Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Well, I exercised tonight with my personal trainer. Tomorrow I will probably have pain, but not doing too bad tonight. I will try to go to the gym tomorrow before work. Hopefully I will be able to enjoy this and have fun and possibly lose weight.

Getting old

I admit it..I am overweight and sedentary. Yes, I have let myself go. But I am happy. So, am I doing anything to fix this situation? Well, maybe. Maybe with a little help from the blogosphere and my friends and family. We shall see. Hopefully everyone still loves me whether I am fat or not.

Anyway, when we moved to Oklahoma we signed up to a small gym and thought we would go there regularly to walk and use the gym equipment. But my feet started hurting and Dave never really did like it, so we stopped going.

Since then Dave has embarked on his diet and weight loss. He has lost 22+ pounds and counts his calories religiously via the livestrong.com website.

In the meantime, I am still heavy and my bones ache and creak. I need to get moving. But with the weather being bad and Dave's working hours being so crazy, we haven't been able to get outside and walk.

So....I visited a local establishment called Body Solid. That sounds good. My body isn't very solid and maybe they can make it more solid. There are all kinds of torture chamber type machines in the open airy space and it felt welcoming. So I tentatively asked what their prices and policies were. They don't have a yearly or monthly commitment fee. There is an initial fee of $75 to find out your body age, flexibility, and general state of your health. Then you can sign up with a personal trainer for as low as $20/30 minutes as little or as often as you would like. Then I think you can use the state of the art treadmills (with individual overhead TVs) as often as the gym is open and as long as you have appointments set with your personal trainer.

Last Friday I had my initial assessment. Oh my lord. My 58-year-old body thinks it is 73 years old, or at least that is what the program tells me. After the assessment, I stayed to walk the treadmill for about 15 minutes. I left with a game plan for diet and exercise.

I started using Dave's website to track my calorie intake. Luckily my calorie goal for the day is more than what Dave uses. But then I won't be able to loose a much weight as quickly either. Maybe I will stick with it longer.

Tonight I go back for a 20 minute training session. I will let you know how I do.

So far after three days on the diet, nothing has happened. :(

drugs

So, I guess I haven't purchased a decongestant in a long time. I decided that I might be having some chronic sinusitis and that I needed a decongestant. We had some in the house, but we were getting low, so I thought I would stock up. I went to Walmart to get groceries and thought, good, I will get some Sudafed. In the Allergy aisle, there was only a card in the spot where the Sudafed was suppose to be. It instructed me to take the card to the Pharmacy. I did a little more shopping in the health and beauty area because I knew that there was quite a line at the Pharmacy when I passed it to the Allergy aisle.

When I got to the Pharmacy and handed the card to the cashier, she yells out something like "code red" or something else, I wasn't sure. Another person comes over and asks for my license. But I didn't hear her and gave her my credit card. She gave me a "you are pathetic look" and asked again for my license. I fumbled around and found my license, which she then proceed to read with intense concentration and put all my information in their computer. Then she handed my license back to me and asked me to submit to a strip search and body x-ray, fingerprint, and retinal scans. Just kidding, but I did have to sign my name on the electronic reader. Then she walked away without another word to me. Then the other cashier was ready to take my money. My lord. I felt like I had just been vetted for a new security job or something. All that rigamarole to be able to get rid of my sinus congestion! It might have been easier to ask my doctor to give me a prescription for a decongestant.

a young heart

It is hard to get old. This year I am 58. Oh my lord. Along with just the number of the years getting larger, aches and pains and other old age symptoms crop up. I have known that I have degenerative disc disease which causes pain. Probably some arthritis. Asthma, sinusitis, and through not fault of anyone else, except myself and maybe genetics, obesity.

But I have been having vague chest and back pain. So, I thought I would see if the doctor could figure out what was causing the pain and discomfort. I thought maybe I was having bad heartburn, ulcer, pulmonary problems, or spinal problem. Okay, I did wonder if maybe I was having heart problems. Anyway, I went to the doctor. He did see where I have hardly any cartilage left in my left knee (yes, the painful one), degenerative disc disease in my back, possibly causing numbness and pain in my right leg and foot, inflamed eardrums (chronic sinus drainage). He suggested a shot of steroids to stop the inflammation and possibly a test to see if I was having heart problems. I agreed.

