Life Expectancy

When your sick and feeling like crap one thing to not do, which I did do, is a life expectancy calculation. I tease sometimes about being in the twilight years of my life according to my family genetic structure. And there is a lot of truth in the fact that long lives run in families. So does short lives.

I took care of a man who had a strong family history of heart attack at a young age. In their 40's. His parents had been very pro-active with him and instilled in him since a very young age the importance of a heart healthy diet, exercise and keeping his cholesterol in a good number. He ran every day. Ate healthy, had regular check-ups and maintained a healthy weight. While running one day he had chest pain and fell to his knee's unable to catch his breath. He had had a heart attack. And boy was he ticked. He had done everything right from day one.

So in his case maybe his very strong family history had more pull then lifestyle. But... He survived his heart attack which many of his family members had not. And with good medical care should be able to live a longer life then his family members who had died while having their heart attacks including his father who died in his mid 40's and a brother who smoked and was overweight. So will combined life-style changes and medical intervention change the genetic tendency to die from heart disease at a young age? Will he be buying his children and their children more time on the life expectancy chart? Time has proven that we can improve life expectancy to a point.

So getting back to the chart. My mother was 52 when she died. I had a brother who was 37 and my father was 64. No one in my family has lived to be 70 that I know of. I am 54. My mother had encephalitis. When she first got sick did she know it was something serious? Did she know she had caught the illness that would kill her? When my brother had his final heart arrhythmia event did he know it was the end? My father certainly knew he had cancer, but was mean enough did he ever think it would kill him? Or were all these things unexpected surprises. Oh! this is how it will be......

So being a glutton for feeling as miserable as humanly possible I did the chart. And according to the chart I have 27 years left to enjoy my life give or take. Now to a 20 year old that sounds like a long long long time. To a 54 year old who can remember giving birth to her oldest like it was yesterday it seems like tomorrow. But it is longer then I had mentally given myself. And who knows. I may get lucky. Like I am today. For today I woke up and am feeling better. It hasn't gotten me this time. It won't be today.

I think the point is, if there is ever a point to my rambling posts, is to enjoy each day. Because tick tick tick.

The clock of life is wound but once
And no man has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop
At late or early hour.
Now is the only time you own.
Live, love, toil with a will.
Place no faith in time.
For the clock may soon be still.

Robert H. Smith, copyright 1932, 1982

We did not over-react Mr President

And we will not forget. Stop apologizing. Remember the victims and their families.

Flu

Well this turned out to be the flu I think because it came on so sudden. Rick was mowing, started sneezing and coughing, thought it was allergies from mowing and has been sick since. I had a lovely meal, was sipping a glass of wine and watching a show on hulu.com when bam, my throat got scratching, a faucet in my nose opened up, slammed with body aches and spiked a fever. With a cold you usually don't get a high fever and it usually gradually comes on. The flu comes at you like a run a way train and slams into you full force.

I slept hours yesterday. Took tylenol with sinus. motrin. cool shower. I needed a feed bag over my head to catch my drippy nose. Nothing made a bit of difference. I just got worse and worse. Rick looked up swine flu and he thinks we have that since we have the same symptoms. Doesn't make any difference if we do or not. It still is going to take a while to get better.

Today it is in my chest. My chest hurts , my throat hurts. And I am ticked. I swear I never got over the crud I had a while back. I have still been coughing. It's like it comes, goes into recession and you feel better, just slightly sick, comes back, hides, comes back. Why on my week to work! I am trying to save my PTO. I want to take a real vacation again this year.

So it is iffy if I'll make it to work tonight. I still can't get the fever to break and still feel like that train hit me. And it is in my chest big time. Anyone else out there getting this type of persistant flu bug? I will never never never miss my flu shot again. Oh, and my jaw is throbbing again. Figures.

Sometimes You have to have Ants

To see the final beauty of the peony.

The two go hand in hand, without one the other would not exist. Good and evil, Sickness and health, rich and poor. Balance. Karma, Yin and Yang. Such is life.


My balance or Chi if you believe in that must be off. Or my immune system which I do believe in is down. I seem to be catching everything and anything , except swine flu although I do seem to be snorting today, that is going around. And I am sick and tired of it I tell you.

I knew last night I was catching Ricks cold and sinus infection. And I am really ticked about it. I have been taking vitamins & bee pollen everyday, exercising and eating healthy. But I still seem to be susceptible to every bug that is making the circuit. And tonight I have to work. I want to work the entire pay period otherwise my lovely holiday pay gets cut down shortly. But I am not sure if I will be able to. When I get sick these days I get really laid up. I sleep for hours and I don't seem to have the stamina to work through it like I used to in my younger years. I have a fever and my head is stuffed up to the max. My sinuses feel like raw hamburger and my legs feel like lead weights. But I have to be charge tonight. If I can't make it someone will have to stay or come in on their night off.

I have until 5 to find something that will make me feel better. I think I have some tylenol with sinus around. Maybe that will help. Because calling in is a no no. Don't go to work if your sick is what is recommended, but also..... don't miss more then 6 days or you'll lose your job. Kind of a mixed message isn't it.

So quick, what are your best remedies for killing a cold or sinus infection quick. I will try anything.

Isn't it cute.

Not to brag but isn't this picture cute. I am really happy with the way it turned out. Lady bug lady bug fly away home. Unless it's one of those asian beetles that bite.

Ants

See the cute graphic above. Its from Penniwig's blog. She has some cute graphics. Check out her site if you haven't already.


Remember the old plum tree in the back yard? The one the woodpecker drilled a hole and raised babies? The one the storm then knocked down since it was hollow? The one we were going to finish cutting down but the deer were enjoying the leaves so we left it. And then this year it started getting some shoots from the bottom promising the birth of a new tree.

So this morning I am looking at the old trunk. Such cool patterns inside. What caused them?

And then out a hole a head peaks out.


Disappears and the reappears with tree in its jaws.


Back and forth, back and forth slowly eating out runs in the tree and dumping the sawdust outside.
Carpenter Ants busy at work making a home in the tree. If I cut down the rest of the tree....... will then in turn work on my house? But surrounded by woods would they not just move to another tree?

AAADD

AAADD
KNOW THE

SYMPTOMS.....PLEASE

READ!

Thank goodness there's a

name for this

disorder
Somehow I feel better even

though I have
it!!

Recently, I was diagnosed

with A.A.A.D.D. -
Age Activated Attention

Deficit Disorder.

This is how it

manifests:

I decide to water my garden.
As I turn on

the hose in the driveway,
I look over at my car and

decide it needs washing.

As I start toward the

garage,
I notice mail on the porch table
that
I
brought up from the mail box
earlier.

I decide to go through the mail before I wash

the car.

I lay my car keys on the

table,
put the junk mail in the garbage can under

the table,
and notice that the can is

full.

So, I decide to put the bills

back
on the table and take out the garbage

first.

But then I

think,
since I 'm going to be near the

mailbox
when I take out the garbage

anyway,
I may as well pay the bills

first.

I take my check book off the

table,
and see that there is only one check

left.
My extra checks are in my

desk in the study,
so I go inside the house to

my desk where
I find the can of Pepsi I'd been

drinking.

I'm going to look for my checks,
but first

I need to push the Pepsi aside
so that I don't accidentally

knock it over.

The Pepsi is getting warm,
and I
decide
to put it in the refrigerator to keep it
cold.

As I head
toward the kitchen with the Pepsi,
a
vase of flowers on the
counter
catches my eye--they need
water.

I put the Pepsi
on the counter and
discover
my reading glasses that
I've
been searching for all
morning.
I decide I better put them back
on my desk,
but
first I'm going to water the flowers.

I
set the glasses
back down on the
counter,
fill a container with water
and suddenly spot
t he TV remote.
Someone left it on the
kitchen
table.

I realize that tonight when we go to watch

TV,
I'll be looking for the remote,
but I

won't remember that it's on the kitchen table,
so I decide
to
put it back in the den where it belongs,
but first I'll
water
the flowers.

I pour some water in the

flowers,
but quite a bit of it spills on the

floor.

So, I set the remote back on the

table,
get some towels and wipe up the

spill.

Then, I head down the hall trying

to
remember what I was planning to

do.

At the end of the

day:
the car isn't washed
the

bills aren't paid
there is a warm can of Pepsi sitting on
the
counter
the flowers don't have enough water,
there
is still
only 1 check in my check book,
I can't find the
remote,
I
can't find my glasses,
and I don't remember
what I did with the
car
keys.
Then, when I try to figure

out why nothing got done

today,
I'm really baffled because

I know I was busy all day,
and I'm really

tired.

I realize this is a serious

problem,
and I'll try to get some help for it,
but

first I'll check my e-mail....

Flower's flower's everywhere

I have been flower crazy this week with all my flowers blooming and so pretty. Check out my photo journal if your interested in seeing them.

Yesterday I went and bought a clematis and planted in on the side of the house that will get lots of sun. The one I picked will have huge purple flowers. Now to keep it alive. I try to plant at least one perennial a year so they come up every year. I would love to have all 4 lots just done in flowers so we didn't have to mow, LOL. The photo above is untouched except the frame and my name, that is really the color of these wonderful flowers. Aren't they great.

Rick is sick today so I really have no plans. Just mess around the yard and do some housework. Looks to be a beautiful day again. Maybe pop on the bike. I feel like I have some energy to burn.

We are the talk of Russia

They are talking about the death of Capitalism and how we laid down and became a Marxist country in Russia's top newspaper. And I don't know about you but this just make me cry. They say most America's know more about their favorite TV show characters then they do about their politicians. And this makes me cry. It is a sad thing we have let happen. Not all of died without a whimper. Some of us were screaming...... but the right people aren't listening.

Tzar, Czar, it's all just more taxing to me

Our new president keeps adding to his growing list of people appointed to taxing you. The latest is the Internet Czar, supposedly appointed to keep our internet safe, has come out with the real reason for the invented position. Taxes. They have been looking for a way for years to get a piece of the pie in the internet. There just has to be a way to tax such a big thing and make it line our pockets is their thinking. Just think of all the places we could fly to and all the hamburgers we could buy if we could get us some of that action.

So, now the email tax. 1 cent so far for each email. Will the rate go up as fast as our post offices stamps do? Will it be like a ad in the paper. You get charged more for how big your email is? And as long as they are taxing you they might as well read it to see if your saying anything interesting.

So I predict soon everyone's emails will read like a pogo chat, gg, ntcu, cbs........tyvm. So they tax the emails first, then the blogs, then the facebooks, twitter, "Hey yeah, lets tax twitter, their doing really good..... we should be able to get a big hunk there".

Where is the outrage? Where will it end? Why are people just letting this happen?

Oh, and the government has finished it Hostile take-over of GM. Who would have ever dreamed the government would seize a private company for it own good, and guess whose taxes paid for it? Well.... mine of course. And yours. Well you get any benefit from it. Only if your dream is to live in a Dictatorship run country. Or Marxist to be more accurate.

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

George Bernard Shaw

Weekender

I have been busy all weekend taking photo's of some of my flowers and framing them is picnik. Love that program. It has been a nice weekend also.

Yesterday I got up early and helped my son's girlfriend with their rummage sale. It was a nice day to sit outside and be lazy. My other son is cleaning out his garage which used to be my MIL's garage and wants Rick to commit to which things he wants or doesn't want. Rick doesn't want to think about it which is why it is still at my son's. So I decided. Nice thing about being a nurse. You learn to be a decision maker, LOL. I figured my hubby lived without this long...... They are bringing the monster snow blower over here and I told my son not to get rid of the gardening tools but other then that, have at it.



So they made some good money at their rummage which was going to be used to have a mini trip when my grandchildren get here and then they got screwed around by direct TV. Over a month ago when they left their other place they called to disconnect. They were told to mail back the boxes and that direct TV would send them the mailing boxes with directions to send them back. Sounds good.

The boxes never came, they called and asked and were told that they would be coming, no problems. Then yesterday they show up, on a Saturday with a letter telling them to send it back that day. Of course it was to late the post office was closed. Then direct TV without any authorization took $477.00 out of their bank. They were not authorization to remove funds. It wasn't like their bill was paid out of direct withdrawal. They only gave them a check once to pay for installation.

Of course this all happens on the weekend. Banks closed They called the company to complain and see how this could have happened. So I told him check on line for lawsuits. I was pretty show I remembered they were being sued by people right and left for this type of consumer fraud. That and raising your rates over 2 times the amount without notice. Sure enough their is a big lawsuit agains't the company. So they talked to the lawyer but it won't help now. Their rent is due tomorrow and it was stolen. But eventually they should get their money back when it goes to court.

They knew they had to pay a disconnect fee. But nothing this huge and not without being billed and not without notice. What a crock of .....well you know. I tried to warn them I had heard really bad things about the company but sometimes no one listens to mom.


Rick hasn't had anymore A-fib and it only lasted about 3 hours when he had it. It is a real bummer because he had failed all the meds for it and we had such high hopes for the ablasion. Maybe it won't come back? Doubt it though as he thinks it had happened a couple of times before but just for a short time. If it comes back again we will probably have to go into the ER to make sure it is that for sure. I told him you can't tell positively if it is A-fib by just taking a pulse. You need a 12 lead. Hate to sit around thinking it is this and have a different problem going on. He is so stubborn that there is a good chance he won't tell me but now that I know he is doing it again I should be able to recogonize the signs. Major grumpiness is one of them with him, LOL. I told him it was his grumpy old attitude that caused this last one and he had better learn how to not sweat the small stuff, and it's all small stuff. He had been working on the mower for 3 days and just having a terrible time getting parts and getting it to work. We will see if he takes my advice.



Other then that not much going on. It is beautiful day. I have a couple more flower pots that are just screaming for flowers so I am going to hit the garden store while Rick finishes the mowing.



Have a great weekend all. We are grilling steaks tonight and I think sitting outside eating sounds wonderful. I have a nice bottle of dark zin chilling. Oh, and my tooth and jaw feel much better. Guess I'll live, LOL.