Passing Away...

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of my youngest full blooded sister, Donna's, passing on from this plane of life.
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http://www.neoseeker.com/forums/35968/t1590802-7-planes-of-life-according-to-ian-currie/
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My youngest half-sister's honors her on a blog.  See The Finish line.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

The Finish Line!! http://www.welchfamily5.blogspot.com/

http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignity-memorial/obituary.aspx?n=Donna-Cerimele&lc=4584&pid=152383460&mid=4730861

Even though it has only been a year I still have a little bit trouble letting go mainly because I see her picture everyday.  Not being morbid but I her picture is on the shelf where the  we all (myself, my brother, brother-in-law and our spouses) took a cruise together.

That is enough for today.

Swamp cooler woes

First things first and maybe last things first.  Yesterday afternoon Coumadin level was 2.9 and was within range.  Changed nothing and will go again in 3 weeks.  Got the 3rd B-12 shot so only have one more next week before going on to a monthly schedule.
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Well this morning started off with a bang.  Or more of a whimper on my part.  Weather reporter said it was going to be another hot one today.  Right at or above 97 degrees so I thought I would check the swamp cooler to make sure everything was good to go.  I noticed that there was a build up of some sort of residue (calcium?) on the big filter so I decided to clean it off.  Well after taking the garden hose and spraying off the filter I noticed the water in the trough was now full of the build up.  I let out a little sigh and said damn.  I pulled the overflow pipe out and drained the water in the trough.  So far so good.  Then I opened up the outside shed and retrieved the wet and dry vac out and vacuumed the left over wet residue out.  Again so far so good.  Put the big filters  back in and went to re-install the overflow pipe back in BUT I broke it.  This was all before 7:30 AM . . .  rats rats and double rats.

OK . . . . it ended up being way easier to fix than I thought.  Home Depot opened at 6 AM so I went there (only 3/4 of mile from the house) and for a whopping 3 dollars and some odd cents bought a "Cooler Drain & Overflow Pipe" Kit like the below picture.

Took about 15 minutes to install and hook everything back up and have the cooler running efficiently once more.  Probably had it back up and running before my wife even got to work.

Today's weather report and current temp (Just rechecked and current temp is 100.4 degrees but [to make one feel good it only feels like 97 degrees]  :

Thursday and it is coumadin & B-12 day

Just finished trimming and mowing the yards.  Just for grins I just did my blood pressure to see what it was.  It was 114 over 51 with a pulse of 78.  Really don't know if that is good or bad but as long as I am able to even get those stats I'm doing good.

Getting my B-12 injection to day and then right after I will be getting my blood level/thinner check.  I well imagine the Coumadin (Warfarin) medication is going to  change again.

Then I will be taking my buddy to get his haircut then getting my done also.

Nice to be having, for a change, another "normal" day with the minimum of sacrifice.  Hey what's a little food?  After last night at COSTCO we do seem to have a lot in our home inventory......grin

Cuisinart

See below for why I'm doing the cost.

Coffee maker originally cost -  including tax:  85.59 

To ship it back it back to Cuisinart has cost:

Shipping paper:  $6.29

Shipping Tape:  $5.99

Total with tax:     $13.14

Shipping via US Postal service:   $11.33

Pay Cuisinart the shipping costs back to me.   $10.00

So now it has a total of: $34.47

So ok - -$85.59
minus $34.47
is - -   $51.12

So would it have been better or just as easy to just buy a new one instead of returning the defective one for either a new one or reconditioned one?

New ones range from $42.00 at  to $120.00 at .

Life little dilemmas (well not really)- - Too late now already been shipped back....

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My job for today is to go out and get some plain wrapping/shipping paper to wrap the Cuisinart box in preparation to ship it to Glendale, AZ.  The center for, I guess, the south west Cuisinart warranty returns.

I probably should have started off this post with our coffee maker just up and died on us.  It has power and all the lights light up but it will not start the brewing process nor do the self-cleaning.  Did a little research on the web and found out this does happen and if within the 3 year warranty period Cuisinart will replace it free with the exception of a $10.00 shipping charge.

Did notice something a little odd, maybe just to me, but both ConAir and Cuisinart are located at the same address.  I guess I could look up whether the parent company owns both or not.  Too lazy to do that.

Looks like today si also going to be a great day.  Already have been to the bathroom twice so I should be good to go...

instructions and men #2 for today

Saw this and had to put here.

Midnight snack

Was up at midnight last night having a snack.  The snack consisted of Saltine crackers and a small diet Dr Pepper.  Was it good?  Darned if I know or remember.  What I do remember is me thinking about why I do this blog/journal/ or whatever one wants to call it.  No one reads it or follows it or whatever ones does with these things. So why even do it I thought then decided to go back to sleep.  When I woke up this morning it hit me on why I try to do this everyday.

Follow me here - - In the kitchen I keep a record my weight at the time I get up (either prior to pooping or right after), of when I eat, what I eat, and how much of it I eat (when I remember).  I also annotate when I go to the bathroom and the consistency of my stools.  I realize that sounds nasty but it is a way to figure out what I can eat without any problems and what I eat that causes problems. And stop eating or doing it.

Log book looks like this:  

On line I keep a record of my weight and my blood pressure... which reminds me be back in a sec....................... Ok done...

