 days. The other times I’ve stopped I’ve found after 3 days it wasn’t so bad. However, the first two weeks are going to be bad. I’m hoping this new medicine my doctor told me about will help in that respect.

So the reason I’m posting this is I guess to make a declaration of what I’m going to do. Also I’m sure that everybody that drops by here will ask and give me plenty of support. But depending on how it effects me, I don’t know if I’ll be too talkative or what. So if I’m very talkative or not, or if this is the only thing I can talk about for awhile, I hope all of you will understand.

Glasses and Groceries

I did it again. I fell asleep with my glasses on. They’re the wire frame type and this morning when I woke up I found my lenses one place and the frame in another place. I’ll have to get out the needle nosed pliers to fix the frames because I really bent them up last night. I haven’t figured out how they can get so bent up and not do anything to my face. Anyway this pair has just about seen it’s last leg. I’ve repaired them so many times that I don’t think they’ll keep going too much longer. Plus I know I need a new prescription. It’s gotten to the point where I have to use the bi-focal part to see long distance. Don’t know what that means except my eyes are getting worse.

Some good news finally for the town. We’ve got a second grocery store that just opened. It’s a little bit larger than the old one and much cleaner. Then again, it is new. The prices look to be lower also. I’ve been hoping for another grocery store because the prices at the other one were exceedingly high. So far the new one looks like the prices are a little above normal for the city grocery stores, but far below the old one. I’ll give it four months and I’m sure both stores will be at the same prices. High that is.

Got to get the day started, so I hope everyone has a good day.

The Birthday Party

This weekend went pretty slow for us. The new niece didn’t make it down home, because her parents just got her home and didn’t want to take her out. I can understand that. This coming weekend she’ll be here though because the family is throwing a combined birthday lunch form Fmom and I. Over the weekend I turned 54 and week after next Fmom turns 81. Since I’ve been back home they’ve done this every year. It will be sort of like Thanksgiving or Christmas with everyone from the oldest to the youngest showing up. The only exception is that after all the B’day goings on everyone will head back home.

Fmom has already started worrying about it. She’s already told me in the morning she has to call the beauty parlor to get and appointment and she told me I could use a hair cut also. I’m hoping this weight loss I’ve had of lately will still be here so I can get into some of my better clothes.

Just like with every Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and our Birthdays I always wonder will we be here for the next ones. I retired around home because I wanted to be near and get to know my family again. Almost as soon as I moved back my oldest sister passed away. So now especially with Fmom getting older, each family get together holds a little more special meaning.

The New Niece and Rearranging

Well my Nephew, Niece-in-law and Grand Niece are coming to see us this weekend. My Grand Niece has been out of the hospital a couple of days now and the doctors say she’s doing fine. If she isn’t used to getting her picture taken yet, before she leaves this weekend she will be. I can see another picture game coming on in the house. I do this just to get one of my s-I-l’s goat when she comes.

In the small living room there’s a build-in book case where Fmom has pictures of all the family. My s-I-l always ends up rearranging the pictures and her grandchildren are all out front and the rest in the back. It’s actually kind of funny because she does this at night when everybody is asleep and since I’m the first one up every morning, I’ll rearrange them back. I guess one of the reasons I do this is because when she comes to the house she takes over and no matter if Fmom or I have things set the way we want, she goes through and starts putting and placing things as she would like them. Fmom has gotten used to it over the years, but I haven’t, so to miss with her mind a little bit, I let her get things arranged the way she wants and I’ll change one or two things a day while they’re here. I usually end up putting everything back the way Fmom and I had it when she leaves, but that can take a few days on finding everything.

I’ve found that’s one of my big problems living back at home with relatives coming and going all the time. Nothing is ever where you put it and when you can’t find something it has usually been borrowed without being asked for. Now I’ve got an ironclad rule I stick to when I borrow something. When you return something you borrowed it has to be in the same condition or better condition if possible. I figure that’s just common courtesy and if you ever want to borrow something from someone again, they’ll remember in what condition you bought said borrowed thing back.

I have to admit that’s one thing I loved about living by myself. I always knew where things were. In sticking with the slacker’s creed the less time you spend looking for something the more time you have to slack. I guess smarter minds than mine could come up with something about efficiency, but to me it come back to slacking.

So how did this story go from my new niece visiting to pictures moved to borrowing things? I don’t know really, but it will be nice to see the niece and play some head games with my s-I-l.

Meta Wars and People I'll Miss

It appears another Meta war has gone on over at the Tribune. I really hate when these things happen, but I guess they’re predictable enough. The thing I hate is you get to know some good people who are great writers and then they’re gone.

What struck me about this last one is the childishness of the whole thing. For a political site it appears that most of the fighting was about anything but politics. I guess that’s the reason I stay in the café all the time. I’ll go outside of it every now and then to recommend a dairy and to make a comment, but it not that often. Another thing that got me is the profanity used by a lot of angry people. Don’t get me wrong, I can cuss with the best of them, but some of the cussing was really taken to an extreme. Plus it was taken to an extreme to people who were trying to help.

I’ve said it before, but I feel once you’ve start cussing that you’ve already lost any kind of argument or debate you’re in. To me cussing shows you’ve lost any point you were trying to make and you are just reverting to something to try and throw your opponent off. I know there’s a time and a place for a good cussing, but it reminds me of people who loose their temper on a regular basis. To me it shows they don’t have control of themselves and to me that ranks right up there with all the other bad traits people have.

I guess the biggest reason I hate to see a Meta war is because we always loose good people and people I like. I’ve compared the Trib with my town before. We have about the same population and in that population there are people I really like, acquaintances I know and like and then people I can do without. It’s the same way at the Trib with the only difference people can come and go with leisure whereas in my town you’re stuck with what you’ve got. To bad a blog can’t be that way and people see you have to work out things with others because you’re stuck here.

I can’t help but think and feel it’s a very sad thing.