Just going along for the ride....

Things are just being pretty much the same as my last post; except the good news is that my wife seems quite a bit better.  Her heart rate is back to normal and her blood pressure is also normal.  She has a bunch of pills to take every day and who knows how long that will last but it's miles better than being in a hospital bed with IVs all over your arms!  And we get to visit our favorite restaurants which I'm told is a lot better than the hospital food.

My leg is still bothering me and I walk like I'm about 90.  Both of the medical people I've talked with say I'm having sciatica pain.  It is a nerve that starts in your lower spine and continues down the leg all the way to the foot.  In my case the pain stops at the knee so I guess I'm half lucky.  Both my regular doctor and the specialist took x-rays and while I have some deterioration of my spine it's nothing unusual for an old fart like me.  At any rate the first level of treatment is Physical Therapy.  I was interviewed by one of the PT doctors and my first PT appointment is next Wednesday.  Until then I've got a couple medications that are supposed to loosen things up and tyenol for the pain.  None of them are working as far as I can tell!

The storms that have been hitting California have brought some more snow to our local mountains but nothing down here.  That's ok.  Our aquifer gets it's water from those mountains and we sure need it.  Death Valley has been actually getting rain and it has formed up into a giant puddle called Lake Manly.  It is draining away now and boats are no longer allowed but I'll bet it was fun for a couple of days!  We are getting a fair amount of gusty wind which knocks the bird feeders around but we can't make it too easy for them.  Every now and then a large crow or raven decides coasting in the wind over our house is fun and sets off the RING camera.  At least they aren't trying to land on the darned thing!

No new photos to share today.  Maybe next time.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands and keep your sneezes to yourself!

It's been a week!

Boy, does time ever fly when you are having fun!  Of course my definition of fun might be a bit off for most people.  I've found a few cartoons/memes that spoke to me.  As in this reference to what all our Supreme Court is doing.

Of course with all the shootings these days stopping gun violence is important to everyone.

And one final thought on learning about being gay.

Of course the 4th of July came along right on time.  We've had about six days now with not a cloud in the sky.  It is only running about 100F (38C) but that's warm enough.  The wind has been running 10-15mph  (15-25kph) so I got to go out and unwrap the flag a few times.  In the evening we went out and sat in the front yard and watched the fireworks from a nice distance of not quite 3 miles (4.5km).

Then there are the important personal problems we old folks get to learn about.  I had a mole removed way back in February and afterwards was told that it was cancerous and I would need to have the remaining tiny cells removed by a procedure called a Mohs surgery.  The Mayo Clinic website says this:  "Mohs surgery is a precise surgical technique used to treat skin cancer. During Mohs surgery, thin layers of cancer-containing skin are progressively removed and examined until only cancer-free tissue remains."

I got to the dermatologist's office and it was packed!  This office is only open a couple days a week and the person who is usually here to treat you is an PA-C - a physician assistant.  Today they had a surgeon fly in from the Los Angeles area and he had plenty to do!  They tell you that it will take up to 4 hours for the procedure.  My appointment was for 08:30 and I got out at 12:13.  Close enough to 4 hours.  I was glad I'd brought a book!  The actual surgery wasn't particularly painful but there was quite a lot of blood.  In the end, I have something that is a bit painful still but better than cancer.

So that's all that's fit to print from this little corner of the world.  Thanks for stopping by.  Keep washing those hands!

Coming along...

Things are moving along at their usual slow pace but they are moving.  

My wife had surgery on her little toe a week ago yesterday.  Yesterday we had her first post-op visit with her surgeon and he was most complimentary about her progress.  The toe was twisted sideways so she wasn't walking on the pad of the toe but the side.  Needless to say this was not pleasant.  After surgery her foot was bandaged and she was told to keep it elevated as much as possible.  Happily I can cook or we would have been eating a pizza a day.  Anyway, I did finally get to see her foot.

So now the toe is straight and is looking much better.  The CB is the doctor's initials from before the surgery; you wouldn't want him to work on the wrong patient!  On her ankle you can see some white fuzz that came off the dressing she'd been wearing for a week.  Now she has a much less intrusive dressing and by Friday she won't have to wear a plastic bag on her foot to shower.  She is still wearing a heavy boot thing for another three weeks but then she should be back to normal.  

Our daughter bought a Dog DNA test for our new dog.  We swabbed his cheeks a couple of times and sent it in and now we have the answer.

 He is 100% Chinese Shar-Pei.  It brings the question back of why anyone would allow such a dog to be lost and not search for him.  Online I'm seeing puppies for sale between $1,500-2,500.  Even at the low end of the scale that's a lot of money to just let run away.  Oh well, I guess we'll never know.

