Friday, February 8

Maybe?

Maybe I am okay. Maybe the sinus infection is cleared up. Maybe I will remember I am allergic to Amoxicillin and get a bad case of hives when I take it. I do not think there is much of a maybe on the last one. I have a great deal of incentive for remembering that one.

My up-north cardiac records have made it to a cardiologist here. So will go get acquainted next Friday. It is probably a good idea to have a connection on both ends of the country regardless of surgical plans.
I am feeling much better than I have in a while but I am saying that cautiously. I have not done much testing. I need to get out and do some serious moving around, get the muscles working and the blood to flowing despite it being a high in the 40's today. After a high near 90 yesterday. Is it no wonder our bodies get all out of whack.
I feel like I have lost a winter season in South Texas. I do not mind being somewhat of a hermit but when the choice is plucked from you due to body function circumstances it feels very unfair.
I have a little under half the season left and I have hopes of making the best of it.

Butch played in a Bridge tournament yesterday. It was a tournament between Trophy Gardens and Winter Ranch, sister parks and next door to each other. Trophy Gardens came out the victors this year.
Till next time...

Wednesday, February 6

2018 Darwin Awards

A friend sent me the 2018 Darwin award winners.
Is it unkind of me to point out that ALL of them are male?

DARWIN AWARDS FOR 2018 
Nominee No. 1 (San Jose Mercury News):
An unidentified man, using a shotgun like a club to break a former girlfriend’s windshield, accidentally shot himself to death when the gun discharged, blowing a large hole thru his gut.

Nominee No. 2 (Kalamazoo Gazette):
James Burns, 34, a mechanic from Alamo MI, was killed in March as he was trying to repair what police describe as a "farm-type truck." Burns got a friend to drive the truck on a highway while Burns hung underneath so that he could ascertain the source of a troubling noise. Burns' clothes caught on something, however, and the other man found Burns "wrapped around the drive shaft".

Nominee No. 3 (Hickory Daily Record):
Ken Charles Barger, 47, accidentally shot himself to death in December in Newton NC. Awakening to the sound of a ringing telephone beside his bed, he reached for the phone but instead grabbed a Smith & Wesson 38 Special, which discharged when he drew it to his ear.

Nominee No. 4 (UPI, Toronto):
Police said a lawyer demonstrating the safety of windows in a downtown Toronto skyscraper crashed through a pane with his shoulder and plunged 24 floors to his death. A police spokesman said Garry Hoy, 39, fell into the courtyard of the Toronto Dominion Bank Tower early Friday evening as he was explaining the strength of the building's windows to visiting law students. Hoy previously has conducted demonstrations of window strength according to police reports. Peter Lawson, the managing partner of the firm Holden Day Wilson, told the Toronto Sun newspaper that Hoy was "one of the best and brightest members of the 200-man association.” 

Nominee No. 5 (The News of the Weird):
Michael Anderson Godwin made News of the Weird posthumously. He had spent several years awaiting execution in South Carolina's electric chair on a murder conviction before having his sentence reduced to life in prison. While sitting on a metal toilet in his cell attempting to fix his small TV set, he bit into a wire and was electrocuted.

Nominee No. 6 (The Indianapolis Star):
A cigarette lighter may have triggered a fatal explosion in Dunkirk, IN. A Jay County man, using a cigarette lighter to check the barrel of a muzzleloader, was killed Monday night when the weapon discharged in his face, sheriff's investigators said. Gregory David Pryor, 19, died in his parents' rural Dunkirk home at about 11:30 PM Investigators said Pryor was cleaning a 54-caliber muzzle-loader that had not been firing properly. He was using the lighter to look into the barrel when the gunpowder ignited.

Nominee No. 7 (Reuters - Mississauga, Ontario):
A man cleaning a bird feeder on the balcony of his condominium apartment in this Toronto suburb slipped and fell 23 stories to his death. "Stefan Macko, 55, was standing on a wheelchair when the accident occurred," said Inspector Darcy Honer of the Peel Regional Police. "It appears that the chair moved, and he went over the balcony."

Finally, THE WINNER! (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette):
Two local men were injured when their pickup truck left the road and struck a tree near Cotton Patch on State Highway 38 early Monday. Woodruff County deputy Dovey Snyder reported the accident shortly after midnight Monday. Thurston Poole, 33, of Des Arc, and Billy Ray Wallis, 38, of Little Rock, were returning to Des Arc after a frog-catching trip. On an overcast Sunday night, Poole's pickup truck headlights malfunctioned.

The two men concluded that the headlight fuse on the older-model truck had burned out. As a replacement fuse was not available, Wallis noticed that the .22 caliber bullets from his pistol fit perfectly into the fuse box next to the steering-wheel column. Upon inserting a bullet, the headlights again began to operate properly and the two men proceeded on eastbound toward the White River Bridge.
After traveling approximately 20 miles and just before crossing the river, the bullet apparently overheated, discharged and struck Poole in the testicles. The vehicle swerved sharply right, exited the pavement and struck a tree. Poole suffered only minor cuts and abrasions from the accident but will require extensive surgery to repair the damage to his testicles, which will never operate as intended.
Wallis sustained a broken clavicle and was treated and released. "Thank God we weren't on that bridge when Thurston shot his balls off, or we might be dead," stated Wallis.
"I've been a trooper for 10 years in this part of the world, but this is a first for me. I can't believe that those two would admit how this accident happened," said Snyder.
Upon being notified of the wreck, Lavinia (Poole 's wife) asked how many frogs the boys had caught and if anyone got them from the truck?
Though Poole and Wallis did not die as a result of their misadventure as normally required by Darwin Award Official Rules, it can be argued that Poole did in fact effectively remove himself from the gene pool.

Tuesday, February 5

Mondays Doings

Butch had an appointment for a massage  Monday afternoon at the massage school. It has been very helpful and he has made quite a bit of progress in his ability to raise his arm. I went with him this time because a trip to Costco was in the works and they are not very far apart. Corinna really gets a workout when she does a massage. She has to be a very strong and fit woman. Corrinna is not a student, she is an instructor and it becomes obvious in watching her that she is very knowledgeable.
I took a picture of Butch's back this morning. She was using these circle things to move around on his back. She warned him he would have circles on his back.

Monday, February 4

Superbowl post-op

Butch and I did go to a superbowl party. I did not plan to stay but I did. Butch paid for me to enter a pool and they pushed a board in front of me and said sign your name in two spaces. So I did. Those silly people enabled me to win $35! Isn't that the way? The person with the least amount of interest wins the money!
I had a good time. The women played 65 and I met some people I had not met before. The food was good. So, all in all, it worked out fine.

Oh yes, The mixed doubles pool tournament. I happened to draw the same partner I had last time and we did not do as well. Butch, however, drew the name of perhaps the best female pool player that had signed up and they won all seven of their games. It was enjoyable and I will play again. If I indeed get to have the sinus procedure I may have to skip pool for a while because bending over will not be allowed for a time. I am constantly surprised at all the compensations necessary in this aging business.
Good weather is perpetually being promised. Ain't happening. It isn't the kind that brings all activity to a halt, it is the kind of cloudy, dismal crap that brings moods down and doesn't make good photos.
The trees are starting to re-leaf after their mini fall and winter so for us lucky South Texas folk Spring really is just around the corner.

Sunday, February 3

What the Hey!!

We usually drop the temperature down about 5 degrees on the thermostat each night and then in the morning, I hike it back up 5 degrees. Sometimes just to take the chill off. This morning I looked at the outdoor temperature at 6:15 AM and it is a balmy 68 degrees to start! We have not had that scenario in a while.
I am feeling a bit better each morning with the sinus situation and continue to hope the antibiotics do the trick until I can get the snafu of cardiology approval resolved. I need an EKG probably and a cardiologist to sign off on it before I can have the surgery to fix it. I will be working on this wrinkle in the works first thing in the morning.
Yesterday was garage sale day in Magnolia. We did not plan to go this month but a request for some tech advice took us that way. It is always good to say Hi to our Magnolia friends.

Well, it is superbowl Sunday, a day I am always glad to get out of the way. It is much ado about nothing in my opinion. When will civilization take us beyond the idea that hitting each other is something worth watching to get an adrenalin rush from it? Not in my lifetime, I am guessing.

This afternoon is a mixed doubles pool tournament and I am feeling well enough to participate. Haven' t practiced much. May have to apologize profusely. LOL