The steroid shot helped for a few days. During that time, I had a cardiac CT. The test needs to be done with contrast and since I have had a reaction to contrast before the doctor gave me the prerequisite prednisone and benedryl before the test. The test was pretty easy. I was done and out of there in about one hour. But my face and neck felt warm to me, although the nurse didn't seem to think anything of it. By the evening, my face and neck were pretty flushed. By morning, I was wheezing and not feeling well. So back to the doctor I went. He gave me another steroid shot and a script for more prednisone. The test was on Wednesday and I was finally feeling better by Saturday, except that my mouth and throat still felt funny. But Sunday, my mouth was burning, especially the tongue, and my throat was sore. Sunday night I realized that I had thrush. So on Monday I had to call the doctor for a script for treating that. I think it is almost gone now.

Sheesh, I starting to think it wasn't worth going to the doctor for answers. Dave is thinking I am nuts. I think that if my ct scan is normal, then I am going to stay way from the doctor and try to figure out my aches and pains on my own, since it seems to be that I just keep having reactions to therapy/tests.

Luckily the results of the cardiac ct were good. I have completely clear arteries and veins around my heart and my heart's function is health, as good as young heart. This is kind of amazing since I have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, am obese, and lead a sedentary life.

So with the worry of possibly cardiac problems out of the way, I can safely exercise if I want, watching out for the arthritis, and try other home remedies to self diagnose/treat my silly ailments. Because I am NOT going back to the doctor.

the flowers

Such a simple thing - log onto the hospital website - navigate to the gift shop area and choose a floral arrangement to send to my grown daughter who just had emergency surgery in Michigan while I am sitting here helpless in Oklahoma. Easy enough to pay for the flowers and I feel confident that she will get them. I don't know what else to do, except maybe call her as often as I can without bugging her, monitor facebook to see if she says anything on there, and be supportive when I do talk to her. Oh and send a prayer. I am so thankful that she has other supportive people around her and a loving, caring husband who is there by her side. I almost forget about sending the flowers until she tells me the next time I talk to her that having the flowers there helped her remember that I love her and that I am there in spirit with her. Who knew that just a simple thing would help her not miss me so much. I certainly didn't.

Jungle Friends

I met this author at a craft show a couple of weeks ago and I purchased an autographed book for my granddaughter, Charly. Then I got to thinking that I should have gotten one for Luke. So I emailed her and she brought the book over to my house on her way to Walmart. So cool to have autographed copies and the author lives in Enid.

Jungle Friends by Brenda Salladay

labor of love

This year I am trying to make as many of the Xmas gifts as I can for my family, knitting, sewing, and craft items. As I make each item, I think of the person that I am making the gift for. Hopefully the love that I put into making the gifts will be transmitted through the gift into the recipient's heart and they will know that they are loved, especially when they wear or use the gift.

I have many items that my mother started to make and I hope to incorporate some of these into some of the gifts, so it is as if I am passing on her love also to my children.

Boycott TV this week?

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bighollywood/2009/10/15/list-of-organically-created-iparticipate-television-programs/

This week some of our favorite TV shows will be possibly preaching at us - imploring us to "participate" or volunteer.

I am so torn - do I boycott my favorite shows next week so that I show that I do not want to participate in what I think is brainwashing by the Obama's.

Michelle and Barach Obama have enlisted the Entertainment Industry Foundation to have TV shows promote volunteerism, but I am afraid that they might be only promoting the volunteer programs that they want, like Planned Parenthood. I am trying to find out more information. If anyone else has a comment or an opinion or information, please feel free to comment.

Nobel Peace Prize

What the ****? Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize? The world has turned topsy turvy. What has he done to promote peace? He has turned the US into a total state of chaos. There is unrest everywhere. The US dollar in the world is now a joke. He has made the US a laughing stock to the other world leaders. In fact, I am sure there are multiple plots to attack the US because our enemies now think that the US is weak and ineffectual and that we are on a downward slide both economically and politically.

I do have one idea. Obama could take the $1 million that he will be getting from receiving this award and give it back to the government to decrease the deficit. I know it is a drop in the bucket, but it would be a sign he wants to actually start decreasing the deficit.

Instead, my fear is that people will think that he now has more money to "give away", just like they thought in Detroit, where 3500 people stood in line to get money from "Obama's stash".

more pictures of Dad's home

More pictures of Dad's home.

This is another view of his kitchen. You can see the table and chairs before we got the cushions and tablecloth.