We've had 'debates' between the candidates running for public office lately and a more silly bunch of  people would be hard to find.  There are three men running for County Clerk.  To quote the Pahrump Valley Times: "All three candidates for clerk favored paper ballots, providing ID before voting and allowing only U.S. citizens the opportunity to vote" What idiots!  Paper ballots, really?  Do they want to do away with the internet as well?  Having ID to vote?  When haven't you had to have ID to vote?  Only allowing U.S. citizens to vote; when else have non-citizens been allowed to vote?  Jeez.  And to put the final icing on the cake all three think Mr. Trump won the 2020 election!  

In other local news the County Treasurer resigned saying he was tired of fighting "corruption and sabotage" in the office.  Heaven only knows what that means (did someone put salt in his coffee?) but it doesn't make normal people respect our county government.  

On the other hand we have a clear, sunny day with a high of 80F (27C) forecast.  Sounds like a good day to get a little work done outside.  Thanks for stopping by.  Have a good one and keep washing those hands.

Did I mention it's kind of quiet?

 Yep!  It's quiet.  Hell, we don't even have as many airplanes flying over as we used to have!  I used to take the dog out at night and see at least 3 or 4 airplanes taking folks to or from California.  Now if I see 1 it is unusual.  What a change.  We are still going out to lunch quite often.  Yesterday the waitress had to ask two guys to go find masks because they thought they didn't need to wear them.  Today we saw a woman who pulled her shirt up to use as a mask.  People are just so dumb.  The place we visited today was closed for a couple weeks.  It turns out that the owner, who is also the chef, came down with the virus and had to be hospitalized.  Of course the whole staff had to be tested and all that stuff took a couple weeks.  Happily the owner is doing better but he is still using a walker to get around and, of course, hasn't returned to work.

My birthday is coming up and my drivers license expires on that day.  Since I'm so ancient I have to have as optometrist testify as to my eye sight and a doctor testify that I don't have any medical conditions that would make it unsafe for me to drive.  What a pain in the ass!  But, what the heck, it might keep one of two idiots off the road.  Anyway, the doctor has a new assistant and she had a greeting for me.

I thought it was cute even if it's a little strange. 

We like to take our walk early when it is so warm.  It's about 2:30 in the afternoon and it is 102F (39C) now.  Believe me, walking at 06:00 when it is only 75F (24C) or so is a lot more pleasant!  And you get to see the sunrise!

One of the advantages of living here in the valley is that we get to see the sun move as the seasons progress.  On June 21 the sun would be nearly to the far left in the photo above.  By December 21 it will be fairly close to the right edge.  We've never lived anywhere before where the changes were so visible to us.  It's pretty cool!

Well, that's it for today.  Have a good one and be safe.

Just hanging around....

It's been pretty quiet around here if you don't pay attention to any news source.  The news is, as always, pretty noisy.  This whole coronavirus mess is interesting.  By the way, I do believe there is such a virus and I do believe it will be growing more dangerous here in the USA.  Listening to our esteemed President about this makes no more sense that listening to him about anything else.

Anyway, our little town has lots of RV'ers who seems to have stopped here and they are making shopping just nasty.  Ok, they are spending their money here but they are also clogging up roads, parking lots and even restaurants!  Go away, people!

Sorry, I had to get that off my chest.  Actually, they aren't doing anything too awful.  They are just stocking up for their next month or two of self-imposed isolation.  A couple days ago there was no hand sanitizer left on the store shelves.  Now, I don't use that crap so I didn't care but that's not where it stopped.  Yesterday we went into Walmart for a couple things (dog food and some blackout curtains if you must know) and decided to look at the meat counter.  There was NO beef!  There were only a couple packages of pork chops left!  The frozen food area was half empty as well.  Really?  I should have taken a picture.  People are just going crazy over this.  Now, granted, the media is carrying coronavirus headlines every day but jeez! 

Ok, I'm over 70 but fairly healthy so EVEN I should have a decent chance of surviving this thing.  So who the hell has stripped Walmart of all their meat?  It is just stupid.  I guess I'm not used to seeing panic in the streets.  We were in a restaurant the other day and the two guys at the next table were talking about buying ammunition - lots of ammunition.  Like it is going to be the end-of-the-world and sick people are going to be attacking them and they needed to shoot them to save their hand sanitizer supply.  What idiots!  And, yes, we are still going out to eat.

Of course having the stock market go nuts is only to be expected.  Those traders are just one step away from nuts most days.  Do we have money in the market?  Yes.  Has our investment gone down?  Yes.  Will we be eating dog food next week?  No.  The dog will but, naw, unless the supermarket doesn't come up with more hamburger we'll stay away from his food. 

In the midst of all this our daughter is still in the process of moving to Austin.  Her house sale did go through and the one she purchased is being spiffed up.  I'd be going crazy if I were her having people doing things to my new house and not being there.  But, if it works for her, great.  Of course we'll have to visit her one of these days but Austin is a lovely town and there are lots of other places to visit between here and there.  It should work out just fine. 

Gotta go.  Thanks for stopping by.

Something different

We've been doing a lot of international travel since our beloved pets died 6 and 7 years ago.  The dog had a cancer that was operated on several times and it just got to the point where she would still be in recovery at the time a new eruption would be found.  The vets just could not get all of the cancer out of her.  The cat just died of old age.  We took the opportunity and traveled via cruise ship a lot but also just taking a month and visiting Italy or Australia or wherever.  Well, that's over now!

Saturday, Nov. 30,  we went out to lunch then thought we would stop by the local animal shelter to see if they had any new dogs that we hadn't seen before.  Long story short:  we brought home our new dog!  It's a weird dog for sure.  It doesn't pull on the lead much when you are walking it but it is totally untrained.  Of course we don't know what it's previous owners called it so we can't call it by name.  However, it doesn't know any of the common commands:  come, sit, stay....  He doesn't even know how to play.  If you bounce a ball in front of him, he watches you but has no real interest.   We were told that it was found out in the desert abandoned and covered in stickers so it was shaved!  They said they thought it was a year old and starving.  On Wednesday we managed to get in to see our vet and she suggests the dog is more like six or seven years old and we believe her to be correct.  The dog just doesn't act like a young dog.  Also, he weighs something like 57 lb (25kg) and while you can fell his ribs they aren't sticking out as though he was starving.  So anyway, here's a photo of Ollie our new dog.

According to the animal shelter, Ollie was shaved in late September or early October and his coat is still not growing out.  The vet suggested that the follicles might have been burned and the hair may never recover.  At any rate, he looks like he was shaved last week by a drunk who didn't know what he was doing!  There are little tufts of hair here and there but large portions of his coat has hair that is perhaps 1/16th of an inch (1.5 mm) long.  We'll see.

He is pretty smart and he definitely responds to food!  He's learning his name, sit and come.  He is a long way from perfect but it's coming along.  We have a crate for him to sleep in since he isn't house trained at all.  We put him in the back seat of the truck and took him on a trip to Las Vegas that worked out really well.  There is a restaurant/bar called BJ's that has a small outdoor area and they said having a dog out there was just fine.  He was really good just waiting for us by our feet while we had lunch.  We are already thinking of our first trailer trip with him!

When we flew to Norway to take that North Atlantic cruise something happened to my back and I've had pain ever since.  Before the cruise we would walk around our neighborhood about 2.5 miles (4 km) 5 or 6 times a week.  I still can't walk a tenth of that distance without severe pain.  Just shopping in the grocery store can send me for more ibuprofen.  The doctor sent me to Physical Therapy but after 10 visits I've had only minimal improvement.  They are going to try dry-needling which sounds like a semi-copy of acupuncture.  It would be cool if that worked!  However I'm scheduled to visit a orthopedic specialist the first week of January.  Should be lots of fun too. 

So, that's all the news from around here.  Thanks for stopping by.  Hopefully I'll manage to update this before but if I don't have a Happy Holiday - whichever you celebrate!

Good Heavens!

Is anyone else distressed at all the security BS we have these days?  I have different passwords for practically every site I visit.  It turns out I have over 300 separate passwords.  And that's just online security.  Air travel is worse!  When in Australia I lost my nail scissors to a security person.  The blades were well over 1 cm long but really?  (Not nearly an inch!)  In another place they alerted on my wife's folding umbrella!   Jeez! 

This morning I thought I'd blog something just because it's been so long.  Well, I screwed up my Blogger password and thought I'd never get in.  They sent me an email with a top secret code - when I input it I still wasn't allowed in.  Grrr!  Finally I went back to that list of passwords and figured out what I'd done wrong.  It's just silly.

One of the reasons I've been so quiet is that I've had a few medical and dental issues lately.  Every time I go to have blood drawn or visit the doctor they ask my birth date.  I constantly wonder what they do when they have someone with a memory disorder.  My mother certainly wasn't able to remember her birth date near the end of her life.  Now, she was in a nursing home so I'm sure the question didn't come up but there are plenty of older people not in homes.  Maybe they just don't get care.  Who knows.

The Republican congress seems to have taken a breather on repealing Obamacare and I am certainly happy about that.  Our daughter has an excellent job and is very well paid but it is with a smaller company and they have no health care.  Obamacare is all there is for her.  It is definitely flawed and I'd love to see it modified but not just removed.  Along the same lines, I have Medicare (over 65 years of age).  Medicare is reasonably good; so good that I wish our lawmakers had to use it.  I'll bet it would get better in a hurry!

One of the things missing from Medicare is dental care.  That one is biting me (sorry!) right now.  I went to have a tooth looked at and was told I needed a root canal.  Well, that was $1000 - discounted because I have no insurance.  Then I had another root canal that turned out to be too far gone to save - that one was only $600 since they couldn't fix the problem.  Of course, since it was dead I needed an extraction - $650.  Then I get back to the regular dentist!  All this work and my local dentist doesn't get any of it.  At least she can do fillings.  No, I'm not going to Mexico.  I see that as just another form of outsourcing.

As you may have been noticing, I really don't have much to say today.  I'm a firm believer that's a really good reason for not saying anything.  Sorry!  At least I can share a photo of our local hawk.  He always gets the bird bath all to himself/herself.  Thanks for stopping by!

It's done and I'm thinking I'm glad

My surgery is done that is.  Let me give you all the gruesome details.  We drove into Las Vegas last Thursday and checked into one of the local hotel-casinos - The Palace Station Hotel and Casino - it isn't 4-star but is was $50 a night and only about 10 blocks from the hospital.  It was clean and comfortable and the staff were very nice.  My appointment at the hospital was at 08:00 so we didn't want to be getting stuck in traffic!  We had dinner with our daughter then crashed. 

Next morning we were bright and early at the hospital.  This was Valley Hospital.  I can see why the doctor likes it; it was only about five minutes drive from his office.  It isn't new but is certainly large and seemed to have all the goodies.  So we check in and get all fixed up for the operation.  Don't I look happy?

The surgery I'm waiting for is ACDF:  anterior cervical discecomy and fusion.  It means they go into the throat from the front, push everything out of the way then remove the failing disc replacing it with a special piece of plastic.  Finally they use a plate and screw the plate into the two vertebrae.  A bone graft may be used or not.  In my case the doctor expects the vertebrae fuse without the need for an external bone graft. 

My wife sat with me and we read for a while then  two hours later, just as projected, I get rolled away to the operating theatre.  The next thing I know is I'm waking and my wife and daughter are visiting.  Well, I'm told that is what happened, my memory is pretty foggy. 

This would have been around noon and I wasn't totally around until around 3 or 4 in the afternoon when I started feeling hungry.  (No food since the night before so it's reasonable.)  Around 5 p.m. they brought me food:  chicken parm, pasta and some salad.  I managed about a third of the chicken and pasta.  The salad didn't sound like fun.  I was cutting it into really small bites but it was working.  

Over the night I got to play with the pain medication pump.  You have this button that you press to give you a little jolt of pain medication.  The machine is pre-set to a certain volume of medication and how often you can receive it.  They set it for, say, 10 minutes.  If you press it before 10 minutes has passed the machine ignores your request.  If it's been more than 10, you get your medication and the timer is reset.  They had me set to pretty-often so during the night I did find myself flying once or twice but I don't really care for the feeling so eased off. 

By mid-morning I was ready to be out of the hospital and was asking everyone if I could get out.  In retrospect that was probably a bad idea.  I didn't understand how much better the drugs are in the hospital!  In the end we left about 3 p.m. with a prescription for oxycodon.  It is a good hour and a half over the pass and back home so it was nearing 5 p.m. before we landed and got situated.  I was glad to be home but I was soon to understand that thing about the quality of the drugs!  Mostly I had a sore throat.  It wasn't until Sunday that we figured out that I could be taking another medication with the oxy.  Since then it only hurts to swallow.  Before it was downright painful most of the time.  I do have a fancy neck brace.

The incision isn't particularly large, it really looks like only a couple of inches long.  I guess it was big enough though.  Before the procedure I would have numbness in the fingers of my left hand that would gradually climb up the arm until my whole arm was painful.  That hasn't happened since the procedure.  My very finger tips are kind of tingly but it hasn't gone any farther.  So that's a good step.  Also the pain I've had in my middle back has stopped.  I'm not sure if that has to do with the surgery or if the three days bed rest did it.  Probably the latter.  In the good news column I have lost about 3 lb.  I can't really recommend it as a diet but I'm looking for every possible good thing here!

Gotta go.  I'll update my blog when I find something new to say.  Take care and thanks for stopping by.

YES! MRI

After much fooling around I did finally manage to get my MRI.  (See this Wikipedia article about MRI's if you are uncertain what they are.)  If you haven't had one it's not too strenuous but it isn't that much fun either.  Conventional MRI machines are built in a cylinder form and you are placed on a sort of plank and are slid into the machine.  I had an MRI in a machine like that many years ago and I discovered I'm kind of claustrophobic.  That makes it a very unpleasant experience.  Since then I've required what is called an 'open' MRI.  It's better but not great.  Here's a photo I took of the machine.

You lie down on the surface on the right.  It is raised up and you are slid into the main portion of the machine.  I told my wife it is like you are the meat in a hamburger and the machine is the bun.  So you are in this thing but can see with your peripheral vision and, not a small thing, there is better air flow than in the conventional machines.  Then it starts up making all kinds of bangs and clangs; it is just part of the process.  I was told it would take 19 minutes - I guess so.  I was certainly happy for it to end! 

Then Monday I got to meet with my specialist who told me I have a problem with the C6-C7 vertebrae.  I'm told I have three options:  live with it; get a cortisone shot that relieves the pain for about 6 months or surgery to remove the disk.  Hmmm.  So I'm headed for the operating room one of these days.  It will probably be a while but I'm sure you'll be hearing about it after it happens!

Back at the ranch, the cactus are happy.  We've been getting rain, more than usual, so the desert is perky.  We even had a rainbow - kind of.

