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....