Dad was pretty proud of his shower. I didn't use this one. It was in the master bedroom bathroom.

Dad bought a three-wheeled bike to ride around the park so he can get some exercise.
Another view of the front of his home.

My Dad in Florida

I took the time to go visit my dad on his birthday, earning brownie points that I will not cash in. But he seemed to enjoy the visit, even though he said it was too short. I couldn't take too much time off from work, so I flew in on Saturday and left on Monday morning. His birthday was Sunday. We had a nice time playing cards and talking about the past.

We went to Walmart and bought cushions for the kitchen chairs, a table cloth and some placemats. I thought the red would brighten up the place.
Here Dad is relaxing in his easy chair.
Another view of the kitchen.
His bedroom. He has another bedroom that is very nice also.


This is the outside of the mobile home.

football season

Well, as most of you know my husband is an avid football fan. Mostly college football, but he has been known to get wrapped up in NFL games also. Before I married him, I didn't know that much about football. My son played football in his senior year, I was in the marching band in high school, and I vaguely remembering my mother watching the Lions games every Sunday (but I thought she was just watching because Ken was, I later found out that was not the case. She was an avid Lions fan). This was the extent of my football knowledge.

Since marrying Dave I had to either get with the program or get out of the living room, so I decided to get with the program. Then he and I decided to jointly run MACreportonline.com, a website for and about Mid-American Conference College football and basketball. We attended many, many football games and I was able to see up close (right on the sidelines) what football was about. I loved it.

This year we are in Oklahoma. No college football games to attend. I realized recently that I really miss it. With the fall season, the cooling temperatures, the different smell in the air, there was a remembrance in my mind of the excitement and anticipation that comes with attending a college football game. There was a sweet build up as you are driving to the stadium. And then when the drums roll and the crowd roars at the first kick-off, you find a sense of peace that finally football season is here.

Art Lesson - Day 3

This week the art lesson was a little harder in that I was the only student and the instructor was trying to get me to work on the feet and hands and some other details, but I kept losing my concentration. These final drawings of the evening seem to be a little different style than last week's, but I am not sure. I don't know which set I like better.

It is fun getting back into drawing again after a 30 some year hiatus. It is a nice creative release. I need to practice more, so I need to have family and friends be my models. I wonder if I can use the webcam to view my models. That would be kind of crazy. Might have to try it.

Art Lession - Day 2

Day 2 of the art lesson. I didn't do too bad. I guess I need to work on making things larger. Still using the contour and shape techniques to draw the model.

This second one might be one of my best so far. I even got her face in.

Art Lesson - day 1

I signed up for Adult Figure Drawing classes here in Enid. They are in the evening, right after I get off of work and they are close by at the Episcopal church. The instructor is Patricia Bradley and there is one other student besides me. So I should be able to get better and better at drawing human figures. We learned two techniques, gesture and contour. Then we combined the two techniques on these two drawings that I did. I need practice, but didn't do too bad for the first day.

Live Model - Standing










Live Model - Sitting

Adobe support is the worst

I want to document my horrible experience with Adobe Systems, Inc. customer and tech support.

I purchased Adobe Acrobat 9.0 Standard upgrade from Adobe's online store in September of 2008. I have the program installed on my Windows Vista Home Premium laptop and previously had it on a Windows XP Professional computer. I then removed it from that computer and installed in on a new Windows XP computer. That hard drive crashed. When trying to install on the new hard drive using Windows Vista Business I received the error that I had the product on too many computers. I contacted customer support who after three phone calls suggested I
install the Adobe Acrobat 6.0 first. Then the message I received when installing the program was that the serial number was invalid.

I contacted the customer service and tech support for Adobe about 11 times over the last two weeks and did not have a resolution until now. Tech support, after being on the phone with them for 2 hours at a time, said it was a customer service problem, customer service said it was a tech problem.

I was on the phone four times with tech support - used Windows Installer Utility, CS3 Cleaner Utility (level 2 and 4), deleted cache.pcd, reinstalled, uninstalled, and did just about everything I could think of - and still no resolution to the problem. Tech support sent me back to customer support three times and then customer support sent me back to tech support. I know I was a difficult customer to deal with. That was because of my frustration at having to call so many times, having to answer the same questions over and over again, and not getting any satisfaction. Most of the techs asked the same question they just asked me, like they were reading from a script and when I tried to ask questions other than what was on their script, they had to start over with their reading.