Our cactus plants are happy.  These photos were taken a couple days apart.

The cactus flowers will be disappearing soon though.  Our 'spring' is definitely ending with temps expected to be in the high 90's (35C give or take) in the next few days.  Well, that's why we have those expensive air conditioners!  It is also why we don't have trees and lawns.  It's just not the right part of the world for those things.

IKEA is opening a new store in Las Vegas next week.  It is big news for locals, our Fox channel has a reporter out there this morning!  Don't get me wrong, I buy things at IKEA, I enjoy going to IKEA.  In the Netherlands I went there quite often for little things for our home.  I'm sure we'll be visiting the new store before it's a month old.  But putting it on the 'news'?  Really? 

Well, that's the news from this corner of the planet.  Take care and thanks for stopping by.

Life is life and sometimes death

I'm not going to turn this into a medical blog but I do want to report on my MRI results.  Well, I would except I don't have any.  Last Tuesday we were zooming over to Vegas and were about 30 miles into the trip when we find a Highway Patrol car parked across the road.  There had been a fatal accident just up the road and the road would be closed for four hours (!) to investigate it.  Well, we were planning on having lunch then going to my appointment so we could still make it by going around to Vegas the 'long way'.  We zoom back to Pahrump and are cruising through town when my phone rings. 

Hooray!  An opportunity for us to try the bluetooth attachment between the phone and the car!  This is new technology to us so it was cool.  Unfortunately it was a young woman from the MRI place telling us that the machine broke down and we would have to reschedule.  Hmmm, well it was a opportune time to call!  So we made an appointment for next Tuesday, the 3rd, then went had lunch and went home. 

Saturday I get another call from the MRI place.  This time the machine needs maintenance so can we move the appointment to Wednesday.  Really?  The thing needs repair one week and maintenance the next?  Well, whatever.  So no MRI results.  I'm a little worried about Wednesday though!

I should mention that we are gradually getting used to the new car and all it's bells and whistles.  You only have to be carrying the key fob and when you touch the door you can either lock or unlock it.  That took me an embarrassing amount of time to learn.  The bluetooth apparently works.  The built in GPS is taking some getting used to but we've had Garmin for probably 10 years so it is a little learning curve.  One thing that I love is the backup camera.  Since I'm having neck problems it is great to just look at that monitor rather than try to turn around.  You need to be careful and not depend upon it totally but it is a real help.  In fact, I've purchased a backup camera for the truck as well.  It's really helpful.  Again you can't just ignore the world but it sure helps out.

I did notice a bumper sticker that I really like.  Amazingly it's not political.  Just real.

I sure wish I knew where they found that thing.  It fits the town so well! 

Gotta go.  We are having visitors this weekend (Number One Son & SO) so the cleaning frenzy is beginning.  Take care & thanks for dropping by.

Feeling Better

My back problem seems to have gone away - it was a long week but I'm doing much better.  Just in time too because yesterday we went in to Las Vegas to visit the World of Concrete.  Number One Daughter works in the concrete industry so gets us into their annual show.  It is always fascinating.  The show is huge and this year we didn't really have time to check much of it out.  I doubt if we saw 5% of all the exhibits and didn't see any of the fun stuff.   They have contests to build the best brick wall, drive some machine around a course, stuff like that.  We just had a bunch of errands we wanted to get done as well so had to miss out on the excitement.  We ended up walking three or four miles all the same!  I didn’t get any photos; the small stuff isn’t very exciting and the large stuff is too big to photograph.

We got home about 16:00 yesterday then discovered there is a Dark Sky Program over in Death Valley on yesterday and Saturday evenings.  We just didn’t have the get up and go to make the trip yesterday but we are hoping to get over there this evening.  The drive takes a bit more than an hour; the road is a bit twisty in places but it is basically fine.  The park wants to be designated an International Dark Sky Park; I’m expecting the star viewing to be excellent.  I’ll try to report tomorrow.

We got snow in the mountains last night.  We are at an altitude of about 2,600 ft (790m) here in the valley; I’m guessing the snow came down to 3,000 ft (910m).  I know it’s only a couple of inches deep if that much but it makes it feel a lot more like winter and it adds to the aquifer.  Plus all those wild horses, burros and big horn sheep up there need every break they can get - photo courtesy of the Nevada State Parks website.

Gotta go.  Have a good one.

Oddball Health Stuff

Oddball health stuff today.  First of all, lets talk about cell phones.  They are amazing, especially the smartphones.  But, like anything, there are some problems – aside from using them while driving though that is probably the biggest problem.  Here is a link to a Dr. Oz segment on Oprah’s website talking about some of the dangers.  I don’t think he is an expert on all things but he doesn’t seem to be selling anything.

http://www.oprah.com/health/Dr-Oz-Explains-Cell-Phone-Dangers-and-How-to-Avoid-Them   (They also suggest the cell phone radiation can cause infertility in men but at my age who cares!  Younger readers might want to check it out.)

Here is another doctor who is concerned about all the radio wave activity surrounding us.

http://drbenkim.com/cell-phone-dangers

How about a personal story.  A few years ago my wife was diagnosed with osteopenia; it is a weaking of the bone structure that can lead to osteoporosis.  Her doctor has her take a bone density test every year to keep track of this condition.  This is done on each hip.  Her right hip has always had a higher density than her left.  This year her left had a higher density than her right.  Last year we got new smartphones, she carries her phone in her right front jeans pocket.  Is there a relationship?  Who knows!  But we are being a lot more careful about putting the phone on a table or desk rather than carrying it all the time. 

How about an alternative medicine story.  I had one of my thumbnails get really corrugated and thick.  I went to the doctor and they took a sample but found no fungus so had nothing to prescribe.  A few weeks later my wife happened to see part of the Doctor Oz show.  Someone was complaining of a problem much like mine and the doctor said to treat it with a mixture of sunflower oil and tea tree oil.  I did and it worked; my nail is almost completely normal now.  I’ve no idea why he recommended the sunflower oil mixture since the Tea Tree Oil was such a small dose of ‘the real thing’.   Apparently it was a bacterial infection of some sort and the tea tree oil cleared it right up.

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/medicine-cabinet-musts

http://www.drozshowtoday.com/recaps/2011/10/03/dr-oz-recap-50-most-embarrassing-questions-answered/

Please excuse the old photo.  One of our local casinos was having trouble with the flag so they got this guy to fix things up.

Have a good one!

Working ....

Who me?  Work?  Well, kinda.  We have high hopes of doing some traveling this summer so it is time to get the rig looking like someone cares.  Washing, waxing, doing some minor modifications; it sure FEELS like work.  The only thing I really dislike is trying to clean the silicone caulk that rv manufacturers put on the outside where trim pieces join.  That crap gets black then it's almost impossible to clean.  I've been looking for ideas on cleaning it but so far it seems like the only fix is to remove it and replace it.  Not the answer I was hoping to find!  Oh well, if that's all I've got to complain about.....

After working on the rig for a few days I thought my back would like a little time on the inversion table.  Well, I was wrong.  For the past three days I've been barely about to creep about and spending any time on the computer was out of the question.  I'm getting better though, sitting is easier.  Hopefully I can get on with things tomorrow but coughing is still extremely painful. 

Did you hear about the possible security breach at LinkedIn.com?   Some time ago I started using a separate password for every site that I visit.  It's a giant pain in the ass but better than having to worry about 'cross contamination'.  (Of course, Google has it's own ideas so blogger, Google and all it's affiliates are tied together which I do not like!)  I've loaded all these passwords on a thumb drive and keep that with my car keys.  It's one of the Sandisk ones that has it's own security system.  Hopefully if I'm ever stupid enough to lose the thing it will at least give me time to change major passwords. 

On the bad news front, our dog's chest wound from her cancer operation has started weeping fluid again.  She doesn't seem to be in pain or anything but we are taking her in to the vet again in the morning for a check.  We bandaged her up with neosporin, padding and a tee-shirt but she really ought to be over the healing period by now.  We are hoping that she simply injured the wound somehow, maybe lying on some rough rocks, but it's not looking good.

Well, that's most of the news that's fit to print.  Have a good one.

Not so quiet

This has been a week.  I'm glad it's almost over!

Wednesday we took the cat to the vet.  He's got an undercoat that gets all matted and there just doesn't seem to be anything we can do to help him.  He's 16 years old so isn't as good at cleaning himself as he was when he was younger.  We brush him, buy special brushes, whatever, he still gets mats.  Our vet worked on him once before and, after sedating him, was able to just comb the mats out.  Not this time!  When we went to pick him up, we got back a lion!

Actually it seemed as though this procedure didn't bother him as much as the combing.  Perhaps the sedation was more complete?  Who knows.  He seemed pretty normal after we got him back home.  Now the DOG thought he was from Mars and just could not get enough sniffing and carrying on.  Pretty funny!

Today it was my turn to go to the vet, er, quack, er, dermatologist.  I had a growth on the top of my head that I was told was a basal cell carcinoma.  I saw the doctor's PA a couple of weeks ago.  He's here one day a week but for the surgery you need the doc and he's only here one day a month!  So you can imagine he's got patient upon patient to see.

It's an out-patient procedure but can be a sort of pain.  Depending on the position of the carcinoma they want to remove the entire thing but, of course, no more.  You wouldn't want a larger than necessary scar on your face for example.  So they numb you up and cut it off.  Then they go check the removed tissue with a microscope to be sure they have a 'clean edge'.  If they haven't gotten all the cancer, you have to get numbed again and cut on again.  Some folks who were there when I got there were still there when I left!  They were getting to see the doctor two or three times in one office visit.  Jeez.  Because mine was on the top of my head, there was no scarring to worry about and they got it all out on the first try.  But, as they say, now I'm cancer free.

I've got stitches that will have to come out and I'm on antibiotics for a few days but that's about it.  I'm on aspirin too since the head is kind of sore.  This growing older thing doesn't have a lot going for it but I guess it's better than not.  Have a good one!

May you live in interesting times.....

Back in 2007 I had cataracts surgery in both eyes; left eye in July or so, right eye in November.  They were a fast growing cataract and I went from seeing well to very poorly in just a few months.  The surgery went well and I've been pretty happy with my sight until recently.  Lately it almost seems like the cataract has come back to my left eye.

That's not possible, of course, but it sure looks like it from the inside!  My surgery was done in Florida so I'm not going back to them.  I found the Shepard Eye Center in Las Vegas and made an appointment.  The doctor suggested trying glasses first; I did that but it did absolutely nothing.  So  it's time for surgery.  Here is something I found on the web.

"The most common complication of Cataract Surgery is opacification of the posterior lens capsule resulting in the formation of a Secondary or After Cataract, which occurs after as many as 30% of Cataract Surgery procedures. When this occurs you will experience a gradual blurring of your vision. Fortunately your surgeon is able to use a YAG Laser to perform a quick painless procedure called a YAG Laser Capsulotomy in which a small opening is created in the cloudy membrane allowing your vision to be restored."

It was an amazing experience.  Got up at OMG Early so we could get to the doctor's office by 07:30.  We were out before 08:30 and now my left eye is almost perfect.  It's still a bit blurry from the dilation but unless something nasty happens, it's great.  The procedure is simple (for the patient!), you get about 8 different eye drops then you put your face in one of those machines that holds your chin and forehead steady.  The doctor turns on the machine and you see this cluster of red lights; she says 'Focus on my ear ring'.  It's bright but not bad.  There are lots of small clicks and snaps as the doctor uses the laser but there is no pain or anything.  It was kind of tough to see the ear ring sometimes since it seemed to be in the middle of the red light cluster.  When she stopped, I could see.  How cool is that!  Hell, I probably won't get as lost since I'll be able to see the street signs.

I'll go back in about a month to have a review.  But in the mean time, I'm going to be enjoying seeing stuff again. 

Have a good one!

Woof! It's been almost a week.

So much for that blogging every day thing.  It looks like every-other day is kind of out the window too.  Oh well!  I'll try to do better, honestly.

We've been wandering back and forth to Vegas quite a bit.  We went in on a shopping trip early last week; mostly just the usual stuff that we don't find here.  However on our last trip, my ophthalmologist suggested I might try wearing glasses for a while.  I didn't find anything I liked here at home so went into Vegas.  We found some at PearleVision.  They said it would take about a week, that was Tuesday.  Then on Thursday I got a call saying  my new glasses are ready!  Ok, guess it works for me; so we went back over the hump on Friday.  I got the glasses and managed to find a new router for our home system and a few other things.  Amazing how things just seem to fall off the shelf into one's cart, huh?

So now I have a new pair of glasses.  I thought you didn't have this joy once you'd had cataracts removed but I need something.  Unfortunately these glasses aren't the thing I need!  They do almost nothing for my sight so I'm headed over the hill a few more times over the next couple months before we get this straightened out.  The doctor did say this was the 'conservative' strategy so next step is getting some kind of laser treatment.  We'll see when I can squeeze that into my busy schedule!

The odd weather I've been commenting on is continuing.  One day we'll be near a record high; next day our high will be a low record (if you know what I mean).  We are getting quite a bit of wind as well.  Since I don't have to shovel it or put up sand bags to keep it out I guess it's all good.


I was looking for some new international investments and keep finding things that just don't do much for me.  I love reading Random Roger; he seems to have a different prospective from my own so his take on things is always interesting.  He's interested in not 'going down a lot' where I am more interested in a slow steady climb knowing that I'll be down at times.  I see the possibility that our investments will need to fund our lifestyle for another 30 years.  We can't afford to be too safe or inflation, even moderate inflation, will eat our lunch!  It's an interesting problem that I need to get at least somewhat right.


Is it just me or is the pace of change increasing?  It seems like every time something new comes on the scene, it becomes old sooner.  Five years ago GPS and iPods were all the rage.  Today your smart phone does both of those things.  And this laptop is clearly so last generation.  Personally I'm still happy with distinct units but am I just hiding my head in the sand?  I don't know.  Call me when the computer can be integrated with my brain directly without the use of my eyes and fingers.  Plug me in!


Gotta go.  Have a good one.

Quiet - Not Quiet

Today started pretty quietly.  Yesterday we talked about trying to 'boondock' in our trailer.  Boondocking, if you don't know, is parking somewhere that has no electricity or water.  There are a lot of places in national parks and such that have no utilities.  Our trailer has two small 12V batteries to provide electricity for lights and such if you are boondocked.  They won't run a tv or anything but lights & the radio will work fine.  Long and short of it is that we decided to spend the night in the back yard but unhooked from water and power.  It worked quite well; to the point that I couldn't figure out where I was when I woke! 

Anyway, we started on our usual chores and things were going very well.  We rented "The King's Speech" yesterday and didn't get around to viewing it until today.  It was really very good; a fine cast and an interesting piece of history.  About half way through, my wife excused herself and went to the bathroom.  When she came back it was to announce that a part of one tooth had broken off.  She kind of bit down on it and it was still in place but obviously needed professional attention.  We've been to one of the dentists here in town and didn't care much for him or his assistant so returning there was not an option.  We watched the rest of the movie then like good little consumers, we let our fingers do the walking in the Yellow Pages and found another dentist.  The woman said 'come down immediately' so that's pretty much what we did. 

By 15:15 I was being told that the tooth required a crown and they were going to do the procedure right now.  About 25 years ago I my wife had a really bad experience with a dentist.  She hasn't liked dental procedures ever since.  A crown takes a lot of drilling and cutting and I knew she would not be enjoying the rest of the afternoon.  However, by 17:00 we were on the way home.  About $1000 poorer but with a fine new temporary crown and probably a new family dentist.  Apparently the dentist was a very nice lady and her staff were all very professional.  A great result to a lousy occurrence.   We'll go back in a couple weeks to get the permanent crown installed.

Happily we had quiche the other night and half is still in the fridge.  Sounds like a nice soft dinner for someone with a sore mouth.  Hope you had a good one!

Nice for a moment

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were beautiful here.  I got a new camera so I should be taking more photos.  Here's one of the mountain in the sunset; taken with the new camera.

And what is my new toy?  It is a Canon SX210 IS - much like my old camera but it is smaller, more pixels, and still a great optical zoom.  It also has a built in battery and no viewfinder both of which I dislike.  I keep running out of battery power when I am out shooting something.  It's nice to be able to plug in a new set of AA's and keep going.  I also have trouble seeing view screens in the sunlight so I like using a viewfinder.  BUT both cameras using AA's and viewfinders are really scarce.  I wanted a shirt pocket size camera; this was just so close to what I wanted I had to do it.  My wife got one too.  She has no more excuses for not getting out and taking pictures.

We also got our bikes fixed up.  They have been through a lot of traveling and not much care since we bought them in the Netherlands over 10 years ago.  Now everything is lubed up and working so we can actually use them.  I've got a long term goal of weighing 200 lb (90kg) when I turn 65 in three years.  I want to make some lifestyle changes that enable me to lose that 35 lb (15kg).  Regular exercise is one of the changes.  Recently we've been walking about 40 minutes out in the desert.  When it rains the desert turns to mud and we can't walk.  But now we can ride! 

Hope your Boxing Day was great and the rest of the week as well.

Rain - and more medical crap!

We've had rain on and off all day.  We are talking about a rain that in Seattle you wouldn't even wear a coat but it's rain for us.  In one of the clear bits I went into town to get a couple things.  On the way home I was following a pickup and it looked like the guy had his dog in the back.  That always bothers me; I worry the dog might jump out.  It's not my dog or anything but I worry.  Then the guy pulled into a little strip mall:  it wasn't a dog it was a goat!  LOL  You've gotta love Pahrump.

The other day I went to the dermatologist.  We are so important that he's only here one day a week!  Anyway, he cut three moles off my back and yesterday I got the happy news that one is cancerous.  I'll go back in a couple weeks to have him carve on me some more to ensure that the entire thing is gone.  Damn, isn't this getting older fun! 

Have a good one!

Made it, kind of.....

We did make it to Las Vegas the other day but didn't really spend any money and didn't get my National Park Pass either.  Wandered around looking at things but nothing was quite right so we kept our money.  All we got was tired.  The only money we spent was for lunch and that was pretty reasonable.  Went to BJ's Brewhouse.  It's a chain out here in the West that we'd never visited before.  They have some lunch specials for $8-10 that are pretty good.  Having lunch for $20 plus tip isn't bad!  Not drinking at lunch does make it more affordable!

I've been trying to cut back on the amount I drink and lunch is an easy one.  Especially if we are in Las Vegas, I don't need to be drinking then driving in the crazy town then driving the 60 miles (100km) back home.  We used to have a couple of drinks with lunch just as a matter of course.  Not doing that has to be good for my health as well as my wealth.  I do like a couple of glasses of wine with dinner though and late at night a scotch tastes pretty good.  I'm getting better at moderating the whole thing though.

Thursday was fun; I went to the dermatologist and he found three moles to remove.  I'll find out in a couple weeks if they were just ugly or if they were nasty as well.  It was all pretty painless.  You get a shot near the area; there was a slight prick but nothing much.  Then in comes the doctor with a scalpel, slice and it's gone.  Then there is a little pop and the smell of burning flesh as he cauterizes the wound.  A band-aid on each, a pat on the hand and you are out of there. 

It just keeps getting better!  Gotta go check out the supermarket.  Have a good one.