Side note.  On face Book I posted a picture of some snacks I bought at Smith's grocery store as a kinda of joke.  On the surface it looks really bad and was reflected on some of the comments I received.  Let me show you a picture:

The next cholesterol check I get done I will call this posting up and show the results.  I will show, whomever, how much this stuff affects or does not affect me. It is the only positive that I get out of having all my insides removed.  I guess everyone bases their comments on their own reality and does not figure in on what others reality might be.   only to be expected.

Sheesh now where was I?  Oh yeah.  This on line journal keeps track of me and I am kinda glad I have done it.  I compared how I am today against how I was a year ago and can see a world of difference in my attitude, my physical well being, and even my daily outlook  (both emotionally and physically) just by reading what I had posted, heck even by some of the pictures.

So it has played a role in my life and I guess I will keep doing it until I stop - grin

Hematology doctor appointment

Let's get yesterday out of the way.  

First time in many - many - many years that I have went to church just to go to church.  I had made a promise to my wife that if my body started working a little better that I would go to church with her.  

Yesterday was that day.  Won't say a lot about it with the exceptions of how people dress today is way different than how it used to be when I was a regular church goer (40 years ago) and what the sermon was about (still not quite sure).  According to their website (yeah I looked it up) it was about

The Founding and History of Modern Israel
(Part of the Genesis series).

  Afterwards went to  Bath  and Body in the mall to get some air fresheners which we got.   We are going to hand them to the grand kids when they walk in the door for the 4th of July visit.  Then went to get something to eat before going home.  

Picked out a place less that 1/2 mile from the house but had never been to before.


They recommended and we chose the crispy chicken or the Honey garlic sauce, chile oil, rice sticks, scallions, and red bell peppers dish called Honey Seared
We both had that but instead of white rice I had the Thai fried rice.

Have to admit it was really good.  Not sure if the pic below is it or not but you get the general idea.


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Now for today.

I had an 7:45 AM appointment with my Hematology (blood) doctor.  According to their scales and with me having shorts, Golf shirt, socks, and underwear on I weighed in at 144.8 lbs.  Not sure I understand the rationale but the paperwork looks like this:  

Weight:   144.8 (High)   

Whats with the high?  I guess I must be overweight according to their charts or whatever. Sheesh

Had labs drawn and received the results.  As of today I do not have to have the bone marrow testing done because my iron levels, although still low, were within accepted parameters.  I would add all the lab results here but just got lazy.  Maybe scan and add them later.

I feel so good ! !  ! !

2nd post for Sunday

Saw this and thought it was so pretty

My give a -----

Had a NORMAL bowel movement this morning.... A NORMAL one you HEAR ME ~  ~! ! ! ! ! ! !  Absolutely in-frikken-credible.  Here are my weight stats as of this AM:

Last 10 days stats are pretty good and I/we cannot figure out what I am doing  so different as to cause this to happen.  I am hitting the 2 year mark where all the docs agree that by this time I should be normalizing.  In essence if the small intestine was to expand to compensate for being so short it would occur with this time period.  Maybe they got something right !  !  !

On an emotional high right now.......

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Not very nice but I'm posting anyway.........

Post 2 for today

Saw this and had to post it:

Nothing Special

Just a quick Yesterday was another great day, so great that I am really expecting to fall down.  I walked so much that I hurt today but that is a good thing.  I visited the new Harbor Freight store on Corrales/Old Airport road, went to Big Lots, K-Mart, Wal-Mart, and the new Dick's Sporting Goods store and the finale was going to KABOOM-Test Labs.  Just being out for that amount of time - -wait I forgot about going to Savers and Goodwill also - - with worrying about having to go to the bathroom is so cool  ! !! 

Found some yard games for the grand kids, Ladder Toss, Corn Hole (stupid name!!) and washers but am not sure if we will buy that one.
Dicks had the nicest one but then we found out that they already owned them.  Bummer...
But then we found this at Walmart:

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and bought it along with  this one:

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Lets hope they don't have these...

Also think maybe we are going to buy the marshmallow shooting gun.  That ought to make the daughter happy - -grin.

B-12 shot

Received my 2nd vitamin B-12 shot yesterday afternoon and I must say the nurse did a good job.  Never even felt it go in whereas the last weeks shot hurt like the dickens.  I kinda think I know why too.  I watched the nurse this time and I saw that she changed needles.  I asked her about that and she said that she uses a bigger gauge needle to draw in the B-12 liquid and then changes it out for a smaller gauge when she uses it on me.  Makes a ton of sense now that I know that so maybe the other nurse never changed out the needle and I got 'big' one.

Once again I will say (hope I don't jinx myself ....hope I don't jinx myself....hope I don't jinx myself....hope I don't jinx myself)
This is the 4th week in a row that I have felt wonderful.  I guess my emotional well being is tied directly into my physical well being, something I never quite realized before.  

Just some info about how to Select the Correct Needle Size For an Injection


http://pcos.about.com/od/medication1/qt/needlesize.htm

Don't quite understand why the web address does not show up as a link but you can just copy and paste into your browser and it will work.  Some interesting information there.
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Ran across this on Facebook and unabashedly copied it.

Ain't it the truth...



TESTING  Some different smiles- - - - - - -