At one point I was told to connect directly to the internet through my modem and not my router. I tried it, but could figure out why that would cause the problem. One tech suggested that my MAC address was the problem.

I was sent to so many different areas of tech support that my head was spinning. Each person, in their Indian accent, would assure me that they would be the one to get this resolved for me. Then when they couldn't figure it out, they sent me back to customer service. Customer service then sent me back to tech support. What a miserable run-around.

I was able to finally install the Acrobat 9.0 Standard program after one of the techs finally said something that made sense to me. We renamed the Flexnet folder and that stopped the invalid serial number problem. Why this wasn't suggested to me on the first or second time I called tech support is beyond me.

This is the worst tech and customer support that I have ever dealt with.

I lodged a complaint against Adobe with the San Jose BBB so that Adobe will be aware of the horrible experience I had with their customer service and tech support.

Obama perpetuates racial dissent

I am disgusted that President Obama would comment on the actions of a police officer during a call to the home of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. He clearly either did not know all the facts of the case or he purposely chose to take the side of Mr. Gates, thereby denigating the authority of the police and, in my opinion, perpetuating the idea that all whites hate blacks and especially the police cannot be expected to deal with a black person in a respectful way.

I think that this is one of the worse things that the president has done. He is pitting whites against blacks in this situation. He is speaking before he knows all the facts. He is showing that he thinks he has more power and better judgement than local governments.

I think he wants to become the dictator of America. We need to watch this man very carefully before he achieves his goal.

Small town America

Besides missing my family and especially the grandkids, I enjoy living in Enid, OK. Especially last Friday. If you don't know me very well, I will let you in on a secret about me. I love fireworks. The last few years I haven't been able to see really good fireworks except on TV because we lived in the Detroit area and trying to find a location and deal with the traffic and the people was just not something I wanted to do. But hear in Enid, the crowds are not too bad and the venues for the fireworks are worth going to.

Friday night was the American Legion 4th of July tournament for baseball with a fireworks display after the last game of the night. The ballpark is very nice with roomy seats and plenty of leg room. The games are only 7 innings and if one team gets ahead of the other by 8 points after the 5th inning, then the game ends, which is what happened last night with the Enid Majors winning 11-3.


The fireworks started promptly after the end of the game. It was enjoyable to watch the fireworks from the comfort of the stadium seats.


Saturday night I wasn't going to go to the park to the see the symphony orchestra and fireworks, but Dave encouraged me to go via email (he was at work), so I took off and drove over towards the park. People were lined up along the back roads, so I pulled over as close as I could get and stepped out of my car to watch. The fireworks were even better than the night before, but next time I will have to try to be at the park when they go off to get the full effect.

All in all, I loved the firework displays in Enid.

Step-Fathers Day coming soon

When I was 24, my mother remarried. She had been married for 25 years or so to my father, who was a moody and depressed person. I have had occasion to see how mean and unforgiving he can be now that I am grown up. I can only imagine what it was like living with him for my mom.


But she was able to divorce him and marry a man that was devoted to her, and he was very nice to my mom's three grown children. While they were married and before my mom died, Ken had a very generous heart when it came to his children and my mom's children. He personally helped me out a lot. Mom and Ken drove down to Ohio to get me when I was miscarrying. They paid for me to fly out to visit them in San Antonio, TX when they lived there. We had so many wonderful family get-to-togethers at their house. It seemed that we were always welcome. Both of them never forgot our birthdays or our children's birthdays. Ken created a calendar every Christmas with all the birthdays and anniversaries and passed out a copy to each of his kids and mom's kids so that we would all know what is going on. Ken kept up the tradition of sending cards and making the calendars after mom passed away 13 years ago.

Ken has loved us kids unconditionally, never being harsh or mean. This is more than my dad has done.

Ken is not feeling well now and has asked Hospice to come in for a while to help. I wish I could be there in Michigan. Since I am not able to be there in person, I do want him to know how much I appreciate him and what he did to make my mother happy.

Happy Father's Day, Ken.

Grandson Luke's visit

We are having so much fun with Luke and Mindy here to visit in Oklahoma. Luke is an awesome 2-year-old. Very talkative, very lively, and enjoyable. Sure there are the screams and tantrums, but not as many as there could be.

Dave wrote an article for the paper about Luke.

I posted some pictures on photobucket: